<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do it on my behalf, and I have never gone through a bookmaker to bet on sports and was never asked to assist betting payment for anyone else,\u201d Ohtani said.<\/p>\n
Ohtani left the Los Angeles Angels in December to sign a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers. Ohtani and Mizuhara had been daily companions from Ohtani joining the Angels in 2018 until last week, when Mizuhara\u2019s gambling became public.<\/p>\n
Ohtani hasn\u2019t addressed the Dodgers in a group since Mizuhara\u2019s firing, but he had explained himself to several Dodgers individually, manager Dave Roberts said. Veterans Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez and Joe Kelly attended Ohtani\u2019s news conference to emphasize the players\u2019 support of their new teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Shohei was very honest in his take of what happened,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI know that for me, the organization, we support him. I got a lot of questions answered as far as what he knew, what he didn\u2019t know, and I\u2019m looking forward to kind of just moving forward, letting the authorities take care of it, and just focus on baseball. I was proud of him to sit up here and give his take on things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IRS has confirmed that Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency\u2019s Los Angeles field office.<\/p>\n
Mizuhara told ESPN on March 19 that Ohtani paid his gambling debts at the interpreter\u2019s request, saying the bets were on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football. MLB rules prohibit players and team employees from wagering \u2014 even legally \u2014 on baseball, and also ban betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers.<\/p>\n
ESPN said Mizuhara changed his story the following day, claiming Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling debts and had not transferred any money to bookmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of this has been a complete lie,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cIppei obviously basically didn\u2019t tell me about the media inquiry. So Ippei has been telling everyone around that he has been communicating with me on this account to the media and my team, and that hasn\u2019t been true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani said he first became aware of Mizuhara\u2019s gambling problem during a team meeting after last Wednesday\u2019s season-opening victory over San Diego in Seoul, South Korea.<\/p>\n
Ohtani said the meeting was a shock \u2014 and because Mizuhara was speaking to the team in English, Ohtani struggled to understand everything that was being said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust prior to the meeting, I was told by Ippei, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s talk one to one in the hotel after the meeting,\u2019\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cSo up until that team meeting, I didn\u2019t know that Ippei had a gambling addiction and was in debt. Obviously I never agreed to pay for the debt or make payments to the bookmaker, and finally when we went back to the hotel, that was when I found out that he had a massive debt, and it was revealed to me during that meeting that Ippei admitted that he was sending money using my account to the bookmaker. At that moment, it was an absurd thing that was happening and I contacted my representatives at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani spoke before the Dodgers lost 6-0 to the Angels in an exhibition game at Chavez Ravine.<\/p>\n
Roberts said Ohtani also will play at his former home stadium Tuesday when the Dodgers play their final exhibition in Anaheim. Their next regular-season game is Thursday against St. Louis.<\/p>\n
Ohtani grounded out twice and walked while batting second as the Dodgers\u2019 designated hitter. The slugger got a loud ovation from the Los Angeles crowd each time he came to the plate against Reid Detmers, who pitched alongside Ohtani in the Angels\u2019 rotation for the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Detmers sent Ohtani reeling backwards with a Ball 4 fastball that accidentally came close to hitting the star.<\/p>\n
Ohtani smiled and looked slightly shaken as he took first base \u2014 an appropriate cap to an uncomfortable day at the ballpark.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo summarize how I am feeling right now, I am just beyond shocked,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cIt is really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point. The season is going to start, so I am going to let my lawyers handle matters from here on out. I am completely assisting in all investigations that are taking place right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/h2>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Shohei Ohtani said Monday he never bet on sports or knowingly paid any gambling debts accumulated by his longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. Instead, the Los Angeles Dodgers star claims his close friend lied to him for years and stole millions from the two-time MVP. Ohtani gave his version of events during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[128,1962,53,557,97,1388,2271],"yoast_head":"\n
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