JUDGE: The United States of America versus Ippei Mizuhara. Counsel, please state your appearances for the record.

 

MICHAEL FREEDMAN: Good morning, Your Honor. Michael Freedman for Mr. Mizuhara, who’s present with me on bond.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: In May 2024, less than two months after my story on Ippei and Shohei broke, Ippei appeared in court. It was quick, just five minutes long. The federal government had charged Ippei with bank fraud and tax fraud. He would plead guilty to both.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: After the hearing, Ippei left the court room.

 

MICHAEL FREEDMAN: We’re not gonna have any comments, okay?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: He stared straight as he walked towards the elevator. During our interview, he had told me things he had never told anyone else, not even his wife. But we had never met in person. As I walked next to him in the courthouse, I was pretty sure he didn’t recognize me.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So as we moved through the hallway, I said to him, quietly, “Ippei, it’s Tisha.” He slowly turned his head and looked at me for a moment before nodding, just once, as if to acknowledge me before turning his head back to stare over the crowd.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: It’s the only time I saw him react to anything a reporter said to him throughout his case. When Ippei stepped into the elevator he kept his eyes fixed on the doors the whole way down. And when he stepped out, the cavernous lobby of the federal courthouse was almost silent.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But as soon as Ippei walked outside, he faced a sea of camera crews and reporters surrounding him, pushing in on him, yelling questions at him. (REPORTERS SHOUTING) If there’s a moment I can point to where everything seems to shift for Ippei, it was then.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Before this moment, when Ippei had been the go-between for Shohei Ohtani and the media, the media had been respectful, appreciative. But now there was a kind of anger in the air. Reporters swarmed him, shoving microphones and cameras in his face.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: That image has stuck with me, this frenzy of people surrounding Ippei, all alone, trying to move forward through the crowd, with his gaze never breaking. All of the consequences of this scandal falling firmly on him. And Shohei was nearly 400 miles away, preparing for a game against the Giants in San Francisco. Later that night, he would hit a home run and a double in a 10-2 victory. I’m ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson. From 30 for 30 podcasts, this is The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani.

 

ANNOUNCER: Here’s the pitch to Ohtani.

 

ANNOUNCER: Shohei! (CHEERING)

 

REPORTER: Federal investigation requests that wire transfers–

 

REPORTER: $4.5 million to a Southern California bookmaker.

 

