Rich Eisen Recaps the Fascinating 37-Page Federal Case Against Ex-Ohtani Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara 

You treated him like a liar without any proof.

Rich, what you need to do is not only analyze page 37, but before that, you need to "apologize". This is about your character.

Still no reflection on his own mistakes. Instead he tells Ohtani to learn English and check his accounts. Shameful!

Rich, I think you owe Shohei an apology. You can honestly admit that you were biased and win back your fans.

You suggested that Ohtani learn English, but that's discriminatory and utterly unacceptable. Ohtani is the hardest-working two-way player in MLB. Have you ever lived in a country with a different culture and language, trying to open a bank account? Try it. And of course, I advise you not to trust interpreters either! Also, you claim that in America, Americans never fall victim to scams. It's only foreigners who can't speak English. I see!

Does Eisen know all foreign players in Japan dosent speak Japanese even after a decade. Still not all of them will be defrauded. John Elway, Kareem AJ, Robert DeNiro Elton John ALL CAN SPEAK ENGLISH and still got defrauded by partners, agents or close confidants and didn’t notice it of amount much bigger than Ohtani..happens to businessmen too. It’s call Banking Fraud and have nothing to do with being stupid or cannot speak English!!

All the Japanese who knew Ohtani since he was in high school knew he was not the kind of person to engage in illegal gambling.

Just apologize for making your assumptions and broadcasting it online! You have a platform and it is in you to be responsible of what you say and broadcast ! You owe ohtani an apology !

For real, most of the media owe Othani an apology.

Shohei's words have been proven to be the case. Then what did you say? Use two-factor authentication? Learn English? You should be ashamed of yourself.

Rich says he was being “skeptical” but he believed Ippei’s lies and ran with his initial story.

So, what you're saying Rich is that Ohtani's representatives got duped by Ippei just like you got duped by what he said to ESPN? How is that possible when you speak fluent English? Well, I know... you assumed that it must be true since he was Ohtani's interpreter and best friend. Again, there's nothing wrong with being sketpical. We all should reserve the possibility of both outcomes. The problem is that you basically said Ohtani must be lying... and your crew laughed with you about it. Anyone can be "fair" after the facts have come out. It's a little late, Rich. You can stop your fake outrage and non-apology apology now.

learn how to apologize

Rich Eisen aside, it has become clear to me that there are people who like to see Ohtani fall from grace. I can see lots of them in comment columns at Kay’s channel, for example. I wonder what motivates them to hate Ohtani; cynicism, jealousy, racism, or just being a New Yorker.

Ippei not only stole the money Shohei earned through his hard work at the Angels, but he also broke Shohei's heart and destroyed his reputation, which is a serious crime.

I’m a fan of yours Rich. Stop making excuses, just apologize to Shohei for being skeptical, period. You and your show is starting to look bad.

人を疑うのは自由だけど、それをメディアに乗っけて発信するな 自分の影響力を考えろよ

Nope just apologize

Hey Rich, Ohtani said clearly he did not do anything wrong and he did not know any of bank wire.　I believed him but you didn't.

This guy attacked Ohtani. Everyone must not forget it.

You just believed ESPN without interviewing OHTANI. YOU MADE A MISTAKE.

Rich, why cant you just say sorry. At this point, you're digging deeper and deeper, your own grave

Eisen still doesn’t get it Why did the the story change? Because desperate people lie. Sorry Rich, your questions were not fair because you automatically put the suspicions on Ohtani from the beginning

Your opinions as a talk show host are not above the fed and the law. Your doubt on Ohtani was cast as a false accusation in the past month. As someone with a large online presence and influential multimedia platform, you have a responsibility to stick to the facts and be patient with the process. Your non-apologetic and self-centered response in this video was disappointing.

As a journalist, you should always be skeptical and ask questions. However, if you had paid attention to the details, you would have realized that Ohtani's story never changed and made the most sense. You made the same mistake that Ohtani's agent and financial advisors made in that you assumed Mizuhara was speaking for Ohtani when you never heard from Ohtani directly himself. The fact that the agent never consulted Ohtani's lawyers before the ESPN interview and allowed Mizuhara to give a 90 minute interview without an attorney present or give an interview at all should have also tipped you off to the incompetency of Ohtani's staff. Ohtani being chummy with Mizuhara after the interview and before the team meeting, where he first learned of what was going on, also should have given you pause. Why would he be acting so friendly with Mizuhara after learning that Mizuhara's gambling habit was attracting negative attention from the press and involved in a bookie scandal being investigated by the feds and IRS? Finally, why wouldn't you be suspicious of the words of an admitted gambling addict? Sadly, instead of just giving an honest apology and admitting your error, you tell the victim to learn English and change their passwords. Classy.

