Interpretive Dance

Proof positive that the Los Angeles really just can’t win. Of late, one of MLB’s crown jewels seems to be careening from one ugly scandal to the next despite attempting to spend their way into a World Series Commissioner’s Trophy without the overhanging asterisk of an abbreviated, Covid-shortened season in 2020. Attempting to push the lurid, dirty and pricey laundry enrobing Yasiel Puig, Julio Urias and Trevor Bauer permanently into the far corners of the internet, the Dodgers this past December managed a remarkable coup in signing Shohei Ohtani ($700m/10-year) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325M/12-year) within a week of one another. All of a sudden, the sports world lurched out of their seats to quantify what magnitude of force the LA team would wield come Spring 2024. Merchandise sales quickly set records as Ohtani became the most followed baseball player on Instagram, having added a staggering 5M followers in 2023 alone. Headed into Spring training, the team was happy to show off its wares and Ohtani rewarded onlookers with a home run where he debuted powerfully on February 27th. That mushrooming goodwill that the team and Baseball enjoyed would go on to spectacularly collapse in on itself in less than a month. With yet another scandal enswirling Mr. Shotime himself. Looking at off-field fireworks alone, there’s good reason the team color is Dodger blue.

So depending on whom you listen to, Ohtani was either unknowingly complicit in an unfolding gambling saga or he was a victim of felonious wire fraud and identity theft. Both contradictory statements were the official public positions of the parties just 16 incredible hours apart from one another. The firestorm billows around the increasingly untrustworthy Ippei Mizuhara. Mizuhara is was Ohtani’s interpreter and best friend throughout the two-way athlete’s meteoric ascent. Mizuhara met Ohtani upon the latter’s singing in 2013 to the Hokkaido Fighters. Mizuhara was employed as the team’s interpreter for English-speaking players and with Ohtani’s arrival, the two quickly struck up a quick friendship and kinship. Five years later, the close friendship would travel to California where Ohtani made his big-league debut with the Angels in 2018. With very limited English, it was well-known in agency realms to think of Ohtani-Mizuhara as a singular package. And so Ohtani received his $2.3M signing bonus; Mizuhara snagged an annual $85K salary as Ohtani’s official interpreter. By all outward appearances, the two were intractable despite awkward, clumsy logistics with press interactions and the like. Sports beat reports smile when recalling comical game-of-telephone like interviews not too dissimilar from metaphorical United Nations meetings with time-delayed interpretive earpieces dangling uncomfortably from all parties.

But the ugly logistics and all traveled 50 miles north to Chavez Ravine this past Winter when Ohtani signed his now-famous (and nearly all deferred) $700M deal with the Dodgers in December. Mizuhara, himself, reportedly secured a $400K annual salary from the Team to act as Ohtani’s interpretive intermediary. Just one week ago, Mizuhara surprisingly and bravely participated in a phone interview with ESPN (without an attorney) to discuss the shocking revelation the sports network was about to break to the world: that Ohtani was connected to $4.5M in outgoing wires to an illegal bookmaker in Orange County. By Mizuhara’s telling, he and the bookmaker (Matthew Bowyers) met after a Padres game in 2019 when the two discussed placing bets on non-MLB games. At first the bets were small and came amid a small Mizuhara winning streak. As time went on, the wagers fattened and the winning streaks reversed, turning to losses. By 2022, Mizuhara had amassed more than $1M in gambling debt with Bowyers. At this point, Mizuhara was borrowing from family and friends — all under a thicket of lies to disguise his misfortune. Bowyers, for his part, continue to advance Mizuhara credit because of his established close-connection with Ohtani. Just two years later in Fall 2024, Mizuhara’s debt more than quadrupled to $4.5M. That’s when, Mizuhara picked up the Gold Phone and confessed his predicament to Ohtani.

Again by Mizuhara’s telling, Ohtani was furious with his admission but with an assume-good-intent philosophy became determined to help his friend out of trouble. Next, Ohtani and Mizuhara logged into the megastar’s back account and wired $500K to Bowyers nine times over the next several months, each with “Loan” typed into the Description section. The final payment cleared in October 2023. During the unbelievable interview, Mizuhara claimed that he would repay every cent of the quote unquote loan.

Eleven hours later, news of ESPN’s bombshell interview and Mizuhara’s incendiary remarks implicating the League’s most promising athlete in a generation landed extremely uncomfortably with the MLB and the Dodger organization just as both outfits were in South Korea to celebrate the Spring Opener with (ironically) the Dodgers taking on the Padres. Suddenly, nobody was talking about baseball. At a Clubhouse meeting, Dodgers ownership arrived to brief the team on the forthcoming story about Ohtani’s role papering over Mizuhara’s astonishing losses — with both present, and Mizuhara continuing to awkwardly translate. When Ohtani looked around puzzled at all the long faces glaring at him, he grasped for answers. This time, he questioned another interpreter on the bus ride back to the team hotel. That’s when he became incredulous as to the accusations laid at his feet so gently by his so-called friend. He logged into his bank account last Wednesday to discover the missing money. Not only did Mizuhara have digital access to Ohtani’s account but complete control of his communications channels as his interpreter. Mizuhara could spin whatever yarn he could without repercussion. This account, from Ohtani’s camp.

By Wednesday afternoon, Ohtani had obtained legal representation (Berk Brettler LLP) and…a new interpreter. The firm released a statement depicting Ohtani the victim of a “massive theft” and that they’d be turning the investigation over to authorities. At 2:30pm, Mizuhara is official unemployed and 155 minutes later, walks back his entire interview held with ESPN just the day before. He says he lied the entire interview and that Ohtani had zero knowledge of his gambling problems, much less his debt. Unanswered is what this means to how money was wired out of Ohtani’s account. Mizuhara refused to comment when pressed by the same ESPN reporter with natural questions on embezzlement, theft and if he had stolen from Ohtani.

So that’s the state of affairs as the Dodgers approach Opening Day, knee-deep and uncontrollably mired in sighs. Ohtani is to officially offer his side of the tale today, much to the chagrin of the Dodgers, MLB and legal counsel. Mizuhara is under investigation allegedly by the FBI, IRS and MLB. Just this past weekend it was revealed that Mizahua lied about attending UC Riverside and having worked for the Yankees and Red Sox. Ohtani, too, is under MLB investigation to uncover what was (not) known to him and when. And what, if any, role he played it the imbroglio. Definitely NOT the look the Dodgers anticipated when galloping out of the Spring starting gate. A saga that has plenty of runway yet to unpack. Two polar opposites of an explosive story the likes of which Los Angeles just can’t seem to rid itself of. We’ll see if the Team’s on-field trajectory can insulate itself from its tabloid namesake.

Turning now to the 2024 Madness, I think we all pretty much ripped up our brackets Thursday night with Oakland’s audacious upset of 3-seed Kentucky while the supposed ascension of JMU to Cinderella-status last week was a bit premature; the Blue Devils flattened the Dukes 93–55. Similarly, the 11-seed Oregon Ducks looked to be flapping their way into the Sweet 16 but for a double-OT 73–76 loss to Creighton on Saturday. MSU, Baylor and St Mary’s are all OUT but the NC State Wolfpack are looking like the real deal on the prowl for scissors and a net to shear. More to come as the Sweet 16 tips off on Thursday. Gotta love this time of year if for no other reason than to remind yourself of the joys of youth and soul. And what could have been in our own lives back in the day.