Jeff Fletcher
Jeff Fletcher has covered Major League Baseball since 1997, including eight seasons on the Los Angeles Angels beat for the Orange County Register, and has covered Shohei Ohtani more than any other writer in the United States. Jeff has also covered the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's and worked as a national baseball writer. He is a Hall of Fame voter and has served as chairman of the Los Angeles chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America since 2015.
“Shohei Ohtani was the biggest story of the 2021 season, and perhaps any season. In Sho-Time, Jeff Fletcher masterfully chronicles not only what Ohtani accomplished in ‘21, but also provides the full context to his achievements. From Ohtani’s origin story in Japan to his recruitment by the Angels, his injury-marred 2019 and ‘20 seasons to his place in history next to Babe Ruth, Fletcher’s book is the definitive look at Ohtani’s two-way majesty.” —Ken Rosenthal, Senior Writer at The Athletic
“Historians will be talking about Shohei Ohtani's 2021 season for decades, and thankfully the baseball gods arranged for Jeff Fletcher to be there to cover baseball's best two-way player ever in the midst of a pandemic, to bear witness and mine details and write with grace about the sport's most incredible individual performance.” —Buster Olney, ESPN
“Shohei Ohtani is a singular phenomenon in baseball, and there’s nobody better to tell his story than Jeff Fletcher. Sho-Time is the essential portrait of baseball’s most captivating player, chronicling Ohtani’s rise from child prodigy in the snowy Iwate Prefecture to two-way MVP sensation under the bright lights of Major League Baseball. Fletcher goes beyond the carefully scripted press conferences, revealing in vivid detail the challenges and triumphs of a baseball journey like no other.” —Tyler Kepner, The New York Times
“This is one the best baseball books ever published relevant to Japan-U.S. relations. Jeff Fletcher is the most experienced of the Angels beat writers, and usually the first one to ask Shohei Ohtani questions after the game. I admire the way he has exchanged information with Japanese writers for four years. This book is the fruit of his efforts. I always follow Jeff’s work in order to find new information relevant to Ohtani or Major League Baseball.” —Hideki Okuda, Sports Nippon