FEMALE VOICE: Tisha, good morning. I know it’s been a very busy morning for you, thank you so much for the time. Tisha, how did this start?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Well, we had been looking into what you were talking about. In the days after our story broke in March 2024, I spent a lot of time retelling what had happened. First, Ippei had told me in great detail about Shohei helping him wire money to an illegal bookie. Then Shohei’s people said that story was a lie, Ippei had stolen the money. So I called Ippei, and he took back nearly everything he said in that first interview. He told me had stolen from Shohei.

 

FEMALE VOICE: A developing story in baseball, the Dodgers announced on Wednesday they have fired Shohei Ohtani’s long-time interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, amid allegations–

 

FEMALE VOICE: The interpreter is accused of using the ballplayer’s money to cover up millions of dollars in allegedly illegal bets. ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson is here with us to tell us more about this. Good morning.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Good morning.

 

FEMALE VOICE: So I want to be clear, no charges have been–

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But there were still a lot of questions about what exactly had happened.

 

MALE VOICE: How does your interpreter have access to your bank account? So a lot more questions still to be answered.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Most of the answers I had were based on what Ippei and Ohtani’s people had told me, and I still wasn’t sure who to believe or what really happened. No one was answering our questions. I tried to reach out to Ippei again, but he never responded. It was a perfect story for sports fans and talk radio, a classic he said/he said. Which version of the story do you believe?

 

MALE VOICE: What’s been strange here is how many versions of the story have come from Ohtani’s camp itself. So initially Ohtani’s camp said, “Ohtani was kind of generously paying off the debts for his interpreter.” Then Ohtani’s lawyers came in. They said, “Actually no, he never knew anything about this, Mizuhara had been stealing money from him for years.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: In those early days after the story broke, what you believed often came down to whether or not you rooted for Shohei and the Dodgers.

 

MALE VOICE: Dodgers fans, so far, are standing by Ohtani.

 

MALE VOICE: I 100% don’t believe that Ohtani’s involved in the gambling at all.

 

FEMALE VOICE: Yeah, I think he might have not known. But it’s also like, you know, how are you not gonna know what’s going on?

 

MALE VOICE: I think that they’re all doing it, it’s just the fact that he got caught because of the large numbers.

 

MALE VOICE: Now you wonder if there’s a level of distrust with baseball fans who are asking, “Are you for real?” And he’s the face of baseball and that’s a problem for Major League Baseball right now.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The pressure was building for someone to speak out and address the scandal. Finally, five days after the story broke, word went out that there would be a news conference. Shohei himself was going to speak.

 

MALE VOICE: Thanks everybody for coming. And– we ask that you not film this right now– on your cell phone if that’s possible.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Dozens and dozens of reporters squeeze into the room at Dodger Stadium.

 

MALE VOICE: And after Shohei’s done– we will not be taking questions. Okay?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Before the news conference even starts, the Dodgers announce that Shohei will not be taking questions. So whatever he says in his statement will be all reporters have to work with. Then Shohei walks in. And trailing just steps behind him, where Ippei would normally be, is Will Ireton. Ireton is a long-time Dodgers employee who once worked as a Japanese interpreter, and now he’s interpreting for Shohei. This is the first time many people are seeing Shohei speak without Ippei beside him.

 

MALE VOICE: Okay, Shohei?

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: Obviously today there’s things that I am limited in being able to talk about. I hope you understand. I do have a document in front of me that I will refer to.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei and his new interpreter each have a black folder in front of them with what looks like a written statement. But when Shohei speaks he looks directly into the camera.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: In conclusion– Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: A six-year relationship that had touched nearly every part of Shohei’s life was over. And Shohei was breaking up with Ippei in the most public way possible, at a live news conference in front of the media and fans.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: Upon further questioning, it was revealed that it was actually, in fact, Ippei who was in debt, and told my representatives that I was paying off those debt.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: And all of this has been a complete lie.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei said Ippei had been stealing from him, using his money to pay off debts to an illegal bookie. He wanted to make it clear that he had never bet on baseball or any sports, that he had never asked someone to bet on his behalf. And he says he never used a bookmaker.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: And to summarize how I’m feeling right now, I’m just beyond shocked. It’s really hard to– verbalize how I am feeling at this point.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: This was the longest Shohei had ever spoken publicly about his private life.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei and his new interpreter speak for 12 minutes.

