Odds are over the past three MLB seasons you saw Shohei Ohtani do something spectacular. And odds are that shortly after you watched the modern day Babe Ruth make magic on the diamond, a Twitter post came across your timeline.
The now-infamous @mattomic in May 2021 blessed baseball fans with the most particular, perfect, hilarious tweet to sum up the Ohtani experience with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
every time I see an Angels highlight it's like "Mike Trout hit three homes runs and raised his average to .528 while Shohei Ohtani did something that hasn't been done since 'Tungsten Arm' O'Doyle of the 1921 Akron Groomsmen, as the Tigers defeated the Angels 8-3"
— ℳatt (@matttomic) May 18, 2021
Indeed, when you add that Ohtani played alongside three-time MVP outfielder Mike Trout in Anaheim, it was common to see the duo put together an historic stat line or pile up absurd accolades while their Angels team got absolutely smashed, game after game.
Just this past May, two-way player Ohtani compiled the most strikeouts as a pitcher of any MLB player to ever hit 100 home runs. Pretty sick huh? Only the Angels lost a sad 3-1 ballgame the night he did it.
Ohtani and Trout were the Jordan and Pippen of our time, only if the 1990s Chicago Bulls were miserably mediocre.
And certainly baseball loves its history. While “Tungsten Arm” O’Doyle nor the Akron Groomsmen existed… actually I’ll just go ahead and shut up. You get the joke.
As did baseball fans online everywhere. Beyond the 14,000 retweets across nearly three years and countless jokers QT-ing it with even better one-liners while Ohtani carve his MVP resume into empty seats at Angel Stadium, even Google caught on.
Search engine wizards put together explainer articles on who “Tungsten Arm” O’Doyle was to help the confused old folks who wondered whether Ohtani had actually surpassed an Akron great they forgot about.
An era is over.
Going forward, Ohtani will stack up otherworldly numbers during 100-win seasons in Los Angeles. Look out, Mr. Ruth.
And while Ohtani will certainly make his mark on October baseball with the Dodgers as well, it’s time for some zealous poster to give us our next Ohtani tweet.
Because it’s just a matter of time until Ohtani does something else we haven’t since Tungsten Arm while Clayton Kershaw blows another big playoff game and the Dodger faithful go home saddened once again.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.