What I Hate About The Shohei Ohtani Scandal

It doesn't seem like it was even that long ago that Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani's interpreter was being investigated by federal authorities for his alleged theft of seventeen million from the Japanese sensation's bank account. It just baffles me that despite the investigation that concluded Shohei's innocence, there are still those who insist that somehow he was involved, speculating that MLB and investigators were trying to conspire so he wouldn't be indicted.

Some people will always love or hate Shohei, but come on, this nonsense has to stop, especially in popular media outlets like podcasts, etc. There are so many out there using things that other people were involved in like his former teammate, David Fletcher, who recently was connected to gambling and placing bets with the same bookie Ippei had been involved with to justify their own bias. It's as if to say: his friend was a gambler, therefore, he's a gambler too. What a world we live in: people are now guilty by the sins of their friends.

Several agencies have already concluded that Ippei Mizuhara stole from Shohei, as Shohei himself fully cooperated with the investigation, giving them free access to everything necessary. In short, Ippei impersonated Shohei to get transactions approved, turned off notifications so Shohei would not get notified, and lied to Shohei's handlers, saying the superstar wanted to keep the account private. When Ippei made a statement about the scandal, he immediately wanted to declare his innocence. If he had not, he would have then admitted to theft on the spot, which would have been in his disfavor. Some people just believed him and used that as the premise of blaming Shohei.

Shohei had absolute trust in Ippei and there was no reason for him to doubt him. They were friends, their wives were friends. They had the perfect relationship. Ippei had even become a fan favorite during his tenure with the Angels. It saddens me that something like this has happened, but this is a lesson learned that athletes are not like the rest of us. They are constantly exploited for their status and money. It's not just athletes, but also music superstars as well. We all know what happened to Elton John, who got scammed for twenty-nine million. It makes the seventeen million, stolen from Shohei look like chunk change. Who knew something like that could happen to a beloved music icon like Elton John? This is the reality of being a superstar. It's simply hard to trust someone.

Despite all of these distractions, Shohei Ohtani's having the best start as a hitter in his career, leading MLB in several categories including hits, total bases, slugging, On-base plus slugging, and doubles. He has simply been incredible, leading people to believe that he should exclusively be a hitter. But, I don't think that appeals to Shohei. He's going to pitch until he feels he can no longer do so. Perhaps, if he needs a third Tommy John surgery, he will most likely have to stop being a pitcher. But, meanwhile, there's no urgency to stop now, considering the Los Angeles Dodgers just signed him for 700 million dollars for the next ten years.

The lesson I learned from the Ippei Mizuhara scandal is that people are too easily swayed by confirmation biases that have already been embedded deep in their thoughts. People either want it to be true or not be true. And, therefore, they search for anything resembling their thoughts to prove their beliefs. This is what I had about the Shohei Ohtani scandal. It brought out the worst and the best in everyone.