Jim Alexander: What a news day this has been.
We have Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, as the subject of a Justice Department complaint in connection with his gambling with an illegal bookmaker – and we’ve learned, according to the paperwork, that he bet somewhere in the neighborhood of $325 million from December 2021 through January 2024, and lost more than $40 million more than he won. And we also learned that the feds have determined there was theft from Ohtani’s accounts, and it wasn’t the $4.5 million previously reported but more like $16 million.
And that’s not even the story everyone’s talking about.
O.J. Simpson died today from cancer at the age of 76, and my first response when I saw the news was, “Rest in peace?”
To say the reaction is muted is an understatement, because his football achievements – Heisman Trophy winner, Hall of Famer, NFL yardage record-setter, etc. – became moot in 1994 when he was charged with the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. He was acquitted in criminal court but found liable in civil court, and the process not only changed the way we viewed him but served as a vivid reminder: It’s dangerous to take heroes and celebrities at face value.
Think of it: It’ll be 30 years in June since the slow-speed chase on the freeway, with O.J. and his USC teammate Al Cowlings in the white Ford Bronco with a gaggle of law enforcement vehicles trailing – and just about every news helicopter in Southern California following the procession.
Mirjam, you remember where you were, or what you were watching, that afternoon?
Mirjam Swanson: I was watching the basketball! Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals, having just gotten into hoops, probably. And then … a most surreal shared American experience for the ages. I re-watched a segment of it on YouTube this morning and it’s all the more bizarre, crowd noise and Marv Albert’s audio bleeding over a visual of the Bronco … you couldn’t make it up. A wild, sad situation.
As for the Ohtani gambling saga – wild and sad in a different way!
I’ll need some time to wrap my head around all that’s just come out: $16 million, allegedly?! That Mizuhara was able to change the settings on Ohtani’s bank account so the ballplayer wouldn’t be alerted about the need to confirm transactions that, again, allegedly withdrew SIXTEEN MILLION DOLLARS!!!
And this part, from our story summarizing today’s news: “Rather than inform Ohtani personally, the superstar’s agent and Mizuhara tried to manage the crisis themselves.”
What?!
I’m not nearly important enough to know what it is to have people around you to manage potential scandals, but I’d hope if I did, those folks I was paying to look out for my best interests would not only not allegedly steal $16 million from me, but also keep me in the loop, maybe?
Also! Per the Department of Justice’s news release: “Mizuhara allegedly told Ohtani’s U.S.-based financial professionals, none of whom spoke Japanese, that Ohtani denied them access to the account.”
How is Mizuhara the only one in that functional part of Ohtani’s circle who can communicate in Japanese? And those folks wouldn’t balk at such a claim? Is this for real?
This is a lot, Jim. This is a lot.
Jim: This seems to vindicate Shohei, at least, from those mad and wild accusations that bounced around social media after this story first broke. (Some folks just couldn’t resist Pete Rose comparisons, could they?)
But while Shohei may be not guilty of gambling, his innocence in another way led to this mess. The naïvete that led him to put so much of the communications responsibility in Ippei’s hands backfired big time, and let’s hope that not only Ohtani but those still around him have learned some valuable lessons from this.
And maybe that applies to all of us, even those of us who don’t have language barriers. Don’t be so trusting. Don’t just assume that those who work for you have your best interests at heart. Ask questions, be persistent, and if anything seems off-kilter, see to it right away.
Meanwhile, there was the other Ohtani story at the end of the last homestand, the way Dodgers security people treated the woman who wound up with the ball from Ohtani’s first home run with the club. Ambar Roman was hustled away, separated from her husband and basically told, take it or leave it: Either give up the ball to Shohei in exchange for two signed caps, a bat and a ball, or else it won’t be authenticated and you won’t get anywhere near what it might be worth on the open market, reportedly $100,000.
The security folks were way too zealous, the result was a major black eye for the organization, and I would hope somebody got called on the carpet at the very least for their actions in this matter. Roman and her husband, Alexis Valenzuela, will be the club’s guest at Friday’s game against the Padres, and let’s hope the team gets it right this time.
Mirjam: I go back to: It’s a lot! Too much.
Maybe it’s a confluence of the superstar and the top-of-the-marquee team that brings extra scrutiny and attention and that’s ratcheted up the drama around what was, previously, Ohtani’s pretty pristine sensation? Security certainly was operating with an edge, there. But then again, the gambling story was going to break in Anaheim too, so …
Definitely did not have any of this on the proverbial bingo card, though, that’s for sure.
