THE SHO’ GOES ON
Star caught off guard by bombshell
The story involving Shohei Ohtani, his now-former interpreter and an alleged “massive theft” from the baseball superstar took another bizarre turn on Thursday as the sport continues to try and unravel what happened.
New details emerged of how Ohtani discovered that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara allegedly stole millions of dollars from him to cover a gambling debt, which Mizuhara told ESPN was from wagers on soccer, basketball and football but never baseball.
ESPN’s Tisha Thompson said during an appearance on “First Take” that a Dodgers official told the outlet that Ohtani only seemed to become aware of the alleged theft during a meeting in the locker room after the team’s season-opening win on Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea.
“Mizuhara gets up and, based on what I’ve been told, says something to the effect of, ‘I’m sorry, I apologize, I have a gambling problem,’ ” Thompson explained.
“Another player says, ‘So what?’ That is when the president of the Dodgers says, ‘Well, Ohtani paid off the debts’ — again I’m paraphrasing here cause I was not in the meeting.”
That’s when it apparently clicked for Ohtani that something was not right.
“Ohtani is not fluent in English. Everyone says that, but he has enough understanding of English according to the sources we talked to yesterday to start to say, ‘What?’ ” Thompson continued.
“And he goes after the meeting’s over and starts to ask questions. They get a different interpreter and through that different interpreter — this is what these sources close to Ohtani who were privy to what happened told ESPN — that’s when he found out about the money missing in his account.”
Representatives for Ohtani have asked law enforcement to probe the alleged “massive theft” of the superstar’s money, Thompson reported.
Ohtani’s name had come up in connection with an investigation into alleged illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer.
Ohtani did not speak with reporters Thursday after the Dodgers’ second game against the Padres in Seoul.