Baseball Boy

Summary

The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani – Episode 3: "Baseball Boy"
Podcast: The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani (ESPN, 30 for 30 Podcasts)
Date: July 30, 2026
Host: Tisha Thompson

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Episode Overview

"Baseball Boy," the third episode in ESPN's investigative podcast series "The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani," explores the unraveling relationship between superstar Shohei Ohtani and his longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, following a massive gambling and theft scandal in 2024. Through investigative reporting, player and friend interviews, and deep dives into personal backgrounds, the episode seeks to untangle the truth behind the betrayal, expose gaps in Major League Baseball's checks on close player associates, and understand how a tightly knit personal and professional relationship could go so wrong.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Initial Discovery and Public Fallout

[00:05 – 06:00]

• Tisha Thompson explains how she was initially told differing stories about the scandal: at first, Ippei claimed Shohei knowingly helped him wire money to an illegal bookie, then recanted, admitting to theft after Ohtani’s team called the story a lie.
• Shohei’s Dodgers fired Ippei immediately after the story broke — a relationship of six years ended abruptly and publicly.
• The details were murky, with multiple, conflicting narratives. Thompson recalls:

  “Most of the answers I had were based on what Ippei and Ohtani’s people had told me. And I still wasn’t sure who to believe or what really happened.” (Tisha Thompson, 00:50)

2. Shohei’s Public Statement

[02:44 – 05:45]

• Five days after the story went public, Shohei Ohtani held his first and only press conference on the matter, reading from a prepared statement without taking questions.
• Notable quote:

  “In conclusion, Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.” (Shohei Ohtani, 04:12)

• Shohei emphasized he had never bet on sports nor used a bookmaker, and distanced himself from Ippei:

  “I’m just beyond shocked. It’s really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point.” (Shohei Ohtani, 05:25)

• The abrupt severing of their relationship was striking, with Ohtani “breaking up with Ippei in the most public way possible.” (Tisha Thompson, 04:19)

3. Unpacking Ippei’s Background

[09:23 – 21:20]

• Early bios of Ippei in team media guides contained false information: he did not attend UCLA Riverside, nor did he properly work for the Red Sox or serve as interpreter for Okajima as claimed.
• Lack of background checks in MLB for such close associates is exposed as a significant vulnerability.
• Detailed high school and early life investigation reveals Ippei was a hustler — selling baseball cards, reselling goods, and gambling at local casinos from a young age.
• Interview with high school friend Steven Akimoto:

  “He was a good teammate. He loved it, but wasn’t particularly good at it. He was like a third string goalie.” (Steven Akimoto, 13:31)

• Ippei’s disinterest in conventional paths and early tendency toward hustle and mild rebellion sets a foundation for later events.

4. Ippei as Interpreter and Confidant

[25:05 – 28:07]

• Testimony from former player Mitch Lively in Japan, for whom Ippei interpreted: he was reliable, hardworking, and even cared for players’ families in emergencies.

  “If it was two in the morning, three in the morning, he always answered his phone.” (Mitch Lively, 26:13)

• Lively never gave Ippei access to money—contrasting sharply with the deeply entwined relationship Ippei had with Shohei.

5. The Baseball Boy: Shohei Ohtani’s Single-Minded Rise

[29:01 – 36:47]

• In parallel to Ippei’s hustler background, the podcast contrasts Ohtani’s highly disciplined, “baseball boy” upbringing, shaped by strict routines and singular focus.
• Insightful quote:

  “There’s a Japanese saying, yakushonen. It translates to baseball boy. A boy who lives and breathes baseball. Shohei is the epitome of the baseball boy.” (Koda Ishijima, 29:01)

• Shohei’s ground-breaking ability as a two-way player is highlighted, as is the increasingly symbiotic relationship with Ippei — his “constant companion, confidant, interpreter, driver, dog walker, personal assistant.”

6. Ippei’s Escalating Access and Influence

[36:00 – 38:50]

• As Ohtani’s fame soared, so did Ippei’s profile; he was visible at games, interviews, and award shows.
• Players and staff acknowledge that no one but Ippei had such unfiltered, round-the-clock access to Shohei, an unusual setup in professional sports.
• Notable moment:

  “I wondered like, how could you spend that much time with one person?” (Tim Keown, 37:21)

7. Lingering Questions and Fallout

[41:46 – 42:50]

• Ohtani’s refusal to answer questions at the press conference left doubts and speculation in the public and among players.
• Notable quote:

  "Tell me another athlete that would never have to make a press conference where he’s asked question after question.” (Steven Akimoto, 41:49)

• Skepticism remains about how Ippei could have acted undetected and never bet on baseball—a point some find suspicious:

  "For a guy that was so desperate, desperate losing so much money, he never bet on the sport that he was the closest to?" (Tisha Thompson & Steven Akimoto, 42:19)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the divide in public perception:

  “What you believed often came down to whether or not you rooted for Shohei and the Dodgers.” (Tisha Thompson, 01:58)

• On lack of background checks:

