OHTANI HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO, HOSKINS IS IN THE WRONG & CREDIT TREVINO FOR THE TAG …
We’re still supposed to believe that Shohei Ohtani was blindsided by what his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, told the Dodgers in Seoul about his gambling debts and how — this was the original version of things, remember — Ohtani was just helping a brother out by covering those debts.
But then in the next twenty-four hours, Ohtani had turned into Capt. Renault in “Casablanca,” and was shocked, shocked to discover gambling was going on with a guy who we were told really was closer to the Big Oh than a brother.
But the holes in this story remain, the way a lot of questions do.
Like this question, for example:
How in the world could Ohtani get blindsided by Mizuhara’s story when his own crisis manager (or perhaps crisis creator) had hand-delivered the interpreter to ESPN for conversations that ended up lasting more than an hour-and-a-half?
And it sure is a good thing Ohtani didn’t take questions after reading his statement at Dodger Stadium the other day, so no one could ask a simple one like this:
You do have an accountant, right, someone who might have flagged all those $500,000 wire transfers?
Do I think Mizuhara was betting with a bookie on Ohtani’s behalf?
I do not.
But I also didn’t think I’d ever find out that Phil Mickelson had lost enough money gambling on sports to have financed an invasion of Mexico.
Now, neither the Dodgers or Ohtani’s people will even tell us to whom — if anybody — they have reported this egregious theft.
This story, in Yogi’s words, ain’t over ‘till it’s over.
l I don’t care whether that was a legal slide from Rhys Hoskins or not on Jeff McNeil on Friday afternoon.
And whether Hoskins kept contact with second base or not.
That slide was late, Hoskins was past the bag, and it looked like he did what he did intentionally.
If this guy thinks that was “playing the right way,” he needs to go back and re-read the manual.
l I’m starting to think that I have a better shot at playing for the Warriors next season than Draymond Green does.
l If Victor Wembanyama is blessed with good health, he is going to reimagine the center position in the NBA, with his height and grace and talent.
l Every single year they sell Cinderella with all the other March Madness, and then most years the tournament usually works its way down to great, big state schools and
Duke.
And Villanova, when Jay Wright was still coaching Villanova.
By the way?
The tournament still gives us too many games in the 50s like we got from Duke and Houston on Friday night.
Like, the 1950s. l Spoiler alert?
The Masters is a tradition unlike any other.
l It is starting to look as if the only way to pitch to the top of the Dodgers’ order — Mookie Betts and Ohtani and Freddie Freeman — is under an assumed name.
l What in the world was Gary Pettis, the Astros’ fine third base coach, doing sending Mauricio Dubon with one out in the 9th on Friday and Alex Bregman on-deck.
Juan Soto didn’t make a great throw on that play. But he did get a great jump. In the end, though, the great play was Jose Trevino’s in getting Dubon with that sweep tag.
l Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Giants need to draft a quarterback.
l “All this nonsense about a heated argument between Coach Saleh and me at the league meeting is absolutely false,” Woody Johnson wrote on X the other day. “It is yet another irresponsible report from NFL Network. Please disregard.”
Somebody remind Woody that it’s a hardball league, and he needs to wear a helmet.
l Here’s hoping that Scott Boras doesn’t screw things up for Pete Alonso the way he did with Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery and J.D. Martinez.
And that the Polar Bear keeps in mind that he doesn’t work for Scotty, and that it’s the other way around.
l Forty-one years after Jimmy V, another North Carolina State story got a little bigger Friday night, didn’t it?