 

WILL IRETON: You know, I’m looking forward to focusing on the season. I’m– I’m glad that we had this opportunity to talk. And I’m sure there will be– continuing investigations moving forward.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: Thank you very much.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei gets up and walks out of the room. This news conference was the first and last time Shohei ever spoke publicly about what happened. But in that news conference, Shohei placed the blame squarely on Ippei, and effectively severed Ippei from himself, from baseball, and from the millions of fans who love Shohei.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei’s version of events was obviously very different from what Ippei had told me in that first 90-minute phone call. I had suspected Ippei might be lying to me at certain points. Some of what he said during that call conflicted with what other sources had told me.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But at the same time, a lot of it was so detailed, so complex, that it seemed believable. And there were moments when he sounded genuinely ashamed about his gambling, and how Shohei agreed to pay off his debts. But then Ippei told me he lied.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And now Shohei was saying he didn’t know anything about the bets and was accusing Ippei of massive fraud, fraud with shocking implications, to get hired by one of the biggest franchises in MLB, to steal millions with no one noticing. Not just from one of the most famous athletes on the planet, but from someone he called his best friend, a friend who he seemed to be with almost 24 hours a day. What would have led him to do this? What kind of guy is he really? Who is Ippei? I’m ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson, and this is The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani, Episode Three: Baseball Boy.

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY: Here’s the pitch to Ohtani.

 

MALE VOICE: Federal investigation.

 

MALE VOICE: Questions about wire transfers.

 

MALE VOICE: $4.5 million.

 

MALE VOICE: To a Southern California bookmaker.

 

MALE VOICE: And he has no idea.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: All we really knew about Ippei in early 2024 came from a media guide that had been put out by Shohei’s previous team, the Los Angeles Angels. Media guides give reporters biographic information about players and staff, and it is super rare for an interpreter to get his own entry.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But the Angels media guide outlined Ippei’s background and resume, where he grew up, where he went to college, and where he worked before he began interpreting for Shohei. It offered a window into the life of Shohei Ohtani’s constant companion. But a few days after our story broke, we learned that there was a big problem with this media guide.

 

MALE VOICE: We learned more details about Shohei Ohtani’s translator. And if you look back at his past, it is checkered because he is lying.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: It turned out much of what was in Ippei’s official team bio wasn’t true. My ESPN colleague Tim Keown and I went through it to see what did and don’t hold up once reporters started asking questions. Okay, I wanna go line by line, since we’re sitting here. It’s his sixth season with the Angels as an interpreter. Is that true or false?

 

TIM KEOWN: True.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Born in Japan.

 

TIM KEOWN: True.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Grew up in Diamond Bar, California.

 

TIM KEOWN: True.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Attended Diamond Bar High School.

 

TIM KEOWN: True.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Graduating from the University of California, Riverside in 2007.

 

TIM KEOWN: (MAKES NOISE) False.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Do we know where he went to college?

 

TIM KEOWN: We don’t think he went to college.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So the information the Angels had about his education was wrong. Mizuhara served as an interpreter for Okajima.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Hideki Okajima is a Japanese player who pitched for the Boston Red Sox. Ippei’s bio says he interpreted for Okajima at one point.

 

TIM KEOWN: The Boston Red Sox say they never employed him, and he would’ve had to be an employee of the team in order to interpret for Okajima.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So the details about Ippei’s experience were wrong too. It says Okajima during Yankees spring training in 2012.

 

TIM KEOWN: And if you look at that, Okajima was injured at the end of the ’11 season and never reported to spring training with the Yankees in 2012. So there was no fact checking going on here.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Hideki Okajima even addressed this himself, writing on his Instagram that Ippei was supposed to interpret for him at Yankee spring training in 2012, but because Okajima failed a physical, they didn’t end up working together. How did this all end up in the media guide? Is it possible there was no background check on Ippei when he came with Shohei to the Angels? Looking at this, knowing what we know now, what does this say about the Angels and baseball’s responsibility to protect its players?

 

TIM KEOWN: Yeah, it’s a massive hole, right?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: We reached out to the Angels for comment. They declined to answer questions about Ippei. There’s a culture in a lot of clubhouses of not messing with anything in a player’s routine when they’re playing well.

