Ohtani The Gambler
this timeline is just….outrageous.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39784809/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-mizuhara-theft-line
this is the part that should sink Ohtani. This is just plainly unbelievable that he’d be wiring $500K payments over and over and not bother to ask who or what it’s for:
Asked if Ohtani knew the person owed the money was a bookie, Mizuhara says his friend “didn’t have any clue.”
“I just told him I need to send a wire to pay off the debt,” Mizuhara says. “He didn’t ask if it was illegal, didn’t question me about that.”
Asked if Ohtani knew the person owed the money was a bookie, Mizuhara says his friend “didn’t have any clue.”
“I just told him I need to send a wire to pay off the debt,” Mizuhara says. “He didn’t ask if it was illegal, didn’t question me about that.”
Mizuhara says that, after Ohtani agreed to pay the debts, the two of them logged into Ohtani’s bank account on Ohtani’s computer and sent eight or nine transactions, each at $500,000, over several months. They added “loan” to the description field in the transactions.
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I’m not sure which I believe less, that Ohtani married a woman or that he didn’t have anything to do with this gambling fiasco
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
could be case of that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Probably not going to be sorted out soon, either by Manfred or Feds.
Role of interpreter involves very little interpreting and lot more of full time 24/7 personal valet, per story in TA by Brittany Ghiroli. Job description entails everything from picking up dry cleaning to ordering food. One of odd things about Ohtani is how controlling he seems, as in reshaping Angels pitching rotation to his liking (1 start per week in 6 man grouping) and media access in general walled off and limited. And that level of security will only be heightened going forward, which has to affect Dodgers Roberts et al.
Ohtani makes novel decisions, I’ll give him that. The contract. The stealth marriage. The gambling debt relief. (If this is about gambling I don’t want to know. Okay, I won’t tell you. Uh huh.) But if he’s gay, he’s missing an opportunity to be the most famous baseball player for all time.
Noticed Percival Everett has new one out. Review in Chron today.
There was column in NYT about 22 Funniest Novels Ever, and “I Am Not Sidney Poitier” was listed in it. read that one twice, awesome.
oh yeah Everett’s hit the celebrity tier. I just saw an interview of him on cbs while waiting for bball to start. Movie version of Erasure doesn’t sound good to me. I’ll watch it eventually. A terrific satirical novel. Agree IANSP is hilarious. I’ll definitely grab the new one. I notice that it’s hardcover. Unusual for him in recent years, I think.
“60 is the new 40. 70 is the new 50. Death is the new 80.” So Much Blue
Gambling is largely illegal in Japan, the Pachinko palaces and a few other activities excepted. House of Bamboo is a great gay themed Sam Fuller noir that features an underworld connected Pachinko joint.
The only bright side of this to me is that the Dodgers are involved. I imagine they have an out in his contract if it gets that far. The whole thing is sad to me because of his talent.
The story gets wilder Othani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara claimed in his Angels media guide that he graduated from UC Riverside in 2007. There’s no record of that being the case!
Sometimes, I tell people that I was valedictorian at my graduation from Amherst in 1977…
LMFAO
While in reality (like anyone cares) I was busy hosing Forego’s legs with my buddy Shotgun Hampton, under the watchful eye of the immortal Frank Whitely…
It’s a much cooler story anyway.
Hello Flappers!
I read the book “Why We Love Baseball,” by Joe Posnanski, a book Willie recommended, I think, and am fully revved up for the season.
Our family had to say goodbye to a wonderful dog recently. It’s a tough thing.
Very sorry to hear that, Zum…
Sorry to hear that, Zumie.
Thanks!
One of the many interesting things in the book:
The commissioner at the time was RIGHT to overrule the umps in the George Brett pine-tar HR situation. The rule says the ump has the remove the bat BEFORE the AB. After Billy Martin contested the HR, that’s when the bat should have been banned, going forward. MLB botched the explanation, though. They made the overruling sound like a gift to Brett.
Willie, what’s the name of Everett’s new one? I’ll have to look for that next visit to the US. My fav of his is American Desert, which I read while hanging out for a month or two in the … American desert….
The Happy Hooker
Years ago had a first date with a girl here, a rather more proper one, I guess, and she commented disapprovingly when a couple street girls walked by. I told her “some of my best friends are hookers”. Learned that that’s one of the best things you can say to get out of a boring date… (especially because it was true)….
“James”… takes up story of Jim from Huck Finn.
1 seed Houston in big trouble. Elvin Hayes never gets the recognition he deserves…