by Paul Teetor
There was a giant whooshing sound emanating from Chavez Ravine on Thursday morning that soon spread out, like a coastal fog, over all of Los Angeles.
It was a collective sigh of relief coming from everyone in the Dodgers organization, plus the millions of new Shohei Ohtani fans who had jumped aboard the Shohei train when he signed with the Dodgers last winter for $700 million over 10 years.
Less than a month into his first season in Dodger blue after six years with the Angels, his very future with the team was threatened when he was dragged into a multi-million-dollar gambling scandal centered around his long-time interpreter and closest friend, Ippei Mizuhara.
But rather than confirming the interpreters claim that Ohtani had graciously offered to pay off his huge gambling debts, federal officials announced that after a two-week-long investigation they determined that Mizuhara had kept his gambling addiction – and his money problems — hidden from Ohtani.
That enabled him to use his position of influence and access to Ohtani to manipulate his bank accounts and keep paying off his gambling debts until the losses reached an astounding figure — more than $16 million.
“Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case,” E. Martin Estrada, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said at a standing-room-only news conference in downtown Los Angeles.
That’s right: Ohtani was not a gambler, not an accessory, not an enabler, not even a friend who was helping a friend pay off his debts so his kneecaps wouldn’t get broken.
He was a victim.
A man betrayed by the lies and deceit of his closest personal friend and professional colleague.
In other words, everything that Ohtani had proclaimed in his only public comments on the shocking allegation was true: he never bet on sports and knew nothing about Mizuhara’s ever-deepening involvement with an illegal Orange County sports gambling operation.
The criminal complaint filed by Estrada was compelling in its details. Ohtani had readily turned over his phone and all its contents. Mizuhara, by contrast, resisted until his phone was seized by authorities armed with a warrant.
While Ohtani’s thousands and thousands of texts showed not a word about gambling or taking money from his bank accounts to pay off bookies, Mizuhara’s texts showed a sad, familiar story of a sports gambler getting in over his head and doubling down on his losses in a futile attempt to recoup his money.
“I got my ass kicked again lol..any chance I can get one last bump? This will be the last one for a while if I lose it,” read one text from Mizuhara to the illegal bookmakers. A bump is a common gambler’s term for a further extension of credit.
Despite his vow, just one day later Mizuhara was at it again.
“I’m the worst…can’t catch a break…Can I get one last bump? I swear this is gonna be my last until I get the balance down significantly…I promise this will be the last bump for a while.”
The thread also revealed the pressure he was under to pay his debts before Ohtani found out about his gambling problem.
“Hey Ippie…it’s 2’clock on Friday. I don’t know why you’re not returning my calls. I’m here in Newport Beach and I see Ohtani walking his dog. I’m just gonna go up and talk to him and ask how I can get in touch with you since you’re not responding? Please call me back.”
The bookie’s threat was clear: pay up or I’ll tell Ohtani you’re stealing from him.
So the question of how Mizuhara kept all this secret from Ohtani was answered in the Mizuhara texts with the bookie.
But the answer to the next most pressing question — how was he able to manipulate Ohtani’s bank accounts without being caught by the superstar’s bankers and financial advisers — was even more eye-opening.
According to Estrada, Mizuhara took exclusive control of Ohtani’s finances while Ohtani concentrated all his spare time on perfecting his craft – throwing and hitting a baseball.
“Mr. Mizuhara had accessed that bank account, and he refused to give access to Mr. Ohtani’s other professional advisors, including his agent, his accountant and his financial advisor and he told them Mr. Ohtani wanted to keep that account private,” Estrada said.
Mizuhara went so far as to impersonate Ohtani’s voice in phone discussions with bankers who were questioning some of the transactions. Without ever speaking to Ohtani in person, that was good enough for them to let the wire transfers go forward.
Despite Mizuhara’s treachery, Ohtani should have paid more attention to what was going on around him. In that sense, he bears some responsibility for letting the whole mess get out of control.
But as of Friday, he was playing ball like a man who just had the weight of the world removed from his shoulders. His batting average was up to .345 and he had four home runs in his last five games.
All Ball predicts that, now that Ohtani can once again concentrate solely on baseball, and not have to worry about pitching until next season, he will have the greatest season of any player in major league history.
But professional sports should see this whole story as a flashing red light now that the gambling genie is out of the bottle. Unless they get it under control, and soon, it could devour sports as we know them. If the public ever loses faith that the games are not being played honestly, look out.
Think about it: we all know people who are addicted to their phones. Add in that those same cell phones are now mobile casinos – you can place a bet on any sporting event anywhere within seconds – and that is a volatile combination for people with addictive personalities.
This time, they avoided catastrophe in that the biggest global superstar ever caught up in a gambling scandal turned out to be innocent.
Next time they may not be so lucky.
Not-so-Happy Trails to O.J. Simpson
I believe OJ Simpson did it, and there’s nothing you can say to change my mind.
I believe he took a knife and brutally murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her “friend” Ron Goldman in a fit of uncontrollable rage and jealousy that a younger man was moving in on his woman. It was an act of primal jealousy and revenge, and the hell with the consequences.
And I believe that the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt with a mountain of forensic evidence. But because of all that had come before – the racist history of the LAPD, the brutal, caught-on-tape beating of motorist Rodney King just a couple of years prior, and a growing acknowledgment that the American justice system had been unfair to blacks and other minorities, Simpson caught the break of a lifetime when the predominantly black jury let him get away with a double murder.
Right after the trial, Simpson vowed to spend the rest of his life finding “the real killers.”
Instead, he headed for the golf course and a series of girlfriends who were low-rent knockoffs of Nicole – blond and built.
In the end, when death came to him this week at age 76, as it must to all men, he wasn’t even man enough to offer a deathbed confession that would have done so much to alleviate the suffering of the Brown and Goldman families.
All Ball’s verdict: Good riddance to a bad man.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
