Shohei Ohtani may claim to have had no knowledge that his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara had a gambling problem, but that is not going to protect the Los Angeles Dodgers star from the jokes.
Many fans have speculated that Ohtani himself accumulated a $4.5 million gambling debt with a Southern California-based bookie who was under investigation by the federal government. As luck would have it, Ohtani now has a teammates whose last name is Betts. You can probably see where this is going.
Since the Mizuhara story broke, a few photos have gone viral that show Ohtani and Mookie Betts standing next to one another so that their jerseys combined read “Ohtani Betts.” One of the photos became a meme over the weekend:
the jokes write themselves pic.twitter.com/sHLwKywGSW
— swilly ☻ (@swillysports) March 25, 2024
Here is all the proof you need 😂
‘Ohtani Betts’ pic.twitter.com/BEOddd5zpX
— Green Bean Dreamin’ (@GreenBnz) March 25, 2024
Ohtani Betts is crazy 😭😭😭 https://t.co/bo40eWnwVA pic.twitter.com/lo22hug9SL
— GoldenKnight (@GoldenKnightGFX) March 25, 2024
That is something Ohtani is probably going to have to listen to all season.
Mizuhara originally told ESPN that Ohtani wired money to pay a large gambling debt on his behalf. However, Mizuhara’s story changed to say he stole the money from Ohtani, who had no knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling habit.
It seems highly unlikely for many reasons that Ohtani would have racked up the gambling debt himself. He could still face MLB discipline, however.
