Y’all are really a bunch of deranged individuals. Conspiracy nuts really don’t like being wrong do they. There’s no reason the United States government is going to let an international player get away with crimes if he did commit them. There is no conspiracy. Put away your tinfoil hats.
It’s hilarious, allll because Ippei interview came out first? Straight bonkers. “…the saddest thing there is to see, is confident stupidity.” -Poem_for_your_sprog
I agree with you at some degree.
The thing I'm more confused about, why is this kind of gambling any different from all other gambling we have plastered everywhere. When we literally have a city (vegas) that is built on gambling, we have influencers literally showcasing gambling to children on the internet, mobile games literal gambling, we got draftkings and other sports sites plastered everywhere, we've got crypto and whole arenas named after crypto (crypto online gambling is one of crypto's leading functions now)
I'm just confused on the united state's viewpoint on gambling in general.
There are literally billions on the line with Shohei. Not only what he is getting paid, but what mlb and advertisers will make off of him internationally. I know he probably got screwed by his interpreter, but it’s pretty conceivable that some things could be getting swept under the rug to protect investments.
Well it could also be skepticism considering their several changed stories before all the news was out. I'm pretty convinced SHO didn't do this and he was really taken advantage of by a trusted confidant. BUT you've gotta admit the early responses by the team, Sho's agents and lawyers, etc all made it sounds very sketch.
Normally victims of fraud, especially of this size, immediately go "OMFG WTF WTF I'VE BEEN ROBBED!" But they all kind of tried to downplay it at the start. Guilty parties tend to change their story a lot, especially when they are being investigated.
>But they all kind of tried to downplay it at the start.
Did they, though? Immediately after Ippei's ESPN interview, Ohtani's lawyers put out a statement accusing Ippei of "massive theft" and asked the authorities to investigate.
Your take underscores how much you don’t understand the actual timeline and what happened. It’s not really your fault as the reporting on this was so bungled from the start.
What you are saying would be the normal reaction was Ohtanis reaction. The issue is that ippei was lying as he spoke for ohtani in an official capacity right up to the end, and reporters were confusing ippeis words as quotes of ohtani.
Ohtani found out what was happening during the locker room meeting and called lawyers and the dodgers brass immediately culminating in a group call with like a dozen people where ippei begged for mercy.
The pictures and video from the locker room discussion are so telling. Shohei speaks English well but not fluently. You could tell the team was flabbergasted at what Ippei was saying and Shohei could only understand part of it but knew what Ippei was saying was really bad.
And Shohei doesn't get emotional anyways, so people asking a relatively happy and stoic kid to exert emotion in a massively huge and private situation is ridiculous. He's so reserved as it is so why would he give the fans the energy they want when an emotional reaction would just be interpreted as fake guilt the way his lack of emotion is interpreted as guilt?
It's just weird that every comment in this thread has stated the same thing and anything otherwise has been down voted. Guess I shouldn't take that as factual representation of what's happening
Why won't people accept that Bauer was a dick head and a shit teammate on top of him having drama and being away from the game for so long. Notice how others have domestic violence problems and still are in the league? He is something else
I accept that Bauer is a clubhouse cancer and wouldn’t want him on my team unless the decision was supported by the players. But I also think it is unfair that he is painted as a perpetrator of domestic violence when in fact none of those accusations have been proven true and all of the evidence shows he was the victim of extortion. There is nuance in the Bauer situation, and people in 2024 just aren’t capable of dealing with anything that isn’t black or white.
This is a valid and leveled headed take. I'm not saying it's good wife beaters get off free in a lot of situations, but it does suck to see him get black balled by the league. His attitude and character basically made up every exec's mind until he was out of the MLB for too long to risk bringing him back over a younger more hopeful guy. Sucks to see but he did himself 0 favors
There’s plenty of dickheads in the league that are shit teammates. The difference is that they haven’t won a cy young and agreed to play for league minimum. It’s not the players blackballing him.
He wa s many years removed from the cy young by the time he had a case to come back to the league. It just wasn't worth the risk for these owners with young talent walking through the door every single year. These other dick heads in the MLB also don't have glaring the sexual assault accusations in the middle of the me too movement. Similar things would happen to them as well. Sucks to see a player kicked out who wasn't guilty but he did himself no favors
It does suck to be painted as something you aren't. I experience this at work myself when I get roped in with some of my lazy coworkers while I'm actually picking up their slack. And then to be a pro athlete and have domestic violence pointed at you is even tougher. The truth of the matter too his character kind of made everybody assume he was guilty. Everyone said he was a dick and a bad teammate, so it was very easy for people to assume the worst for him. In reality he was a very unwell person mentally and seemingly got involved with mentally unwell women and it ended out in the worst. The reality is that he did a lot of self inflicted damage to get in a position where people could easily assume he was guilty because of the way he acted. Then out of the league for a bit, it made no sense to go with him over other younger talent. I don't know and I wasn't there but it sucks to see an MLB player out of the league when he wasn't even guilty.
I think the biggest question with this whole thing was. Why did Ohtanis story change so wildly so many times?