  “It’s a massive hole, right?” (Tim Keown, 12:23)

• On Ippei’s interpreter reputation:

  “He was a very reliable guy, very hardworking.” (Mitch Lively, 26:13)

• Ippei’s high school friend on their clique:

  “We were a rare breed. And so we clicked instantly.” (Steven Akimoto, 15:50)

• On Shohei’s singular focus:

  “He went from eighth grade to essentially a baseball boarding school... he was under a very different social structure.” (Tim Keown, 29:18)

• Shohei’s statement at the press conference:

  “To summarize how I’m feeling right now, I’m just beyond shocked. It’s really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point.” (Shohei Ohtani, 05:25)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:05 – Tisha Thompson introduces the conflicting accounts after the story broke.
• 02:44 – Ohtani’s high-profile public statement and refusal to answer media questions.
• 04:19 – Shohei officially breaks ties with Ippei at the press conference.
• 09:23–15:39 – Investigating inconsistencies in Ippei’s backstory and high school years.
• 25:05–28:07 – Insights from former players on Ippei’s role as interpreter in Japan.
• 29:01–36:47 – Detailed exploration of Shohei’s disciplined youth and their partnership.
• 41:46–42:50 – Fallout from Shohei’s press conference: skepticism and unresolved questions.

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Conclusion

This episode intricately weaves together Ohtani’s disciplined, insular “baseball boy” upbringing with Ippei’s flexible, hustling background to shed light on how a once-unbreakable partnership spiraled into scandal. Through contrasting life stories, expert commentary, and firsthand interviews, "Baseball Boy" raises pointed questions about trust, access, celebrity loneliness, and institutional gaps—while leaving listeners with as many pressing mysteries as answers.

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Next Episode Teaser:
The series will next focus on Matt Boyer, the bookmaker at the center of the betting scandal, and the scope of Ippei's illicit activities with Shohei's fortune.

Transcript

[Tisha Thompson]

Tisha, good morning. I know it's been a very busy morning for you. Thank you so much for the time. Tisha, how did this start? Well, we had been looking into what you were talking. In the days after our story broke in March 2024, I spent a lot of time retelling what had happened. First, Ippei had told me in great detail about Shohei helping him wire money to an illegal bookie. Then Shohei's people said that story was a lie. Ippei had stol stolen the money. So I called Ippei and he took back nearly everything he said. In that first interview, he told me he had stolen from Shohei a developing story in baseball. The Dodgers announced on Wednesday they have fired Shohei Ohtani's longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. The interpreter is accused of using the ballplayer's money to cover millions of dollars in allegedly illegal bets. ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson is here with us to tell us more about this. Good morning. Good morning. So I want to be clear, no charges, but there were still a lot of questions about what exactly had happened. How does your interpreter have access to your bank account? So a lot more questions still to be answered. Most of the answers I had were based on what Ippei and Ohtani's people had told me. And I still wasn't sure who to believe or what really happened. No one was answering our questions. I tried to reach out to Ippei again, but. But he never responded. It was a perfect story for sports fans and talk radio. A classic, he said. He said, which version of the story do you believe? What's been strange here is how many

[Steven Akimoto]

versions of the story have come from Ohtani's camp itself. So initially, Ohtani's camp said Ohtani was

[Tisha Thompson]

kind of generously paying off the debts for his interpreter. Then Ohtani's lawyers came in. They said, actually, no, he never knew anything about this. Mizuhara had been stealing money from him for years. In those early days after the story broke, what you believed often came down to whether or not you rooted for Shohei and the Dodgers. Dodgers fans so far are standing by Ohtani. I 100% don't believe that Ohtani is involved in the gambling at all. Yeah, I feel like he might have

[Gusto Advertiser]

not known, but it's also like, you know, how are you not going to know what's going on?

[Tisha Thompson]

I think that they're all doing it. Just the fact that he got caught because of the large numbers. Now you wonder if there's a level

[Steven Akimoto]

of Distrust with baseball fans who are asking, are you for real?

[Tisha Thompson]

And he's the face of baseball. And that's a problem for Major League Baseball right now. The pressure was building for someone to speak out and address the scandal. Finally, five days after the story broke, word went out that there would be a news conference. Shohei himself was going to speak.

[Shohei Ohtani]

Thanks everybody for coming. We'd ask you not film this right now on your cell phone, if that's possible.

[Tisha Thompson]

Dozens and dozens of reporters squeeze into the room at Dodger Stadium and after

[Shohei Ohtani]

show is done, do a lot of people questions. Thanks.

[Tisha Thompson]

Before the news conference even starts, the Dodgers announce that Shohei will not be taking questions. So whatever he says in his statement will be all reporters have to work with. Then Shohei walks in and trailing just steps behind him where Ippei would normally be, is Will Ireton. Ayrton is a longtime Dodgers employee who once worked as a Japanese interpreter and now he's interpreting for Shohei. This is the first time many people are seeing Shohei speak without Ipei beside him.

[Shohei Ohtani]

Obviously today there's things that I'm limited in being able to talk about. I hope you understand. I do have a document in front of me that I will refer to.

