Rich Eisen REALLY Wants to Believe Shohei Ohtani, But…. | The Rich Eisen Show 

I think most Angel fans understand who Ohtani is. Others are not as familiar. Shohei is an honorable guy. I would be very surprised if the story turned out to be any different from what he described.

the negativity surrounding this scandal is ridiculous! Ohtani's camp does not have to respond or provide proof to ESPN or any person in media. Guilty or not guilty everyone should remain neutral until the investigation is concluded.

Japanese media just reported that the bank account is a separate account for his charity endeavor. Ohtani put Ippei in charge with that account.

I’m Japanese and followed him for a long time. Literally NOBODY has anything bad to say about him for at least a decade. He was getting paid millions in Japan yet he lived in a dorm and gave all of his money to his parents and was getting $700 per month in allowance. Does he seem like someone who gambles? Absolutely not. Does he seem like someone who keeps tabs on his bank account with $80 million? Also no. Does he seem like a nice enough guy who might bail out a good friend by lending him money? Yes - but I hope that he didn’t. If he did something wrong, then it’s only because he wanted to help but I hope that didn’t happen.

Why is it so hard to believe that someone you trust has stolen from you? Must happen many times everyday

You have to remember that Ippei was an extremely close friend of Ohtani, and essentially like Ohtani has said many times "his brother", and best friend. I've had a Best friend do something similar to me, and in the end as much as I hated him for doing what he did and was betrayed beyond everything I have ever felt, when he sat in front of me crying and apologizing, and me knowing that I could destroy him and his family (who were like a family of mine also), I could not go thru with reporting what he did to the authorities. People have to remember, Ippei was family to him and his best friend in the entire world.

You guys are laughing about an issue that could have potentially broken Shohei to the core - Ippei is not JUST an interpreter to him, he's his family in the US. Whether things that are out there are all true or not does not discount the fact that the guy lost someone he used to trust and be with almost everyday. But hey, clicks are clicks and views are views, I guess.

These people are making it sound like what Ippei did stealing money from Shohei is a shock. People got to understand it happens all the time. It happened in my bussiness were an employer whose also manager took out money from the campany to use on his expense. Forget the haters that comes on making assumptions, accusation and accusing him without facts, but the media are accusing him because it brings controversy and ratings to their show. Here's some of the clients and associates that robbed and stole money from athletes and celebrities - Tim Duncan was robbed $20 million dollars, John Elway lost $15 million, Kareem Abul Jabbar lost $9 million, Kevin Garnett lost $78 million, Usain Bolt lost $12 million, Robert DeNiro lost $88 million dollars, Elton John lost $29 million, Billy Joel $90 million ect......All by clients, associates and even close partners.

C'mon! Ohtani is not going to use his OWN account, with his OWN name on it, to pay off an illegal bookie. He knows everyone watches him, wants to know what he does, etc. His interpreter was more than just his interperter. He had an seperate account, with Ohtani's name and permission to use, for conducting personal purchase, payment of bills, etc. Money went into this account every month, for the course of several years, and Ippei made the debt transactions 9 times, without Ohtani's knowledge. Ohtani's biggest crime was trusting this guy and now he is paying for it with this "guilty until proven innocent" bannana.

Forget the haters that comes on making assumptions and accusations without facts, but the media are accusing him because it brings controversy and ratings to their show.

It is easy to invoke our western culture and values on everyone that they too would handle the situation in the same manner. Being Asian myself, I understand some of the reasons why Ohtani is handling things the way he is. Asian culture is a shamed base culture. To expose things to public scrutiny would bring more shame on his interpreter and himself. He is handling it as he feels he should. As westerners, we should let things unfold they way they will. Is it our "right" to know all the details or does he have the right to handle these issues in the way he feels are appropriate. Ohtani has now power to control how any of us see things. I don't think public perception is number one on his priority list as many of us may hold to. Rich and other pundits have the right to say and make whatever observations they want but they do not have the right to demand that he explain things so they are appeased. Honestly, this just provides more fodder and clickbait for them.