When Tisha Thompson interviewed Mizuhara for the first time, she asked him if Ohtani made any bets. To that, Mizuhara vehemently denied it and then elaborated (I am paraphrasing here) “Shohei hates gambling. When he sees teammates gambling in locker room, he says he doesn’t understand why they do that.” and then added as Ohtani’s quote “gambling ruins life”. Retrospectively, Mizuhara was talking about himself.

Even my son(5yo) can apologize

Apologize to Ohtani Apologize to Ohtani Apologize to Ohtani

Just apologize and stop making excuses.

Even Jeff Passan, the reporter who misjudged Ohtani when he first came to the U.S., apologized and said, "I'm sorry. I was wrong," he apologized in an article, but I don't think that a flip-flop of that magnitude is going to cut it after publishing an article denigrating someone's character and making him out to be a criminal. that's American culture?

Eisen just can't grasp the fact that Ippei was lying in the interivew w/ espn.

APOLOGIZE TO OHTANI

Those who keep saying Ohtani is a gambler are either hidden racists or dodger haters.

C'mon now, Rich. You studied journalism. I respect you. Pseudo-skepticism is not the same thing as scientific skepticism or critical thinking. You know that. The fact you gave more credence to Ippei -- who has had a history of being a liar -- over Ohtani's word is the problem. You ran with Ippei's interview on ESPN as if it was a hole in Ohtani's story rather than it being a hole in Ippei's story. By doing this, you made Ohtani become a defendant in the public court rather than the victim, which is rather insane. This is pseudo-skepticism. A true scientific skeptic would have said, "I don't know what's true based on what we have. Let's wait for more evidence." But, I digress. Anyways, let's strive to clean up sports media and make it ethical and factual, rather than sensational. I still want to believe you are one of the good ones.

What have you learned from your blunder, Rich? Ohtani would have learned from this that he had to do a lot more than just play baseball. But Ohtani will remain unchanged, incredibly pure, and will choose to trust rather than doubt people. You're justifying yourself by saying you're just skeptical, and you're a terrible human being who tells Ohtani to learn English and use a two-factor authentication app. But, If the next time you see Ohtani, he will be as sincere to you as always. That's his humanity. He is on a completely different level than you.

Victim blaming is pretty terrible. I honestly expected better from Rich.

Rich, I'm admittedly a "Shohei-stan." Skepticism is always warranted. Two problems with your coverage: 1) You consistently misrepresented parts of the original reports from Thompson (she made it clear there was no "Ohtani's Team;" it was Dodgers' PR staff scrambling, and basing their own actions on Mizuhara's words; Mizuhara lied to Ohtani about the forthcoming media reports); 2) I love your work, man, but "Learn English" is one of the most ignorant (yet common) things monolingual speakers tell OTHERS to do. You likely have an agent to deal with complex business matters, a lawyer to advise you on any legal matters, accountants who deal with your financial needs, etc. Yet, why? You're a native English speaker, right? Why do you need these professionals' help? Because the various rules and regulations are "foreign" to you. Now, as an adult, go to another country...say, Japan...and "Learn Japanese" deeply enough that you can function in all of the above-mentioned areas. Lastly, imagine you have employed a Japanese-English bilingual speaker you have known and trusted for a decade, and has been trusted by all other professionals around you that know this person. But, still, "Learn Japanese," man. C'mon. Piece of cake, right? In my case, that's what's been disappointing about your coverage.

Who do you hate the most among these three? 1. Otani believed a person. 2. Mizuhara stole money from his friend. 3. A bald man who doesn't apologize.

Pathetic excuses. Being skeptical is different from throwing someone in the mud.

I was wrong. Sorry Shohei, you were a victim, and I’m a dumbass.

Even after Ohtani has been exonerated they’re still skeptical 😂

The talking heads have been bashing and victim blaming Ohtani for the past 3 weeks. The investigation absolved Ohtani of any wrongdoing and now all these pundits who were sure Ohtani was the next Pete Rose are eating crow. If you had been watching Shohei the past 6 years when he arrived to play in the MLB, it was very apparent that he`s a nice guy, respectable, and focused on being the best at the sport of baseball. It would be extremely inconsistent to his character to be a degenerate gambler/liar. He deferred his 700 million contract with the Dodgers. He`s only shown class on the field. It`s just too bad people want to manufacture dirt on the guy.