And I feel for Ohtani. Certainly seems he was guilty of being naïve, but otherwise, to have one’s trust be broken like this? Beyond being something from an over-the-top heist movie that would get panned for being too far-fetched, it’s heartbreaking. We’ve all been let down by people, but this is such a titanic betrayal that it will, as you write Jim, cast ripples of aspersion in the lives of fans otherwise completely removed from Ohtani’s world.
But maybe that’s not a bad thing?
And before I forget: Where were you for the Bronco chase?
Jim: Same as you. I remember the picture-in-picture during the Knicks-Rockets game of the Bronco tooling down the freeway – which freeway it was escapes me now – and wondering if Albert would be capable of doing dual play-by-play.
Does anyone remember what they were doing when the OJ car chase was going on pic.twitter.com/lb7THDCCzH
— BrownEyedGirl (@369Love_) April 11, 2024
I also remember the spring of 1995 and waiting in the Clippers’ locker room to do off-day interviews, and the trial was on the locker room TV. And the conversation seemed to be whether O.J. could be acquitted, and most of the guys in that room were hoping he would. There was definitely a racial component to how that trial was perceived, and I think I understand why better now than I did at the time.
What I’ve found strange but understandable today in the wake of his death: No flowery tributes. The Heisman Trophy trust acknowledged Simpson’s death, “mourning the passing,” but other sports entities seemed to acknowledge it simply and unemotionally if at all, likely gauging the public mood. I’m not sure I’ve seen another athlete – at least I can’t think of one offhand – whose post-career life was so at odds with his athletic persona.
— The Heisman Trophy (@HeismanTrophy) April 11, 2024
OK, third topic of the day: The Sparks have the second pick in Monday night’s WNBA draft – i.e., they get to select the best player not named Caitlin Clark, who will go to Indiana with the No. 1 pick.
And before I reveal my choice for the pick, I want to bring up something that I’d been thinking about and that Ann Killion, the wonderful San Francisco Chronicle columnist, put in print earlier this week: The “rivalry” – there’s got to be a better word for it – between Iowa’s Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese has been a key component of the women’s basketball resurgence, and you can make a direct comparison to the way Magic Johnson and Larry Bird took their college rivalry to the NBA and basically transformed the league.
At the time, the ‘70s NBA was struggling far more than the WNBA is today. The public perception was that it was a league full of druggies, and the Finals, the marquee event, was shown on tape-delay. Magic and Larry resurrected the league and put it on sound footing, and when Michael Jordan came into the NBA in 1984 the league took the next step.
So that brings me to my choice for Monday’s No. 2 pick: Angel Reese to the Sparks.
(And let’s take this comparison even further. When JuJu Watkins turns pro, I think she’s capable of being the WNBA version of MJ.)
Mirjam: Selfishly, as someone who lives for great quotes and is really going to miss Nneka Ogwumike for that reason, I’d love for the Sparks to draft Reese. That woman is so entertaining. She’s tough, she’s a rebounding wizard, she’s outspoken in the best way. She speaks from her heart – all those LSU players did, and I could not have loved it more, being in the room and listening to them express themselves so authentically a week and change ago in Albany.
But it ain’t happening. The Sparks are drafting Stanford’s Cameron Brink at No. 2. And Brinkcould be a really good player for a long time, she’s 6-foot-4, long, smart. She could develop into a dominant defender. I think L.A. will like watching her.
The real intrigue is who they draft at No. 4. That’s what makes this draft so crucial for the Sparks – they’ve got two of the top four picks. Maybe it’s South Carolina’s 6-7 center Kamilla Cardoso, whose game 19 million people know well? Or Tennessee’s Rickea Jackson, an athletic, well-rounded 6-2 guard? Or Reese? Tough to go wrong.
But fans will have to be patient with whoever is selected, and with the Sparks, who are in the midst of a major rebuild after missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons.
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Jim: Got to admit that the Reese pick was from the heart, rather than the head.
And Cameron Brink would not only be a sensational get, but her presence at the top of the draft would be one more tribute to Tara VanDerveer, who announced her retirement this week as Stanford’s coach and has played such a huge role in the growth of women’s basketball.
Sadly, much of her toil came when not many people were watching, But it’s cool that in this moment, a year when the women’s championship game rating outdraws that of the men’s by nearly 4 million viewers, Tara’s getting her richly deserved flowers.