 

TIM KEOWN: The Angels are thrilled to have him. They are willing to do whatever it takes to make his life as easy as possible.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: No one was questioning Shohei or his interpreter. And Ippei’s past was a big black hole. Could learning about where Ippei came from get us any closer to the truth of what happened between these two men? And if he did do it, what could have led him to steal millions of dollars from his best friend?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Our team started digging into Ippei’s background. After he stopped responding to me, I reached out to Ippei’s wife and parents, but through Ippei’s attorney they declined our request for interviews. At the same time, Tim got in touch with Ippei’s high school soccer coach.

 

TIM KEOWN: He was a soccer player, but in talking to his high school soccer coach he can’t even remember if he got into a game. He just knows that he went to every practice, he was a good teammate, he loved it but wasn’t particularly good at it. He was, like, a third-string goalie. And, you know, this soccer coach also taught him in– in class in high school, and– and his line was, “I remember the really good students and the really bad students, and he was neither.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So Ippei played soccer in high school. I figured that’s a good place to start. Maybe one of his old teammates would talk to me. I drive into Diamond Bar High School’s parking lot just as school is letting out. As kids pour out of the building I walk into the front office and ask one of the school secretaries if I could see the yearbooks from 1999 to 2003.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: I don’t see Ippei in any sports team photos, not even soccer. M, M, M, M, M, M. His name isn’t listed on the JV or varsity team rosters, and it doesn’t look like he was in any clubs. There he is. But I do find his class portrait in a couple of yearbooks.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Okay, Ippei is in his senior and junior yearbooks. His sophomore year he doesn’t exist in the yearbook anywhere. In his freshman year he’s in the yearbook, but there’s no picture of him. There’s just this quote– about technology and how it makes it super easy to do what he needs to do.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: It’s weird to me that his photo is completely missing from his freshman and sophomore yearbooks. Was he sick on picture day? Or did something else happen? I take photos of every student in his 2003 graduating class and every player on the Diamond Bar High School soccer team who he might have played with. I start reaching out, asking if any of them remember a kid named Ippei Mizuhara. And I track down someone I’ve been told was a close friend of Ippei’s. When did you first meet Ippei? Like, what– how far back do you guys go?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: We go back in middle school. I met him in sixth or seventh grade.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Steven Akamoto (PH) went to middle school and high school with Ippei.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Since our school was predominantly– it was, like, Asians, but then it was, like, Koreans and Chinese. There wasn’t a lot of– Japanese. And so we were a rare breed. And so we clicked instantly.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Both Steven and Ippei were born in Japan but were raised in Southern California.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: I think for any immigrant growing up in America, like– you don’t know what your identity really is, because you look a certain way, so you look like an Asian. So people assume you’re Japanese. But then when you go to Japan they’re like, “Oh, you’re from America. You’re American.” So it’s like, what am I really? And then so you kind of have, like, this identity crisis a little bit. And so maybe he picked a side– our Japanese during that time when we were kids.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Where does his knowledge of the Japanese language come from?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: It was majority from television and also– from comic books, like, manga. Like, we would be reading manga and be like, “Oh, do you know this word?” “No.” Or, “Do you know this word? Like, I think it m– means this.” And then we would go ask one of our parents, like, what it says and then be like, “Ah, we were right,” or, “You were right.” He was a very competitive guy. I remember that.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Steven says Ippei’s parents worked late. Ippei’s dad was a chef and his mom was a nurse. Ippei was on his own a lot.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: We would hang out almost every day the his house, usually at his house or just– playing sports, basketball, or– a little bit of baseball.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Steven remembers Ippei being the most devoted sports fan in their friend group. And as much as Ippei liked to play sports, he seemed to be even more interested in the players themselves.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: I remember his– knowledge was very expansive as far as, like, sports goes. Like, he knew a lot of, like, certain things about sports, and all of sports pretty much. So when we would look at cards, I’m like, “Who’s that player? I have no idea.” And he’s like, “Oh yeah, this is blah, blah, blah.” And then he would tell me, like, you know, small bits of the player.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: I also spoke to another friend of Ippei’s from high school, but he didn’t wanna be recorded. This friend remembers how Ippei loved, like, truly loved baseball. This was back in the day when you had to use a VCR to tape a game you wanted to keep. And Ippei would tape all of the Dodgers games whenever Hideo Nomo was the starting pitcher.