Even though he is innocent, Otani endured the harsh criticism from the media and the public who were fueled by it, and continued to produce results in the game. If you are a truly sincere person, Rich, you should apologize to Otani and those who believed in him for spreading doubts about Otani through the media before telling excuse.

FBI showed us any detailed evidence for Shohei's innocent. Rich, show us any evidence for what you said. Take responsibility for your words. It's your turn.

リッチさん、あなたのやるべきことは37ページの分析だけではなくその前に「謝ること」です。これはあなたの人格に関することです。

Ohtani has been quoted multiple times that he doesn’t care about money. If he had waited for two more years before coming to the U.S., he would have received Yamamoto type of money before even having a single AB or pitch in the MLB. All reports indicate Ohtani is singularly motivated to become the best baseball player who ever lived. Another side of this story is that Ohtani not only trusted Mizuhara but also relied on his service for day-to-day operations in the U.S. at least initially. The bank account that Mizuhara stole from is actually the one that he helped Ohtani open to receive his salary from Angels. Ohtani has known Mizuhara since 2013 when Ohtani was 18, and Mizuhara became his de facto manager in 2018 when Ohtani asked him to come to the U.S. with him to be his translator. When Ohtani won the AL ROY that year, Ohtani mentioned Mizuhara as someone he owed his gratitude most. Even for Ohtani, losing $16M must hurt, but the sense of betrayal probably hurts more.

you have to apologize cos you are not entitled to any of the evidence as he did not do any harm to you and no one asked you to do the investigation. Yet you literally threw this man under the bus for weeks with no clear cut fact but speculation and can't even admit that you were dead wrong with concrete evidence on hand.

Rich Eisen, it is natural to ask “how this was possible”. But when you couldn’t come up with the explanation, you jumped into talking about a possible Ohtani involvement, with no evidence. That approach is contrasting to that of, say, Ken Rosenthal, who probably has seen as many if not more cases as you, McGwire’s included. Rosenthal’s approach was basically wait and see but leaning toward trusting Ohtani partly because of the (unusual) strong legal position that he had taken. Moreover, Rosenthal noticed how unflappable Ohtani acted under the baseless cloud of suspicion you and your ilks threw to him. Rosenthal speculated perhaps Ohtani had nothing to worry about knowing he had done nothing wrong. That’s how this one turned out.

Ohtani treated you with kindness. The least that you could do was to remain silent and waited for the result of the investigation, if you were skeptic. But no, you felt the need to voice your doubts fueling ohtani's haters

So espn airs the story without ever asking ohtani directly over this matter , and rich eisen basically having a guilty until proven innocent Attitude none of the above Is true journalism

Whatever, just apologize

Do you know the principle of presumption of innocence as a journalist ?

大谷さんに対してグレーな発言をした事を、同じ番組でまずはきちんと謝るべきです。自分発言に責任を持てないのであればその仕事は向いてない！！

Typical media response… I will not apologize, I’m just doing my job!

Most Japanese believed that Otani was innocent and not involved in gambling. On the other hand, most US people suspected that Otani was primarily involved in gambling. This difference is surprising.

Did Rich Eisen even understand, by constantly comparing McGwire to Ohtani, he was spreading the presumption of guilt?

Ohtani wasn’t even 21 when he met Ippei. They don’t talk about this age gap. He was taken advantaged of

As many people pointed out, it wasn't people asking questions that was the problem. We all had questions, but It was the speculating on with a major slant towards believing he was guilty of something. You only speculated on the ways Ohtani may have been guilty, not at all about how he could have been innocent.

When Eisen could not imagine how Ohtani was NOT involved, his mind was just too pure to imagine the length Ippei would go to cover his track for so long.

I think the problem is suspecting someone of major accusations without any proof. It’s like if someone’s parents got killed and you are like “it could have been the daughter, she found the body first and there’s no evidence to the contrary yet”, yes it’s plausible that the daughter might have been the murderer, but you don’t throw that accusation around until some evidence points towards in that direction. There was literally no evidence that points toward Ohtani being the gambler except “how does he not notice it?”

