Rich Eisen Still Has Questions about Shohei Ohtani Despite His Interpreter Negotiating a Guilty Plea 

Rich believes the Earth is flat.

You must officially apologize to him

When Feds are saying Ohtani is innocent and victim in this case. What more does Ohtani have to prove to you? It's very clear to us. Stop smearing Ohtani!!! He does not owe anything to prove to you!! Innocent until proven guilty, but he is innocent in this case. Why don't you get all the stories and facts together before making assumption as journalist! I'm very disappointed in you!

Rich Eisen, why didn't you wait for a few hours for the scheduled DOJ press conference before making yourself look a complete fool? All your questions have been answered. It was 16M to boot. Feds found the recording in which Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani to a bank employee. Feds also examined thousands of communications between Mizuhara and Ohtani, which showed that Ohtani had no knowledge of Ippei's theft or gambling activities. On top of that, there was no change in Ohtani's story whatsoever. Ohtani's first statement on this subject was that he was the victim. Everything else was concocted by Mizuhara, which by the way initially said that the debt was not his but his (other) friend's. Ohtani the victim had no obligation to explain or even speculate how the crime occurred. That duty solely belonged to authorities.

I m so dissapointed at you.say nothing more on Ohtani.

Hopefully Ohtani never speaks to you or takes a photo with you ever again.

On your show last week David Samson accused Shohei of lying that he met the fan who caught the first HR ball and implied that he may be lying about other things. Well all of us Japanese bilinguals knew that his new interpreter totally misinterpreted when Shohei said “the team was able to talk to the fan and get the ball back. I believe that your show owes Shohei an apology. Man up.

I really like Rich and I could not be more disappointed with his speculation on this matter. The DOJ has out right explained the situation and has unambiguously labeled Ohtani a victim of massive fraud.

Why did the story change? Because Ippei changed it!

Rich needs to take this down. This is sloppy on his end and his whole team. It's tacky and petty and CLEARLY he hates this dude. Lost a lot of respect.

Why is it so hard to believe him? Idk why Rich is so hung up on this?

I used to respect you and liked your show a lot. No more. But you’re same as Dylan Hernandez, or Sam B. Ohtani NEVER changed his story Ippei Did.

Ohtani haters like you , ESPN must apologize to Shohei . America media has somewhat bad intentions against him and we know it. What a shame.

Apologize now! You should be ashamed!!

You’ re not a JOURNALIST ……………

Why so hung up on the original story? The original story was from the guy who did the crime… and got caught. He’s not some genius mastermind. Just some guy who made up a flimsy lie when he realized he was getting exposed.

Rich Eisen, wow. You don't want Ohtani to be innocent, you want him guilty. Federal investigators stated they have evidence of Ippei's wrong doing and how he was able to change settings so Ohtani didn't get alerts but you still have questions. Talk to the Feds, they have those answers....delete the photo of your son and Ohtani. I hope Ohtani isn't nice enough to grant you anymore photos or attention.

This Ohtani story has exposed the fact That a decent portion of US media is so painful stupid I genuinely wonder how they are capable of functioning on a daily basis

When Ippei did win a bet, the money was not deposited into Ohtani's bank account. Rather, the US attorney said, it would go into Ippei's bank account. He "used and abused that position of trust."

first of all, ohtani doesn't 'owe' you (or cooptani) an explanation. instead, perhaps you should educate YOURSELF and listen to the US attorney's statement. hopefully you would see the the authorities are doing just fine without your vast knowledge of bank fraud investigations.

The amount of people who outwardly just *want* Shohei Ohtani to be guilty of some form of wrongdoing in this situation, despite a federal investigation saying he’s completely innocent, is just bizarre and dumbfounding to me. I don’t know why anyone would root for that

His reputation is intact. Your's not so much.

Truly disappointed Rich. Your Yankee bias is really showing. Yikes!

You personally met Ohtani, and how could you suspect his involvement. You can’t read people. He is from a country where people leave their wallets on table to save seats before going to public bathrooms. You can’t prioritize your normal when there is a huge cultural difference.

Just admit it. You WANT HIM TO BE GUILTY. Its so damn obvious

It's reported now the FBI have recordings of bank calls that IPPEI made with bank employees, and he was pretending to be Ohtani to the bank. Ippei also changed Ohtani's account to his name so he would not get statements and notices.