[Tisha Thompson]

Shohei and his new interpreter each have a black folder in front of them with what looks like a written statement. But when Shohei speaks, he looks directly into the camera.

[Shohei Ohtani]

In conclusion, Ippe has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.

[Tisha Thompson]

A six year relationship that had touched nearly every part of Shohei's life was over and Shohei was breaking up with Ippei in the most public way possible. At a live news conference in front of the media and fans.

[Shohei Ohtani]

Upon further questioning, it was revealed that it was actually in fact Ippei who was in debt and told my representatives that I was paying off those debt. And all of this has been a complete lie.

[Tisha Thompson]

Shohei said Ippei had been stealing from him, using his money to pay off debts to an illegal bookie. He wanted to make it clear that he had never bet on baseball or any sports, that he had never asked someone to bet on his behalf. And he says he never used a bookmaker.

[Shohei Ohtani]

To summarize how I'm feeling right now, I'm just beyond shocked. It's really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point.

[Tisha Thompson]

This was the longest Shohei had ever spoken publicly about his private life. Shohei and his new interpreter speak for 12 minutes.

[Shohei Ohtani]

You know, I'm looking forward to focusing on the season. I'm Glad that we had this opportunity to talk, and I'm sure there'll be continuing investigations moving forward. Thank you very much.

[Tisha Thompson]

Shohei gets up and walks out of the room. This news conference was the first and last time Shohei ever spoke publicly about what happened. But in that news conference, Shohei placed the blame squarely on Ippei and effectively severed Ippei from himself, from baseball, and from the millions of fans who love Shohei. Shohei's version of events was obviously very different from what Ippei had told me in that first 90 minute phone call. I had suspected Ippei might be lying to me at certain points. Some of what he said during that call conflicted with what other sources had told me. But at the same time, a lot of it was so detailed, so complex, that it seemed believable. And there were moments when he sounded genuinely ashamed about his gambling and how Shohei agreed to pay off his debts. But then Ippei told me he lied. And now Shohei was saying he didn't know anything about the bets and was accusing Ippei of massive fraud. Fraud with shocking implications. To get hired by one of the biggest franchises in MLB to steal millions with no one noticing. Not just from one of the most famous athletes on the planet, but from someone he called his best friend. A friend who he seemed to be with almost 24 hours a day. What would have led him to do this? What kind of guy is he really? Who is Ippe? I'm ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson and this is the Betrayal of shohei Ohtani. Episode 3 Baseball Boy

[Steven Akimoto]

Federal Investigation quests that wire transfers $4.5 million to a Southern California bookmaker and he has no idea of it.

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[Steven Akimoto]

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[Tisha Thompson]

All we really knew about ippei in early 2024 came from a media guide that had been put out by Shohei's previous team, the Los Angeles Angels. Media guides give reporters biographic information about players and staff, and it is super rare for an interpreter to get his own entry. But the Angels media guide outlined Ippei's background and resume, where he grew up, where he went to college, and where he worked before he began interpreting for Shohei. It offered a window into the life of Shohei Ohtani's constant companion. But a few days after our story broke, we learned that there was a big problem with this media guide. We learned more details about Shohei Ohtani's translator, and if you look back at his past, it is checkered because he is lying. It turned out much of what was in IPPEI's official team bio wasn't true. My ESPN colleague Tim Kewan and I went through it to see what did and didn't hold up once reporters started asking questions. Okay, I want to go line by line since we're sitting here. It's his sixth season with the Angels as an interpreter. Is that true or false?

[Tim Keown]

True.

[Tisha Thompson]

Born in Japan?

[Tim Keown]

True.

[Tisha Thompson]

Grew up in Diamondbar, California. True Attended Diamond Bar High School True. Graduating from the University of California, Riverside in 2007. FALSE do we know where he went to college?

[Tim Keown]

We don't think he went to college.

[Tisha Thompson]

So the information the Angels had about his education was wrong. Mizahara served as an interpreter for Okajima. Hideki Okajima is a Japanese player who pitched for the Boston Red Sox. Ippei's bio says he interpreted for Okajima at one point.

[Tim Keown]

The Boston Red Sox say they never employed him and he would have had to be an employee of the team in order to interpret for Okajima.

[Tisha Thompson]

So the details about Ippei's experience were wrong too. It says Okajima during Yankee spring training in 2012.

[Tim Keown]

And if you look at that, Okajima was injured at the end of the 11th season and never reported to spring training with the Yankees in 2012. So there was no fact checking going on here.

[Tisha Thompson]

Hideki Okajima even addressed this himself, writing on his Instagram that Ippei was supposed to interpret for him at Yankee spring training in 2012. But because Okajima failed A physical. They didn't end up working together. How did this all end up in the media guide? Is it possible there was no background check on Ippei when he came with Shohei to the Angels? Looking at this, knowing what we know now, what does this say about the Angels and baseball's responsibility to protect its players?

[Tim Keown]

Yeah, it's a massive hole, right?

