Why does Shohei Ohtani's 50-50 feat resonate so much in baseball?

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Why does Shohei Ohtani's 50-50 feat resonate so much in baseball?

2024-09-20 08:05 Last Updated At：08:10

Among the roughly 23,000 men who played played Major League Baseball over the past century-and-a-half, none had a season with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases — until now.

Shohei Ohtani became the first 50-50 player on Thursday when the Los Angeles Dodgers star hit his 50th and 51st home runs and stole his 50th and 51st bases.

Home runs and steals are among the more popular baseball records — if not the most revered in the history of the game — whether it be most home runs (73) in a season or the modern-day mark for most stolen bases (130) in a season. So when one player reaches the once-unthinkable half-century mark in both, it stands out.

Ohtani has captivated fans by doing what no player has done in two of the game's most admired skill sets in the game.

Just last month, on Aug. 23, Ohtani became only the sixth 40-40 player when he stole his 40th base in the fourth inning against Tampa Bay and hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the ninth inning off Colin Poche for his 40th homer.

Oakland's José Canseco became the first 40-40 player in 1988 and has been joined by San Francisco's Barry Bonds in 1996, Seattle's Alex Rodriguez in 1998, Washington's Alfonso Soriano in 1996, Atlanta's Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023.

Canseco had publicly set a goal that season of becoming the first 40-40 player.

“I’m greatly relieved at having done it," he said after stealing two bases at Milwaukee to reach 40 in game 154, four games after hitting his 40th homer off Kansas City's Bret Saberhagen. “I didn’t want to go through the season and come up short and say I stuck my foot in my mouth.”

There have been just 72 30-30 seasons.

Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns was the first to achieve the feat in 1922, the second season after the end of the Dead Ball Era. No one else reached 30-30 until the New York Giants' Willie Mays in 1956 and '57.

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North Korea vows to block border with South Korea and boost front-line defense postures

2024-10-09 14:02 Last Updated At：14:10

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday it will permanently block its border with South Korea and boost its front-line defense posture to cope with “confrontational hysteria" by South Korean and U.S. forces, while not announcing an expected constitutional revision to formally designate South Korea its principal enemy and codify new national borders.

While the moves were likely a pressure tactic, it's unclear how they will affect ties with South Korea since cross-border travel and exchanges have been halted for years.

North Korea's military said it will “completely cut off roads and railways ” linked to South Korea and “fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defense structures,” according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

The North's military called its steps a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security” of North Korea. It said that “the hostile forces are getting ever more reckless in their confrontational hysteria.” It cited what it called various war exercises in South Korea, the deployment of U.S. strategic assets and its rivals' harsh rhetoric.

North Korea said it sent a message to the U.S. military to explain its fortification activity to prevent any misjudgment and potential accidental clashes.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said it confirmed the North Korean message with the American-led U.N. Command. It said South Korea is closely communicating and coordinating with the U.N. Command but didn't elaborate.

South Korean officials earlier said North Korea had already been adding anti-tank barriers and reinforcing roads on its side of the border since April in a likely attempt to boost its front-line security posture and prevent its soldiers and citizens from defecting to South Korea. In a report to parliament on Tuesday, South Korea's Unification Ministry said that North Korea has been removing ties on the northern side of cross-border railways and nearby lamps and planting mines along the border.

KCNA earlier Wednesday said the Supreme People’s Assembly met for two days this week to amend the legal ages of North Koreans for working and participating in elections. But it didn't say whether the meeting dealt with leader Kim Jong Un's order in January to rewrite the constitution to remove the goal of a peaceful Korean unification, formally designate South Korea as the country’s “invariable principal enemy” and define the North’s sovereign, territorial sphere.

At the center of outside attention was whether North Korea makes new legal claims on the waters currently controlled by South Korea off their west coast. The poorly marked western sea boundary is where three bloody naval skirmishes and two deadly attacks blamed on North Korea happened in the past 25 years.

Some experts say North Korea might have delayed the constitutional revision but others speculated it amended the constitution without announcing it because of its sensitivity.

Kim's order stunned many North Korea watchers because it was seen as breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Experts say Kim likely aims to diminish South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and seek direct dealings with the U.S. They say Kim also likely hopes to diminish South Korean cultural influence and bolster his rule at home.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with North Korea continuing a run of provocative weapons tests and South Korea and the U.S. expanding their military drills. KCNA said North Korea on Tuesday tested a long-range artillery system that observers say pose a direct threat to Seoul, the South Korean capital, which is only an hour’s drive from the border.

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