Dan Patrick is sooo mis imformed. They were not friends since THEY were teenagers. Ippei is 39 now and they met in 2013 so ippei was 29 year old man at that point. Otani was 19 at the time, he was the teenager

y'all keep having the timeline mixed up. the dugout smiles was during game 1. the meeting where ohtani found out was after game 1. Ippei was then fired and not in the clubhouse at all during game 2.

If Shohei is guilty, the last thing his attorneys would advise him to do is hold a press conference and speak on anything. He would also have been advised to not call Ippei a liar publicly for fear of defamation. His actions indicate that he is telling the truth.

and also, this is nothing at all like Lance Armstrong. no one accused of Ohtani of anything. just man made theories. if ohtani was implicated, wouldnt Ohtani have been notified by the espn reporter that he's being investigated and NOT Ippei?

When Ippei announced to the Dodgers team after game in Korea. Shohei asked what it was all about and Ippei said, I “will explain later in the Hotel” WHY not just translate there?! So at the Hotel after the talk Shohei immediately called Nez Balelo! This tells all that it wasn’t true Shohei helped him, Shohei didn’t know anything! He trusted Ippei and it’s tragic. If it wasn’t for his addiction, Ippei would never had stolen money from Shohei..

Like Bauer, if you are accused, your guilty. no further investigation needed.

Money does corrupt.

Other lies has come out of Ippei since then. Which is common with addicts. During Angel days, the teammates tried to get Ohtani to join poker nights which he always refused and went home to sleep. Ippei on the other hand joined and in one of those he met this bookie in 2021. Ippeis gambling was well known in Fighters time by the staff. Ippei was also paid 1,5M by Ohtani to handle his disbursements. Sponsor contacts and donations (an account with 10M). Don’t think all transactions goes to Shohei’s phone. Accountants are annual things for tax purposes. Not monthly. Interpreters handling money is common according to K.Kojima who was interpreter for Mets/Giants who also handled players finances.

I knew right away Shohei was innocent, there is no way anyone would wire money from his own bank account to a illegal sportsbook. I gambled legally for over twenty years, and also when I started out I bet illegally with a sportsbookie. All the people l know always did it by Prepaid, Money Gram, Western Union or any other way but no way would you wire money from your own bank account to an illegal sportsbook.

I believe Othani knew about Ippei incurring a $4.5 M gambling debt well before after Game 1 in Korea. He pleaded with Ippei to admit he stole the money in exchange for a huge payoff in the future after he got out of prison.

I am waaaaay to jaded to believe he wasn’t somewhat involved.

I think if the accused implicates Shohei & has proof then the proverbial ballgame will change.

i hope they will treat him every bit as fair as they for Trevor Bauer.

You’d think people would stop the insatiable need for drama after rushing to judgment on Trevor Bauer and ruining that career…but nope, they just can’t help themselves

Can Pete Rose get into the Hall of Fame?

A chronic gambling addict multi millionaire called Shohei Ohtani wires half mill at a time directly from his own bank account to illegal gambling ring but deferred 99% of his salary? Too farfetched to be true. He is the victim 100%

Pitching and hitting is also rare

4.5 million in losses means tens of millions was being wagered, no way this interpreter was making bets like that on his own

Shohei is not interested in money or gambling. When he was in Japan, his parents managed his salary, and he didn't know how much he had in his bank account because his parents sent him only 800 dollars every month. He spent only a small portion of the 800. In the U.S., Ippei, in stead of Shohei's parents, was taking care of Shohei, like a baby, especially because Shohei only wanted to concentrate on baseball and become the best player. Furthermore, he is not good at English. He can handle simple daily conversations but cannot understand or espresso his views on something complex in English. It's much more difficult to do things in a foreign language than people imagine. Many of my colleagues in Japan are from English-speaking countries. Although they have been in Japan for ages, they are still unable to function well in Japanese society. Many of them are so ignorant due to the language barrier, and their Japanese spouses and friends do everything for them as if they were babies. So, I cannot blame Ohtani.

His career is over.

Sounds like the very perfect scapegoat. How gullible are MLB fans?

Anaconda friend continually doing bad things simply because thought the good and quiet man is naive..😢

Well he ain’t the face of the league ha 😂 wonder why people don’t watch baseball ?!