[Tisha Thompson]

We reached out to the Angels for comment. They declined to answer questions about Ippe. There's a culture in a lot of clubhouses of not messing with anything in a player's routine when they're playing.

[Tim Keown]

Well, the Angels are thrilled to have him. They are willing to do whatever it takes to make his life as easy as possible.

[Tisha Thompson]

No one was questioning Shohei or his interpreter. And Ippei's past was a big black hole. Could learning about where Ippei came from get us any closer to the truth of what happened between these two men? And if he did do it, what could have led him to steal millions of dollars from his best friend? Our team started digging into Ippe's background after he stopped responding to me. I reached out to Ippe's wife and parents. But through Ippei's attorney, they declined our request for interviews. At the same time, Tim got in touch with Ippe's high school soccer coach.

[Tim Keown]

He was a soccer player, but in talking to his high school soccer coach, he can't even remember if he got into a game. He just knows that he went to every practice. He was a good teammate. He loved it, but wasn't particularly good at it. He was like a third string goalie. And you know, this soccer coach also taught him in class in high school. And his line was, I remember the really good students and the really bad students. And he was neither.

[Tisha Thompson]

So Ippe played soccer in high school. I figured that's a good place to start. Maybe one of his old teammates would talk to me. I drive into Diamond Bar High School's parking lot just as school is letting out. As kids pour out of the building. I walk into the front office and ask one of the school secretaries if I could see the yearbooks from 1999 to 2003. I don't see Ippe in any sports team photos, not even soccer. His name isn't listed on the JV or varsity team rosters. And it doesn't look like he was in any clubs. There he is. But I do find his class portrait in a couple of yearbooks. Okay, Ippe is in his senior and junior yearbooks his sophomore year. He doesn't exist in the yearbook anywhere in his freshman year, he's in the yearbook, but there's no picture of him. There's just this quote about technology and how it makes it super easy to do what he needs to do. It's weird to me that his photo is completely missing from his freshman and sophomore yearbooks. Was he sick on picture day, or did something else happen? I take photos of every student in his 2003 graduating class and every player on the Diamond Bar High School soccer team who he might have played with. I start reaching out, asking if any of them remember a kid named Ippei Misahara. And I tracked down someone I've been told was a close friend of Ippei's. When did you first meet Ippei?

[Steven Akimoto]

How far back do you guys go? We go back in middle school. I met him in sixth or seventh grade.

[Tisha Thompson]

Steven Okamoto went to middle school and high school with Ippei.

[Steven Akimoto]

Since our school is predominantly, it was like Asians, but then it was like Koreans and Chinese. It wasn't a lot of Japanese. And so we were a rare breed. And so we clicked instantly.

[Tisha Thompson]

Both Steven and Ippei were born in Japan, but were raised in Southern California.

[Steven Akimoto]

I think for any immigrant growing up in America, like, you don't know what your identity really is because you look a certain way, so you look like an Asian. So people assume you're Japanese. But then when you go to Japan, they're like, oh, you're from America, you're American. So it's like, what am I really? And then so you kind of have like this identity crisis a little bit. And so maybe he picked a side for Japanese during that time when we were kids.

[Tisha Thompson]

Where does his knowledge of the Japanese language come from?

[Steven Akimoto]

It was majority from television and also from comic books like manga. Like, we would be reading manga and be like, oh, do you know this word? No. Or do you know this word? Like, I think it means this. And we'll go ask one of our parents, like, what it says. And then we're like, ah, we were right, or you're right. He's a very competitive guy. I remember that.

[Tisha Thompson]

Steven says Ippe's parents worked late. Ippe's dad was a chef and his mom was a nurse. Ippe was on his own a lot.

[Steven Akimoto]

We would hang out almost every day at his house. Usually at his house, they're just playing sports. Basketball or a little bit of baseball.

[Tisha Thompson]

Steven remembers Ippe being the most devoted sports fan in their friend group. And as much as Ippei liked to play sports. He seemed to be even more interested in the players themselves.

[Steven Akimoto]

I remember his knowledge was very extensive as far as, like, sports goes. Like, he knew a lot of, like, certain things about sports in all sports, pretty much. So when we would look at cards, I'm like, who's that player? I have no idea. And he's like, oh, yeah, this is. Blah, blah, blah. And then he would tell me, like, you know, small bits of the player.

[Tisha Thompson]

I also spoke to another friend of Ippe's from high school, but he didn't want to be recorded. This friend remembers how Ippei loved, like, truly loved baseball. This was back in the day when you had to use a VCR to tape a game you wanted to keep. And Ippei would tape all of the Dodgers games whenever Hideo Nomo was the starting pitcher.

[Tim Keown]

That is a new mark for Nomo.

[Steven Akimoto]

17. A magnificent performance for Hideo Nomo.

[Tisha Thompson]

But Ippei's loyalty switched to the Seattle Mariners when Ichiro Suzuki began playing in the United States.

