Cue the “Pete Rose should’ve had an interpreter” jokes, because this story with the Dodgers firing Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter and Ohtani claiming he had millions stolen by Ippei Mizuhara are just WEIRD.
Reports were the $4.5 million was given to cover a gambling debt, but now Ohtani’s attorneys are saying it’s theft, and either way, somebody is in HUGE trouble.
“It could be two things. One is that the interpreter was threatened and Shohei said I'll take care of you, or the other is Shohei is involved with the gambling. That's the only way I go,” BMitch said. “Either my friend was threatened because he owed this big bag of money, or I was paying off my own debts, or he was gambling for me. But they need to find out where he got all of Ohtani’s banking information from?”
“The ESPN story explains how they’re friends in addition to their professional relationship, and it says ‘he is so ever-present that an Ohtani teammate once referred to the duo as having a brotherhood that goes beyond friendship,” JP said.
So, yeah, BMitch could see, then, how Mizuhara would have the info, but still…
“Still, it seems a little odd that it went from a guy speaking publicly to ESPN saying he was getting me out of a bad spot to all of a sudden you saying he stole that money,” Brian said. “Somebody is lying.”
“Either Ohtani actually was just protecting him, and then the Ohtani team realized that there's real legal ramifications of sending $4.5 million to a bookie, which I kind of don't believe,” JP said, “or option two is he knew about it and was paying it off…but I think there's a distinct possibility that Shohei likes some action, and he had Mizuhara put it in for him, and then he had to pay it off.”
Here’s the real crux:
“They strongly claim they never bet on baseball, and that’s important in these situations, obviously,” JP said.
“Well, when you have to come out and say, I never bet on baseball, probably mean that you bet on baseball,” Brian responded.
JP said 'sounds like a fellow named Pete Rose, doesn't it?’ and we know how that ended…