Shohei Otani¡¯s historic season of rewriting the record books and challenging conventional baseball wisdom reached its logical conclusion on Monday night.
In a result that came as a surprise to no one, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters¡¯ two-way star was crowned Pacific League MVP, by a nearly unanimous selection, for the first time during the 2016 NPB Awards.
¡°This isn¡¯t an award you can win only because of your numbers,¡± said Otani, who helped the Fighters win the Japan Series this year. ¡°It¡¯s something people help you win. (Fighters infielder Brandon) Laird hit a lot of home runs and (Hirotoshi) Takanashi won rookie of the year and we had a lot of players who did well. So I didn¡¯t particularly stand out. I just happened to win it by being on the team that won the championship.
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