[Tim Keown]

To the wall and makes a leap

[Tisha Thompson]

and makes the catch. Unbelievable. My, oh, my, what a catch by Ichiro. Ippei played Little League, and a friend said he even made the All Star team. He tried out for the baseball team his freshman year of high school, but didn't make the cut. So he and Stephen tried basketball. And did you make the team?

[Shohei Ohtani]

No.

[Steven Akimoto]

No, we both didn't. Okay.

[Tisha Thompson]

And then when you didn't make the

[Steven Akimoto]

team, you're like, forget this. We're moving on. Yeah, we're moving on. Yeah. Smoke cigarettes.

[Tisha Thompson]

Ippe did eventually make the soccer team as a goalie his senior year, but he never got off the bench. So Ippe just walked away. Ippe's friends say that's why he isn't in the team photo. He had already quit. It didn't seem like he had much more success in the classroom either. His friends say Ippei was smart, but slacked off in class and looked down at kids he called try hards.

[Steven Akimoto]

He wasn't really into, like, the norm. I would say, like, what's. What's in. So he always did his own thing. And like. Like, for one good example would be his hairstyle. It hasn't changed since, like, middle school. It's always been that. Really? Yeah. I think he dyed it a couple times, but other than that, he doesn't really play with his hair.

[Tisha Thompson]

So that asymmetrical part with the real

[Steven Akimoto]

long bangs that goes to the side.

[Tisha Thompson]

That's the way it's been since middle school.

[Steven Akimoto]

Yeah, it hasn't changed.

[Tisha Thompson]

Steven says Ippei loved this Japanese rock band called Glay. He also listened to a lot of Tupac. You have to remember, this was the era when LA hip hop dominated the airwaves. It was edgy, it was cool. Especially for the kids from Diamond Bar, who weren't far from Compton but were firmly in the suburbs.

[Steven Akimoto]

Yeah, exactly what it is. We were trying to be harder than you actually were. Trying to impress others, I guess, like, oh, we know gang members.

[Tisha Thompson]

And both friends remember, Ippei really loved to hustle.

[Steven Akimoto]

He would sell, I believe, those cards, like baseball cards. And we would go to this convention, they have it every week. And then they sell, like sports memory or like anime stuff. Oh, really?

[Tisha Thompson]

So was he really into that?

[Steven Akimoto]

He was into that. I went. I tagged along with him a couple times and he would look at baseball cards, look at prices and stuff like that. Yeah.

[Tisha Thompson]

Did he buy stuff?

[Steven Akimoto]

He did. And I was like, what are you gonna do with that? Like, I don't know what you're gonna do with that. It would be the expensive kind. And then he would also like haggle a little bit too. I remember he said he wanted an electric guitar. He's just saying that forever. And the next thing, I go to his house, he has an electric guitar. He doesn't have an amp. And then, you know, months later, he has an amp. I'm just like, I don't. I never really questioned where he got the money from.

[Tisha Thompson]

Ippei's other friend told me that Ippei seemed to just get excited by the process of buying things and then resell video games, team jerseys and those baseball cards. And he says Ippe would try to place bets with him about small things like who'd win in a video game or the outcome of a Dodgers game. But the friend never worried about Ippei having a gambling problem. He always thought it was just for fun. Both friends told the same story about why Ippei's picture was missing from his sophomore yearbook. He didn't attend Diamond Barr that year. He was at an alternative school for students with attendance or discipline issues. Ippe was back at Diamond Bar High School his junior year. And his friends say Ippe was going to nearby tribal casinos. By the time they graduated, I think

[Steven Akimoto]

it was like from 18, he could start gambling there. And yeah, I went much later, like senior year, I believe.

[Tisha Thompson]

Was that like the hot thing to

[Steven Akimoto]

do in those days? Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah, because it was only like a 30 or 40 minute drive or an hour driving. So you Just come back real quick and without your parents knowing.

[Tisha Thompson]

Steven lost track of Ippei after graduation, but says his mother and father remember seeing Ippei soon afterwards.

[Steven Akimoto]

My parents went to the sake Expo and saw him working a booth at a convention. Oh, yeah, I work here. And my dad specifically remembers him giving my parents, like, free sake at the event.

[Tisha Thompson]

The other high school friend, the one who didn't want to be recorded, told me that he ran into Ippe only once after high school. Ippe told him he'd been taking classes at a community college the next town over from Diamondbar. I was able to confirm this and confirm that he never graduated and that his major was accounting. Ippei's paper trail basically vanishes after this. When we ran a background check, we couldn't find any employers, any addresses, any friends that could give us a hint about what he was doing for eight years between 2004 and 2012. But then he pops back up with a whole new sense of direction. The Nippon Ham Fighters baseball team interviewed IPPEI in 2012 for a role they needed to fill an interpreter for American American players on the team. The team was impressed with Ippe's Japanese, his personality, and offered him the job. So Ippei heads to Hokkaido, Japan, to begin a new career as an interpreter.

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[Mitch Lively]

I got a phone call from my agent, and he goes, hey, I got some interest in Japan. Do you want to go? And I go, yeah.