They have already announced that matter is under investigation and getting involved with ESPN made this situation worse so I'm not surprised that they are more hesitant to cooperate with media now

Rich is doing everything he can to not believe Ohtani😂

First of all, regarding the Ohtani breaking news, Ohtani never said a word about the scandal until the PRESS CONFERENCE. His INTERPRETER was doing all the TALKING about what went down with the 4.5 million from day one. It's possible that Ohtani needed more time to see if his friend could avoid going to jail for stealing his money. Anyone would ask an attorney about options to help a close friend avoid jail time.

I can imagine that it's difficult for most Americans who do not know Ohtani's history and upbringing in Japan, including how he was even at the Angels, to believe fully what Ohtani explained is believable and truth. But as a Japanese who has followed him in Japan and as he moved to MLB, I can attest to that what he said is 100% believable. Ohtani since he was a young boy was very focused with specific goals set and worked diligently on the path to achieving them. His parents and especially his mother was instrumental in providing the support he needed so that he can focus 100% on his tasks, baseball. There have been documentaries on TV on Ohtani as well as his appearances as a guest on TV shows in Japan in which Ohtani explained that his mother took 100% control of his money (all income and expenses including the dealings with his accountant). She gave Ohtani monthly allowance of a little sum of money. Ohtani used team dormitory and team meals 100% to focus on baseball. This is how he lived in Japan as a NPB player. Ohtani is known to be frugal and does not spend money like normal pro athletes do. He is not interested in fashion, clothing, shoes, and cars, and not interested in tangible material stuff. Again, this is very well known fact about him in Japan. Ippei Mizuhara was smart in that he put himself in the position with Ohtani to take care of all of his personal duties out side of baseball so that Ohtani can just focus on baseball as he did in Japan. The identical set up that he had with his mother. Ippei was a perfect man for it and Ohtani trusted him 100%. So in this context, Ippei had this role for Ohtani since he moved to the USA to become a MLB player. Ippei is not just a translator for Ohtani. Ippei was essentially Ohtani's personal caretaker, personal assistant, consultant, butler, driver, and shopper and managed all aspects of Ohtani’s life outside of baseball, tasked to set him up in the USA. He therefore had helped him open his bank accounts, managed his finances and his accountants, had access to Ohtani's bank accounts and was helping him setting up all the payables, bills for his expenses etc etc. Don't forget, and sadly, Ohtani has no experience managing his own money in the past, he is also oblivious to all the living expenses especially in the USA. Ippei was the perfect friend and paid worker for him to do these tasks. In this set up, Ippei can easily transfer Ohtani's money, even 4.5 million without Ohtani knowing (again, Ohtani has been very naive, trusting and indifferent about money matters, except that he knows that he has been getting 50 to 75 million per year on endorsements and baseball contracts even in the past years, so 4.5 million divided into nine separate transfer may not be so significant in this light and could not be noticeable if he was trusting Ippei to manage) Personal income taxes are lower in the USA than in Japan so who knows, Ohtani would not miss 4.5 million based on his income. Agent is there to deal with the baseball contracts and he is not Japanese so he would not have known his personal contents. This is why Ippei is said to have been paid upwards of $400,000 per year to work for Ohtani, where as a regular personal translator working 9 to 5 is paid $150,000ish for a pro-athlete. Don't forget that Ippei was in all communications between Ohtani and his team members, including the team management, spokesperson, and lawyers, essentially every non-Japanese speaker on his side, which is everyone except Yamamoto and Ippei. Ippei was in a perfect position to manipulate all information and communications. So you guys take a rest on speculating and jumping to conclusion about Ohtani in this situation. Eventually the investigation will shed a better light on what I am talking about.

I think I believe Ohtani - at least in terms of probably not being involved in the reported betting that went on. Does Shohei know anything about college football, NFL, basketball, to actually bet on it? His former interpreter grew up in the US, but mainland Japanese being into those sports would be like Americans being interested in cricket or darts. What's strange is the part of the story that he got scammed out of millions without knowing. That the Ippei guy had access and kept wiring $500K blocks over and over...

