On Friday evening, as tradition dictates, fireworks are set off after home games of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club. People are allowed onto the lawn, and of course the spectacle over the stadium and the city skyline is all the more beautiful when there is something to celebrate – and that’s what happened, despite the 7:8 overtime loss to the San Diego Padres . Because Shohei Ohtani had scored, as he had in the previous seven games; Right at the start of the game he hit the ball into the stands. The 29-year-old Japanese is exactly the star that the Dodgers promised fans with the richest contract in sports history ($700 million for ten seasons). What was more important to supporters on Friday, however, was what Ohtani is not: a criminal.
“He is the victim in this matter,” U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada said Friday afternoon. Two weeks ago it emerged that Ohtani’s childhood friend and translator Ippei Mizuhara had accumulated millions in gambling debts and transferred a total of $4.5 million from the baseball professional’s account to illegal betting providers. The questions, of course: Did Ohtani really not notice that someone was transferring so much money from their private account? Did Ohtani possibly bet on sports himself, perhaps even on games in the MLB baseball league or, in the worst case, on his own games? What’s going on around an athlete whose vest was previously as pristine as his Dodgers jersey at the start of the game on Friday evening?
Apart from Ohtani, only childhood friend Mizuhara had power of attorney for the account
On Thursday, Mizuhara, who had previously gone into hiding, turned himself in to investigators – and as it turned out, everything is much worse than expected: In total, Mizuhara stole $16 million from Ohtani; apparently with a very clumsy, but therefore very effective trick. “Aside from Ohtani, Mizuhara was the only one with authority over this account,” says Estrada: “He denied access to everyone else, even managers or financial advisors, on the grounds that Ohtani viewed the account as a private matter.” He processed payments to bookmakers from this account and sometimes even imitated Ohtani’s voice when calling the bank. Text messages and voicemail announcements show that Mizuhara probably acted alone. Ohtani is therefore considered a victim, but a few questions remain.
Ohtani is considered a baseball obsessive who desperately wants to go down in history as the best – at two positions. He is both one of the most reliable hitters and the best pitchers; which is as rare as a footballer being a goalscorer and goalkeeper at the same time. He is known for keeping his private life private; even his teammates found out about his wedding to former basketball player Mamiko Tanaka via social media; they didn’t even know Ohtani was in a relationship.
But is he really so focused on sports that he doesn’t notice that $16 million is missing? Could it be that, as the indictment against Mizuhara states, none of Ohtani’s US advisers speak Japanese? That no one at the bank was suspicious?
Ohtani was naive and made mistakes, but is probably not a financial criminal
All of this is problematic, and from what is known, Ohtani urgently needs to clean up his environment – especially since a person from his team arranged an interview between Mizuhara and the TV channel ESPN – in which Mizuhara says that Ohtani is aware of the gambling debts knew and knowingly paid it. Ohtani now stands as someone who didn’t take care of the extras because he naively assumed that someone would do it for him – someone who obviously betrayed him. But he is no longer seen as a possible gambler or even a criminal.
That’s why the Dodgers have viewed Ohtani’s performance differently since the affair became known – coach Dave Roberts said on Friday: “He didn’t allow himself to be distracted by all the noise, but passed this test with all the flags flying.” In the last eight games, Ohtani managed four home runs and a hit rate of an incredible 45.7 percent. “You don’t recognize any emotion, the expression on his face is always the same,” says Roberts: “He’s just a professional who just wants to play baseball.” This stoic behavior, which had come across as suspicious, is now seen as a symbol that Ohtani remains calm and delivers reliably even in the most adverse circumstances.
That’s exactly why they got him from city rivals Los Angeles Angels: In each of the past two years, the Dodgers were the clear favorites for the title – but always failed in the playoffs when the circumstances became more adverse. That’s exactly why the mood in the stadium on Friday evening was so happy despite the defeat: Ohtani is not just emerging from this scandal as a victim; but as exactly who the club will need in the fall, when everything around it becomes unbearably loud: someone who can block out everything and be able to concentrate only on baseball.
2024-04-14 18:52:47
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