Among other things, Ohtani voluntarily deferred $68 or 70 million dollars for the next 10 (!) years from his annual salaries. Which gambler that owes a large sum of money to an illegal bookie would do THAT?

Shohei has never been concerned about money since he joined the Angels. He just wanted to play baseball and worked hard. He left his money to someone he trusted and had no interest in checking his balance. Otherwise he would not be able to become a two-way player.

What is it that you don't get? Do some history on Ohtani. He doesn't care about money and prob has no idea how much he he has in his bank account. When he was already the biggest star in Japan, he gave all of his paychecks to his Mom, who then gave him an allowance each month. Ippei was the one who took care of everything financially for Ohtani. He did all of Sho's shopping for him. Ohtani never looked at his account and fully trusted Ippei. What is it about that, that you don't understand?

Probably one of Rich's worst takes. Kind of take id expect from skip or Colin cowherd

あなたはESPNの誤報に踊らされたのです

Ohtani is innocent.

How Rich Eisen thinks: Ohtani with a sterling character and no evidence of any wrongdoing against him = Ehhh, not convinced Mizuhara who lied about various things throughout his career after being caught for gambling, lying about the more serious crime = gotta be 100% without a doubt true

So, after Ippei confessed his gambling problem in the club house, he convineced Shohei, who was confused by Ippei's speech, to wait until they got to the hotel for his full explanation. I'm guessing Ippei thought he could talk into Shohei that this (Ippei's version of story) was the best for both of them so that Ippei could stil be with Shohei (who really relied on his support on/off field) and Shohei would be seen as a good friend helping Ippei's debts. But Shohei didn't buy it and decided to talk to Nez and Dodgers directly to clear things out. In Japan, ever sicne he became professional, Shohei is very famous for having no interest in money, and Japanese TV shows and his former teammates often joked about it. I'm not surprised if Shehei rarely checked his bank account(s) for the same reason. Well, if that's the case, Shohei needs to grow up a bit and should be more careful from now on because there are many crazy/bad people out there in this world😔

Don't get why it's so hard to believe. Celebrities get scammed, ripped off all the time by people who even aren't friends they trust.

Ippei first met Shohei while interpreting for the Fighters in 2013 when he was 19 years old, and they were like brother's Ippei even said he spent more time with Shohei then his own wife because the schedule and travel. Shohei gave Ippei alot of trust and access to all his private and personal informatuon, including his finances. I just saw an interview on Jeffrey J. Hall show he said, Is it hard to believe that Ippei Mizuhara had access to Shohei Ohtani's bank account? No. It's quite plausible and normal, says Katsunori Kojima, a former interpreter for the Mets/Giants. He handled financial transactions himself for players because of the trust and the schedule they have.

I truly believe rich is still salty the dodgers landed both Ohtani n yoshi. Cuz if Ohtani was a Yankee he wouldn’t question it this much

How dumb are these media and trolls making assumptions accussing someone of gambling. Forget the haters but the media accusing him do it for the ratings. He should sue all these bias medias.

All these media ppl who bitch about ohtani not answering to media now knows why he don't answer to them!!! Ohtani's camp need to file defamation suit vs Michael Kay, Evan Roberts, & Michael willard

Did anyone but Shohei's interpreter say that Shohei agreed to pay that debt? If Ippei is the only one saying that then maybe he lied about Shohei giving him the money.

No one is entitled to an explanation who isn't part of the criminal justice system.

Eisen: I will continue to be cynical about Ohtani's innocence without evidence, though a federal investigation that has gathered evidence found no wrongdoing

Do you know? Ohtani couldn't understand English at all when he opened a bank account. He had no choice but to trust IPPEI MIZUHARA. That is why MIZUHARA had a lot of chance to steal his information. Ohtani is from the very countryside. He never had experience living in a big city.He didn't need to doubt others. He just loves baseball. Ohtani is not you.

The majority of the sports media is gonna owe Ohtani a solid apology for dragging him through the mud. Like you got your answers to 90% of the former questions with this report today. 95% I agree w/ Rich but I dont get why he's sticking to this one thing. Ippei is clearly a con artist that it finally caught up to him!

Rich can't let it go, huh

Delete that photo of your son and Shohei.