The Japanese are notoriously private & tight lipped. There's this Japanese female metal group that I really enjoyed. In their last show in Japan before a US tour months later, one of the girls was missing. All they said was "she's had an illness". And almost nothing since...and that was like 5 years ago. No "she will be missing the US tour". Nothing on if the illness was something serious/ongoing. The only update they gave much later was that she officially retired from the band. No word on if she intended to go into acting, do a solo album, or ANYTHING. Just seemed to have vanished from the face of the world. No personal social media accounts to be found. There's not even a paparazzi culture in Japan saying "she was spotted shopping in the Akihabara district". So I'm not surprised that Ohtani's team is so silent about this or his wedding or anything else. Their private life is exactly that...private. So if a huge musical artist can vanish into a normal life, I would imagine a sports star would be even easier to maintain a private life. Hell, the Japanese culture is SOOOOOOOOOOO much different than ours that there was a Jpop Idol that had to go to court in order to DATE someone. Apparently before this lawsuit, the Record Labels/Agencies could force the women to be single to appeal to the male audience...like they might have a chance with their favorite Idol. That really shows how the Japanese keep work/personal lives separate. If you're gonna be a Jpop Idol you're gonna be that 24/7 and in like 5-10 years you can retire and THEN you can have a personal life. At least they have changed that because of the recent lawsuit.

Show me any bookie who is going to front $5 million unless he knows someone is good for it.

This is the answer. check wraithing privileges DANIEL KIM said When I worked as an interpreter, I had to assist the players on just about every aspect of their daily lives. These include: opening bank accounts, taking them to DMV to get licenses, and setting up utilities. I also carried their check books on the road for clubhouse dues.

isn't it right to gather evidences first before you go to court??? if you don't believe then so be it! it seems that you know more, than Othani!

We know Ippei is a liar...never graduated from the University of California Irvine and was never a interpreter for the Boston Red Sox when they had Hideki Okajima...this was put on his resume.

These people just don’t understand mercy, 大谷might just wanna have mercy on水原not wanting to ruin his life going on

The authorities want to talk to Ippei Mizuhara but I'm not sure if he will ever come back to the US. I saw a picture on RU-vid that was taken during the Dodgers spring training in Arizona and there were 3 big guys ,all of them wearing beards and sunglasses and all of them were wearing the same T-shirt with Ippei's picture printed on it. Some bystanders said that they were not interested in Ohtani at all but they called Ippei's name. After the sports betting scandal surrounding Ippei and Ohtani came out, I began to suspect that they were sent by the bookmaker or even the bigger figure behind the bookmaker, to collect money from Ippei. In Japan, a lot of people are angry about Ippei but also they worry about his safety. Some people who know the illegal gambling said that there is usually organized crime behind the bookmaker, particularly a Russian mafia. Maybe that's the reason why FBI isn't interested in Ohtani at all. The bookmaker, Mathew Bowyer's lawyer said that she reported to the authorizes about possible Ohtani's involvement in this sports betting ( she said, Ohtani never bet) but she said that they were not interested in Ohtani at all. They were only interested in Mathew Bowyer's illegal gambling operation. Well, soon or later, truth will come out. We'll just have to wait.

Hey, Rich, this is an ongoing investigation. No matter how much interest you may have in this case, this is in the hands of the authorities. A rational person would understand this immediately, but you are playing a role in leading someone to believe irrationally. Rationally, Shohei's only priority is to play baseball, he doesn't lie and he doesn't gamble.

4 million does not just go missing. Sounds like Area 51 Plausible deniability.

No charges will be pressed, the interpreter will not return to the U.S., they want this to go away

It's all going to come out...Ohtani's Interpreter was behind the wheel of cargo ship that crashed into Key Bridge in Baltimore while trying to smuggle Diddy out of the country..but Ohtani did not know anything about it..because he heard of it in "English"!

I think they’re friends, and Ohtani gave him the money as a favor, and now is paying for the backlash of that

You’ll be wrong on this like you were wrong about Matt Araiza! Where is his apology?

Who gets credit extended by a Bookmaker to the tune of $4.5 million? A walk-on interpreter making…say… $300,000: or, a proven MLB player making hundreds of millions of dollars?

Shohei is a great player and from what I have read, a good decent humble human being. I don't believe he will ever willingly break the law.