The worse that you did day one… on your platform like some others who are lucky enough to have a platforms such as yours… was to poke holes into the character of a PERSON who happens to be a mega star baseball player!! Without knowing ALL facts (because an investigation takes TIME)!!!! Now you’re ONLY trying to ironically clean up your name or yourself PERIOD! This s*** doesn’t feel good right?! You of all people (considering you keep talking about your encounter/conversation with Mark McGuire) should have waited as long as it took (days, weeks, months if necessary) till all the facts were out! But you didn’t from start to almost finish. Own it!! The man is a decent person, but platform personalities like you didn’t. This is your attempt to now do your own PR… to late Rich… you and others should be ashamed but doesn’t sound like it. And the man was gracious enough to take a picture with you and your son. SHAMEFUL ABUSE OF A USE TO BE RESPECTFUL TALK SHOW HOST!!

Please apologize Ohtani for doubting him.

You should have waited for the full story before irresponsibly speculating and essentially calling an innocent man a liar and tarnishing his reputation. That responsibility is greater for you given your microphone. I don’t think you are a bad person, but you need to use this as a learning experience.

Japanese here. No fan of Ohtani in Japan would doubt him. NOBODY. We all know that he would never ever do such a thing like gambling if that would take a chance to play baseball in MLB away from him. What he cares about is baseball, not money. Maybe people can't understand how naive he is but he does NOT care about money. He was too good to doubt Ippei, who was actually a great interpreter and appeared to be a great supporter of Shohei both in public and private.

I was as cynical as anyone else and now find it wonderfully refreshing that Ohtani is not only a sports phenom but a remarkably naive victim of his enjoyable and gracious personality that never appears to be fake and doesn't appear to have a dark side at all. I'm thrilled he is absolved of all the doubts and the easily reasonable questions most everyone has had.

The IRS, the Homeland Security and the FBI have all cleared Ohtani, and have evidence with text messages and recordings of Ippei on bank calls. Ippei also changed Ohtani's account to his name so he woukd not get bank statements and notices. We all knew Ohtani was innocent and the real victim except the trolls and haters, Sad

This guy must have been having a panic attack when he saw that ohtani had deferred basically all of his salary

Eisen, didn't ohtani show you grace and was nice to you and your son, taking pics with you both? You judged too quickly. It's.not a good look

Rich I think people aren’t happy because it ^looks like^ to some people you’re treating ohtani guilty till proven innocent.

日本から； You will never apologize for asking evidence? What evidence? You mean to say the evidence that substantiates his innocence? That's so strange. Do you understand "presumption of innocence"? Usually you should watch over the progress like this case assuming that he is innocent until you get evidence that substantiates his guilt if you live in the society that has "presumption of innocence" as constitutional important principle. All the more if you are concerned in media that owe social responsibility for their fairness, objectivity. What is needed is not evidence to prove someone's innocence, but evidence to substantiate someone's guilt. Nevertheless, you aroused Ohtani's suspicion based on a mere conjecture or confessions of a particular person that never deserve evidence to substantiate Ohtani's guilt. So you are not qualified to be a journalist. You also fail as a human being if you never apologize to Ohtani for spreading his suspicion without unequivocal evidence to substantiate his guilt. Never dodge!

This guy never believed Ohtani is innocent. Most Japanese people are like, ‘I told you so. Shohei never gambles!!’ The story was changed because the first story came from Ippei NOT from Sho. Are these guys blind or deaf?

Ippei changed his story because he’s a pathological liar. He’s been lying since 2013 when he got a job as an interpreter for Ham Fighters of NPB where he met Shohei. There’s a saying in Japan ‘Liar today, Thief tomorrow.’ I wish Ham Fighters had run a check on Ippei then. Shohei trusted him with all his heart. Sad.

Rich believed McGuire but didn’t believe Ohtani. Poor judgement proven, he should stop jumping to conclusions! He made it sound like Ohtani’s innocence was impossible or unlikely.

今後、大谷翔平さんの活躍をあなたは、話してはいけない 翔平サンを語る資格があなたにはない

Someone please tell me. Did he apologize to Otani?

This whole story made me like Ohtani even more which I didn't think was possible.

In hindsight, kind of wild that it wasn't considered more that someone with a legitimate gambling problem would just, lie

Rich, I don't trust you as a journalist anymore.

i have no problem with Rich being skeptical. However, I think he should've said that "we should reserve our judgement before the Feds and MLB's investigations are over with."