The DOJ press conference this morning exonerated Ohtani. It has been clear that Rich Eisen, ever since this story broke, was quick to judge and continues to now double down in the face of the actual facts of the case as explained by the DOJ. Used to be a huge fan of Rich and this show. I won’t be tuning into anything associated with the RES in the future.

Do you think Shohei read ESPN? I bet he doesn’t even know ESPN exists. 😂 He doesn’t care about anything but improving his baseball skills. He’s been like that since he was 12 years old. That’s why Shohei succeeded where nobody else did.

Rich Eisen I am so disappointed in you Ohtani was the star of the rams game which he last attended and he took the time to take a photo with you and your son and you stir the pot like this unbelievable

Ohtani already has been cleared by 3 agencies - why didn't you just listen to the press conference before going on speculating and doubting Ohtani's integrity.

At first he acted like a fan, but in reality he was resentful of discrimination and for not joining the Yankees, and his true feelings were revealed.

Am a massive fan but this is such a bad look from Rich.

It's a far reaching federal investigation. Filing charges can and often does take time. Nothing strange about that fact.

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Just because you have unanswered questions does not mean Ohtani is withholding anything or concealing guilt. Wait for the federal investigation to wrap up.

You start off that you want Ohtani to be innocent then u go on a tirade off doubt. Read the Feds report and stop trying to concoct and continue the suspicion when clearly he is innocent.

Bank Official: "Mr. Ohtani, do you wish to wire $4.5 mil?" Interpreter: "He asks if you enjoy baseball." Ohtani: "Yes." Interpreter: "He says yes."

Rich has handled this like someone who would throw water on a grease fire. Keep up with the "just asking questions" demeanor so that you feed the trolls online. Used to think you were better than this

Who is more likely to have a gambling problem a baseball player who grew up in rural japan or a Translator who grew up in LA and lied about having a degree

Rich Eisen, you lost all respect from me. Hope you get cancelled soon

Somewhat ashamed of being American when I see nonsense like this. There have been athletes that have actually committed crimes that get more respect and love from American media than Ohtani is getting and he has done nothing wrong. This is very bizarre

Rich is being deliberately obtuse. Get on with it Rich, you want him to be guilty, but don't have the balls to say it. The evidence is out there, but you made up your mind when the story first broke and now you don't want to be wrong.

Typical Rich Eisen L

Ippei Mizuhara has been charged with stealing more than $16 million from Shohei Ohtani, according to federal investigat

and this January, Mizuhara allegedly placed "approximately 19,000 wagers." Losing bets: $182.94 million Winning bets: $142.27 million Total losses: nearly $40.7 million The seized records "do not reflect any bets on baseball games."

Why are you asking questions to Ohtani instead of your authorities?"

Ohtani has been subjected to media harassment every day.American media didn't believe him.Apologize to him and the fans.

Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani's longtime interpreter and confidant, has been charged with bank fraud after it was discovered he transferred more than $16M from Ohtani's account to an alleged illegal sports book, federal authorities announced in L.A. court.

Rich… addicts lie. They will lie upon lies upon lies to keep their addiction going. Doesn’t matter if the addiction is drugs, alcohol, or gambling.

All this talk of whether Ohtani paid attention to reports or media is missing an important point. To 'pay attention' would require a level of English proficiency he lacks. If you've ever spent time in a foreign country with an extremely different language, you know what it means to truly be 'oblivious.' You simply can't absorb everything being communicated around you.

Is it that hard to comprehend a such straight forward logic? I thought you are intellectually sound……. You must be a heavy gambler or somebody hurt you badly in the past…..

We live in a world of guilty until proven innocent and Rich is no different from the rest of the sheep in the media, he goes where the wind blows.

I always used to like you, Rich Eisen. And I get the cynicism. We live in a world where so many of our heroes failed us. OJ Simpson. Tiger Woods. Lance Armstrong. Roger Clemens. Mark McGwire. Jose Canseco. But even after all the evidence comes out and you keep the unhealthy skepticism? It's sad. but I guess that is human nature.

You doubted Shohei the whole time. Don’t back track.

Rich is going to wake up with the Yankee’s mascot’s head in his bed.

