2024-03-23 10:45:46
A major scandal has rocked the foundations of American sports after it emerged that the world’s highest-paid athlete, Shohei Ohtani, could be making a living on betting.
In the summer, the Japanese signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 10 seasons for 700 million dollars. Before that, he spent 5 seasons in the other team from the city “Angels” and became the big star in the USA.
Ohtani has the unique quality of being just as good at throwing the ball as he is at hitting it. Thus he won awards both as a pitcher and as a hitter, which had not been done since the early years of the game in America. At the end of last season, he had shoulder surgery that would keep him out of action for a season, but that didn’t stop the Dodgers from getting him a record deal.
The scandal began to unravel after the FBI busted Matthew Boyer’s illegal betting ring. Otani’s name appeared in the seized documents, with $4.5 million transferred to the book from his bank accounts.
At the moment, Ohtani’s lawyers from the Burke Beckler law firm deny that he is involved.
“In connection with numerous inquiries from the media, we have discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a particularly large-scale theft. We have handed everything over to the authorities,” the office said in an official statement.
Ipei Mizuhara, who has been the star’s translator since he set foot in the US, has been charged with the theft.
According to various sources, Mizuhara covered his own casino and betting losses with the baseball player’s money.
Others, however, claim that Mizuhara told investigators that he placed the bets at Ohtani’s personal behest and behest.
According to Major League Baseball’s rules, “no player, umpire, club or official of the league shall bet on baseball or engage in illegal wagering.” The penalty for such an offense is lifetime disqualification.
On top of that, betting is absolutely prohibited in California, although it was allowed in quite a few states.
Right now, Boyer’s web is still unraveling, with other big names expected to jump out of it, most likely from California’s political and acting elite.
“He has never seen, spoken to or had any contact with Shohei Ohtani,” Boyer’s attorney, Diane Bass, said.
Mizuhara was born in California, but his parents are Japanese and he speaks the language perfectly. He and Ohtani have been inseparable for years, always being together at practices and games.
Shohei is currently in Korea Republic, where the Dodgers open the season with a series against another California team, the San Diego Padres.
In their first game, the Dodgers won 5:2, but the big star of the game was the Korean actress from “Ballerina” Yeon Yeon-soe, who threw the first ceremonial ball in the game. The 29-year-old local movie star was dressed quite sexy and the baseball players from both teams were drooling.
Ohtani’s teammates Krist Taylor and Tyler Glasnow were especially impressed, and they just stared at the actress with their mouths open. Luckily for them, after the ceremony, she went over to have their pictures taken.
“Dodgers” and Ohtani remain completely silent after the scandal, and only the translator was fired at the second by the club.
In the second game of the series, however, the Padres managed to defeat the opponent with 15:11. This was a record in the history of matches between these two teams. The Dodgers had never allowed so many runs against this opponent.
In fact, no other team has yet started the regular season in the league besides these two who traveled to Korea Republic.
Because of baseball’s return to the Olympic program, the league announced several tours to raise interest in the game on other continents. The Republic of Korea is a surprising choice, however, because there and in Japan, baseball has a higher rating than all sports, including soccer.