The 1992 film A League of Their Own taught audiences that there’s no crying in baseball, and betting is prohibited as well. Perhaps Ippei Mizuhara, interpreter and longtime friend of Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, might have avoided the situation he currently finds himself in had Tom Hanks’s character made that addendum to his dictum.
Now, a full-blown betting scandal has erupted in Major League Baseball. Here’s what you should know:
What happened?
This story came to light because of investigative journalism. On Wednesday, March 20, the Los Angeles Times reported that “Ohtani’s name had surfaced” in an investigation into Matthew Bowyer, a Southern California bookmaker.
ESPN’s Tisha Thompson has also been on the case. Bowyer, an Orange County resident, is being investigated for running an illegal bookmaking operation. According to Thompson’s reporting, large wire transfers were made from Ohtani’s account to an account owned by an associate of Bowyer’s. Mizuhara and other sources stated that Ohtani does not bet. He was simply helping a friend by loaning him money to pay off his gambling debts.
Mizuhara went on the record with Thompson the day before the Times story broke. He told her, “he watched Ohtani log on to a computer and start to make wire transfer payments” and instructed him on how to do it.
Just 12 hours later, Thompson and the Times received a statement from Ohtani’s lawyers at the Berk Brettler law firm. “In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities,” the statement read.
Mizuhara appeared to then change his story. Thompson spoke with him again, and he claimed that Ohtani did not know about the wire transfers or gambling debts. The Dodgers fired Mizuhara on Wednesday. Thompson has multiple sources telling her that his debts are “at least $4.5 million.”
Diane Bass, Bowyer’s lawyer, made sure to also clarify that Ohtani never interacted with her client. “Mr. Bowyer never had any contact with Shohei Ohtani, in person, on the phone, in any way,” she told the Associated Press. “The only person he had contact with was Ippei.”
Why is this such a big deal?
Sports betting is illegal in California. MLB has three tiers of punishments for betting on baseball, which fall under Rule 21 on misconduct. If a player or employee bets on a game that they were not participating in, they are banned from the sport for a year. If a player or employee beats on a game they were participating in, the ban lasts a lifetime.
The third tier leaves more room for interpretation and covers those who place beats with a bookmaker. The punishment is left up to the commissioner who takes into account the facts of each individual case. Ohanti is baseball’s golden boy with an unprecedented $700 million contract. One could speculate that this gives him some protection, but the case is still ongoing.
Meanwhile, many unanswered questions remain in this case. Mizuhara and Bowyer are both being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the AP reported. Time will tell if Ohtani faces any charges from either Major League Baseball or the federal government.
Both Mizuhara and Bass have said that Mizuhara never placed bets on baseball. Bass clarified that Mizuhara did wager on international soccer.
More facts will certainly be coming to light in the coming weeks about this case. It’s hard not to make comparisons to Pete Rose, who was banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on baseball, but more information is obviously needed here. Perhaps the lesson for MLB is to better vet employees as much as they look into their players’ backgrounds before signing them.
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