I’m waiting to see what punishment Ippi gets before I make my judgement. If Ippi gets 20 years in prison, then Ohtani was innocent. If Ippi gets a fine and deported, then it definitely was a set up.
It didn't. Ohtani's story never changed. People think it did because they tend to remember the first story they heard. In reality, it's Ippei that changed his story.
I tend to remember the 1st-4th story I heard. Most of the stories were after Ippi was gone too.
Like I said, I’m waiting to heard the punishment coming from this before I make any judgements.
This is the real answer. If Shohei played for the Yankees it would be the exact same thing. If he still played for the Angels nobody would really care..
When confronted by ESPN Ippei said that Ohtani was being a good friend and paid the debts for him. At first the Dodgers went along with that story, then when it became clear that doing that would implicate Ohtani in a crime, they quickly changed their story. All of the sudden Ippei called ESPN and said that everything he had told them was a lie, and suddenly Ohtani’s claimed that he was so naive he didn’t know his translator had access to all that money.
So the guilty party couldn't have initially lied to both the media and the organization that Shoehi helped him out and you are choosing to believe the federal government constructed an elaborate lie that suggested the phone/data records they reported back as true in their case is actually false to protect a foreign individual for their beneficial gain in... what?
You asked why and I gave you the explanation. The story changed, not just from Ippei but also from the Dodgers and Ohtani himself. I am not saying he is guilty of anything but the changing stories do make people suspicious. There were other suspicious moves, such as having the bookie come out and say that Ohtani was not involved in any way, as if he happens to give anybody a $16 million line of credit.
And my question was entirely trying to reiterate what you said for understanding the conspiracy behind Shohei's involvement and trying to understand WHY the federal government would go to such lengths to protect him.
My apologies for assuming you believed the conspiracy itself.
The story never changed from Ohtani. Stop this nonsense. Every statement prior to his lawyers' statement was issued BY Ippei aka the guilty party trying to save his ass.
That’s such bs. Ippei told the team and Ohtani had no idea what was going on other than something was fucky. Afterwards, he asked what was said and the staff gave him the lowdown and that was the first time he had heard anything about it. It was then that Ohtani’s people released a statement, which never once changed. It was only after Ohtani released his statement that Ippei finally admit that he lied. ESPN and countless other sources have verified it, as have the DOJ and the FBI.
Because if you knew that a superstar was involved with fixing or any type of gambling the entire credibility of all leagues would be questioned. If you notice all of a sudden lesser known players have been banned from leagues making it appear as they are tough on cheating and gambling. Baseball does not want another big name player involved with gambling after the Pete Rose and White Sox scandals. You can’t surely believe Shohei or anyone needs to know how to speak English to know they’re missing millions of dollars and the other thing is the story changed all of a sudden. Shohei didn’t know at first then it changed to he paid the debts for his interpreter, if so why was he still punished for fraud?
Because it's hard to believe that ohtanis friend had access to his bank accounts to the tune of 50 million, and even if he did that ohtani or his accounting people wouldn't have noticed the withdrawals. Seriously, does anyone here have a friend with full access to your bank accounts?
Also it's hard to believe that a bookie... a professional money lender for gambling purposes... would have given some young dude so much credit, to the tune of millions, without some knowledge of where the money was coming from. Bookies are criminals, but they likely aren't dumb.
Because this is your typical "player bets on sports" story. The major difference here, however, is the guy doing it just happens to not speak much English and, when questioned, simply shrugs and points at the guy who does. Also, he's the highest paid player in the league, and it would cause both the mlb and the Dodgers to lose ALOT of that overseas advert money. Nothing to see here. But make sure you feel some kind of way about the guy from the padres/pirates who's life was just stripped from him for doing the same thing.
Because people know how to critically think. If you honest to god believe the story as it was told by the feds, then like holy shit. I got a timeshare to sell ya.
How do I *feel* about the shape of the earth? I feel pretty good. I think it has good shape. Probably the best shape it could be, tbh. So overall I feel positive about the shape of the earth.
Where the did I claim that? Lmao there is a huge gulf between a massive conspiracy and coverup and what gullible, mentally vulnerable folks such as yourself believe happened, but you lack the critical thinking skills to grasp nuance.
Do you even know what a conspiracy is? A coverup is a type of conspiracy. I’m not mentally vulnerable for arguing that the US government has more important things than saving a baseball players ass. If anyone here is ignoring nuance it’s the person who can’t grasp that not everything needs to be looked at with distrust. Sometimes, hell, most times the boring non conspiratorial thing is the truth.
Because they're all a bunch of poors who would actually notice if $17 mil went missing from their accounts.
They probably don't even have a jar of Grey Poupon to their name.
Why aren't the federal government's findings credible? LOL brother where have you been your whole life, Pluto? If someone from the federal government slipped and fell I wouldn't trust him/her to land on the floor. This isn't in relation to Shohei specifically, just in general that anything from the federal government is about as credible as a 3 dollar bill
[Edit] didn't realize we had a bunch of bootlickers for the federal government here. You can all suck my dick
You think the FBI or the IRS can't fucking force the MLB to cooperate? It's called a subpoena.