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY: Struck him out. That is a new mark for Nomo, 17. A magnificent performance for Hideo Nomo.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But Ippei’s loyalty switched to the Seattle Mariners when Ichiro Suzuki began playing in the United States–

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY: High, fly ball to deep right field again. And Ichiro goes back to the track, to the wall, and makes the leap and makes the catch. Unbelievable. My oh my, what a catch by Ichiro, leaping almost–

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei played Little League, and a friend said he even made the all-star team. He tried out for the baseball team his freshman year of high school but didn’t make the cut. So he and Steven tried basketball. And did you make the team?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: No, no. We both didn’t. (LAUGH)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Okay. And then when you didn’t make the team you were like, “Forget this, we’re moving on to something”–

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Yeah, we’re move on, yeah, smoke cigarettes. (LAUGH)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei did eventually make the soccer team as a goalie his senior year, but he never got off the bench, so Ippei just walked away. Ippei’s friends say that’s why he isn’t in the team photo. He had already quit. It didn’t seem like he had much more success in the classroom either. His friends say Ippei was smart, but slacked off in class and looked down at kids he called “try hards”.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: He wasn’t really into, like, the norm I would say, like, what’s– what’s in. And so he always did his own thing, and like– like, for one good example would be his hairstyle. It hasn’t changed since, like, middle school. It’s always been that same–

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Really?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Yeah. You– I think he dyed it a couple times, but other than that he doesn’t really play with his hair.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So the– that asymmetrical part with the real long bangs–

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Yeah.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: –that goes to the side–

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Right, uh-huh (AFFIRM).

 

TISHA THOMPSON: That’s the way it’s been since middle school?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Yeah. It hasn’t changed.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Steven says Ippei loved this Japanese rock band called Glay. He also listened to a lot of Tupac. You have to remember, this was the era when L.A. hip hop dominated the airwaves. It was edgy. It was cool. Especially for the kids from Diamond Bar, who weren’t far from Compton but were firmly in the suburbs.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Yeah, it was exactly what it– we were trying to be harder than we actually were. Trying to impress others, I guess. Like, “Oh, we know gang members.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And both friends remember Ippei really loved to hustle.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: He would sell I believe it was cards, like, baseball cards. And– we would go to– this convention. They had it every week, and then they sell, like, sports memorabilia or, like, anime stuff.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Oh really? So–

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: And he– yeah–

 

TISHA THOMPSON: –was he really into that?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: He was into that. I went– I tagged along with him a couple times, and he would look at baseball cards and look at prices and stuff like that. Yeah.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Did he buy stuff?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: He did. And I was like, “What are you gonna do with that? (LAUGH) Like, I don’t know what you’re gonna do with that.” It would be the expensive kind. And then he would also, like, haggle a little bit too. Because I remember he said he wanted an electric guitar.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: He was just saying that forever, and the next time I go to his house he has an electric guitar. He doesn’t have an amp, and then, you know, months later he has an amp. And I’m just like, I don’t– I never really questioned where he got the money from.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei’s other friend told me that Ippei seemed to just get excited by the process of buying things and then reselling them, video games, team jerseys, and those baseball cards. And he says Ippei would try to place bets with him about small things, like who’d win in a video game or the outcome of a Dodgers game.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But the friend never worried about Ippei having a gambling problem. He always thought it was just for fun. Both friends told the same story about why Ippei’s picture was missing from his sophomore yearbook. He didn’t attend Diamond Bar that year, he was at an alternative school for students with attendance or discipline issues. Ippei was back at Diamond Bar High School his junior year, and his friends say Ippei was going to nearby tribal casinos by the time they graduated.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: I think it was, like, from 18 you can start gambling there. And– yeah, I went much later, like, senior year I believe.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Was that, like, the hot thing to do in those days?

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: Yeah. I mean, I guess. Yeah. (LAUGH) Because it was only, like, a 30 or 40 minute drive, or an hour drive. And so you could just come back real quick without your parents knowing.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Steven lost track of Ippei after graduation, but says his mother and father remember seeing Ippei soon afterwards.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: My parents went to a sake expo and saw him working a booth at a convention. (UNINTEL) “Yeah, I work here.” And my dad specifically remembers him giving my parents, like, free sake at the event.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The other high school friend, the one who didn’t wanna be recorded, told me that he ran into Ippei only once after high school. Ippei told him he’d been taking classes at a community college the next town over from Diamond Bar. I was able to confirm this, and confirm that he never graduated, and that his major was accounting.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei’s paper trail basically vanishes after this. And when we ran a background check, we couldn’t find any employers, any addresses, any friends that could give us a hint about what he was doing for eight years between 2004 and 2012. But then he pops back up with a whole new sense of direction.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The Nippon-Ham Fighters baseball team interviewed Ippei in 2012 for a role they needed to fill: an interpreter for American players on the team. The team was impressed with Ippei’s Japanese, his personality, and offered him the job. So Ippei heads to Hokkaido, Japan, to begin a new career as an interpreter.

