Reacting to Shohei Ohtani & Jontay Porter's betting scandals |

Ohtani never changed his claim, but ESPN was fooled by the gambler's language and wrote the article as if Ohtani himself had changed his story. It just reveals the low level of the media.

There's more betting scandals coming. And I hope they come fast, there needs to be changes/regulations to the whole sports betting scene

Depends which bank is handling the transfer. A Japanese bank wouldn't question a transfer

Greeny is actually hosting his own show today

Good thing facts are independent of Greeny’s ability to believe them.

These idiots just spat out so much wrong information in 5 minutes. 🤡

Agreed 100%! I've done large wire transfers for house purchases and it's nutz what you have to go through. The big question, did HE bet on anything???

Unless he told him the money was for something else

you haven't asked the most obvious question: why not pay off the gambling debt, and keep going at it? - if Ohtani was apart of the gambling scandal, that's what he would have done.
now the ESPN hosts are saying: how could he have not known? - well guess what? - i've worked in a bank, i know how the process works. and, if his interpreter is seen by the bank staff enough times, particularly the bank manager, their guard is down. all Ippei needed was a bank card, a pin #, and the form completed for a wire transfer. and that's not impossible, if Ippei was living in the same residence as Ohtani.

No one even knew not even Missouri basketball fans and maybe hardcore raptors fans who jontay Porter even was until today

If Greeny wants to compare gambling and smoking. Tobacco advertising is heavilly restricted. If the same restrictions applied to sports gambling it could kill it.

Hype it up! Greeny always goes overboard.

This frustrates me to no end with these talking heads. Ippei was not just a translator, he was basically Ohtani's day-to-day guide in a foreign country, making Ohtani vulnerable to misplaced trust. Next, you guys operate in a bubble--have you ever lived outside the US, the country and culture you grew up in? Use your imaginative capacities to put yourselves in the shoes of someone like Ohtani, and I think you'll find Ohtani's press conference more than credible. Based on that credibility, the most Ohtani can be accused of is having had the bad luck of relying on someone like Ippei--for which he has already paid the price to the tune of multiple millions. But that does not make him guilty of anything illegal or bad faith with the rules of the league. We'll see how this all shakes out but Ohtani has thrown the gauntlet down in his press conference.

These media people are nuts

For someone earning close to $70 million annually, approximately ¥10 billion, a transfer of $600 million isn't particularly unusual. Whether it's buying real estate, making investments, or simply paying taxes, transactions involving tens of millions of dollars are routine. Banks wouldn't be surprised by a $500,000 transfer. I'm not sure how involved Mr. Mizuhara was in Mr. Otani's financial affairs, but with access to passwords and personal information, anyone could do it. If he had a legitimate reason to be informed, what he does afterward is up to him.

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 love you greeny but when you try to justify what you do by having to attack big tobacco it should be a red flag even to yourself of what side of history on this topic youll be. Gambling is fine great. Betting on sports its great. But just like we dont see Kool and Marlboro ads in games anymore its for a reason. Gambling is just another tobacco.

This is the answer Power of Attorney(POA)　or check writing privileges ohtani is completely innocent👍
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.

Why are you lumping Ohtani with Porter? 🤔

Here’s my Occam’s razor: if you can gamble on it, then it’s rigged. Pro American sports have lost all integrity since sportsbooks have taken over every. single. game.

Haters are mad, jontay porter got Pete Rose

That’s why I mess with Greeny!

yea Ohtani's not as smart as we thought ig lol

Porter needs an Ippei 😂

To be fair they don't make enough money😅

ESPN and Greeny: Get your facts right. Stop trying to justify the first interview by your colleagues and try to understand that maybe the victim (Ohtani) can't explain what he doesn't know. Grow up and man up or otherwise you will lose a long time viewer in me.

And youre making money just like every KRplus wanna be. On this same questioning and doubting. You make yourself like you're an expert on wiring transferring to a Bookmaker. Maybe the illegal bookmaker and ippei are being used to setup Ohtani.

Yankees announcer Michael Kay said what kind of illegal bookie gives someone a 4.5 mil dollar limit ? He would have knew Ohtani was a yes man cause how else does Ippei have the documents to support a 4.5 million dollar betting credit??

When asked about this scandal Shohei replied, "Ching chow shim sham ching chan ting tang waki wa." That should cover everything pertinent.