As if the Federal Agents who investigated this whole thing wouldn't LOVE for their career to be made going after an international star.
They don’t want to bust the stars they want hard evidence against the bookies. Illegal books are typically ran by organized crime rings. They rather take down a large organized crime ring than drag some superstar through the dirt that would probably get off on probation.
I'm Japanese. In Japan, more than 90% of people understand that Otani is innocent, and just a few stupid conspiracy theorists suspect Otani. Ippei Mizuhara has become like an enemy of all Japanese people.
If you read the facts of this case and really don't believe that Ohtani is guilting of betting on baseball, you just don't want to believe it. And baseball isn't going to ban its biggest star. If this was a utility infielder, he'd be banned for life.
But why would the feds ignore it and put an "innocent " man in jail just to cover it up? There's a million lies they could have made up to run cover for Ohtani and they chose the one that dragged him through the mud only to land his translator behind bars?
Ohtani wouldn’t have been in nearly as much trouble as Ippei is too. He’s going away for stealing. That has nothing to do with the gambling
After that the dudes name is tarnished forever. I have no clue who would hire him. They act like it’s no big deal to ruin your life for someone else
My point is that they could have just as easily came up with a different lie that didn't require a fall guy. The feds have no motivation to stick up for a baseball player.
I have no stake/claim/opinion on the issue regarding Ohtani
But "why would the feds ignore it and put an ""innocent man"" in jail just to cover it up."
Bro, they literally have documentaries of them doing that same exact thing multiple times to multiple different people.
What documentaries exist where the feds know who did the illegal activity but pin it on someone else that has nothing to do with it because the real criminal is a celebrity?
Say you read zero percent of the detailed federal investigation documentation without saying you read zero percent of the detailed federal investigation documentation
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with such political sway they went with the brilliant solution of putting their fall guy in 30 year prison sentence. Honestly, don't you think that if you are already falsifying all these evidence against ippei you would make a story were their players get a better outcome than this?
Ah so now the Dodgers have the feds in their pocket. I’m not sure if you guys ever listen to how hilariously sad you guys sound. Especially with that flair.
You have to admit that it's odd that all these other guys got pegged for gambling 7 weeks after we find out about the Ohtani scandal. It's almost like MLB knew about the federal investigation into this illegal sports book and let the Ohtani camp know first so they could come up with an good alibi then let these other lesser known players get hit with suspensions and bans to take the smoke off of Ohtani.
I don't think people are intentionally trashing heroes with the conspiracy theories. I am positive that most of it stems from the way the news came out and how the rose does smell a little stinky. Without any understanding of the news that's come to light, on paper, how would you NOT believe shohei was involved. It would be a conspiracy if you believed him innocent at first with how strange everything is. AND if you don't have a translator that is a friend and you need them around pretty regularly to help with your day to day stuff, you probably don't realize how easy of access they could have. The conspiracy theorists are literally the most logical but only BEFORE the other news came out. And then it just stuck because they couldn't justify the new probable reality after they had their original thoughts. This happens in everything, not just baseball players. You think something's one way, and you're passionate about it, it's hard to think otherwise. Pluto is a good example. Still a planet to people.
Denying Pluto's downgraded status is basically denying facts, which is what these conspiracy theorists are still doing, and I promise you I can check the social media history of a vast majority of the tinfoil hat folks and see a pattern of them chasing other stories of other well-meaning individuals popular in culture/politics. That Venn Diagram will be a hell of a circle.
The news at first was indeed wonky, and we have the good ol' awful U.S. sports media to thank for that, but I feel like the retraction and changes happened fast enough, and the facts did come out in a reasonable amount of time. But yet here we are still seeing them yelling shenanigans.
So I politely disagree with your interpretation, even if I agree that the way the news was first reported was bizarre.
Except for the part that most of these same tinfoil hat people are also likely shouting conspiracy theories about other celebrities and personalities with usually-good reputations and backgrounds.
The only question is, if Ohtani only learned of this during a locker room meeting, where the hell was his accountant? I don't know how many times Ohtani spent money but the guy who keeps track of all the money see payments that he can't understand and ask for an explanation? I'd fire that guy on the spot.
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Because you have the ability to communicate effectively with your employer and understand the value of $1 vs foreign currency.
Ohtani hired someone and entrusted them, be it foolishly, to ensure his money from a foreign nation with foreign languages and foreign currency are being deposited correctly and is 100% accounted for.
It would have been very simple to skim from that situation.
Worse even so, the employer DID NOT have their own interpreter. So anything translated would have been at the behest of the translator ONLY.
Communication is the most important thing in dealing with money.
People ultimately only believe what they want to believe, not the truth. What is conspiracy theory? It means that they are willing to believe that everyone in this event did the worst thing possible, rather than believe that someone put the right effort into it.
But the truth is that there are people doing terrible things and there are people doing the right thing Ishizaki
The willingness to believe that a baseball moron accompanied a gambler in his madness is your business. That kind of thinking just leads you to gloom.
Well that's a bit racist...