 

MITCH LIVELY: I got a phone call from my agent and he goes, “Hey, I got some interest in Japan, do you wanna go?” And I go, “Yeah.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: This is Mitch Lively. He’s a former minor league pitcher for organizations like the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies, the Washington Nationals, and after that phone call from his agent, the Nippon-Ham Fighters.

 

MITCH LIVELY: He calls me the next morning, “Pack your stuff, you got sold.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Mitch didn’t speak a word of Japanese. And he says he almost immediately realized he was going to have to rely on an interpreter a lot more than he anticipated.

 

MITCH LIVELY: In international sports when you play, your translator is your lifeline. Without it you won’t get by. You won’t understand anything, what’s going on. So you’d use them as your voice. And they help a lot.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: When Mitch landed in Japan, he was introduced to his interpreter, a guy named Ippei Mizuhara.

 

MITCH LIVELY: Him and I really got along, especially him living in the States. So he understood my culture a little bit more.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: By the time Mitch met Ippei in 2015, Mitch says Ippei was an expert at his job. Ippei made sure Mitch got to the field okay, helped him understand the schedule, and coordinated media interviews. And Mitch says Ippei had a special talent for the actual interpreting part of the job.

 

MITCH LIVELY: He would be really loose with me, rather than being, like, so serious and be, like, “What are you doing?” Like, he would translate it with the tone in which I was trying to deliver it, w– and that’s the most important thing. So he was a very reliable guy, very hard-working in my experience with him. It didn’t matter if it was 2:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning, he always answered his phone.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And Mitch says Ippei was vital off the field as well.

 

MITCH LIVELY: He showed me how to use the train system. If I had paperwork or wife stuff, they would always handle those. Like, “Hey, I need visas.” All right, they’re gonna take you to go do your visa work. If I was out in a bar or whatever and like, “Hey, I can’t get a taxi,” call him, taxi shows up.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Mitch says Ippei became more than just an interpreter to him.

 

MITCH LIVELY: You know, it’s a friendship. It’s a co-worker-ship, but also, like, you become friends to a certain point, because you’re spending eight hours a day minimum with each other, you know? “Hey, I need a nice restaurant. Where’s the place to go? No, don’t tell me, show me. Like, come with me.” You know, we’d go to a lot of yakiniku and sushi. We did karaoke a lot. I would always sing Backstreet Boys with him. (LAUGH)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But Mitch could tell Ippei had ambitions beyond the Nippon-Ham Fighters.

 

MITCH LIVELY: He loved baseball. He loved sports. And I just think that translating was a way to get him into the door to something he loved, you know, and to learn about. And you get to be around professional athletes. And if you’re not an athlete, that’s the best way to do it, you know? I think his goal was to go to the States with a major leaguer, let– he wanted that one-on-one, not to be, like, owned by a team, if that makes sense, and wanted to come back to the States.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Mitch thought Ippei would be great at a job like that. He saw how attentive Ippei was with his family.

 

MITCH LIVELY: The biggest thing, my wife got really sick one time and he literally drop of the hat got her to the hospital and taken care of. I was in a game. (LAUGH) So he literally left the game to go take care of my wife.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei was sitting in on appointments, helping them with visas and other documents, and Mitch says he never thought twice about it.

 

MITCH LIVELY: I never felt a situation where he was gonna take advantage of me or anything like that. I never felt that with him. But I– he never had access to any of my account stuff or anything like that.

 

KOTA ISHIJIMA: Money was something that we never touched, we never saw, and didn’t have to be part of it.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: That’s Kota Ishijima. She worked as an interpreter for teams like the New York Yankees and the Mets, and has worked with some of the Japanese greats. When she heard about Ippei stealing from Shohei she says it felt like a betrayal to the interpreter profession.

 

KOTA ISHIJIMA: I was pissed. How in the world did something like this happen?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Kota has a theory about what might have happened.