REPORTER: And he has no idea.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Episode six, Footnote.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: A couple of before Ippei was due to be sentenced to prison, he submitted a letter to the judge. In the letter, Ippei describes his relationship with Shohei in the hope the judge might grant him a lighter sentence.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): Honorable Judge John Holcomb, I am writing you today before my sentencing hearing.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: A voice actor is reading Ippei’s words.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): Sadly, I am asking for your leniency in sentencing me, and plead that your sentence be merciful and not punitive. I need to tell you what motivated me to act against the law. Since late 2017, I had been working with Shohei Ohtani as his interpreter/manager. I can confidently say that I put my heart and soul into my work so Shohei can have the best career he can as a professional baseball player in the United States.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Typically, an interpreter for a Major League Baseball player communicates with coaches, teammates, and the media, while helping the player navigate a new culture. But Ippei wrote he was responsible for much more.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): I would also be running daily errands, such as grocery shopping; checking his mailbox; fixing his bicycle; accompanying him when he went back to Iwate to visit his family; take his dog to the vet; take his dog to the groomer; drop off and pick up for his dinners he had with his peers while I wait in the car; helped coordinate Japanese and U.S. lawyers for his marriage prenup and attended the meetings, et cetera.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei told the judge that when a Japanese player comes to play baseball in the United States they bring a number of staff with them. But Shohei only brought Ippei.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): I was responsible for communicating with all of his endorsement companies and brokerage companies to set up his production days for commercials, which occurred once per week in between the training. I would accompany him to all of his production shoots, which gave me almost no true days off. The offseason was where it was much harder, both physically and mentally.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: He said that during the offseason Shohei would train five to six times a week, and part of Ippei’s job would be to set up and clean practice equipment, track and film Shohei’s routine, and be his training partner. He was also the go-between for Shohei and his personal pitching, hitting, and rehabilitation support staff. Ippei’s salary when he started with the Los Angeles Angels was about $85,000.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): I felt like I was getting severely underpaid, but I was afraid to speak up for myself, as I was on a one-year contract every year, and I didn’t wanna upset them and end up getting fired.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But the team didn’t pay him in the offseason. So Ippei said in his letter that Shohei would pay him out of pocket during that time, just a little over $500 a week for round-the-clock help.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): I had to live within a certain vicinity of Shohei so I can stay close by to accommodate his daily needs, especially in his early years in the United States. This meant that I had to rent a place near him, which meant the rent was not going to be cheap. On top of the hefty rent price, I needed to take care of my wife’s expenses for her flights going back and forth from Japan and the United States.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei’s wife wrote the judge a letter as well. She talked about Ippei helping her through serious health problems and the death of her parents, while he financially supported her from abroad. And when she visited the U.S., Ippei told the judge she would also help Shohei.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): She would cook him breakfast in the early years and periodically make him food for dinner, watch Shohei’s dog while he was gone for baseball, even paid out of her pocket and learned to do nail protection work, known as “gel nail,” since Shohei often suffered from broken nails while he was pitching.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: In another letter to the judge, Ippei’s mother revealed that she had been in a serious car accident, and Ippei had taken responsibility for her care. That accident happened around the same time Ippei started betting with the bookie, Matt Bowyer. Ippei told the judge that as his debt grew, he felt like there was no way out, except to tap into Shohei’s bank account.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): I felt terribly guilty about putting my hands on his money, but this was the only solution I could think of at the time.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The letters to the judge portray a man weighed down by both professional and personal responsibilities, who’s struggling to stay afloat financially, when his fixation on sports betting spiraled out of control. Reading the letters, I wonder, what was the relationship between the two men really like?

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA (VOICE ACTOR): I am prepared to accept my consequences. I am asking for a little mercy from the court concerning my sentence you will hand down. Thank you very much. Lastly, I truly admire Shohei as a baseball player and a human being, and I was committed to devote my life so Shohei can be the best version of himself on the field. I wanna say I am truly sorry for violating his trust in me. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter. Sincerely, Ippei Mizuhara.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei’s sentencing hearing took place on February 6th, 2025, about one year after the scandal became international news. Sitting behind me in the packed courtroom was Chris Seymour, the IRS special agent who had led the government’s investigation of Ippei. Seymour told me that when he read Ippei’s letter to the judge, he didn’t see a man struggling with responsibility.

 

SPECIAL AGENT CHRIS SEYMOUR: In fact, he was trying to plead his case that, “I’m entitled to this.” Maybe he wanted to get that out there, that it wasn’t as fun being a translator as everybody would think it was. “This is okay because I work a lot.” Or, “This is okay because I don’t have a life because of this.” Or, “This is okay–” and– and once you start going down that path, any criminal act is good by your eyes.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Seymour says he thought Ippei’s letter did more harm than good in making his case to the judge, because by sharing details of his day-to-day work, Ippei also revealed private information about Shohei’s life, like Shohei’s prenup.

 

SPECIAL AGENT CHRIS SEYMOUR: He was divulging things that only he knew to the court that he had no right to do, in my opinion. Why would you do that? That doesn’t make sense?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: During the sentencing hearing, Jeff Mitchell, the assistant U.S. attorney, picked apart Ippei’s letter. He told the judge that Shohei was the one paying for first-class international airfare for both Ippei and his wife. That Shohei bought Ippei a Porsche Cayenne, which Mitchell estimated to be worth more than $100,000. And the feds discovered something else too. Ippei told me that he had never won while betting with Matt’s book.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: Terrible. I’m never– I’m never gonna do it ever again. I never won any money from there.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But the feds say that’s not true. Ippei did win. And when he cashed out, the money went into his personal account.