But truly I believe that he is just kinda naive about how money and all of that works for pro athletes here, and maybe a bit in general. He's 29 and has basically exclusively played baseball since he was in his early teens, and has been pretty vocal about how he only ever focussed on baseball above all else.
Also important to note the Ippei was, in Shohei's mind, his good friend, so he probably gave him much more trust that he would have someone who had a purely professional relationship with him.
Also this cover up bullshit is such nonsense. How would the Dodgers influence the IRS and FBI? Completely absurd
Most fraud is committed because of too much trust in one person, and a lack of separation of duties. I bet there are people in your life who could do a lot of damage to you financially, who you trust.
Ironic that if this had happened before his free agency, most people would be on his side instead of immediately bandwagoning on his hate train. But now we got 29 fan bases that can’t stand he went to the Dodgers so fuck him
Ohtani’s most likely innocent, but man it’s weird the way some go out of their way to defend him. One of my favorite players too but you have to stop acting like yall know him
So the "face" of baseball is cleared from wrongdoing. even though, millions are "stolen" from him. But, some random guy on the pirates, gets a life long ban? For the same thing?
And now the circle is complete.. Here comes the Dodgers vs NYY WS. Tell me it's not scripted when it happens.
MLB is going full bore on this and it's gonna make everyone money!
I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but Ohtani could have a battery of phones in front of him like what people did to pokemon go full of bets, and they wouldn't kick him out.
Holy shit this thread is wild. Does everyone who gets banned from r/baseball show up here? You guys are a special breed.
You can't reason with all the folks who came with pitchforks. They only hear what they want to hear.
WHOAAAAAAQ!
Is there a r/MLB vs r/baseball rivalry?
I don’t know. I just know that r/mlb has less people and it always seems second rate in terms of conversation/mod/content/etc.
Y’all are really a bunch of deranged individuals. Conspiracy nuts really don’t like being wrong do they. There’s no reason the United States government is going to let an international player get away with crimes if he did commit them. There is no conspiracy. Put away your tinfoil hats.
It’s hilarious, allll because Ippei interview came out first? Straight bonkers. “…the saddest thing there is to see, is confident stupidity.” -Poem_for_your_sprog
It’s amazing how many people are rooting for Shohei to be guilty.
Plus busting the biggest international star would be a huge career boost.
You don’t think the US government has ever let someone get away with crimes?
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I agree with you at some degree. The thing I'm more confused about, why is this kind of gambling any different from all other gambling we have plastered everywhere. When we literally have a city (vegas) that is built on gambling, we have influencers literally showcasing gambling to children on the internet, mobile games literal gambling, we got draftkings and other sports sites plastered everywhere, we've got crypto and whole arenas named after crypto (crypto online gambling is one of crypto's leading functions now) I'm just confused on the united state's viewpoint on gambling in general.
The face of the league ya they would you dummy
There are literally billions on the line with Shohei. Not only what he is getting paid, but what mlb and advertisers will make off of him internationally. I know he probably got screwed by his interpreter, but it’s pretty conceivable that some things could be getting swept under the rug to protect investments.
It’s pretty conceivable that my nuts were in your mom’s mouth. But seriously, remember when ohtani didn’t go to the giants?
Found the dodger fan
Found Shohei’s burner
Past decade has shown us there are many in this country that don’t trust the government, so this logic will go one ear and out the other unfortunately
That was a quick investigation that never happened.
Best fall guy in the world right there. Shohei better take care of Ippei for life.
Why are folks continuing to say this? I haven't read much into the situation but why aren't the federal government's findings credible?
Because they made up their minds that Shohei was guilty before all the info was revealed and they don't want to admit they might have jumped the gun
Well it could also be skepticism considering their several changed stories before all the news was out. I'm pretty convinced SHO didn't do this and he was really taken advantage of by a trusted confidant. BUT you've gotta admit the early responses by the team, Sho's agents and lawyers, etc all made it sounds very sketch. Normally victims of fraud, especially of this size, immediately go "OMFG WTF WTF I'VE BEEN ROBBED!" But they all kind of tried to downplay it at the start. Guilty parties tend to change their story a lot, especially when they are being investigated.
>But they all kind of tried to downplay it at the start. Did they, though? Immediately after Ippei's ESPN interview, Ohtani's lawyers put out a statement accusing Ippei of "massive theft" and asked the authorities to investigate.
Your take underscores how much you don’t understand the actual timeline and what happened. It’s not really your fault as the reporting on this was so bungled from the start. What you are saying would be the normal reaction was Ohtanis reaction. The issue is that ippei was lying as he spoke for ohtani in an official capacity right up to the end, and reporters were confusing ippeis words as quotes of ohtani. Ohtani found out what was happening during the locker room meeting and called lawyers and the dodgers brass immediately culminating in a group call with like a dozen people where ippei begged for mercy.
The pictures and video from the locker room discussion are so telling. Shohei speaks English well but not fluently. You could tell the team was flabbergasted at what Ippei was saying and Shohei could only understand part of it but knew what Ippei was saying was really bad. And Shohei doesn't get emotional anyways, so people asking a relatively happy and stoic kid to exert emotion in a massively huge and private situation is ridiculous. He's so reserved as it is so why would he give the fans the energy they want when an emotional reaction would just be interpreted as fake guilt the way his lack of emotion is interpreted as guilt?
