Every gambler has doubled down at least once in their life. Yesterday, we might've seen another do it during a press conference.
Baseball is potentially facing a bigger scandal than the infamous 2017 Astro's cheating scandal, as the biggest star in baseball history, Shohei Ohtani, allegedly was robbed of $4.5 million by longtime friend and translator Ippei Mizuhara to pay off an illegal gambling debt.
However, the way the information regarding this situation has come out, and given the security of today's banking systems, that is a very, very hard story to believe and baseball is facing its third major gambling scandal (the Black Sox and Pete Rose) in its long history.
From renounced statements, plot holes, and plenty of speculation, let's go over everything related to this Ohtani situation, starting with the facts and ending with what might happen.
What We Know and the Timeline:
There are a lot of holes in this story and questions that have yet to be answered, so it's easy to get lost going down a rabbit hole. To prevent this, we're going to start with the facts and timeline, while bringing in some background information where necessary.
The first thing we know (per the Los Angeles Times) is that Ohtani's name was on wire transfers to Mathew Bowyer, who is under federal investigation for being an illegal bookie, for $4.5 million. After this news broke, long-time translator Ippei Mizuhara did a telephone interview with ESPN Tuesday (allegedly allowed by Ohtani's representatives), stating that Ohtani paid off his gambling debts and that "Shohei had zero involvement in betting."
Shortly after this, Ohtani's representatives renounced Mizuhara's and alleged theft by the translator, accusing Mizuhara of stealing the money from Shohei's account.
Mizuhara has since addressed the Dodgers before game 2 of the Seoul Series and was fired. The Athletic also reported that Mizuhara recanted this initial statement in an interview after being fired by the Dodgers.
The MLB opened a formal investigation Friday (almost three full days after the news broke) into the situation and Ohtani did not address the situation until yesterday (3/25) in a 12-minute statement where no questions were taken.
During Ohtani's statement, he doubled down on the second story, stating that he was unaware of Mizuhara's gambling addiction until the team meeting, did not ever pay an illegal bookie, and has not ever bet on sports.
What's Missing
Unlike most great stories, this one is full of plotholes. The first and most obvious one is the difference between the first two statements. Mizuhara initially states that Ohtani was aware of the situation and willingly paid off the debt. Not too long after, more of Ohtani's representatives say this isn't true and renounce the story, and Mizuhara later recants his initial interview.
The next weird fact is that the Dodgers allowed Mizuhara to address the team. Outside of being a (ex?) close friend of their star player, why would a translator being accused of grand larceny not be immediately escorted out of the clubhouse, let alone allowed to address the entire team?
Lastly, $4.5 million doesn't just disappear, and how does Ohtani not notice it? Despite making a massive amount of money every season (mostly through sponsorships....for now), $4.5 million is a lot of money and if that amount of money disappeared, it would raise flags with at least Ohtani's bank, which would alert him of those funds disappearing from his account. If Ohtani thought he was robbed wouldn't he alert the authorities immediately?
Going a step further, Ohtani or a power of attorney would have had to approve a wire transfer(s) of this magnitude. If Mizuhara was going to rob Ohtani, he would not have been able to move the money in large transactions and would have had to use many repetitive smaller transactions, which would also raise flags with Ohtani's bank for duplicate transactions. Lastly, why wouldn't Mizuhara at least try to hide the money by transferring it to different accounts, and then wire the money to the bookie from these separate accounts?
After so many holes in this story, coming to a firm opinion is difficult but let's give it a shot anyway.
What Actually Happened?:
Based on the amount transferred to the bookie and that Ohtani's name was on the wire transfer, the original story seems to be the most likely. Why? Well, we need to look at some external facts and mix them into the story.
Ohtani and Mizuhara were (are?) extremely close. In Ohtani's contract with the Dodgers, he has the right to opt-out if Mizuhara or certain other employees had their contracts terminated by the Dodgers. That is the best job security outside of being your own boss that you can get. Mizuhara also reportedly has had salaries ranging from 300K-500K a year, much higher than the average interpreter salary of $53.6K (both per CBS) and certainly due to his close connection with Ohtani.
Mizuhara also stated that he spends every day with Ohtani and their close relationship has been confirmed on multiple occasions, making it fair to assume Ohtani thought of Mizuhara as his best friend or like a brother.
This crucial factor and all the holes in the "robbery" story told by Ohtani and his representatives make the original story seem like the truth. His best friend really messed up and Ohtani wanted to help him out. Unfortunately for Ohtani, bailing out his friend violates both California, Federal, and MLB laws.
California is one of the states that has not legalized Sports betting, and wiring money to an illegal bookie is a federal offense. Additionally, the MLB doesn't allow players to bet on baseball or in states where sports betting is illegal.
The best guess here is that Ohtani's attorneys realized that despite his good intentions in helping his friend, Ohtani was still violating all of these laws and rules by wiring the money to the illegal bookie, as it was his name on the wire transfer.
Due to this, his representatives immediately tried to start doing damage control, renouncing Mizuhara's initial statement and starting this "massive theft" story to protect Ohtani while placing all of the blame on Mizuhara. This would also explain why Ohtani never alerted the authorities about this "massive theft" as he knew it would risk his friend going to federal prison.
What's going to happen?
Overall, Ohtani is still the MLB's golden goose. By delaying a formal investigation, MLB has already indicated they do not want to punish Ohtani unless they're forced to. He just brings too many eyes and too much money to the sport.
Instead of properly investigating this, they will try to sweep this under the rug and keep placing all the blame on Mizuhara, who will probably receive a lifetime ban from the sport while Ohtani potentially faces a fine for an "undisclosed amount".
ICYM:
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