Ohtani gives hope to young baseball players in Japan, and the rest of the country, too

Tokyo: Shin Uebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani inspi...

Tokyo: Shin Uebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani inspires his players.

"With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Uebori said, wrapping up practice on Sunday on an all-dirt field set below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo.

"Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream," Uebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the young players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached the highway, yet.

Ohtani-mania ebbs and flows in Japan, though blue Dodgers caps have replaced Yankees caps as the country's go-to sports fashion item.

Japan has other big names on the world sports stage - golfer Hideki Matsuyama, boxer Naoya Inoue, and tennis player Naomi Osaka. And Japan came away from the Paris Olympics with a record of 20 gold medals, a best for the country for a Games on foreign soil.