[Tisha Thompson]

This is Mitch Lively. He's a former minor league pitcher for organizations like the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies, the Washington Nationals. And after that phone call from his agent, the Nippon Ham Fighters calls me

[Mitch Lively]

the next morning to pack your stuff. You got sold.

[Tisha Thompson]

Mitch didn't speak a word of Japanese, and he says he almost immediately realized he was going to have to rely on an interpreter a lot more than he anticipated.

[Mitch Lively]

In international sports, when you play, your translator is Your lifeline. Without it, you won't get by. You won't understand anything what's going on. So you use them as your voice, and they help a lot.

[Tisha Thompson]

When Mitch landed in Japan, he was introduced to his interpreter, a guy named Ippei Mitsahara.

[Mitch Lively]

Him and I really got along, especially him living in the States, so he understood my culture a little bit more.

[Tisha Thompson]

By the time Mitch met IPPEI in 2015, Mitch says IPPEI was an expert at his job. Ippei made sure Mitch got to the field, helped him understand the schedule, and coordinated media interviews. And Mitch says Ippei had a special talent for the actual interpreting part of the job.

[Mitch Lively]

He would be really loose with me, rather than being like, so serious and be like, what are you doing? Like, he would translate it with the tone in which I was trying to deliver it, and that's the most important thing. So he's a very reliable guy, very hardworking. In my experience with him, it didn't matter if it was two in the morning, three in the morning, he always answered his phone.

[Tisha Thompson]

And Mitch says Ippei was vital off the field as well.

[Mitch Lively]

Showed me how to use the train system. If I had paperwork or wife stuff, they would always handle those. Like, hey, I need visas, all right, they're going to take you to go do your visa work. If I was out at a bar or whatever, I'm like, hey, I can't get a taxi. Call him. Taxi shows up.

[Tisha Thompson]

Mitch says Ippei became more than just an interpreter to him.

[Mitch Lively]

You know, it's a friendship, it's a coworkership. But it also, like, you become friends to a certain point because you're spending eight hours a day minimum with each other. You know, hey, I need a nice restaurant. Where's the place to go? No, don't tell me, show me. Like, come with me. You know, we go to a lot of yakiniku and sushi. We did karaoke a lot. I would always sing Backstreet Boys with them.

[Tisha Thompson]

But Mitch could tell Ippei had ambitions beyond the Nippon Ham Fighters.

[Mitch Lively]

He loved baseball, he loved sports. And I just think that translating was a way to get him into the door to something he loved, you know, and to learn about. And you get to be around professional athletes and. And if you're not an athlete, that's the best way to do it, you know, I think his goal was to go to the States with a major leaguer. He wanted that one on one, not to be owned by a team, if that makes sense. And Wanted to come back to the States.

[Tisha Thompson]

Mitch thought Ippei would be great at a job like that. He saw how attentive Ippei was with his family.

[Mitch Lively]

The biggest thing, my wife got really sick one time and he literally dropped the hat, got her to the hospital and taken care of. I was in a game, so he literally left the game to go take care of my wife.

[Tisha Thompson]

Ippei was sitting in on appointments, helping them with visas and other documents. And Mitch says he never thought twice about it.

[Mitch Lively]

I never felt a situation where he was gonna take advantage of me or anything like that. I've never felt that with him. But he never had access to any of my account stuff or anything like that.

[Tisha Thompson]

Money was something that we never touched, we never saw and didn't have to be part of it. That's Koda Ishijima. She worked as an interpreter for teams like the New York Yankees and the Mets and has worked with some of the Japanese Great. When she heard about Ippei stealing from Shohei, she says it felt like a betrayal to the interpreter profession. I was pissed. How in the world did something like this happen? Koda has a theory about what might have happened. Shohei has already said it. All he knew was baseball. All these kids here in Japan when they play up until high school, that's all they did. And they don't know anything about what

[Mitch Lively]

goes on in the.

[Steven Akimoto]

In the world.

[Tisha Thompson]

There's a Japanese saying, yakushonen. It translates to baseball boy. A boy who lives and breathes baseball. Shohei is the epitome of the baseball boy. He was as focused in high school as Ippei was unfocused.

[Tim Keown]

He went from eighth grade to essentially a baseball boarding school. He went away from his family, he lived in the dorms, he played baseball. He was under a very different social structure than the average American player.

[Tisha Thompson]

A couple of years ago, my ESPN colleague Tim Keown went to Japan and spoke with the coach from Shohei's high school.

[Tim Keown]

You know, the coach there famously made his pitchers clean the toilets because they are the center of the diamond and all the attention is on them in the baseball sense. So they need to do the worst job, which would be clean the toilets in the dorms.

[Tisha Thompson]

For a baseball obsessed kid like Shohei, the goal is to play in Koshian, a legendary annual high school baseball tournament. He caught nationwide attention when during a qualifying game at just 18 years old, Shohei threw a 100 mile an hour

[Tim Keown]

fastball that was like front page. That's the one that people point to that was like a tangible number that they could put on his budding greatness.

