We can’t ignore the bizarre and potentially game-rattling news that broke yesterday surrounding Shohei Ohtani. At the same time, we also can’t go into any great depth on that story because, at the moment, we have absolutely no idea what the story even is.
Here’s what we know about the Shohei Ohtani mess: While in South Korea for Opening Day on Wednesday, the Dodgers fired Ohtani’s interpreter and dear friend, Ippei Mizuhara, over questions related to $4.5 million in illegal gambling debts that were paid out of Ohtani’s account.
Here’s where it gets so much stranger: At first, an Ohtani spokesman seemed pretty eager to frame this as, I don’t know, the heartwarming story of Shohei Ohtani bailing out a friend who had gotten in way over his head in debts accrued while betting on soccer and other non-baseball sports. Is that a heartwarming story? I don’t know, but I do know that the spokesman was so eager to get this particular story out there that he impulsively (and quite naively) had Mizuhara sit for a 90-minute interview with ESPN.
“Obviously, [Ohtani] wasn’t happy about it,” Mizuhara told ESPN, “and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again. He decided to pay it off for me.… I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting. I want people to know I did not know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never do sports betting ever again.”
Then, just before the story came out, the spokesman did a 180, denied everything Mizuhara had said, and announced instead that Ohtani’s lawyers would handle things. Because, yeah, of course they will.
And the lawyers, in a very brief statement, offered a very different account of what happened:
“In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.”
And now nobody knows what’s even going on, and dark rumors emerge, and at best it’s a communications catastrophe, and at worst it’s… well, who can even say? Was Ohtani robbed by his friend? Did he bail out his friend and then suddenly have the lawyer tell him that could potentially make him an accomplice? Was Ohtani more involved? Less involved? Not involved? I don’t think even MLB or the Dodgers have a clear understanding of any of this; if they did, surely they wouldn’t have let Mizuhara pal around with Ohtani in the dugout during Wednesday’s game. And surely they wouldn’t have allowed this public-relations nightmare to unfold as it has.
I fear this story will dominate baseball for a while now, which is its own sort of misery; Shohei Ohtani’s titanic awesomeness has been such a balm for a sport that desperately needs awesomeness. To see that story go even a little bit dark is just soul-crushing.
We’ll wait and see—it’s not impossible that Ohtani’s role or non-role will become clear, and then the thing will blow over. I do have one friend who thinks it’s all one big nothing burger and, in the end, will end up sullying Ohtani’s reputation a bit but nothing more. I have other friends, however, who think it’s so much worse than that. Again: We just don’t know.
Joe Posnanski has been called “contemporary sports writing’s biggest star.” For more stories from Joe, subscribe to his Joe Blogs Substack newsletter at joeposnanski.com, where he writes about sports, pop culture, life, and all manner of nonsense.
But one thing I will say now: Over the last few years, sports in general, and baseball in particular, have embraced gambling in ways that 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 years ago would have been considered unseemly and self-destructive. The dangers of gambling addiction are so very real; I know multiple people whose lives have been entirely wrecked by such addictions and giant debts, and that doesn’t even begin to get into the myriad questions about what gambling does to the sports themselves.
And yes, I know millions of people gamble responsibly. I’m certainly not here to preach, nor to tell anyone to stop enjoying their gambling. Heck, baseball and other sports have long been propped up by alcohol and obesity-driving foods and pharmaceuticals with a million potential side effects and any number of other things that, consumed to excess, can cause terrible damage. In truth, almost anything to excess can cause terrible damage.
But gambling was, for so many reasons, untouchable for sports leagues. Those reasons have not changed, but now all the leagues, including baseball—which had long been the most ferociously (and piously) opposed to having gambling connections—encourage gambling, promote gambling, spread the word about gambling, and invest in gambling. Will there be a price to pay for that? Yeah, I imagine the bill will come due. It might be coming due already.
As a friend texts, Pete Rose has to be out there somewhere, cackling.
Joe Posnanski has been named the best sportswriter in America by five different organizations, including the Sports Media Hall of Fame and the Associated Press Sports Editors. He has also won two Sports Emmy Awards. He is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of six books, and he co-hosts the PosCast with television writer and creator Michael Schur.
