Almost a week has passed since Shohei Ohtani addressed rumors and speculation that he was involved in gambling, which some say is baseball’s greatest sin, after his interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the Dodgers for his connections to a bookmaker someone who handles bets and money gambling for sports betting.
Mizuhara has a long history with Ohtani, whom he met back in 2013 while working for the Japanese baseball league’s Nippon Ham Fighters, Ohtani’s first professional team, and has become more than just an interpreter for the star.
The scandal involves 4.5 million dollars’ worth of gambling debt Mizuhara allegedly accumulated with a Southern California bookmaking operation.