Rich The 37 page document is pretty straightforward. What don’t you understand? You need to stop your “this needs to be answered” remarks directed towards Shohei. He can’t answer why the interpreter changed his story after the interview with ESPN. Go ask the interpreter. Simultaneously, Shohei doesn’t know why the crisis management team did not confirm the interpreter’s story with Shohei. Likewise, why did the ESPN writer not confirm with Shohei directly. These are all answers that people other than Shohei can answer. Why did they all believe in the interpreter? The answer to all these question is in the 37 page document. It is evident that the interpreter has an uncanny skill in manipulating people to believe in him without ever confirming things with Shohei. Nez and his accounting team was told by Ippei that Shohei does not want to provide information on his account because he wants to keep it private. The tax accountant filing for Shohei’s tax return was supposed to have a meeting with Shohei and the interpreter only to be told by the interpreter that Shohei got sick and could not attend. Simultaneously, the interpreter told Shohei that there was no need to attend the meeting and that he (interpreter) would take care not of it. The interpreter convinces the banker by pretending to be Shohei himself and authorizing the wire. The common denominator here is somehow EVERYONE took the interpreter’s story at face value and completely believed in his story without ever attempting to confirm with Shohei. Ant the media also took the interpreter’s story at face value. What turned out to be 100% true was Shohei’s comment in his press conference. You need to at least mentioned that to be fair to Shohei.

A huge L for Rich on this one. He hates Ohtani and it's obvious

Lmao I learned a lot about rich eisen a few years ago when Tyreek hills son broke his arm on the monkey bars and rich eisen was insinuating that tyreek had something to do with it. I could only imagine that rich eisen has questions still for ohtani. I’m surprised he didn’t invite ohtani in for an interrogation, I mean an interview

I guess you’re bigger than FBI, a bias Yankee fan

Who knew Rich Eisen was part of the gutter press?

This is embarrassing coming from you rich

Someone establish a line of communication between Rich Eisen and the FBI, they need his expertise, and fast!

Shohei will have to answer to investigators, not to talk show hosts, who say "something is fishy" without having a clue about the case..... Move on Rich, this ain't helping you.

Medias are doing too much about this case. Maybe because Ohtani is not an american citizen?

Did anyone really firmly believe that a man that deferred hundreds of millions of dollars for 10 years.. is a gambler?.. you must not understand gambling.. it's about the instant gratification

Keep asking questions, Rich. You are so boring

Ippei is sick person who can steal from friend and smile next to Ohatani like nothing happened.

If someone across the globe can steal your information that you never met, I guarantee you someone close to you and you trust can still your identity. Bro come on you're reaching.

Rich “just askin’”and wading into conspiracy territory.

Its like a normal person missing $100. You might catch it or you might not. Most of us have subscription sevices we forget about. Its basically the same ratio.

Wonder how Pete Rose feels about this

The problem is “we were just wondering.” No you were not just wondering. You speculated and got in front of microphone and broadcasted without any proof.

The biggest piece of evidence that shows Ohtani is innocent was that Mizuhara would take Ohtani's money to pay for his losses, but when Mizhara won the money would always go into his personal account. If Ohtani was really in on it wouldn't he want some of the winnings too?

IRS needs to check out this money stream

I hope your son say to Ohtani that my dad is a fool so can you take another picture just with me again? The previous one with my dad I’m going to delete.

Bookmaker- “ I never met or spoke to Shohei Ohtani” Bookmaker Lawyer- “client never met or spoke to Ohtani” Interpreter-“ Shohei wasn’t involved. I’m ready to face the consequences” Feds-“ Shohei was not involved after we interviewed him”

I used to work/investigate criminal actions. My experience re "con people" is that they lie. About everything. And the ones I've dealt with have little to no empathy towards their victims. I've seen defense attorneys get totally embarrassed when explaining the defendants side of things and then facts show the exact opposite. Even when the defendant knows the facts will come out, they feel the need to tell a fictionalized version of events. I don't understand the motivation. the interpreter's background needs to be checked out b/c there may be a long line of victims in his past. Or, he just fell into this incredible situation. I do not envy the defense attorney working with this guy.

Over 280 people hit the like button on this? SMH

STOP IT~!! Ohtani should sue this old racist guy jeezzzzzzzzzzz

That PR firm looks like total morons for that interview to happen.

I thought your questions are reasonable so far. Now we got an investigation result under federal level, but you still keep questionings. Does Othani have any obligation to respond every single question and suspicion that you have? Some people believe what they believe it is true. For those, it is useless to explain.