Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is at the center of a possible gambling scandal. The entire sequence of events that proceeded to unfold while the team is in Korea is very bizarre.
There is no clear answer as to what is the truth!
Ohtani, who signed with the Dodgers during the offseason, moved to the United States in 2018 after spending the first 22 years of his life in Japan. His good friend and translator Ippei Mizuhara came with him. The 39-year-old Japanese interpreter has been an important figure in the life of Major League Baseball’s most famous unicorn.
He was fired on Wednesday for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from the $700-million pitcher and designated hitter. It far more complicated than it sounds and everything went down after the first game of a two-game international series in Seoul.
Ippei was in the dugout with Ohtani for Game 1, which was played on Wednesday night local time. The same cannot be said for Game 2 on Thursday.
Shohei Ohtani was laughing with Ippei Mizuhara just hours before his ouster.
Spectrum Sports’ broadcast of the MLB International Series cut to Ohtani in the dugout during the 9th inning. He walked over to Ippei with a big smile on his face and made him laugh.
©️SportsNetLA pic.twitter.com/syeCQX1wcr
— James¹⁷¹⁸🎌 (@ShotimeLAD) March 20, 2024
Ippei was fired less than 12 hours later. Does that make sense?
A rough timeline of the bizarre series of events is as follows:
- A representative for Ohtani went on the record with ESPN to say that his client transferred $4.5 million himself to a bookie on behalf of his interpreter, who allegedly racked up a massive debt.
- A spokesperson for Ohtani presented Ippei to ESPN to provide a statement.
- Ippei says on the record to ESPN that Ohtani felt bad for him and paid off his debt so that he would never end up in this situation again. He said that Ohtani never placed a bet.
- A spokesperson for Ohtani says that Ippei is lying after Ippei spoke with ESPN for 90 minutes.
- Ohtani’s lawyers released a statement to claim that Ippei is guilty of “massive theft.”
- Ippei changes course to say that Ohtani did not know about his debt or gambling problem.
That’s basically how things went down. Nobody knows the actual truth as of right now. Ippei is fired.
There are a few possible realities in this situation:
- Ippei is a compulsive liar that brought Ohtani down with him.
- Ohtani tried to help his friend but the optics forced him to backtrack on the truth.
- Ohtani has a massive gambling problem and Ippei is taking the fall.
We don’t know! This is only the beginning of what could/will be an earth-shattering scandal!