 

JEFF MITCHELL: When Ippei won money from Bowyer, Bowyer put the money in Ippei’s account, not in Shohei’s account. There was never any transfers from Ippei’s account to Shohei. It never went that way. It was always Ippei taking money from Shohei’s account.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Mitchell portrayed Ippei as an opportunist who took advantage of Shohei’s trust and generosity. He reminded the judge that Ippei impersonated Shohei on bank calls, spent $325,000 of Shohei’s money on baseball cards, and wired millions of dollars from Shohei’s bank account to an illegal book maker to pay off his debts. And then Mitchell revealed something new. Something that the prosecution argued should leave no question about Ippei’s motivation for stealing from Shohei.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The dental work. What does the dental work say to you?

 

JEFF MITCHELL: I was surprised. You know, I mean, the dental work was just so blatant, and just so egregious.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Mitchell says Shohei told federal investigators that he had agreed to pay for dental work for Ippei in September 2023. So Shohei wrote Ippei a check to cover it for $60,000. But bank records show Ippei didn’t use that check to pay for the dental work. Instead, he deposited it into his own bank account and used money from Shohei’s private account, without Shohei’s knowledge, to actually pay his dental bill.

 

JEFF MITCHELL: When Shohei, out of the kindness of his heart, writes a check for $60,000 for dental work, then you deposit that money in your account and you still use Shohei’s debit card to pay for it, that– that was just– yeah, I was really surprised when I saw that.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: This is one of the moments that incontrovertibly shows that Ippei stole from Shohei, that Ippei was capable of lying to Shohei. $120,000 is not $16 million, but it’s the kind of behavior, along with Ippei’s texts, that made the feds believe Ippei was capable of stealing millions from his boss.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And Ippei doesn’t deny that he did it. But in his letter he asked the judge to consider the power disparity between him and Shohei. How hard he had worked for his demanding boss. How little he had been paid. How much he wanted to do the right thing.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The judge was unconvinced. He said Ippei’s letter was misleading and left out important facts. The judge told Ippei, “I give it no credit,” and sentenced him to 57 months in prison, almost five years, and nearly five times the sentence the bookie, Matt Bowyer, received from the same judge.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The judge ordered Ippei to pay more than $18 million in restitution to Shohei and the IRS, a sum he noted was more than most people make in a lifetime, and that Ippei attend Gamblers Anonymous. Shohei never attended any of Ippei’s hearings, and his attorneys only participated in the case one time to file a motion requesting that Ippei’s baseball cards, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, go to Shohei. The judge agreed.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Prosecutors tell me that cases like Ippei’s happen all of the time. Someone gets in over their head gambling and makes the fateful decision to steal from their employer, their friend, their family, someone who trusted them.

 

MARTIN ESTRADA: My office was doing dozens of these cases on a monthly basis involving older adults– involving different victims, people who’d had much smaller amounts taken from them.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: This is Martin Estrada, the former U.S. attorney who led the case against Ippei.

 

MARTIN ESTRADA: We did a lotta these cases that just didn’t get as much attention.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: One of the challenges with sports betting is that its tells are hard to spot. Oftentimes, the people closest to the gambler have no idea it’s even happening.

 

MARTIN ESTRADA: Confidants, lawyers, accountants, friends, taking advantage of others. This is happening to people all over the country each and every day.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But Ippei’s case was unique, not just because of the amount of money that was involved, but because of the volume of bets that he placed. 19,000 bets in two years.

 

MARTIN ESTRADA: That was shocking. Clearly showed that this was completely out of control.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei was betting at all hours, day and night. He averaged more than two dozen bets each day. And it makes me think about how my colleague Tim Keown described Shohei and and Ippei in the Angels’ clubhouse.

 

TIM KEOWN: They would sit at the table in the players’ lounge and hold each other’s phones up to each other and laugh.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: They were together nearly all of the time, and Ippei was betting almost all of the time, all while apparently keeping the biggest secret of his life.

