by AAA Sports
Friday, Mar 22, 2024The old gambling joke goes like this:
“Hey, you look awful. What’s going on?
“I just lost $1,000 betting on basketball.”
“Maybe you should bet on football instead.”
“That’s even worse. I lost $2,000 on the NFL.”
“How about hockey?”
“Hockey???!!!??? I don’t know ANYTHING about hockey.”
-
So it goes with one Ippei Mizuhara, who in one fell swoop has just pissed away perhaps the best job in the world and may have made himself persona non grata in two countries because, as he says, “I’m not a very good gambler.”
As the longtime interpreter, confidante, and apparent BFF of the No. 1 baseball player in the world, new Dodger Shohei Ohtani, Mizuhara got to travel the world and hang with Ohtani. Just be a human English-to-Japanese dictionary (and vice versa) a few times a day, and cash team checks that amounted to a reported $500,000 a year.
But what Mizuhara apparently did with a lot of that money, plus a substantial chunk of change that he didn’t have, is what reportedly dragged him into a pile of mud that is also getting Ohtani dirty. Details aren’t confirmed, but reports indicate that some $4.5 million from Ohtani’s bank account was withdrawn to cover Mizuhara’s financial obligations to an illegal (sports betting is not legal in California) gambling outfit.
From there things get foggy. Ohtani’s lawyers say the cash was stolen but don’t say by whom or how. And it doesn’t help that both Ohtani and Mizuhara have changed their stories – first saying that Ohtani was aware of the huge gambling debt and then retracting those statements. This raises the question of why an illegal book would extend that much credit to someone like Mizuhara who was clearly not a whale – unless it had collateral. Did we mention that Ohtani’s new contract with the Dodgers will earn him $70 million a year through 2033?
Then there’s this – Ohtani, a notoriously private person, picked this past week – just before the sh*t hit the fan regarding his interpreters’ gambling ineptness -- to announce that he has just gotten married. What the blushing bride’s connection to all of this is is uncertain, but one thing IS certain: Spouses cannot be compelled to testify against their husband or wife, so there’s that.
As of now there is no evidence that Mizuhara placed bets on baseball, so the suits at MLB can breathe easy for the time being. But what will they do if he did wager on MLB games, and Ohtani’s hands are not that clean? Is Rob Manfred ready to play Bart Giamatti to Ohtani’s Pete Rose, and ban the superstar for life? And if not, why not? You have to wonder if DraftKings will place odds on THAT happening.
So many questions, so many conflicting answers, most notably what was Ohtani’s involvement – if any – in his interpreter’s activities? Was Mizuhara a place-holder for Ohtani and now ready to take the fall for the player who was set to become the face of Major League Baseball? Will the Dodgers circle the wagons around their new superstar? How much do the feds care about an activity that may at some point in the not-too-distant future be legal in California? Did Mizuhara steal from Ohtani? How? Will Mizuhara and Ohtani change their story a second time, or stick with what they have?
The boiling cauldron will no doubt heat up even more as the Dodger plane sets down in Los Angeles after the team’s two-game season-opening series in South Korea. As Ricky told Lucy, Ohtani “Has a lot of ‘splaining to do.”
“Hey, you look awful. What’s going on?
“I just lost $1,000 betting on basketball.”
“Maybe you should bet on football instead.”
“That’s even worse. I lost $2,000 on the NFL.”
“How about hockey?”
“Hockey???!!!??? I don’t know ANYTHING about hockey.”
-
So it goes with one Ippei Mizuhara, who in one fell swoop has just pissed away perhaps the best job in the world and may have made himself persona non grata in two countries because, as he says, “I’m not a very good gambler.”
As the longtime interpreter, confidante, and apparent BFF of the No. 1 baseball player in the world, new Dodger Shohei Ohtani, Mizuhara got to travel the world and hang with Ohtani. Just be a human English-to-Japanese dictionary (and vice versa) a few times a day, and cash team checks that amounted to a reported $500,000 a year.
But what Mizuhara apparently did with a lot of that money, plus a substantial chunk of change that he didn’t have, is what reportedly dragged him into a pile of mud that is also getting Ohtani dirty. Details aren’t confirmed, but reports indicate that some $4.5 million from Ohtani’s bank account was withdrawn to cover Mizuhara’s financial obligations to an illegal (sports betting is not legal in California) gambling outfit.
From there things get foggy. Ohtani’s lawyers say the cash was stolen but don’t say by whom or how. And it doesn’t help that both Ohtani and Mizuhara have changed their stories – first saying that Ohtani was aware of the huge gambling debt and then retracting those statements. This raises the question of why an illegal book would extend that much credit to someone like Mizuhara who was clearly not a whale – unless it had collateral. Did we mention that Ohtani’s new contract with the Dodgers will earn him $70 million a year through 2033?
Then there’s this – Ohtani, a notoriously private person, picked this past week – just before the sh*t hit the fan regarding his interpreters’ gambling ineptness -- to announce that he has just gotten married. What the blushing bride’s connection to all of this is is uncertain, but one thing IS certain: Spouses cannot be compelled to testify against their husband or wife, so there’s that.
As of now there is no evidence that Mizuhara placed bets on baseball, so the suits at MLB can breathe easy for the time being. But what will they do if he did wager on MLB games, and Ohtani’s hands are not that clean? Is Rob Manfred ready to play Bart Giamatti to Ohtani’s Pete Rose, and ban the superstar for life? And if not, why not? You have to wonder if DraftKings will place odds on THAT happening.
So many questions, so many conflicting answers, most notably what was Ohtani’s involvement – if any – in his interpreter’s activities? Was Mizuhara a place-holder for Ohtani and now ready to take the fall for the player who was set to become the face of Major League Baseball? Will the Dodgers circle the wagons around their new superstar? How much do the feds care about an activity that may at some point in the not-too-distant future be legal in California? Did Mizuhara steal from Ohtani? How? Will Mizuhara and Ohtani change their story a second time, or stick with what they have?
The boiling cauldron will no doubt heat up even more as the Dodger plane sets down in Los Angeles after the team’s two-game season-opening series in South Korea. As Ricky told Lucy, Ohtani “Has a lot of ‘splaining to do.”
