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TOKYO — New Year's night, a sparkling "2017" is brightly lit atop the Tokyo Tower, and the possibilities ringing in are endless. Proof? Inside apartments on the city's flat screens, a Japanese League champion and heartthrob is squatting behind a makeshift home plate in a studio attempting to receive his own pitches.

"Best baseball player in the world," one high-ranking official with a major league club flatly has declared back in the United States.

"He's…wow!" one veteran scout with a National League club exclaimed.

"All the stories you hear are real as far as the batting practice power and his ability to throw 100 mph," the international scouting director of another major league club said. "All the stories."

Shohei Ohtani is Babe Ruth come back to life a century later in Japan. In leading Hokkaido Nippon Ham to the Japan Series title last October as a starting pitcher and an outfielder/designated hitter, the Fighters won by virtue of both his power right-handed pitching and lethal left-handed swing.

He also is on deck to become the next Japanese sensation to star in the major leagues.

That's the reality.

Virtual reality, though, is what's keeping folks here glued to their big screens on this New Year's night. The television show is called Arashi ni Shiyagare, and the host is popular Japanese singer and actor Kazunari Ninomiya.

When Ninomiya takes his turn squatting behind the plate attempting to "catch" an Ohtani pitch using virtual reality technology, he not only fails miserably, but he's also visibly scared to death while doing so. To him, it looks like Ohtani's pitch is coming in at 200 mph. And yet, he knows there is no hardball zeroing in on him at all.

It's nothing to hang his head about. Because soon Ohtani steps in to bat, facing himself.

At the plate is the man who crushed 22 homers and hit .322 with 18 doubles, 67 RBI and seven steals in 323 at-bats last season.

On the mound is the man who went 10-4 with a 1.86 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 140 innings.

In the studio, the man who was named MVP of Japan's Pacific League for both his hitting and pitching prowess swings and misses twice before he connects with a pitch.

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (via Scott Miller)

Even Ohtani has difficulty hitting Ohtani.

"That was an eye-opening experience," he tells me later in the winter, when I finally catch up with him. "It's hard to find opportunities to actually face myself and, to be honest, my pitches felt much faster than I anticipated.

"I actually think that whole experience broadened my visions as a baseball player."

The rest of Nippon Professional Baseball shudders.

The major leagues salivate.

Ohtani is dressed sharply for the program in a black suit and light blue tie. He has a baby face and an easy smile. He laughs a lot. Next up is a Wii-like baseball game called Pawapuro between Ohtani and Ninomiya, and the show host suggests to the slugger/flamethrower that if Ohtani loses, Ninomiya takes half of his salary, which last year was $1.83 million. More laughter.

They chat for a bit. Ohtani tells him that he feels more comfortable as a pitcher, because he is more in control. And he can focus more. But he's been hitting longer, so that comes more naturally.

The Fighters have told him they will post him after the 2017 season if he wishes—and that's one reason he continues to both pitch and hit: It makes him more marketable. He praises the Fighters profusely for allowing him this leeway. Their thinking is flexible, he says, and that's why he signed with them back in 2012. He was surprised that a team would allow him to do both, and he moved quickly when the offer was made.

The game of Pawapuro commences and, predictably, Ohtani wins. So now Ninomiya must fulfill one of Ohtani's requests—that's the deal. Ohtani gleefully orders him to walk around the set imitating a film director. He does, and everybody laughs.

Back in the States, the intrigue grows. When will Ohtani arrive? And who will sign him?

"He's a rock star," a high-ranking official for yet another club says. "No doubt about it."

The bad news both for Ohtani and for this month's World Baseball Classic is that the man who many believe is the world's best baseball player