We have people over here doing the Lord’s work in Korea.
1 Like
Was it a “century egg”?
I’m hoping it was one of the eggs marinated in squid juices. Those things are nasty.
Spicy story out of Chavez Ravine: the Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter today after he allegedly wired $4.5M from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookie. A spokesman for Ohtani initially said Ohtani had wired the money to pay the interpreter’s gambling debts. Ohtani’s lawyers now say the interpreter stole the money from Ohtani.
Surely this is the whole story and nothing else will come of it.
Nothing that nefarious could possibly happen in the squeaky clean Dodger org.
1 Like
As much as I love to hate on the Dodgers… this guy didn’t rack up $4.5M just since arriving in Dodgertown.
Having the biggest star in generations even tangentially involved in a gambling problem is pretty much MLB’s worst nightmare.
3 Likes
I’m betting it involved roller derby. He kept betting against the San Francisco Bay Bombers.
1 Like
I have complete confidence in Manfred’s ability to deftly steer the MLB ship through this dangerous storm.
1 Like
This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we’ll all be lucky if baseball lives through it.
1 Like
Well of course. He’ll blame the Astros.
8 Likes
Probably a Houston bookie.
2 Likes
He probably bet on Astros ST games.
Pretty good analysis of the limited available info here:
2 Likes
Nice summation.
I don’t typically read comments, but the 2nd one: “I sure hope the Angels don’t have to vacate all of their playoff wins while he was there” made me smile
5 Likes
And they are going to have to deal with it because the feds are involved. I am no lawyer but I would expect those wire transfers docs to be a part of discovery in a future trial.
Not a bad post and the comments are pretty level-headed. There is another potential scenario. I was not going to sign up to that site to post it so I’ll just do so here:
It goes like this: Mizuhara and Boyers hatched a plan to defraud Ohtani whereby they made up (or massively inflated) Mizuhara’s debts in an attempt to get Ohtani to pay and then Mizuhara and Boyers split the proceeds. That explains away the incredulous fact that Boyers would allow Mizuhara to accumulate 10x his annual income in debts. And fits the “massive theft” narrative.
2 Likes
Calcaterra is generally pretty insightful and it’s a good community. I gave my dad a subscription for Christmas when the newsletter first started and we’ve both enjoyed it.
Good theory! The massive unpaid and continuing debt is a pretty big speed bump to overcome.
It may even have been a fishing expedition: the bookie intentionally let the interpreter get in over his head and then came to him with the plan. And at that point the poor guy didn’t have much of a choice.
Listening to Buster silent and the reporter who was interviewing the interpreter, it sounds like it went:
- ESPN gets wind of the story, asks to interview interpreter
- Interpreter tells ESPN that he told Ohtani of his debts and walked Ohtani through how to make the wire transfers
- While in Korea, Dodgers call closed door meeting to tell team the news will break. Interpreter stands up and says he has a gambling problem. Team is basically, “ok.” Then team official says “it’s not just that, Shohei paid off his debts.” Ohtani’s eyes basically bug out and he leaves the room.
- This is the key - two sources have told the reporter that Ohtani got with team officials (and another interpreter) and basically said “I didn’t pay a damn thing!” That’s when the lawyers step in.
- ESPN reporter then went back to the interpreter and said “did you lie to me?” and was told “yes.”
1 Like
Surely, by now Ohtani is making an effort to learn some English.