[Tisha Thompson]

There's videos of that pitch online and watching it. Shohei looks so young. He's beaming in the moments after the throw, like he knows he just did something historic.

[Tim Keown]

He was a brand in high school in Japan.

[Tisha Thompson]

Shohei was catching the eyes of American scouts even before he graduated. But he wanted to be a two way player, to pitch and to hit. And Tim says Shohei knew he might not get the chance to develop those skills if he went straight to mlb. So he opted to begin his professional career in Japan.

[Mitch Lively]

I remember he was pitching and I go, who is this guy, man?

[Tisha Thompson]

Shohei started playing with the Nippon ham fighters in 20 2013. Two years later, Mitch joined the team and got to watch him play up close.

[Mitch Lively]

Like he would pitch and you'd see 30 guns go up in the air. I'm like, who is this kid? He's throwing 100, they're flashing a 160 on the thing. Ends up pulling him out of the game in the eighth inning. And I see they put him in right field like, what the heck? And he comes up and hits a walk off home run in the ninth. I go, who is this guy? And hands down I tell people this, the best baseball player I've ever seen play in my life.

[Tisha Thompson]

Shohei's locker was next to the American players and gave Mitch a chance to get to know the young phenom.

[Mitch Lively]

He was funny, real funny, like you joke with me, come up, like try to talk to me. And we joke and I have a picture of him with his arm around me. And I remember that I was in the Tokyo Dome, we had just won and we were literally poking fun because I'm like, hey, you're like my little baby bird, like you're smaller than me. So he said like, yeah, you have to reach up on you. So just fun things, just poke fun.

[Tisha Thompson]

By 2017, Shohei felt like he'd proven himself enough to be a two way player in mlb. And by the end of that year he signed with the Angels. So he needed an interpreter. Ippei had a good reputation. Reporters, players and the team seemed to like working with him. And although Ippei and Shohei weren't particularly close at the time, Mitch says he wasn't surprised when Shohei picked Ippei.

[Mitch Lively]

They're going to see who, who do we use the most? Who are we taking to our interviews? I think that played a huge part in things and to see that he was with the team for so long.

[Tisha Thompson]

So Shohei and Ippei made the move to Anaheim. For Ippe, who was raised in California, it was something of a homecoming. But for Shohei, it was a whole new adventure.

[Mitch Lively]

Once I put on my new jersey, the Angels jersey, I felt like this

[Tisha Thompson]

is going to be a new year

[Steven Akimoto]

and I have to perform well and help the team win.

[Tisha Thompson]

And not long after his MLB debut, Shohei began his meteoric rise.

[Steven Akimoto]

Three, two, now.

[Tisha Thompson]

Swing and a miss. Down goes Olson.

[Steven Akimoto]

And tip your cap. Shohei Ohtani.

[Tim Keown]

You deserve remarkable season.

[Tisha Thompson]

And Ohtani, forget about it. That one is gone. The better he played, the more airtime, and the bigger the spotlight was for Ippe here in Miami. Shohei Ohtani, Ippe, his interpreter, is right there with us as well. Guys, how do you wrap your mind? Everyone wanted a piece of Shohei, but because he didn't share much about himself, people turned to the next closest thing, Ippei. He was becoming a household name in the baseball world.

[Steven Akimoto]

You're very popular around. Everyone's digging your haircut over there. How many people now say they want to have the Ippei haircut, Working man?

[Gusto Advertiser]

Zero.

[Tisha Thompson]

Pretty much. Every time you pulled up the game to watch Shohei, you'd see Ippei.

[Steven Akimoto]

I turned on the tv, on the news, and then they were talking about Shohei's interpreter. And then they said, Mizuhara. And I'm like, oh, like, like Ippei,

[Tisha Thompson]

this is Steven Akimoto again, Ippei's high school friend.

[Steven Akimoto]

And then they're like, ippei Mizuhara. And I'm like, oh, like Ippei. And then they were talking about, like, how the dad is a chef. And I'm like, oh, just like Ippei. And I'm like, is that Ippei? And then I look it up and it actually am. And I was just like, damn, like, the fuck.

[Tisha Thompson]

That guy from high school who basically vanished for eight years, reemerged with the coolest job ever.

[Steven Akimoto]

I couldn't believe it at first. And it's like, really? Ippei, too? It's like, maybe I was, like, jealous, but I was just, like, taken aback.

[Tisha Thompson]

Ippei's other high school friend, the one who didn't want to be recorded, was also shocked to see where Ippei had landed. Here was Ippei literally on the ball field speaking Japanese with Japan's biggest baseball star. He went from being in Little League league to being Shohei's catcher at the MLB All Star Game.

[Steven Akimoto]

What a fun moment that's gonna be for him.

[Tisha Thompson]

And hopefully he's not having to catch too much because hopefully that Ohtani's hitting everything that's supposed to. Ippe wasn't just collecting the baseball cards of the biggest names in mlb. He was now rolling with them.

[Steven Akimoto]

This is a great look.

[Tim Keown]

Is this your favorite red carpet outfit?

