One game into superstar Shohei Ohtani’s tenure with the Dodgers, the glorious story of a unique and all-time great ballplayer joining a superteam took a strange and unfortunate turn. And I’m still not sure what to make of it.
It all started when Ohtani’s lawyer released a statement saying that Ohtani was the “victim of grand theft” and was “turning the matter over to the authorities.” Their story goes that Ohtani’s longtime interpreter and friend stole millions of dollars from Ohtani’s account to pay gambling debts to illegal bookmakers, and that the Dodgers immediately traded the interpreter and possibly former friend Ippei Mizuhara He was fired.
Otani is said to have been the victim. But we’re in the first innings of this story. The principles have not yet been reflected. We haven’t heard directly from Mizuwon (or directly from Otani, but we don’t have an interpreter right now so it might take a while). Mizuhara initially told ESPN that Ohtani gave him the money to pay off his debt, but later changed his story. Ohtani says he had no idea about his debt.
The story in Ohtani’s camp is that a longtime interpreter and former friend is a brilliant actor who has been deceiving Ohtani for years, and that perhaps Ohtani is gullible and naive, and also has really bad taste in his best friend. Thing. That may be true anyway — Ohtani has not been accused of wrongdoing — but Ohtani has many top publicists working for him, while Mizuhara is unemployed and has no money. None of my relatives seem to be in trouble either.
Mr. Mizuhara’s dismissal is a big loss for him. Because he was said to be very well paid as an interpreter for a man who hardly spoke (apart from the press). His real job has evolved into Ohtani’s occasional driver, training partner and constant companion.
It’s not a happy story for everyone. However, at least from Ohtani’s perspective, this is not illegal. Assuming Ohtani’s publicists are all right and his best friend was an unscrupulous operator stupid enough to lose all his money on sports betting (Ohtani told ESPN it wasn’t illegal), but bypassing all security measures, He is said to be smart enough to figure out ways to move Ohtani’s money around for his own benefit. (Otani has not yet been charged with any crime.)
It’s a little hard to believe that Ohtani knows so little about this man he supposedly spent 20 hours a day with, but the people around him – the people who actually know him, not just his publicist. says he believes he is a genius ball player. , A genius who is indifferent to things outside the field, including money. That’s the preferred storyline, at least for today.
Ohtani certainly doesn’t seem to care much about money and didn’t know what was going on, supporting their claims that millions of dollars were removed from their accounts without their knowledge. If he had cared about money, would he have played for pennies all these years?More importantly, if he had a gambling problem, he would have paid for 97% of his contract, So $680 million was deferred for 10 years?
ESPN and the Los Angeles Times, which reported the story, knew more about what was going on than Ohtani, who was seen on TV joking with Mizuhara on the bench in the eighth inning of the opening game. It’s a little strange that it seems like it is. . However, Ohtani reportedly had no idea about the $4.5 million reportedly removed from his account until some time after the match.
There are many unknowns. But for now, the story that works best for Ohtani and, frankly, baseball as a whole, is that he’s an all-time baseball genius but financially tenuous. Of course, this could be a true story.
