LOS ANGELES — It’s overly simplistic to talk about “distractions” in discussing sports, and wins and losses, and individual performance. Yet we do it all the time.
So, under the circumstances of the last three weeks, when the stresses already inherent in Shohei Ohtani’s debut with the Dodgers, with a big contract and high expectations, were overlaid with a sports betting scandal involving his interpreter … oh, my, did us amateur psychologists have a field day.
There’s a reason we’re amateur psychologists.
Thursday provided some closure, when federal investigators unveiled the case against Ippei Mizuhara, revealing that the man Ohtani trusted so intimately allegedly stole him blind, to the tune of $16 million, to handle his own gambling losses with an illegal bookmaker. Not only was Ohtani not involved in gambling, but the unsealed indictment revealed that between 2021 and ’23 Mizuhara controlled the bank account into which Ohtani’s Angels salary was directly deposited, and Ohtani’s agent and financial people had no access and apparently no knowledge of what was happening.
How many of us could handle such revelations? Basically, Ohtani was revealed in the indictment as merely being way too trusting, and the early reports that he was a victim of “massive fraud,” shortly after the story broke when the team was in South Korea to open the season, were backed up when the feds revealed the details.
Wouldn’t being scammed – which is basically what this was – throw you off your game?
But here’s the thing: It didn’t throw Ohtani off his. He might have gotten off to a slow start, by his standards, but if there was any indication that he has risen above whatever the outside world might throw at him, consider this most recent stretch of games.
In Friday night’s 8-7, 11-inning loss to San Diego, Ohtani was 3 for 5 with two doubles and a massive home run in his first at-bat, a 403-foot, 107.3 mph missile deep into the left field pavilion that tied Hideki Matsui’s MLB record for Japanese-born players (175). That continued a stretch of seven games of Hall of Fame-caliber hitting dating to the end of the previous homestand and his first home run as a Dodger on April 3 against San Francisco: A .457 batting average, eight runs scored, four RBIs, four homers, five doubles, a 1.057 slugging percentage and a 1.620 OPS.
For the season through Friday, he’d raised his OPS to .979. His first eight games weren’t so much a slump as, well, slightly under Ohtanian expectations.
But it wasn’t like he’d suddenly snapped to attention and realized that he’d better focus. He does nothing but focus when he’s on the field, with maybe the odd exception when he’s running the bases.
He does not play like a distracted player. By all appearances, he does not allow himself to be distracted, which is why he parries the questions about the firestorm involving his now former interpreter. He answered a question from the Los Angeles Times before Friday night’s game that ended with the words, “I’d like to focus on baseball.” And when another interviewer after the game brought up the subject of the charges against Mizuhara, current interpreter Will Ireton said, “We’re (only) talking about baseball.”
His manager, Dave Roberts – whose Dodgers franchise record for home runs by a Japanese-born player, seven, should fall to Ohtani some time in the coming weeks, and at this rate maybe the next couple of days – is impressed by the emotional consistency of his new superstar.
“Unflappable,” is how Roberts described it. “He’s just very stoic. You don’t know his emotions He just kind of comes in every day the same, and you’d never know if things are good or things are bad or stuff (is) on his mind. He’s a pro. He just wants to play baseball.”
And, Roberts added after Friday’s game, “He’s playing great baseball. He’s got that look in his eye, like he wants to be at the plate. And he’s just taking really good swings, hitting everything hard … I just marvel at what he’s done each day in his preparation, and just the talent is something that’s pretty remarkable.”
Under the circumstances, remarkable may not even be an adequate description.
“He’s handled it with flying colors,” Roberts said. “He’s done a great job of just focusing on baseball and not letting it be a distraction for him. And our guys, as well, have handled it really well as far as that noise and not letting it affect their play. … Guys are pretty in tune with what’s going on, but it hasn’t affected the clubhouse or how we play.”
It has been a hallmark of these Dodger teams, particularly since Roberts became manager in 2016, that the clubhouse is unified and inclusive, with a number of strong veteran leaders setting the tone. When those leaders depart for whatever reason, others take up the mantle.
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“I think we’re good about just sort of focusing on the controllables,” Roberts said. “I know it’s trite. I know it sounds simple. It’s not. It’s not. But our job is to be professionals and play baseball and represent this organization the best we can each day. And so everyone has things going on in their lives. But you got to be able to focus on our job. And, you know, with what we have here with the Dodgers, our guys do a heck of a job with that.
“You look back at my tenure here, there’s been a lot of things outside of baseball that we’ve had to deal with, and we’ve gotten through them. I think that shows a lot of perseverance, and we’ve done it. So I think that we have sort of a plan, a model, a way of going about things to kind of get to the other side of things.”
As noted, that clubhouse culture has been handed down. But, as Roberts said, “It’s ultimately about getting the right guys. And our organization does a very good job of getting high character guys. I talk a lot about having smart players, understanding things you can and can’t control, valuing your job. We have a lot of those guys.”
The implication? They have Shohei’s back, and he has theirs.
jalexander@scng.com