 

TIM KEOWN: How could he hide such a big part of his life from the one guy that he was with constantly?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And how did he ever expect to get away with it? I think about his interview with me. Why talk to me? Who let him get on the phone with me? And why lie about what Shohei knew?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: You know, we have federal investigations to back up the fact that there’s no reason to suspect Shohei, but there’s this all this weirdness that preceded that that makes you wonder, “How did this all break down?”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: When I reached out to Shohei’s team about the story, they first said Shohei learned about Ippei’s betting when Ippei asked him for help, and paid Ippei’s gambling debts as a way to help someone important to him. His spokesperson told me that the interview with Ippei would help clear up any questions I had.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Going into that interview I had anticipated that a smart PR guy could spin this into a story that made Shohei look really good. It would be a bit of a scandal, yes. Ippei would most likely get fired, but MLB’s most valuable player would come out of it looking like a stand-up guy who bailed out his friend. And in the beginning, I did get a version of that story.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Why did you use his bank account instead of, like, him sending you the money? Why use his account to pay?

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: He– so, like, he didn’t– I don’t think he trusted me with the money.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Oh.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: That he– he didn’t want me to gamble it away.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But Ippei’s story began to evolve when I pushed for details about how the payments were made.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So you– you turn around and say to Shohei, “Here’s the wire transfer information,”?

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: Uh-huh (AFFIRM).

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Do you show it to him on your phone? Do you text it to him? Do you do it for him? Like, how do– how does that go?

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: I did it on his behalf.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Okay.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: His supervision.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So do you have access to his bank accounts?

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: No, I don’t.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Okay. So when you say you did it on his behalf, explain to me–

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: (UNINTEL).

 

TISHA THOMPSON: –to how that works.

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: Well, I was with him on his– laptop or computer.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Uh-huh (AFFIRM).

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: And I guess– he could log in online banking and send a wire.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: In that first interview Ippei said, “Shohei didn’t just know about the payments, he took part in them.” He said he and Shohei didn’t know that what they were doing might be illegal. He told me all of this with Shohei’s crisis spokesperson listening in on the call. But not long after the interview ended, that same spokesperson called me back in a panic, giving me a new version of events. “Ippei had lied,” he said. “And Shohei knew nothing about any of it.”

 

JEFF MITCHELL: Good morning, Your Honor. Jeff Mitchell and Rachel Agress on behalf of the United States.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: When Jeff Mitchell stood before the judge during Ippei’s sentencing, he told the judge that Ippei “created an international incident” when he lied to me during our interview. That the interview “sent shock waves around the world” and led to speculation that Shohei may have been involved with the gambling, that MLB even opened up its own investigation into Shohei because of what Mitchell described as “Ippei’s false statements.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Mitchell told the judge, “No matter how many times the government stands up and tells the world that Mr. Ohtani is a victim, and that there is no evidence that he was ever involved in the gambling, people still refuse to believe it.” These voices persist.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Even though Ippei pleaded guilty, these voices persist in part of the utter strangeness of the 24 hours before and after the interview. What I was being told kept changing so quickly and so dramatically. The feds say that when Ippei was talking to me that first time, Shohei didn’t know anything about it.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And then hours after the interview, after Shohei made his Dodgers debut, the team’s management and Ippei told the whole team in a locker room meeting that a story was coming out about Ippei’s gambling addiction. But because Ippei was talking during the meeting, no one translated for Shohei.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And the feds say that it was only then, only when Shohei asked Ippei about what he had said, that Shohei learned what was going on for the first time. Think about that. Ippei did the interview, he and Shohei laughed together in the dugout, the Dodgers won their game, and the Dodgers told the whole team, all before Shohei learned that an ESPN investigative reporter was working on this story.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And when he did find out, it was Ippei who broke the news. Ippei controlled the communication in every direction. The court records even show that Nez Balelo, Shohei’s agent, told the feds he did not speak directly to Shohei or regularly text with him. Instead, when Nez needed to talk to Shohei, he went through Ippei. Agencies are supposed to protect their clients, and this was the biggest climate in the game. Why did Ippei have such unfettered access to the superstar and his money?

 

TIM KEOWN: I have seen and talked to people who don’t understand how– how the agents allowed this to happen.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Tim says there have been a lot of tough questions directed at Shohei’s sports agency.