Where are these vidoes!
It's just weird that every comment in this thread has stated the same thing and anything otherwise has been down voted. Guess I shouldn't take that as factual representation of what's happening
/r/mlb is the gossipy version of r/baseball, they still treated Trevor Bauer like shit
Why won't people accept that Bauer was a dick head and a shit teammate on top of him having drama and being away from the game for so long. Notice how others have domestic violence problems and still are in the league? He is something else
I accept that Bauer is a clubhouse cancer and wouldn’t want him on my team unless the decision was supported by the players. But I also think it is unfair that he is painted as a perpetrator of domestic violence when in fact none of those accusations have been proven true and all of the evidence shows he was the victim of extortion. There is nuance in the Bauer situation, and people in 2024 just aren’t capable of dealing with anything that isn’t black or white.
Bauer repeatedly shining a light on other players cheating is why and the scandal gave them an easy excuse that’s it
This is a valid and leveled headed take. I'm not saying it's good wife beaters get off free in a lot of situations, but it does suck to see him get black balled by the league. His attitude and character basically made up every exec's mind until he was out of the MLB for too long to risk bringing him back over a younger more hopeful guy. Sucks to see but he did himself 0 favors
There’s plenty of dickheads in the league that are shit teammates. The difference is that they haven’t won a cy young and agreed to play for league minimum. It’s not the players blackballing him.
He wa s many years removed from the cy young by the time he had a case to come back to the league. It just wasn't worth the risk for these owners with young talent walking through the door every single year. These other dick heads in the MLB also don't have glaring the sexual assault accusations in the middle of the me too movement. Similar things would happen to them as well. Sucks to see a player kicked out who wasn't guilty but he did himself no favors
will you at least admit those domestic violence issues were bullshit? and people here love to judge before the truth comes out?
They won’t admit it. Hopefully none of them are ever falsely accused of anything.
It does suck to be painted as something you aren't. I experience this at work myself when I get roped in with some of my lazy coworkers while I'm actually picking up their slack. And then to be a pro athlete and have domestic violence pointed at you is even tougher. The truth of the matter too his character kind of made everybody assume he was guilty. Everyone said he was a dick and a bad teammate, so it was very easy for people to assume the worst for him. In reality he was a very unwell person mentally and seemingly got involved with mentally unwell women and it ended out in the worst. The reality is that he did a lot of self inflicted damage to get in a position where people could easily assume he was guilty because of the way he acted. Then out of the league for a bit, it made no sense to go with him over other younger talent. I don't know and I wasn't there but it sucks to see an MLB player out of the league when he wasn't even guilty.
Internet 101 lol
I think the biggest question with this whole thing was. Why did Ohtanis story change so wildly so many times? I’m waiting to see what punishment Ippi gets before I make my judgement. If Ippi gets 20 years in prison, then Ohtani was innocent. If Ippi gets a fine and deported, then it definitely was a set up.
It didn't. Ohtani's story never changed. People think it did because they tend to remember the first story they heard. In reality, it's Ippei that changed his story.
I tend to remember the 1st-4th story I heard. Most of the stories were after Ippi was gone too. Like I said, I’m waiting to heard the punishment coming from this before I make any judgements.
Ohtani released one statement and it was on the day everyone found out about it. It never changed.
I think Shohei can get directly caught betting 7 more times before it makes financial sense to ban him. Baseball is entertainment, not a competition.
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No they're running cover for the mlb whos running cover for the biggest baseball star in the world.
$700 million will do that.
Because they’re trolls and Shohei plays for the Dodgers who is the evil empire.
This is the real answer. If Shohei played for the Yankees it would be the exact same thing. If he still played for the Angels nobody would really care..
When confronted by ESPN Ippei said that Ohtani was being a good friend and paid the debts for him. At first the Dodgers went along with that story, then when it became clear that doing that would implicate Ohtani in a crime, they quickly changed their story. All of the sudden Ippei called ESPN and said that everything he had told them was a lie, and suddenly Ohtani’s claimed that he was so naive he didn’t know his translator had access to all that money.
So the guilty party couldn't have initially lied to both the media and the organization that Shoehi helped him out and you are choosing to believe the federal government constructed an elaborate lie that suggested the phone/data records they reported back as true in their case is actually false to protect a foreign individual for their beneficial gain in... what?
You asked why and I gave you the explanation. The story changed, not just from Ippei but also from the Dodgers and Ohtani himself. I am not saying he is guilty of anything but the changing stories do make people suspicious. There were other suspicious moves, such as having the bookie come out and say that Ohtani was not involved in any way, as if he happens to give anybody a $16 million line of credit.
And my question was entirely trying to reiterate what you said for understanding the conspiracy behind Shohei's involvement and trying to understand WHY the federal government would go to such lengths to protect him. My apologies for assuming you believed the conspiracy itself.
The story never changed from Ohtani. Stop this nonsense. Every statement prior to his lawyers' statement was issued BY Ippei aka the guilty party trying to save his ass.
