Shohei Ohtani (LA Dodgers), the best star in the Major League who was brutally betrayed by Mizuhara Ifei, who had been an interpreter for seven years after entering the Major League, broke public expectations. Take the microphone yourself. He plans to meet with reporters on the 26th (Korea Standard Time) to reveal his thoughts on the controversial illegal gambling case of Ifei Mizuhara. With all the spotlight expected to be on Ohtani's lips rather than a bat or glove, local media are also interested in the location of Ohtani's clubhouse lockers.
Local media, including the North American sports media "The Athletic," reported on the 25th (Korean time) that Ohtani will hold an official press conference on the 26th regarding the Ifei Mizuhara scandal. Since the incident was first known to the media on the 21st, there has been no mention of the issue, and even Ohtani, who has been extremely avoiding reporters, is proudly standing in public. Local media predict that Ohtani will summarize the incident and reveal his experiences and future plans for countermeasures.
The Dodgers, who returned to the U.S. after playing the "2024 Major League World Tour Seoul Series" against San Diego on March 20 and 21, returned to the exhibition game schedule on the 25th after taking a few days off and training. The Dodgers traditionally return to their home base in LA after completing their exhibition games in Arizona and play the "Freeway Series" in the offseason just before the regular season against their local rivals, the Los Angeles Angels. In the first game on the 25th, Ohtani had no hits in two times at bat and walked only one, but a press conference delivered surprising news on the day. Local media say that the reaction was surprisingly quick.
The Athletic reported on the 25th that Shohei Ohtani is ready to break his silence and that Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers' flagship, will hold his first press conference since the dismissal of interpreter Mizuhara Ifei as the gambling scandal intensified. Ohtani told interim interpreter Will Ereton that it was "tomorrow," and a Dodgers publicist also confirmed that Ohtani will hold a press conference on the 26th.
The incident began with illegal sports gambling by Ifei Mizuhara, Ohtani's longtime interpreter and star interpreter who represents Major League Baseball. According to ESPN and Mizuhara's exclusive interview, media reports said Mizuhara fell into sports gambling after meeting Matthew Boyer, the operator of illegal sports betting sites, in San Diego in 2021. The U.S. has no federal definition of whether sports gambling is legal or not. Laws vary from state to state, but 40 states do so, including California. The Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani's former team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego, where Mizuhara and Boyer met, are all in California. In other words, Mizuhara committed illegal gambling.
Mizuhara lost a lot of money gambling and confessed that he had a huge gambling debt of about $4.5 million. In the process of trying to make up for the lost money, he bet more and his losses snowballed. Mizuhara said he regretted it, but explained that he didn't know the gambling she did was on an illegal site. And he emphasized two things: Ohtani had never gambled, and he had bet on sports other than baseball, such as basketball, soccer, and American football.
Mizuhara said in his first interview with ESPN, "Otani has paid off my gambling debt." He confessed this to Ohtani, who was displeased, but he personally logged in to his account and sent Boyer a large amount of money. He said it was to repay the debt. When asked why Ohtani sent the money himself, Mizuhara explained that he was worried that he would gamble again if he gave him the money. He went on to say that he had completely lost confidence in himself when it came to money.
However, a representative for Ohtani, who arranged the interview after the interview, claimed that Mizuhara lied, that he was unaware, and that she illegally accessed Ohtani's account and stole a large amount of money. Ohtani then accused her of theft. Then, when asked by ESPN, Mizuhara lukewarmly admitted that the interview was a lie. ESPN is confused, and so is Ohtani. 파워볼게임