 

KOTA ISHIJIMA: Shohei has already said it. All he knew was baseball. All these kids here in Japan, when they play up until high school, that’s all they did. And they don’t know anything about what goes on in the world.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: There’s a Japanese saying, “yakyu shonin.” It translates to baseball boy. A boy who lives and breathes baseball. Shohei is the epitome of the baseball boy. He was as focused in high school as Ippei was unfocused.

 

TIM KEOWN: He went from eighth grade to essentially a baseball boarding school. He went away from his family. He lived in the dorms. He played baseball. He was under a very different social structure than the average American player.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: A couple of years ago, my ESPN colleague Tim Keown went to Japan and spoke with the coach from Shohei’s high school.

 

TIM KEOWN: You know, the coach there famously made his pitchers clean the toilets, because they are the center of the diamond and they’re– all the attention is on them in the baseball sense. So they need to do the worst job, which would be clean the toilets in the dorms.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: For a baseball-obsessed kid like Shohei, the goal is to play in Koshien, a legendary annual high school baseball tournament. He caught nationwide attention, when during a qualifying game at just 18 years old, Shohei threw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball.

 

TIM KEOWN: That was, like, front page. That’s the one that people point to. That was, like, a tangible number that they could put on his budding greatness.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: There’s videos of that pitch online. And watching it, Shohei looks so young. He’s beaming in the moments after the throw, like he knows he just did something historic.

 

TIM KEOWN: He was a brand in high school (LAUGH) in Japan.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei was catching the eyes of American scouts even before he graduated. But he wanted to be a two-way player, to pitch and to hit. And Tim says Shohei knew he might not get the chance to develop those skills if he went straight to MLB. So he opted to begin his professional career in Japan.

 

MITCH LIVELY: I remember he was pitching and I go, “Who is this guy, man?”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei started playing with the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2013. Two years later Mitch joined the team and got to watch him play up close.

 

MITCH LIVELY: Like, he would pitch and you’d see 30 guns go up in the air. I’m like, “Who is this kid?” He’s throwing 100, they’re flashing a 160 on the thing. Ends up pulling him out of the game in the eighth inning and I see they put him in right field. Like, what heck? And he comes up and hits a walk-off home run in the ninth. I go, “Who is this guy?” And hands down I tell people it’s the best baseball player I’ve ever seen play in my life.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Shohei’s locker was next to the American players, and gave Mitch a chance to get to know the young phenom.

 

MITCH LIVELY: He was funny. Real funny. Like, he would joke with me, come up, like, try to talk to me, and we’d joke. And I have a picture of him with his arm around me. And I remember that, that was in the Tokyo Dome. We had just won, and we were, like, poking fun because I’m like, “Hey, you’re like my little baby bird, like, you’re smaller than me.” (LAUGH) So it was– like, “Yeah, I have to reach up on you.” So just fun things. Like, just poke fun.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: By 2017, Shohei felt like he’d proven himself enough to be a two-way player in MLB. And by the end of that year he signed with the Angels. So he needed an interpreter. Ippei had a good reputation. Reporters, players, and the team seemed to like working with him. And although Ippei and Shohei weren’t particularly close at the time, Mitch says he wasn’t surprised when Shohei picked Ippei.

 

MITCH LIVELY: They’re gonna see who– who do we use the most? Who are we taking to our interviews? I think that played a huge part in things, and to see that he was with the team for so long.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: So Shohei and Ippei made the move to Anaheim. For Ippei, who was raised in California, it was something of a homecoming. But for Shohei it was a whole new adventure.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: Once I put on my new jersey, the Angels jersey, I felt like– this is gonna be a new year, and I will have to (UNINTEL) and help the team win.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: And not long after his MLB debut, Shohei began his meteoric rise.

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY: Three-two now, swing and a miss. Down goes Olson. And tip your cap Shohei Ohtani. You deserve it this afternoon.

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY: Remarkable season, and Ohtani, forget about it. That one is gone. Wow.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: The better he played, the more air time and the bigger the spotlight was for Ippei.

 

MALE VOICE: Here in Miami, Shohei Ohtani. Ippei, his interpreter–

 

MALE VOICE: Ippei.

 

MALE VOICE: –is right there with us as well. Guys, how do you wrap your mind–

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Everyone wanted a piece of Shohei. But because he didn’t share much about himself, people turned to the next closest thing: Ippei. He was becoming a household name in the baseball world.