I'm getting sick of the smear campaigns.

What's the relevance of what Rich wants to believe?

If Ohtani were a money hungry fool, he could not possibly have offered such an unselfish condition to Dodgers, making every effort to lessen his employer's practical financial burden at his own cost of risk. Who can promise Dodgers will remain liquid capable to pay his pension installment in 2054? He did so simply because he could not disrupt the current MLB market hierarchy by accepting below par salary. He is the last man who shares gamblers' motivation that is pure monetary greed. I wholly accept his explanation. Rich Eisen must not judge Shohei by his own standard.

Keep inserting gambling ads into every piece of content during MLB games. MLB did this to themselves.

In short, you REALLY did not want to believe him. No need to say those fancy words to wrap your true intention.

The full story remains to be told. These versions of convenience will be replaced.

Great freaking show guys. 👍

Theres the smell of fish involved with all of this going on. Somehow i know if im over charged $25 on my AMEX card but he doesnt know he has millions of dollars missing from an acct ? C'mon. Are we that naive that were gonna act like this is even possible ? I hope im wrong but i feel like your never gonna get the full story on this... Thats just me.

So if his English is weak enough that his interpreter may have been needed for a friendly chat with you and your son, maybe to make financial transactions online he trusted his English interpreter to assist

IRS criminal investigations would be the greatest procedural on CBS! I'd actually subscribe to Paramount+ if that was offered

I believe Othani. He trusted the interpreter explicitly

Yeah, if I make a $500.00 online purchase my bank withholding payment and calling, texting & emailing me simultaneously inquiring if I actually made it. But this guy shipped 4.5-milli to an underworld bookie and thumbs twiddled? GTFOOH!

Or is it a "falling on the sword" type situation?

"Help me, help you" great Jerry Maguire quote 😆

Why is everyone acting as if Ippei didn’t already admit everything 😅

If lppie is a good close friend with Ohtani then i can see why Ohtani does not want to report to law enforcement..

It's almost like money, fame, and success aren't good enough. We've never seen that before...😂

If you cannot believe that story told by Otani. I think that society in the United States is too complicated. Actually, ippei has told he has this addiction problem He had said he lied to everybody. Otani who has been a professional baseball player since he was 18 years old. Every day he did do nothing but training. I think his life was very very simple. I am so sad to see many American people do not trust this person.

I, too, want to believe Ohtani. He seems to be a genuinely good guy and he's a god at baseball. The problem is that his current story just doesn't make sense. I think the best course of action is to wait for the federal investigations to play out.

Why does Ohtani and his team need to give espn info??

It is all sus. Let’s ask the someone somewhere who is in charge of the money and ask how NINE HALF A MILLION DOLLAR EVENTS were not flagged and discussed and disclosed. Seriously… how specifically stupid is Ohtani and his business team?

My thing is: if Ippei told the bookie "It's ok, Shohei Ohtani is backing this with his collateral" do you think the bookie is just going to take his word for it? Not on your life! There's got to be at least a signed affidavit, arranged with Google Translate, by Ohtani, SOMETHING to say that the $700 Million dollar man is good for it.

Apologize to Ohtani

It's possible for someone to gain unauthorized access to your bank account through various means such as phishing, hacking, or identity theft. Once they have access, they could potentially transfer money without your knowledge. It's important to regularly monitor your bank accounts for any suspicious activity and to take precautions to protect your personal and financial information.

oh snap the IRS aint no joke lol

You want drama but there really isn’t.

