Dylan Hernández: Shohei Ohtani shows no hint of scandal distracting him in his Dodgers home debut
Published in Baseball
LOS ANGELES — Scandal? What scandal?
Shohei Ohtani might as well have been talking about a television show he watched the night before or his commute to the Dodger Stadium in the morning.
He was calm, even welcoming, when I approached him on Thursday before the Dodgers’ 7-1 home-opening victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Ohtani nodded when I mentioned the unanswered questions that remained after he publicly accused former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara three days earlier of stealing money from him to settle gambling debts.
“I said all I could say at this point,” Ohtani said in Japanese.
Did he know how Mizuhara gained access to his bank account or how millions of dollars in wire transfers went unnoticed?
“It’s under investigation,” Ohtani said, “so I can’t say anything.”
Ohtani said he knew who was investigating the alleged theft — “Of course,” he said — but declined to identify the entity.
He maintained a casual tone of voice. He never broke eye contact. He didn’t look or sound nervous.
Politely passing on a chance to help the public make sense of a story that still doesn’t add up, Ohtani bowed and slipped out of the room.
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