 

TIM KEOWN: There are people that have told me they don’t understand why Ohtani is still working with CAA. Like, why wouldn’t he divorce himself of that, because they had a hand in making him vulnerable and– and allowing this to take place?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: $16 million of your money has been sent to a bookmaking operation, which would violate MLB policy, at bare minimum, which would mean you’re now going to be under MLB investigation. That’s a big allegation.

 

TIM KEOWN: Right. Yeah, and I think that there was this breakdown between the guys who are supposed to handle the money and the guy who has the money.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: I’ve requested an interview with Shohei’s agent, Nez Balelo. He declined. I’ve requested interviews with the Dodgers, the Angels, MLB. They all declined too. David Fletcher, the infielder who was at the poker game where Ippei met Matt Bowyer, has not responded to my calls since the story broke.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: He told me in an earlier conversation that he knew Bowyer, but he had never bet with him. In May 2024, MLB also opened an investigation into him after we revealed he was one of Matt Bowyer’s clients. Fletcher was sent down to the minors that season.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: I’ve written Ippei letters in prison. He hasn’t replied. I continue to ask for an interview with Shohei. I’ve told his people it’s a standing offer. But during Ippei’s trial, when I called for comment, Shohei’s crisis spokesperson told me that Shohei will never speak about what happened with Ippei ever again.

 

TIM KEOWN: There’s no benefit to him addressing it at this point. If I’m putting myself in Shohei’s shoes, given what has happened since this went down, why would I need to talk about Ippei?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And as soon as Ippei was charged, Shohei went on a record-breaking winning streak.

 

TIM KEOWN: 2024 really seemed like he was a guy on a mission, like he attacked the season is what it feels like. (LAUGH) As good as he had been, this was a different gear. This was something literally would never seen before.

 

ANNOUNCER: Shohei Ohtani (CROWD CHEERING) arrives in October with a three-run home run. He’s proven to be inevitable. Top of the zone–

 

TIM KEOWN: 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season, that had never been done before.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And just about six months after his public split with Ippei, Shohei and the Dodgers capped off the season by winning the World Series.

 

ANNOUNCER: (CROWD CHEERING) There’s a shock, right center field, and Ohtani lights the fire! A lead-off home run. Start the party, Los Angeles! Your Dodgers have won the World Series!

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And then what do they do the next season?

 

TIM KEOWN: Well, they do it again.

 

ANNOUNCER: (CROWD CHEERING) The Dodgers stand tall and win back-to-back titles!

 

TIM KEOWN: In the career of Shohei, Ippei is just a dot on a timeline now. He’s just a person from his past. Ippei’s in prison. Shohei can add to that erasure by ignoring him.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei is serving time at a minimum-security federal prison in central Pennsylvania. He will become eligible for parole in 2029. Mitch Lively, one of the players Ippei interpreted for in Japan, told Tim he’s been thinking about Ippei now.

 

TIM KEOWN: Do you wish you could call Ippei right now–

 

MITCH LIVELY: And ask him straight up? Yeah, but I wouldn’t ask him that, ’cause I’m sure that’s heavy on his heart. I would just ask him how he’s doin’, honestly. “How you doin’, man?” That’s what I’d wanna ask him. “You need anything? You helped me when I needed you. What can I do for you?”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei’s punishment doesn’t end when he gets out of prison. He faces another three years of probation, and because he is a Japanese citizen convicted of a felony, he will most likely be deported.

 

JASON COSKREY: He’s gonna be a pariah in Japan. I mean, not just because of what he did, because of who he did it too.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Jason Coskrey is an American baseball writer based in Tokyo.

 

JASON COSKREY: It’s one thing to be famous for a crime of this magnitude, but it’s another thing to be famous for a crime of this magnitude where you’re robbing the most famous person in the country, and the– one of the most beloved people in the country.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Jason says the backlash against Ippei in Japan has been almost universal.

 

JASON COSKREY: In Japan, a lotta times if the scandal is bad enough, you sort of just get erased, in a way.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: When Tim went to Japan to report on Shohei, he found it difficult to get anyone to talk about Ippei. I’ve run into it too. I’ve reached out to dozens of people in my effort to better understand Ippei, and there’s an intensity to their refusals that’s hard to explain.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Japanese broadcasters won’t even let us use their sound of Shohei playing baseball in Japan, because they don’t want to be included in a podcast about Ippei. It’s almost as if people want to erase Ippei from Shohei’s legacy altogether.

