If you are not a follower of baseball, there is normally only one question of interest when the World Series comes around towards the end of every October. Why do the Americans call it the World Series when only American teams take part?

As the Toronto Blue Jays prepare to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in this year's Major League Baseball finale, that is not strictly true, of course. In fact, the team from Canada has two World Series wins to its name. But you get the drift.

There is plenty of interest in baseball around the world and there are major hotspots such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Venezuela. And some historians suggest baseball evolved from English bat-and-ball games.

But it IS America's Pastime. It IS, unofficially, the national sport of the good old United States of America.

It IS, quintessentially, Stars and Stripes. Which makes the deeds of one player even more significant.

Even if you have no interest in certain other sports, it is sometimes worth taking notice of what sporting greatness looks like. And right now, sporting greatness looks like Shohei Ohtani.

Even if you do not fancy sitting through the many hours of the best-of-seven World Series, which begins in the Rogers Centre in Toronto in the very early hours of Saturday morning, then check out an Ohtani showreel online. In particular, check out his performance in what turned out to be the final game of the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers.

In modern baseball, a bona fide 'two-way player' - a frontline pitcher and hitter - is more than a rarity. That is why Ohtani was recognised as a phenomenon even before last Friday when he threw six scoreless innings - striking out ten Brewers - and hit three home runs in four visits to the plate (in the other visit, the Brewers intentionally allowed him to walk to first base).

In 150 years and around a quarter of a million games, no-one has even come close to that sort of achievement in professional baseball. Yes, it is probably American insularity that led many observers to suggest it was the greatest athletic performance by an individual in ANY sport but it was indisputably the greatest in the history of America's Pastime.

And it was produced by a Japanese athlete whose humility is as striking as his hitting and throwing power. Ohtani politely greets the umpire, the catcher, the boy or girl who picks up the bats, the coaches who stand on the bases.

He picks up the trash from the dugout - and there is a lot of trash in a baseball dugout. And Ohtani, 31, is commonly acknowledged to be worth every cent of his $700million, ten-year contract with the Dodgers, who are part-owned by Todd Boehly.

This is what great sporting value-for-money looks like. The Dodgers more than made back their $700million commitment inside 12 months, not least because of Ohtani's commercial might in Japan. And don't forget, you get to see a lot of Ohtani. When he leads off the Dodgers innings in the World Series opener, it will be his 169th game of the season.

Understandably, most on these shores do not get to see a lot of Ohtani. But if you love sporting greatness, then over these next few days, it is worth making an effort.

It's Shoh-time in Toronto for World Series - and this is what sporting greatness looks like - The Mirror