Rich getting ready to do his Prize Picks ad read

Eisen said it. That interpreter jumped up between him and Shohei Ohtani at a social event. Mitzuhara was always with Ohtani. Mitzuhara isolated Ohtani. Apparently, he did everything for Ohtani. The mistake that was made was the gambling and the bookie are illegal in CA. The bookie says they only dealt with the interpreter. Nevertheless, the $4 mil of payments from Ohtani's account were illegal either way-if Ohtani was paying his own or the interpreter's illegal gambling debt. Neither one of them knew that, and apparently, the interpreter never told anyone-even Ohtani's reps-what was happening. The fact the reps weren't aware of Ohtani gambling tells me this is on the interpreter. Someone else would have known if Ohtani was making bets. Of course, they could be keeping mum but if that was the case they wouldn't have had the mix up in statements. That's on the interpreter who apparently didn't realize, or didn't care, his story about Ohtani being such a "good friend" to him that Ohtani would pay his $4mil gambling debts resulting from his addiction, still gets Ohtani in trouble because gambling is illegal in California-he would have paid for illegal activity. It's a mess. We do know that Mitzuhara ingratiated himself with Ohtani when Ohtani was a teenager, and Mitzuhara was the middleman for Ohtani throughout Ohtani's time in Orange County, CA, USA, with the Angels. Mitzuhara lied about his credentials-he never attended UC Riverside and he never worked for Boston or the NY Yankees. It's on him either way- he finagled the money from Ohtani to the illegal bookie or he facilitated Ohtani's illegal betting. So the blame is where it should be-on him. He had 1 job- to interpret for Ohtani. This was way over that line.

Rich…Blah, blah, blah. Don’t put your Western reasoning onto Shohei. He’ll do what is right for him not what you “need” to know.

The fact the FBI is now involved makes me think it could be more serious than we are led to believe.

My neighbor who worked at Pollo Loco learned English. Put forth the effort.

If the money was indeed stolen, which it most likely wasn't, then not only should the interpreter be locked up, but so should the "illegal bookmaker" who received those funds. They know the account it was wired to. Yet no news of ANY ARRESTS have been released. ONLY THE IRS, CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE CAN STEAL THESE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, OR HIGHER, AND GET AWAY WITH IT. (They are probably comparing notes!)

The term 'charitable gambling' was lost in translation.

Were the betting rreceipts his name? Because I find it very weird that if this guy stole your money and placed these bets in your name....and those bets hit.... The money would go into Ohtanis account. So how is that theft.

The Japanese have strict codes of honor. This might be a factor.

If it's not automatic for the authorities to seek charges, Ohtani's not pressing charges most likely. If he presses charges he will be investigated further, and truth will come out.

This is what happened. The interpreter was robbing him blind. Ohtani got married and his wife looked at the books, she told him and they waited to verify it. Before they could, the story broke and all hell broke loose. They was going to fire the interpreter anyway, but to disengage him from their finances they had to keep it close to the chest. But when the story broke, the interpreter couldn’t steal anymore anyway. They had to let things play out.

I hear ya there rich im a die hard giants fan and i have no love for the dodgers like not one bit lol but i really was excited to see this guy for the next ten years

IRS Criminal Investigations, nothing is scarier than an accountant with a gun.

When you come home with lipstick on your collar.... and she let's you read a prepared statement.

Im starting to wonder if ohtani is as guilty as sin

Reading the comments on either side of this issue and I realize just how dumb our society is. Good grief.

He is a unicorn, has a ton of money, fame and success........ so he decides to screw up his own career so that he can win a couple mil off gambling?!?!?

that's light

Rich as a UM/Harbaugh fan couldn't be happier about this distraction. It's only a matter of years before all of Harbaughs wins are vacated.

The Del Tufo comment about manhole covers and UFL wiring was just gold.

Shohei came from Japan to play baseball at a high level, willing to wait a few years before reaching the major leagues and earn a huge amount of money. His hobby is baseball, and his way of relieving stress is baseball training. He dedicates his entire life to baseball. He said that even getting married would be a positive thing for baseball, and that even though his grades may be up or down, he would be able to support himself emotionally when he returned home. In the first place, pitching and batting on the major league stage is far more exciting than gambling. I'm not looking for money, and Shohei's longtime fans believe in Shohei 100%!

everyone is saying that he couldn't have missed that amount of money missing... but just based off his work ethic, he may have actually missed it coz he's so focused on baseball. and this is not even accounting for his morals which is said to be on good grounds from japanese accounts and some people he worked with. i'm on rooting for him and believing him. but i'll be open to change my mind if he is proven, from investigations, to have made illegal acts.

