MLB Network designated January 7 (local time; January 8 in Japan) as “Shohei Day”, rolling out a full day of programming dedicated to Shohei Ohtani. The date “1.7” is a nod to the No. 17 he has worn throughout his Major League career. Back-to-back World Series titles with the Dodgers, an unprecedented 50 home runs & 50 stolen bases in a single season, and a string of legendary postseason performances – all of it was bundled into a one-day “festival” that viewers could binge-watch from morning to midnight.
Here, we’ll整理 the “Shohei Day” programming schedule and its key highlights, and think about why MLB as a whole is shining such an intense spotlight on one player at this particular moment.
1. What is “Shohei Day”? A full-day special on January 7 in honor of No. 17
According to MLB Network’s announcement, “Shohei Day” was a wall-to-wall Shohei Ohtani marathon running from 9:00 a.m. to midnight Eastern Time. The network intentionally chose January 7 (1/7) to symbolically celebrate “the man in No. 17,” and built an entire day’s lineup around that concept.
From the morning information show to signature studio programs like “Hot Stove” and “MLB Tonight,” every segment in between was tied in some way to Ohtani. On top of that, two historic games were re-aired, and a two-hour special “Best of Shohei” served as one of the main pillars of the schedule.
| US Eastern Time (ET) | Japan Time | Program / Segment |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 | 23:00 (previous day) | The Leadoff Spot (warm-up show built around Ohtani features) |
| 10:00 | 0:00 | Hot Stove (in-studio deep dive into Ohtani’s career) |
| 14:00 | 4:00 | MLB Network Countdown: spotlight on 2025 postseason performers |
| 15:00 | 5:00 | September 19, 2024 – the game in which Ohtani became the first MLB player ever to record 50 HR & 50 SB in a season |
| 17:00 | 7:00 | MLB Tonight (countdown of “best nine” moments in the “Greg’s List” segment) |
| 19:00 | 9:00 | MLB Tonight: Best of Shohei (two-hour original special) |
| 21:00 | 11:00 | Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS – the “two-way legend game” with 10 strikeouts and 3 home runs |
| 24:00 | 14:00 | Encore replay of the 50–50 milestone game |
Even just looking at this lineup, you get a sense of how extraordinary it is to devote an entire day to one active player. It’s the kind of “career compilation day” that only makes sense for someone who has experienced everything – MVPs, World Series titles, and international tournaments – at the highest level.
2. The main attractions: the 50–50 game and NLCS Game 4 re-airings
The backbone of “Shohei Day” was built around two games that MLB itself has framed as “career-defining performances.”
- September 19, 2024: the game in which he entered the “50 HR & 50 SB club” as the first in MLB history
→ In this game, Ohtani reached the marks of 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases for the season. It symbolized him as the ultimate “game-changer,” a player who simultaneously maxed out elite power and elite speed. - Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS: the legendary 10-strikeout, 3-homer game
→ As the Dodgers’ starting pitcher, he threw six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts, and as a hitter he went 3-for-3 with 3 home runs. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, fully unleashed two-way performance that essentially locked up the series MVP.
On paper, both stat lines look almost unreal, but watching the actual footage you can see “baseball’s common sense being broken in real time,” play after play. MLB Network billed these two contests as “Ohtani’s greatest performances” and gave them particularly prominent placement in the schedule.
3. “Greg’s List” top nine and the two-hour special “Best of Shohei”
The studio highlight was the popular MLB Tonight segment “Greg’s List”. Host Greg Amsinger selected nine “best moments” from Ohtani’s career and revealed them in a countdown format.
The final at-bat showdown against Mike Trout in the WBC title game, the Angels-era outing with 2 home runs and 10 strikeouts in the same game, the 50–50 milestone with the Dodgers, the three-homer postseason game – for fans, each clip feels like it could be “No. 1” on its own. The debate over how to rank just nine of them also became a talking point on social media.
The climax of the day came at 7:00 p.m. ET with the two-hour special “Best of Shohei”. Rather than simply stitching together short highlight clips, the program showed entire stretches of innings and sequences of at-bats and plate appearances, letting viewers feel “how often and how decisively Ohtani has tilted the flow of games” throughout his career.
4. The historically unique position Shohei Ohtani occupies right now
In its press release, MLB Network described Ohtani as “one of the most dynamic and impactful players in baseball history,” and listed a few of his achievements.
- Back-to-back World Series titles with the Dodgers
- The first player ever to record a 50-home-run, 50-stolen-base season
- Multiple regular-season MVP awards, including consecutive unanimous selections
- As a pitcher, a postseason outing with 10 strikeouts and 3 home runs – a performance on the level of “one of the greatest games ever played”
He doesn’t just put up numbers; he also continually delivers on the biggest stages in international play and the postseason. In that sense, Ohtani is a rare figure who combines both “statistics” and “storyline” in full. “Shohei Day” functioned as a chance to整理 that career to date and to spend a full day with fans reconsidering “how to position the phenomenon of Shohei Ohtani” in baseball history.
5. Feeling the atmosphere of “Shohei Day” via X and YouTube
From here, we’ve embedded a few posts – focusing as much as possible on official accounts – that capture the mood of “Shohei Day” (depending on your environment, some embeds may take a while to load).
MLB Network official X: “It’s Shohei Day!”
YouTube Short: MLB Network Celebrates Shohei Day
Full segment: “Greg’s List: Best Shohei Ohtani moments”
The “Greg’s List” countdown of nine best Ohtani moments is available in the archives on MLB.com.
Greg’s List: Best Shohei Ohtani moments (MLB.com)
6. Column: Living in an era where every day feels like “Shohei Day”
The fact that MLB Network’s program grid can be filled wall-to-wall with “Shohei Ohtani” for an entire day is, if you think about it calmly, an incredible news item in itself. Of course, television has aired countless specials looking back on the careers of all-time greats, but it’s extremely rare for an active player to receive this kind of treatment.
In Ohtani’s case, he’s not some retired legend; he’s a currently active superstar right in the middle of his peak. Everyone watching believes that there are still “next chapters” waiting beyond the highlights shown today. That’s why this “Shohei Day” functioned not only as a compilation of the past, but also as the perfect trailer for the coming season.
For fans in Japan, most of the programming aired from late night into the following morning, but with MLB.TV and official video platforms, you can revisit “Shohei Day” any time you like.
As we savor the fact that we’re living in a time when saying “every day is Shohei Day” isn’t much of an exaggeration, all that’s left is to wait for the new legends that the 2026 season will bring.
![[MLB Transfer] Kazuma Okamoto signs 4-year, $60 million deal with Blue Jays – “Wakadaisho” welcomed in Japanese post](https://lifesportsmaggem.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/7b3a84ce65e1b4f4f571143dea214338-300x169.jpg "[MLB Transfer] Kazuma Okamoto signs 4-year, $60 million deal with Blue Jays – “Wakadaisho” welcomed in Japanese post")