 

MALE VOICE: So you’re very popular around, everyone’s digging your haircut over there. How many people now say they wanna have the Ippei haircut working, man?

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: Zero. (LAUGHTER)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Pretty much every time you pulled up the game to watch Shohei you’d see Ippei.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: I turn on the TV, on the news, and then they were talking about Shohei’s interpreter. And then they said, “Mizuhara.” And I’m like, “Oh, like– like Ippei.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: This is Steven Akamoto again, Ippei’s high school friend.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: And then they were like, “Ippei Mizuhara.” And I’m like, “Oh, like, Ippei.” (LAUGH) And then they were talking about, like, how– the dad is a chef. And I’m like, “Oh, just like Ippei.” And then I’m like, “Is that Ippei?” And then I look it up and it’s actually him. And I was just, like, damn. Like, the fuck? (LAUGH)

 

TISHA THOMPSON: That guy from high school who basically vanished for eight years reemerged with the coolest job ever.

 

STEVEN AKAMOTO: I couldn’t believe it at first. And it’s like, “Really? Ippei?” Dude. It’s like, maybe I was, like, jealous. But I was just, like, taken back.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei’s other high school friend, the one who didn’t wanna be recorded, was also shocked to see where Ippei had landed. Here was Ippei literally on the ball field, speaking Japanese with Japan’s biggest baseball star.

 

ANNOUNCER: Major League interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: He went from being in Little League to being Shohei’s catcher at the MLB All-Star Game.

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY: What a fun moment that’s gonna be for him.

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY: And hopefully he’s not having to catch too much, (LAUGHTER) because hopefully the– Ohtani’s hitting everything that’s supposed to be (UNINTEL)–

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei wasn’t just collecting the baseball cards of the biggest names in MLB, he was now rolling with them.

 

MALE VOICE: This is a great look. Is this your favorite red carpet outfit?

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

IPPEI MIZUHARA: I’m not really sure, but I hope it is. (LAUGH)

 

MALE VOICE: I– I– I think you’re getting–

 

TISHA THOMPSON: His friends say it was everything Ippei had ever wanted when they were in high school. And Shohei was also living his childhood dream, becoming rare two-way player in the Major Leagues.

 

TIM KEOWN: When he comes here, they’re happy this two-way player who if we just leave him alone he’ll do things that nobody thought possible.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Tim says that meant the Angels gave Shohei a lot of leeway in terms of how he managed his time, which Ippei seemed to be a big part of, both on and off the field.

 

TIM KEOWN: His manager told me one time, “I don’t know what he’s doing when he’s at the ballpark.” That, to me, was amazing. Because everybody follows a schedule, there’s a meeting with the pitching coach, there’s a hitters’ meeting, there’s time in the cage.

 

TIM KEOWN: He was subject to none of it, from what I could tell. He was just, “Let him do what he does with whoever he wants to do it with,” which was always Ippei. “And get out of his way. Just get out of his way, let him do his thing.” That was the sort of prodigy treatment he received when he came to the– to the big leagues.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: That kind of special treatment extended to what was expected of Shohei when it came to talking to the media.

 

TIM KEOWN: There’s a window of roughly 50 minutes before every game where the clubhouse is open. And you can walk up to anybody that’s at their locker– and talk to them.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: A lotta players will hang around and give reporters a couple minutes of their time here and there. It’s just what’s expected, even from some of the really big-name guys. But not Shohei. Shohei would hang out with Ippei, walled off in the players’ lounge, off limits to the media.

 

TIM KEOWN: They would sit at the table in the players’ lounge and, you know, sh– hold each other’s phones up to each other and laugh. And, you know, I obviously couldn’t understand what they were saying and wasn’t allowed to be close enough to hear it anyway. But there were signs that they liked each other, you know, that they were friends beyond the job. It got to the point where, you know, I wondered, like, how could you spend that much time with one person?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Tim says when he asked other players about Shohei, something remarkable happened.

 

TIM KEOWN: In 2021 I was reporting a story on– on Ohtani, and– players were telling me, “Oh, he’s got this great sense of humor. You know, you guys don’t see it, but he’s got a great”– so I was, like, pressing for, “Okay, tell me. Give me an example.”

 

TIM KEOWN: You know, “When is he funny? What has he done? Tell me a prank he’s pulled, or even, you know, dumb baseball thing. I don’t care how dumb it is.” And I asked Jo Adell, “Can you give me– like, an example of this so I can understand it?” And he said, “None off the top of my head.”

