The Ohtani Saga

[NebraskaRed]

Bob Nightengale
@BNightengale

The Los Angeles Dodgers fire Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani's long-time interpreter.
Mizuhara was accused by Ohtani's attorneys of engaging in a “massive theft” of Ohtani's funds to place bets with an illegal bookmaker, according to the LA Times.

Wild

[westofyou]

Wild

That's gonna cause a gap on his resume

[kaldaniels]

The wild and reckless Twitter crew is wondering if Ippei is a Cris Carteresque “fall guy” for the gambling.

I’m a sucker for good fiction.

[RedTeamGo!]

This story is fishy as hell.

ESPN has the details. On Tuesday, in an interview arranged by Ohtani's spokesman, Ippei claimed Ohtani helped him pay off his gambling debts. By Wednesday, Ippei denied Ohtani had any knowledge of his gambling debts.

https://abc7.com/sports/dodgers-fire...ssiv/14550791/

Ohtani was the ringleader and is going to get banned from baseball let’s goooooooo (I’m joking, but maybe…..)

[kaldaniels]

This story is fishy as hell.



Ohtani was the ringleader and is going to get banned from baseball let’s goooooooo (I’m joking, but maybe…..)

Word is Ohtani is going to suddenly retire and try his hand at basketball.

And I’ve seen enough I’m all aboard the “fishy as hell” train!!! Choo Choo!!!

[CaiGuy]

Why would an interpreter have access to funds?

[kaldaniels]

Why would an interpreter have access to funds?

Criminal act when two bros are pretty tight. That’s within reason.

Having said that - The story switched from a Ohtani spokesman-overseen “Ohtani gave me the funds to cover” to “the money was stolen!” overnight.

[JCM11]

Criminal act when two bros are pretty tight. That’s within reason.

Having said that - The story switched from a Ohtani spokesman-overseen “Ohtani gave me the funds to cover” to “the money was stolen!” overnight.

The first story was that Ohtani payed an associate of Southern California bookmaker Mathew Bowyer to pay off Mizuhara's debt. ESPN says they reviewed bank records of two $500,000 payments with Ohtani's name on it to the associate. I guess they realize that puts Ohtani in some hot water. Sports betting is illegal in California and Ohtani's name is on the payments. I don't know enough about the legal system to know what that means. From the sound of that article this may be the tip of the gambling ice berg.

[M2]

Why would an interpreter have access to funds?

Someone has to read each dollar bill to make sure it's legit?

[757690]

Honest question. If Ohtani gets banned for gambling (highly unlikely, but what if) does he still get the deferred money?

[RedTeamGo!]

Honest question. If Ohtani gets banned for gambling (highly unlikely, but what if) does he still get the deferred money?

I would assume that falls under getting fired with cause, right?

[mth123]

Honest question. If Ohtani gets banned for gambling (highly unlikely, but what if) does he still get the deferred money?

You have to earn the money to have anything to defer. If he's banned for a season where he has $28 Million deferred, that $28 Million would be lost.

[kaldaniels]

I imagine everyone is bunkered down getting their stories straight right now.

[757690]

You have to earn the money to have anything to defer. If he's banned for a season where he has $28 Million deferred, that $28 Million would be lost.

That makes sense. I just wonder if Ohtani structured his contract so that he gets the deferred money even if he doesn’t play. Not even sure if he could do that.

[redsfan9988]

This is why he deferred the money. He figured he could coast for a couple of decades on his black jack winnings.