I didn’t doubt him, I knew he was 100% innocent, but I think it’s fair you wanted the hard evidence so you can make your decision if you’d believe him or not. What’s problematic is that those conspiracy theorists who are still trying to label him as a criminal after all the facts came out. They need to see a therapist.

So Where is the apology ?

Asking questions that assume Ohtani is guilty is sad and pathetic, especially given his track record. Some people just can't apologize even when they know they are wrong.

Where is Tisha Thompson now???

The nature of this whole story had us all skeptical. But the problem with media members, Rich included, is the childish inability to wait out an ongoing investigation by the FBI and DOJ, which they know will provide answers, and to instead spew out pure conjecture for clicks, to make sure there's a catchy title for the YT channel. Yeah Rich, you're getting dragged now , but not compared to how you and others dragged Ohtani through all this

ｗhy can't you apologize. Have your opinions hurt him so far? You're an influential person, but you didn't tell the truth. 37-page,you still had doubts without reading this. Fans thought you understood ohtani’s humanity. We're disappointed because we love you. Your comment will be translated into Japanese and turned into a news article. I want you to know about the mandala chart he wrote when he was young. He's never the kind of person who would do anything bad.

Stop making this about you Rich

Why Rich cannot believe Ohtani is innocent? Because there’s only trash people surround him, that’s thy. Rich has never met a real good man like Ohtani

As it turns out, Rich Eisen is just another grubby tabloid journalist.

Lost respect for you rich. You were one of the good ones i thought.

The least surprising thing to come out of 2024: Ohtani (who sent all his money to his parents when he was in the NBL and deferred almost his entire contract) indeed does not check his bank account

It’s ok to be skeptical. But, it has to be both way. Apparently you were skeptical one way heavy.

I don’t get it! Why is the coverage of his innocence so much smaller than the coverage of his guilt? Stephen A Smith hasn’t said anything about it

You look miserable making your mates back you up for your wrong assumption. Thought you were better than this.

there's more to it than just gambling. ippei also stole $325000 from the account to purchase collector baseball cards with the intent of selling them at a later time for profit. he was more than just a gambler with an addiction... he was a common thief

Mizutani told a story, Ohatani explained. And you believed the story Mizutani, just because your nature itself is rather closer to the one of Mizutani. Shohei is so genuine at heart, unlike you and me. But now you have the results of the Federal investigation, and if you still believe the story of Mizuhara and doubt the explanation of Shohei, you are now committing a crime of intentionally defaming Mr. Ohtani ! Note that it was not just Mr. Ohtani, but also his legal agent and financial advisers and bank staff were easily deceived by the interlocutor, Mizuhara, so it is not just Ohtani’s English deficiency problem, but the whole system of financial service security for non native English and yet premium clients is in question. If they employ even if for temporary basis, an interpreter on their own, Mizuhara’s wrong doing must have been unveiled much easily at an early date ! Must come the first be an apology, not the justification of your misjudgment. And if not, you have no quality to comment on athletes any more.

Anytime anyone wants to reach Ohtani in an official capacity it’s through Ippei. Whatever message Ippei passes along everyone assumes it’s coming from Ohtani. With that dynamic Ippei could have easily pulled this off. He was desperate and came up with the story that Ohtani was just covering his debt in hopes that when Ohtani finally hears about it, he would go along. Ippei knew this was a long shot but he was desperate. It’s not that hard to fathom.

I always knew Ohtani was innocent.

There's an important detail people seem to be missing about this whole Shohei Ohtani thing: this isn't his only bank account. Everything in the report seems to suggest Ohtani primarily uses his other accounts, and the account Ippei had access to was solely for the purpose of getting deposits from his team (Angels, and now Dodgers). Most of Ohtani's income comes from endorsements, and those probably went to his Japanese bank account that he had since before coming to the U.S., and he seemingly only used those accounts primarily. Which means the account Ippei stole from was probably used solely as a savings account and Ohtani (who is known to be extremely frugal) didn't touch it and didn't let anyone have access to it. The only reason why Ippei had access to it is because Ippei translated the entire bank contract and later on, Ippei impersonated Ohtani to grant himself broader access to the account.

大谷選手をあたかも犯罪者かのように決めつけたあなたは日本では有名人です。 間違ったら日本では子供の時に謝る事を教わりますよ、、、 まず謝罪しましょう、そこからです。

People who lie assume that others will lie too, and people who are obsessed with money assume that others are obsessed with money. I hope you get sued for defamation.