Black Clouds Gather Over Shohei Ohtani As Dodgers Seek to Dodge Growing Gambling Scandal

By Dan Schlossberg

Just when it looks like baseball has found its next matinee idol, gambling raises its ugly head.

Say it ain’t so, Shohei.

Shohei Ohtani shows off new Dodgers jersey to Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan.Photo byU.S. Embassy to Japan

In little more than a week since the Los Angeles Dodgers played their two-game Seoul Series to open their 2024 season, heralded free agent signee Shohei Ohtani has become the center of unwanted off-the-field attention.

Starting his first year with the Dodgers after six losing campaigns with the Angels, the two-time MVP is under investigation by Major League Baseball, the IRS, the FBI, and even the Dodgers following allegations that his interpreter paid off a gambling debt with $4.5 million of Ohtani’s money.

That interpreter, 39-year-old Ippei Mizuhara, had been close to Ohtani both on and off the field during his Anaheim seasons — so close that the two men and their significant others socialized together.

Ohtani, who seldom speaks to the media, delivered a statement to the press in which he painted himself as the victim of a theft. But the story changed several times in the first few days, raising all kinds of unpleasant questions.

First of all, how could Mizuhara access any of Ohtani’s money, let alone that much. Secondly, did he bet on baseball — the cardinal sun that cast hit king Pete Rose into purgatory and still remains strictly forbidden.

Although Major League Baseball clubhouses carry a written warning threatening a one-year suspension to anyone caught betting on the game, that same rule warns of a lifetime ban to anyone who bets on a game in which they are involved.

Just consider the Black Sox Scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were banned for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Years later, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were slapped with temporary suspensions for taking jobs as greeters at Atlantic City casinos.

And then there was Rose, who apparently placed bets during his five-year stint as manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Since a manager can make his team lose but cannot make his team win, historians still wonder whether Rose bet against his own team — and was the reason a team that should have finished first at least once during that span never did.

Now they’re wondering whether Ohtani will turn out to be the Japanese Pete Rose.

Spotlessly clean in Anaheim, Ohtani now has more money to burn than any other player. The Dodgers gave him a 10-year contract for $700 million that made him the richest athlete in any American sport.

Even with most of it deferred, the two-way star still pulls down $2 million a year, not to mention whatever he brings in from endorsements. He can afford an interpreter, luxurious homes in California and Japan, any car he’s capable of driving, and a lot more.

He also has lots of free time as a ballplayer who works from mid-February through October (if his team reaches post-season play).

We’re not saying Ohtani is guilty — far from it — but that he needs to come clean if he wants to keep clean.

Healing from elbow surgery, he won’t return to pitching before 2025 but should be able to hit enough (after 44 home runs last year) to challenge Ronald Acuna, Jr. as Most Valuable Player of the National League.

But he’ll have to put the gambling fiasco out of his head — and withstand the boos from distrusting fans on the road — to do that.

The investigations, also aimed at illegal California-based bookmaker Matthew Bowyer, began after Mizuhara apologized to the Dodgers in the Los Angeles clubhouse after the team won the opener in South Korea over San Diego. Even Ohtani’s attorneys got involved.

“We discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities,” said a statement from Berk Brettler LLP.

So far, nobody has been charged with a crime but it’s a good bet — to use a play on words — that someone will be.

Will that someone be the interpreter, a UC-Riverdale graduate who has worked as an interpreter for major-league players since 2006, or will it be Ohtani himself? And even if Ohtani is not directly involved, did he authorize the $4.5 million payment to cover his friend’s debts from his personal account?

Complicating the issue is that rookie pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers out of the Japanese majors partly because he was recruited by Ohtani. After receiving a 12-year, $325 million deal, Yamamoto had an awful spring and was even worse in his regular-season debut, allowing five earned runs in the first inning — the only one he worked.

To all those prognosticators across the country who have already conceded the Dodgers the 2024 world championship as a good return for their investment of $1 billion in the two Japanese stars, maybe they should hold their horses (yes, another reference to gambling).

Things can change in a heartbeat when big money is involved.

It will be curious to see how well Ohtani jerseys sell in the wake of this potential scandal.

Former AP newsman Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron, to be published next month by Skyhorse. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.