 

JASON COSKREY: He was part of a book. There were some pages in some children’s book that he was in– this is Ippei Mizuhara.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: There’s as Japanese children’s book about Shohei called Let’s Play Baseball: The Shohei Ohtani Story. The first edition includes an illustration of Ippei standing next to Shohei at what looks like a Dodgers press conference. But in later versions that have come out since the scandal–

 

JASON COSKREY: I think they took that out.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei’s been erased. Shohei now just stands next to a blank wall. It’s happening in the U.S. in small ways, as well. Ippei’s high school in Diamond Bar had a profile of him posted on its “Famous Alumni” page. It’s since been scrubbed from their website. And when you look at Shohei’s Instagram, there are no longer any photos with Ippei.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Almost from the moment they arrived in the U.S. from Japan, Shohei and Ippei were presented to the world as friends. Close friends. Ippei even told me that they were as close as brothers. But looking back, what little we know about their relationship actually comes from Ippei. In one of the few times Shohei did comment on their relationship, back in 2024, it at first sounds like Shohei, speaking through Ippei, is making a joke. But now, after everything we’ve learned, this moment hits differently.

 

REPORTER: How did you develop your relationship with Ippei?

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

INTERPRETER: Yeah, we’re not friends or anything. We’re just business partners. (LAUGHTER)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: When I think back on it, Ippei had an extraordinary power as Shohei’s interpreter. There’s an intimacy to interpretation. Ippei not only decided what words most appropriately captured Shohei’s ideas, but the subtext too, whether he was being funny or ironic, sincere or emotional.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: For six years, everything the English-speaking world heard, and therefore believed, about Shohei came from Ippei. Ippei constructed Shohei for us. Now reading Ippei’s letter about the realities of his life working for Shohei, and seeing Ippei erased by Shohei’s success, I wonder, was this ever even a friendship?

 

ANNOUNCER: (CROWD CHEERING) Here’s Shohei Ohtani!

 

TISHA THOMPSON: On November 3rd, 2025, the Dodgers were back in their home stadium, in front of tens of thousands of fans, celebrating a second consecutive World Series win.

 

SHOHEI OHTANI: (CROWD CHEERING) Hello, hello.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: A year after his first World Series speech, Shohei takes the mic again, without an interpreter.

 

SHOHEI OHTANI: (CROWD CHEERING) (LAUGH) I wanna say that– I’m so flattered with this team. And then I wanna say– you guys are– greatest fans in the world. And then I’m ready– I’m ready to get– another ring next year. Let’s go.

 

ALDEN GONZÁLEZ: If he would’ve not succeeded with the Dodgers, this betting scandal would’ve consumed his entire career.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: This is my ESPN colleague, Alden González.

 

ALDEN GONZÁLEZ: Now, the more he performs on the field, the more this feels like it’s becoming a footnote in his career. Ippei has faded, and this has faded further and further into the background because of what Shohei Ohtani has done on the field.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei Ohtani is 32 years old, and only three years into his 10-year contract with the Dodgers.

 

ALDEN GONZÁLEZ: And I think with every home run he hits, and every shut-out he throws, every MVP he gets, this moves further and further down that story. The day that Shohei Ohtani announces his retirement from Major League Baseball, how many graphs into that story is the Ippei betting scandal going to be?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: If things go well for Ippei, he’ll be leaving prison sometime in the spring of 2029. And if things go well for Shohei, he’ll be starting another record-breaking season with the Dodgers. Ultimately, only they know what really happened between them in their friendship, and if they were ever even friends to begin with.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: I’ve talked to one of them, and we know he lied to me, while I’ve been told the other won’t go on the record about it again. And as long as people keep betting on Shohei’ success, and Shohei keeps winning, he’ll never have to say Ippei’s name ever again.

 

ANNOUNCER: (CROWD CHEERING) Here’s the pitch to Ohtani.

 

ANNOUNCER: Shohei Ohtani! (CROWD CHEERING)