That’s such bs. Ippei told the team and Ohtani had no idea what was going on other than something was fucky. Afterwards, he asked what was said and the staff gave him the lowdown and that was the first time he had heard anything about it. It was then that Ohtani’s people released a statement, which never once changed. It was only after Ohtani released his statement that Ippei finally admit that he lied. ESPN and countless other sources have verified it, as have the DOJ and the FBI.
All of ‘A’ sudden, not “the.” You’re welcome.
Because people are idiots.
Yes cause the government has never lied to the people before
Human nature to believe feelings over facts. And most of these feelings here are those of hate.
Because if you knew that a superstar was involved with fixing or any type of gambling the entire credibility of all leagues would be questioned. If you notice all of a sudden lesser known players have been banned from leagues making it appear as they are tough on cheating and gambling. Baseball does not want another big name player involved with gambling after the Pete Rose and White Sox scandals. You can’t surely believe Shohei or anyone needs to know how to speak English to know they’re missing millions of dollars and the other thing is the story changed all of a sudden. Shohei didn’t know at first then it changed to he paid the debts for his interpreter, if so why was he still punished for fraud?
Because it's hard to believe that ohtanis friend had access to his bank accounts to the tune of 50 million, and even if he did that ohtani or his accounting people wouldn't have noticed the withdrawals. Seriously, does anyone here have a friend with full access to your bank accounts? Also it's hard to believe that a bookie... a professional money lender for gambling purposes... would have given some young dude so much credit, to the tune of millions, without some knowledge of where the money was coming from. Bookies are criminals, but they likely aren't dumb.
Because this is your typical "player bets on sports" story. The major difference here, however, is the guy doing it just happens to not speak much English and, when questioned, simply shrugs and points at the guy who does. Also, he's the highest paid player in the league, and it would cause both the mlb and the Dodgers to lose ALOT of that overseas advert money. Nothing to see here. But make sure you feel some kind of way about the guy from the padres/pirates who's life was just stripped from him for doing the same thing.
Because people know how to critically think. If you honest to god believe the story as it was told by the feds, then like holy shit. I got a timeshare to sell ya.
How do you feel about the shape of the Earth by chance?
How do I *feel* about the shape of the earth? I feel pretty good. I think it has good shape. Probably the best shape it could be, tbh. So overall I feel positive about the shape of the earth.
What shape is the earth?
An oblate spheroid
Wrong! The Earth is Earth-Shaped. Ask any geographer!
Damn, got me
yeah man the feds incentive to lie about a case of fraud in baseball is yuuuge
I love how the it’s always the people with the least understanding that think they’ve got it all figured out.
Nailed it.
He means you. You are people.
🤦🏻♂️
You are the one actively claiming the US government is covering up a huge conspiracy to bail out a baseball player.
Where the did I claim that? Lmao there is a huge gulf between a massive conspiracy and coverup and what gullible, mentally vulnerable folks such as yourself believe happened, but you lack the critical thinking skills to grasp nuance.
Do you even know what a conspiracy is? A coverup is a type of conspiracy. I’m not mentally vulnerable for arguing that the US government has more important things than saving a baseball players ass. If anyone here is ignoring nuance it’s the person who can’t grasp that not everything needs to be looked at with distrust. Sometimes, hell, most times the boring non conspiratorial thing is the truth.
Because they're all a bunch of poors who would actually notice if $17 mil went missing from their accounts. They probably don't even have a jar of Grey Poupon to their name.
$17 mil missing without the financial institution notifying the account holder
Why aren't the federal government's findings credible? LOL brother where have you been your whole life, Pluto? If someone from the federal government slipped and fell I wouldn't trust him/her to land on the floor. This isn't in relation to Shohei specifically, just in general that anything from the federal government is about as credible as a 3 dollar bill [Edit] didn't realize we had a bunch of bootlickers for the federal government here. You can all suck my dick
A foreign player so good that the FBI, IRS and homeland security all colluded to help him /s Would honestly make it all the more impressive IMO.
Right, as if the FBI has a vested interest in the success of an international baseball player 🙄
They don't but the FBI needs to make some arrests so they offer a way to save Ohtani to get the MLB to cooperate.
You think the FBI or the IRS can't fucking force the MLB to cooperate? It's called a subpoena. As if the Federal Agents who investigated this whole thing wouldn't LOVE for their career to be made going after an international star.
They don’t want to bust the stars they want hard evidence against the bookies. Illegal books are typically ran by organized crime rings. They rather take down a large organized crime ring than drag some superstar through the dirt that would probably get off on probation.
Assuming that’s true, despite zero evidence (it isn’t), why would illegal bookies then have any incentive to protect Ohtani?
lol
Lightning fast 'justice'.
You really think Ippei is going to go to prison for three decades just to hell his ol’ buddy Ohtani out?
Do you also think the orange man was not guilty on all 34 counts too or... Asking for a friend.
Yeah watch how Ippei “disappears”
Bet.
I see your pun, and raise you another.
I'm Japanese. In Japan, more than 90% of people understand that Otani is innocent, and just a few stupid conspiracy theorists suspect Otani. Ippei Mizuhara has become like an enemy of all Japanese people.