I know my interpreter has full access to my millions, and is able to wire any amount without the prior knowledge of my accountants, lawyers or even me. So I don’t know why Ohtani is under suspicion here…

"My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, Japan. I have not had … the only guy who made money from Japan is this guy Rob Manfred. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from Japan”

Rich, I love you and your show, and I'm glad you always try to support Otani. Given the mentality Otani has shown thus far, it's easy to see that his statements and reality are completely consistent. Some reports have questioned why Otani has not accused Ippei, but given his strong sense of responsibility for the stress that drove Ippei to gambling addiction and his deep gratitude for the support he has shown him up until now, it's understandable that he would forgive Ippei for the theft without blaming him. Also, the method of wire transfer should be asked from the person who sent the money, and if Otani's statement is to be believed, it was Ippei who sent the money, so it would be clear if the authorities asked Ippei, not Otani. It may be difficult for people who don't need an interpreter to understand the situation where a person who cannot speak English very well can't open a bank account or transfer money without the help of an interpreter, but in such a situation it would be relatively easy for an interpreter to make a fraudulent transfer. Those who cannot sympathize with the shock of Otani being betrayed by someone he trusted wholeheartedly may be people who have lost their innocence to the point that they are forced to doubt Otani's purity. Also, Otani himself may feel sorry about the trouble he has caused everyone at the Dodgers due to the mistake made by his interpreter, but why is it that the more fundamental issue is not being reported as to the responsibility of the Angels, who were his employers and had supervisory responsibility, for failing to manage Ippei's actions at the time he engaged in illegal gambling and fraudulent transfers?

This...this is my fellow Brooklyn-born Rich Eisen. Absolutely! You steal 45 _CENTS_ from me, errbody gonna know...

Ohtani will be back at what he is best at doing. Hitting! You will be switching tone in no time. Give it some time.

You never know.

Hard to believe Ohtani's team did not duly report their actions to the ESPN agency of the federal government.

In the press conference, Shohei mentioned the matter was reported to the 'police' in Japanese. However, the interpreter interpreted police as 'authorities'. So technically it was revealed.

You can't spell fall guy without Ippei.

If you believe the premise/ explanation the unicorn/ fish out of water / wholesome private star gave, then for God's sake give the man time to grieve & process the betrayal and learn the extent of damage. For all intent , he is trying to cooperate with authorities and business partners. His right hand man just blew his world up. If this was only baseball, but it's that and so much more. We can't get the answers until the total picture is drawn n framed.

What do you expect the MLB to do with it’s biggest star? Pete Rose him?

BUT…Rich knows he needs attention on his rinky dink channel so he’s gonna go ahead and ignore what Shohei said and speculate.

Always want to be careful not to condemn a guy before evidence and trial happens but Rich is on point with Ohtani and the Dodgers giving the outward appearance that they are being transparent while at the same time they refuse to elaborate on as innocent a detail as "have you reported the crime". It comes off like they didnt expect people to poke holes in their statement and didn't prepare further comment -- at best.

Which authorities Ohtani's team reported the theft to is a question for MLB to ask Ohtani's representatives, not the media. The question should be to Manfred, "have you knowleadge of which authorities the theft from Ohtani's accounts were reported to???" Manfred and MLB should then anwer in a yes or no form as they really should'nt tell the media what agency is investigating what. The question should go to MLB and if they cant verify that Ohtani's team has reported the theft to the proper authorities then that would mean they themselves are working to cover the the whole thing up.

reported him to Cyber Ninjas.... they'll get to the bottom of this witch hunt

Rich, if this is you stepping out of your lane, STEP OUT brotha!! You’re killing it

Rich said he wanted to believe Otani and wanted to know more about the truth, but it seemed like he really didn't update the news regularly. He keeps asking about old issues, and if you really want the truth, why don't you wait for the final conclusion of the investigation? Waiting is so difficult for you.

Stop this stuff, Rich. I get there isn’t much to discuss at the moment, but you need to let any investigation play out before commenting further

I want to believe Major League Baseball is against gambling. But when Draft Kings became the official sports book of MLB that’s no longer possible. When on site betting at Wrigley Field opened that’s no longer possible.

Whether you acknowledge it or not, it seems clear to me what you believe.

This feels like Rounders.