As usual, Shohei Ohtani couldn’t keep his greatness simple. There is nothing standard about his high standards, nothing typical about the way he infiltrates every facet of a complicated game. So of course he made history in the most sublime manner possible.

It wasn’t sufficiently thrilling for Ohtani to become the first major leaguer to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season. The Renaissance baseball man also needed to fold the achievement into perhaps the greatest single-game performance the sport has seen. It was as if Ohtani accepted an Oscar by winning an Emmy.

This is how to make an entrance into your own 50-50 club: Ohtani went 6 for 6 on Thursday against the Miami Marlins, with two stolen bases, three home runs, four runs scored, five extra-base hits and 10 RBI. He entered the game needing two homers and one steal, which is sometimes a week of work in this game. He exited with a viral memory and a champagne toast.

And oh yeah, he’s going to the playoffs for the first time. The Dodgers clinched their 12th straight postseason appearance. From now on, the best day of your life should be known as an Ohtani.

“That has to be the greatest baseball game of all time. It has to be,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said. “There’s no way. It’s ridiculous. I’ve never seen anybody do that even in Little League, so it’s crazy that he’s doing that at the highest level.”

With this dude, tall tales don’t seem so exaggerated. Those “Sho Knows” T-shirts aren’t just merchandise. They’re a promise.

On the way back to the hotel, Ohtani probably found a basketball court and won a dunk contest. He probably strolled onto a football field and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds. And then he probably went to a hospital and helped doctors solve Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion issues.

In his first season playing under the largest contract in team sports history, Ohtani managed to boost his value. That was supposed to be impossible, even for a man of his diverse talents, because elbow surgery left him unable to pitch. When the Dodgers committed $700 million for 10 years of Ohtani, they did so expecting a limited first impression. But Ohtani doesn’t do limited.

He was supposed to be a normal star in 2024, just an elite slugger, a streamlined designated hitter instead of two all-stars in one body. Instead he stretched his versatility.

Ohtani hadn’t swiped more than 26 bases in any of his first six seasons. He has 51 now and there’s still a week left. In June, Mookie Betts broke his right hand, prompting Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts to move Ohtani from second to leadoff in the batting order. The new role enabled Ohtani to explore the speed dimension of his game like never before. Three-quarters of his stolen bases have come when he bats first. For the season, Ohtani has more homers and a higher on-base-plus-slugging percentage as a leadoff hitter. Even with Betts back in the lineup and performing at a star level, Roberts has kept Ohtani at the top of the order.

For years we considered Ohtani a modern-day Babe Ruth. Now he’s functioning more like a 6-foot-4, 210-pound Rickey Henderson. He can’t pitch, so he sharpened another tool. It’s stunning to realize he turned his side gig into an opportunity to make history.

Yes, it must be noted that baseball altered its rules to persuade teams to try to steal more bases. This is the second year that the bases are three inches bigger and pitchers operate with restrictions on the times they can step off the rubber. The tweaks have encouraged more baserunning, and the best athletes are thriving. During his MVP season a year ago, Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. became the first player to hit 40 home runs and steal 70 bases. And here is Ohtani, reaching 50-50 because he has nothing else to do.

A boy in LoanDepot Park held up a sign Thursday: “I SKIPPED MATH TO WATCH HISTORY #OHTANI 50/50.” Considering the mind-boggling numbers Ohtani put up, the student may have learned more than he could in a classroom. Since 1920, when the sport started recognizing RBI, no player ever produced Ohtani’s statistical cocktail of two steals, three homers, five extra-base hits, six total hits and 10 RBI.

We’re used to the greatest athletes adding exclamation points to their brilliance. On the night LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record, he sauntered into the arena wearing a sleek all-black suit, and even though he needed 36 points to make history, you knew his pursuit wouldn’t last another game. Alex Ovechkin keeps making history in style. On the brink of 3,000 hits, Derek Jeter went 5 for 5 and launched a homer.

As Ohtani met his finest moment in the grandest way, his star power also expanded. He wasn’t just baseball famous Thursday. He wasn’t an exotic superstar from Japan that we really don’t know. For once he was the lone superstar on our vast sports stage. He mattered most. And the singularity looked good on him.

Ohtani stole third base for No. 50. Later he hit an opposite-field blast to left-center for his 50th homer. The historic at-bat spoke volumes about what makes him great. With so much at stake, he somehow showed discipline, staying within himself, trusting his approach and his swing, unconcerned about the enormity of the moment. He took two big cuts against Marlins pitcher Mike Baumann at the start, but with a 1-2 count, Ohtani relaxed. And when a Baumann knuckle-curveball loitered in the middle of the strike zone, Ohtani crushed it the other way. As he rounded the bases, he surrendered to emotion.

Later he said: “If I’m being honest, it was something I wanted to get over as soon as possible because the balls were being exchanged every time I was up to bat.”

He’s the first player in the Dodgers’ storied history to hit 50 home runs. He entered his private 50-50 club knowing that he has stolen more than twice as many bases as any other player to hit 50 homers in a season. Ohtani has graduated from status as the Babe Ruth of our lifetime. He’s the only Shohei Ohtani, and we are lucky to be alive to see this.

At 30 years old, on a new team and with his pitching elbow out of commission, Ohtani reached into his bag and pulled out a different kind of record-setting MVP season. This man’s limited is any other man’s loaded.