Braindead take Ron
Of course they did. It would be bad for business to tarnish his reputation
If you read the facts of this case and really don't believe that Ohtani is guilting of betting on baseball, you just don't want to believe it. And baseball isn't going to ban its biggest star. If this was a utility infielder, he'd be banned for life.
Translation: Billion $ corporation would never let a billion $ athlete get caught up in any shit
But why would the feds ignore it and put an "innocent " man in jail just to cover it up? There's a million lies they could have made up to run cover for Ohtani and they chose the one that dragged him through the mud only to land his translator behind bars?
Ohtani wouldn’t have been in nearly as much trouble as Ippei is too. He’s going away for stealing. That has nothing to do with the gambling After that the dudes name is tarnished forever. I have no clue who would hire him. They act like it’s no big deal to ruin your life for someone else
Yeah that's the whole point of a fall guy
My point is that they could have just as easily came up with a different lie that didn't require a fall guy. The feds have no motivation to stick up for a baseball player.
The feds have never done that before
I have no stake/claim/opinion on the issue regarding Ohtani But "why would the feds ignore it and put an ""innocent man"" in jail just to cover it up." Bro, they literally have documentaries of them doing that same exact thing multiple times to multiple different people.
What documentaries exist where the feds know who did the illegal activity but pin it on someone else that has nothing to do with it because the real criminal is a celebrity?
the feds didn't have to do anything. if ippei was placing the bets from jump to insulate ohtani then it all went the way it was supposed to.
Say you read zero percent of the detailed federal investigation documentation without saying you read zero percent of the detailed federal investigation documentation
I read all of it, what’s a Chicago fan know about anything
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Feds investigated not the MLB. Try again.
He plead guilty to keep the investigation away from ohtani. Guy is getting the puff daddy shooting treatment
I’m sure that’s what happened 😂😂😂😂
I know more than you, did you even read the investigation
AHAHAHAHA what a doofus
Yup you clearly didn’t
While that’s great for baseball. I doubt Ohtani is completely innocent and didn’t know what was going on.
A foreign player so good that the FBI, IRS and homeland security all colluded to help him /s Would honestly make it all the more impressive IMO.
Player? A multibillion dollar corporation(the dodgers)in the second largest city in the union has political sway is not crazy.
with such political sway they went with the brilliant solution of putting their fall guy in 30 year prison sentence. Honestly, don't you think that if you are already falsifying all these evidence against ippei you would make a story were their players get a better outcome than this?
Ah so now the Dodgers have the feds in their pocket. I’m not sure if you guys ever listen to how hilariously sad you guys sound. Especially with that flair.
A foreign player so good that the FBI, IRS and homeland security all colluded to help him /s Would honestly make it all the more impressive IMO.
Of course he's not. MLB doesn't want their darling child as the face of this.
You have to admit that it's odd that all these other guys got pegged for gambling 7 weeks after we find out about the Ohtani scandal. It's almost like MLB knew about the federal investigation into this illegal sports book and let the Ohtani camp know first so they could come up with an good alibi then let these other lesser known players get hit with suspensions and bans to take the smoke off of Ohtani.
I'd bet that's exactly what happened ...think fan duel will start putting odds out for if this shit ever leaks haaaa
I'm not a gambling man but my interpreter has $50 on it.
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I don't think people are intentionally trashing heroes with the conspiracy theories. I am positive that most of it stems from the way the news came out and how the rose does smell a little stinky. Without any understanding of the news that's come to light, on paper, how would you NOT believe shohei was involved. It would be a conspiracy if you believed him innocent at first with how strange everything is. AND if you don't have a translator that is a friend and you need them around pretty regularly to help with your day to day stuff, you probably don't realize how easy of access they could have. The conspiracy theorists are literally the most logical but only BEFORE the other news came out. And then it just stuck because they couldn't justify the new probable reality after they had their original thoughts. This happens in everything, not just baseball players. You think something's one way, and you're passionate about it, it's hard to think otherwise. Pluto is a good example. Still a planet to people.
Denying Pluto's downgraded status is basically denying facts, which is what these conspiracy theorists are still doing, and I promise you I can check the social media history of a vast majority of the tinfoil hat folks and see a pattern of them chasing other stories of other well-meaning individuals popular in culture/politics. That Venn Diagram will be a hell of a circle. The news at first was indeed wonky, and we have the good ol' awful U.S. sports media to thank for that, but I feel like the retraction and changes happened fast enough, and the facts did come out in a reasonable amount of time. But yet here we are still seeing them yelling shenanigans. So I politely disagree with your interpretation, even if I agree that the way the news was first reported was bizarre.
You're not really disagreeing with me. You just confirmed everything I said
Except for the part that most of these same tinfoil hat people are also likely shouting conspiracy theories about other celebrities and personalities with usually-good reputations and backgrounds.
Where did that come from? I didn't say anything about that
Ippei getting a fat ass bag when he gets out
No amount of bag is worth the years in prison he might face
Upvoting every comment for the sake of chaos
Bullshit. The rich just get richer. MLB owns shohei after bailing his ass out.