 

TIM KEOWN: And then he kind of laughed to himself and he said, “I don’t know, man. I don’t know if Ippei would want me to throw something out there. I should stay quiet. Ippei is the boss.” And I thought that was, like, that he was even in their minds when they were talking to reporters was, to me, a sign of just how deeply ingrained he was in this whole life of Shohei Ohtani.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: By 2024, Ippei and Shohei had worked closely together for six years. Ippei told me in our interview they were like brothers. He was not just Shohei’s interpreter, but essentially his personal assistant, his driver, his warm-up partner, sometimes his dog walker.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Ippei was entwined in so many aspects of Shohei’s life, and he had so much access. During his time with the Angels, Ippei told me he felt pressure to keep up with Shohei’s lifestyle. And he says he was having money problems. His official team bio doesn’t check out.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: His friends say he was a hustler and began gambling in casinos in high school. But then there are people who have worked closely with Ippei and speak really highly of him, who were surprised when this happened. As an interpreter, Ippei had a great reputation. He impressed coaches, fans, and especially the players he worked for.

 

MITCH LIVELY: When I first saw it I was just like, “What? No way.” Like, “What’s going on?”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Mitch Lively, who worked closely with Ippei in Japan, says when it came to money he and Ippei had a typical ballplayer-interpreter relationship.

 

MITCH LIVELY: In my relationship with him he didn’t have access to any of my money without me giving him money (UNINTEL).

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But we would later learn that Ippei had a very different relationship with Shohei.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: In conclusion– Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: When Shohei told his side of the story at the news conference, my colleague, Alden Gonzalez was standing close enough to see the words in the statement Shohei had prepared.

 

ALDEN GONZALEZ: Going into it there was obviously a lot of skepticism, a lot of cynicism. But if you were to believe what he was saying you felt bad for him.

 

(Foreign Language Not Transcribed)

 

WILL IRETON: So Ippei has been telling everybody around that he– that Ippei has been communicating with Shohei on all of this account. To my representative, to the team. And that hasn’t been true.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Alden says he will never forget Shohei’s demeanor that day.

 

ALDEN GONZALEZ: He looked directly at the camera for almost the entirety of it. And there were even times where I would venture to say that it seemed as if he was on the verge of breaking down, of getting emotional. It– it was (LAUGH) as engaged as I have ever seen and still have ever seen Shohei Ohtani in any moment, in any public setting.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: But ultimately, Shohei didn’t take any questions. He faced down such a large scandal with a single statement.

 

MALE VOICE: Why is this guy allowed to not be asked questions? Tell me another athlete that would never have to make a press conference where he’s asked question after question. Alex Rodriguez was asked question after question. Pete Rose was asked question after question. This guy’s never had his feet held to the fire, ever.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: People were wondering, “Why not take questions?” That choice left lots of room for people to speculate about how Ippei could have pulled this off and how all of this added up.

 

MALE VOICE: How many bets did he make?

 

MALE VOICE: None of them on baseball, by the way.

 

MALE VOICE: Isn’t that amazing? Not one of them on baseball.

 

MALE VOICE: Doesn’t that send up kind of a red flag for you? For a guy that was so desperate, losing so much money, he never bet on the sport that he was the closest to?

 

ALDEN GONZALEZ: Even afterwards, after Shohei Ohtani gave his statement, there were a lotta players who were like, “We don’t know. We don’t know what’s true. We have no idea.” I– it know prominent members of the Dodgers were still like, “We’ll see what the feds say,” you know?

 

TISHA THOMPSON: We’ll see what the feds say, because when Shohei accused his interpreter of stealing millions, he elevated a betting scandal to a massive crime. The feds had already been investigating the illegal bookmaking, but now they were turning their attention to Ippei. And central to that investigation would be one man.

 

MATT BOWYER: I gambled bigger than most, right? And I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve seen some wild stuff, but never like this.

 

TISHA THOMPSON: Matt Bowyer, who took Ippei’s bets and Shohei’s money, who was going around telling everyone he’d hooked the biggest star in baseball.

 

MATT BOWYER: The greedy side of me is like, (LAUGH) “This is great.” You know, “This guy could lose (SCOFF) $50 million and afford it.”

 

TISHA THOMPSON: That’s next on The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani.