After Shohei Ohtani won the AP Male Athlete of the Year award for the third time in 2024, Los Angeles-based sports reporter Beth Harris began working to secure what had eluded the AP — a sit-down interview with the famously private baseball superstar.
While Ohtani’s team declined that year, Harris continued to build the relationship, emphasizing the elite company Ohtani was joining with multiple wins — names like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. When Ohtani earned the honor again in 2025 — tying the all-time record — Harris’s persistence paid off. This time, Ohtani and his agent agreed to an on-camera interview, granting AP rare access.
Harris worked closely with SNTV to coordinate the shoot, and photographer Jae Hong captured standout portraits of Ohtani in a relaxed setting — a sharp contrast to his usual public persona.
The result was a richly reported, visually compelling story that underscored both Ohtani’s greatness and Harris’s years of determined, thoughtful reporting to land a key moment with one of sports’ most elusive stars.
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