The most significant narrative unfolding ahead of the 2024 Major League Baseball season revolves around the former interpreter of Shohei Ohtani, Ippei Mizuhara, whose involvement in a gambling scandal with the star player continues to reveal intriguing details.
According to reports from The Athletic’s Sam Blum, discrepancies have emerged in Mizuhara’s public biography. Despite being listed in the Los Angeles Angels’ media guide as a graduate of the University of California, Riverside in 2007, the university denied any record of his attendance.
When questioned, a university spokesman clarified that no student by the name of Ippei Mizuhara had ever enrolled at UC Riverside. However, the university did not comment on the possibility of Mizuhara attending under an alternate name.
Moreover, while multiple sources had previously indicated Mizuhara’s role as Hideki Okajima’s interpreter during his stint with the Boston Red Sox in 2010, the Red Sox organization refuted these claims. In a statement, the Red Sox asserted that Mizuhara had never been employed by the team in any capacity, nor had he served as an interpreter for Okajima. Archives from the Boston Globe confirmed Ryo Shinkawa as Okajima’s interpreter during that period, and the team’s official records did not list Mizuhara as an interpreter.
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Further scrutiny into Mizuhara’s background prior to 2018, when Ohtani joined the Angels, revealed a lack of information in various databases accessed by The Athletic.
The controversy deepened when the Dodgers terminated Mizuhara’s employment following accusations that he had misappropriated over $4 million from Ohtani to settle his own gambling debts. Allegedly, Mizuhara had transferred funds in Ohtani’s name to an illicit gambling operation run by Matthew Bowyer, currently under federal investigation.
Initially, Mizuhara claimed that Ohtani had agreed to cover his gambling losses, but representatives for Ohtani denied any knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling activities. In subsequent statements to ESPN, Mizuhara emphasized Ohtani’s lack of involvement in the betting affair.
Amidst these revelations, Major League Baseball announced an investigation into the allegations. Despite the ongoing inquiry, Ohtani remains on the Dodgers’ active roster, pending further developments, as reported by ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.