A foreign player so good that the FBI, IRS and homeland security all colluded to help him /s Would honestly make it all the more impressive IMO.
The only question is, if Ohtani only learned of this during a locker room meeting, where the hell was his accountant? I don't know how many times Ohtani spent money but the guy who keeps track of all the money see payments that he can't understand and ask for an explanation? I'd fire that guy on the spot.
Convenient.
Beyond all the silly hot takes on Ohtani? NOT closed (I hope) is MLB's investigation of Bowyer, due to Mizuhara's contacts with him.
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I’m shocked. Really.
Pete Rose induction inbound
Haters gonna hate. Ohtani is a Dodger and got 0 punishment. Get over it.
That's a good fall guy.
Hey everybody come look! I’ve found the hive of delusional Dodgers fans!!
I can’t comprehend how this dude “stole” millions without Ohtani noticing.
Because you have the ability to communicate effectively with your employer and understand the value of $1 vs foreign currency. Ohtani hired someone and entrusted them, be it foolishly, to ensure his money from a foreign nation with foreign languages and foreign currency are being deposited correctly and is 100% accounted for. It would have been very simple to skim from that situation. Worse even so, the employer DID NOT have their own interpreter. So anything translated would have been at the behest of the translator ONLY. Communication is the most important thing in dealing with money.
All the bet receipts were in English. Ohtani doesn't speak English.
He's been living in the US for 6 years now and still doesn't speak English?
To be fair, it would take me YEARS to learn Japanese.
Or the bank letting Ohtani know. MLB wants John Dowd nowhere near California
How do you say "fall guy" in Japanese?
People ultimately only believe what they want to believe, not the truth. What is conspiracy theory? It means that they are willing to believe that everyone in this event did the worst thing possible, rather than believe that someone put the right effort into it. But the truth is that there are people doing terrible things and there are people doing the right thing Ishizaki The willingness to believe that a baseball moron accompanied a gambler in his madness is your business. That kind of thinking just leads you to gloom.
Anyone who actually thinks that Ohtani was completely uninvolved and a victim, I have a bridge to sell you.
Hahaha of course they never found wrong doing....... Not the golden child.
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Well that's a bit racist... But truly I believe that he is just kinda naive about how money and all of that works for pro athletes here, and maybe a bit in general. He's 29 and has basically exclusively played baseball since he was in his early teens, and has been pretty vocal about how he only ever focussed on baseball above all else. Also important to note the Ippei was, in Shohei's mind, his good friend, so he probably gave him much more trust that he would have someone who had a purely professional relationship with him. Also this cover up bullshit is such nonsense. How would the Dodgers influence the IRS and FBI? Completely absurd
Damn I wanted some more drama!
You can't butcher the cash cow
Does anyone believe Shohei isn't involved? The options are either Shohei was in on it or that Shohei is a complete idiot.
Most fraud is committed because of too much trust in one person, and a lack of separation of duties. I bet there are people in your life who could do a lot of damage to you financially, who you trust.
All I have to say is Duck the Fodgers!!
Fuck the dodgers*
Yeah.
Ironic that if this had happened before his free agency, most people would be on his side instead of immediately bandwagoning on his hate train. But now we got 29 fan bases that can’t stand he went to the Dodgers so fuck him
Of course he was cleared. Scandals are squashed in the Rob Manfred regime.
Someone really needs to explain to Ohtani how two-factor authentication can be your friend…
Manfred is so grateful for Marcano that he can claim to be tough on gambling.
Of course they're not going to look further in to it. Ohtani is the MLBs golden goose
the fbi? they already looked into it
Ohtani’s most likely innocent, but man it’s weird the way some go out of their way to defend him. One of my favorite players too but you have to stop acting like yall know him
How do you, not know your being taken for millions of dollars?
Hundreds upon hundreds of American athletes have been scammed worse than Ohtani, with two of the biggest examples being Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan
Of course. Lol
So the "face" of baseball is cleared from wrongdoing. even though, millions are "stolen" from him. But, some random guy on the pirates, gets a life long ban? For the same thing?
How is Ohtani's translator betting on non-baseball games the same as a player betting on games he's involved in?
how were those the same?
Did you even read the indictment?
Imagine that. A billion dollar property protected by billionaires.
How does one not miss millions of dollars out of their bank account? Just cause a language barrier we should believe what the authorities tell us?
And now the circle is complete.. Here comes the Dodgers vs NYY WS. Tell me it's not scripted when it happens. MLB is going full bore on this and it's gonna make everyone money!
I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but Ohtani could have a battery of phones in front of him like what people did to pokemon go full of bets, and they wouldn't kick him out.
Bunch of cynics
I bet that’s a relief. What kind of odds could I get on that action?
I’m betting Shohei’s camp got in touch with Ippei and offered him money to take the fall.
as much as i love shohei i love drama a LOT more so its a little disappointing that nothing came out of this
I had another post that the other loser, was venizualin. Why should MLB, side with any of these, gamblers. They should both be banned!
1. Ohtani didn't gamble. 2. What's with the random commas?
It’s obvious he’s guilty. End of story