How Shohei Ohtani's free Agency sweepstakes was the strangest case in history

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/will-the-angels-shohei-ohtani-experiment-work/548006/

 The Babe Ruth of Japan, Shohei Ohtani, is what every manager was dreaming about in the winter of 2017-18. Shohei is the most special case in MLB free angecy in the history of the game because of his strange circumstances. Shohei was the most hyped foreign player in this decade because of his extremely rare ability to play both sides of the ball. Pitching and hitting. No one has been able to do it successfully in the majors since the Babe. Now you must be thinking. This 22 year old must demand hundreds of millions from his bidders, but no. Shohei Ohtani signed for chump change. Why?


 Shohei wanted to hit and pitch in the big leagues now, which is why he turned down a possible 200 million dollar contract in a few years to play for pennies immediately. The article written by Bob Nightengale in USA today illustrates the strangeness of this deal perfectly. “This is a guy who had a $200 million lottery ticket, ripped it up, and decided to go to work at the nearby McDonald’s.”

 Now out of all 30 teams who wanted him how did Shohei make his choice? Definitely no based off of dollars because of what he could of made by waiting, but what where the other factors that incentivized him? No one really know because he never really specified why the Los Angeles Angels was his final decision after limiting the teams to 8. I think that the Japanese Babe Ruth wanted to be in a global market, in a somewhat warm climate, where he could win right away once adding his talents, and, this is the biggest one, where he can pitch AND hit in the big leagues right away.

 The kid just wanted to play and wanted some control over his career. It's truly amazing because most young ball players never get to see this during their first decade or so in the U.S. The case of Shohei Ohtani put the baseball world on its head. He captured the eyes of not only every baseball person but many fans of sports around the world.

What are some cases of a veteran player chasing a ring look like or a hometown discount?