[Tisha Thompson]

I'm not really sure, but I hope it is. His friends say it was everything Ippe had ever wanted when they were in high school. And Shohei was also living his childhood dream, becoming a rare two way player in the major leagues.

[Tim Keown]

When he comes here, they're happy. This two way player who if we just leave him alone, he'll do things that nobody thought possible.

[Tisha Thompson]

Tim says that meant the Angels gave Shohei a lot of leeway in terms of how he managed his time, which Ippe seemed to be a big part of both on and off the field.

[Tim Keown]

His manager told me one time, I don't know what he's doing when he's at the ballpark. That to me was amazing because everybody follows a schedule. There's a meeting with the pitching coach, there's a hitters meeting, there's time in the cage. He was subject to none of it from what I could tell. He was just let him do what he does with whoever he wants to do it with, which was always Ippei, and get out of his way. Just get out of his way. Let him do his thing. That was the sort of prodigy treatment he received when he came to the big leagues.

[Tisha Thompson]

That kind of special treatment extended to what was expected of Shohei when it came to talking to the media.

[Tim Keown]

There's a window of roughly 50 minutes before every game where the clubhouse is open and you can walk up to anybody that's at their locker and talk to them.

[Tisha Thompson]

A lot of players will hang around and give reporters a couple minutes of their time here and there. It's just what's expected even from some of the really big name guys. But not Shohei. Shohei would hang out with Ippei walled off in the players lounge, off limits to the media.

[Tim Keown]

They would sit at the table in the players lounge and, you know, hold each other's phones up to each other and laugh. And, you know, I obviously couldn't understand what they were saying and wasn't allowed to be close enough to hear it anyway. But there were signs that they liked each other, you know, that they were friends beyond the job. It got to the point where, you know, I wondered like, how could you spend that much time with one person?

[Tisha Thompson]

Tim says when he asked other players about Shohei Something remarkable happened in 2021.

[Tim Keown]

I was reporting a story on, on Ohtani, and players were telling me, oh, he's got this great sense of humor. You know, you guys don't see it, but he's got a great. So I was like pressing for, okay, tell me, give me an example. You know, when is he funny? What has he done? Tell me a prank he's pulled or even, you know, dumb baseball thing. I don't care how dumb it is. And I asked Joe Adele, can you give me a, like an example of this so I can understand it? And he said, none off the top of my head. And then he kind of laughed to himself and he said, I don't know, man. I don't know if Ippei would want me to throw something out there. I should stay quiet. Ippei is the boss. And I thought that was like. That he was even in their minds when they were talking to reporters was to me, a sign of just how deeply ingrained he was in this whole life of shohei Ohtani.

[Tisha Thompson]

By 2024, Ippei and Shohei had worked closely together for six years. Ippei told me in our interview they were like brothers. He was not just Shohei's interpreter, but essentially his personal assistant, his driver, his warm up partner, sometimes his dog walker. Ippe was entwined in so many aspects of Shohei's life and he had so much access. During his time with the Angels, Ippei told me he felt pressure to keep up with Shohei's lifestyle. And he says he was having money problems. His official team bio doesn't check out. His friends say he was a hustler and began gambling in casinos in high school. But then there are people who have worked closely with Ippei and speak really highly of him who were surprised when this happened. As an interpreter, Ippei had a great reputation. He impressed coaches, fans, and especially the players he worked for.

[Mitch Lively]

When I first saw it, I was just like, what? No way. Like, what's going on?

[Tisha Thompson]

Mitch Lively, who worked closely with Ippei in Japan, says when it came to money, he and Ippei had a typical ballplayer interpreter relationship.

[Mitch Lively]

In my relationship with him, he didn't access to any of my money without me giving him money. Never asked for it.

[Tisha Thompson]

But we would later learn that Ippei had a very different relationship with Shohei.

[Shohei Ohtani]

In conclusion, Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.

[Tisha Thompson]

When Shohei told his side of the story at the news conference, my colleague Alden Gonzalez was Standing close enough to see the words in the statement Shohei had prepared. Going into it, there was obviously a lot of skepticism, a lot of cynicism, but if you were to believe what he was saying, you felt bad for him.

[Shohei Ohtani]

So Ipei has been telling everybody around that Ipei has been communicating with Shohei on all of this account to my representative to the team, and that hasn't been true.

[Tisha Thompson]

Alden says he will never forget Shohei's demeanor that day. He looked directly at the camera for almost the entirety of it. And there were even times where I would venture to say that it seemed as if he was on the verge of breaking down, of getting emotional. It was as engaged as I have ever seen and still have ever seen Shohei Ohtani in any moment, in any public setting. But ultimately, Shohei didn't take any questions. He faced down such a large scandal with a single statement.

[Steven Akimoto]

Why is this guy allowed to not be asked questions?

[Tisha Thompson]

Tell me another athlete that would never have to make a press conference where

[Steven Akimoto]

he's asked question after question. Alex Rodriguez was asked question after question. Pete Rose was asked question after question. This guy's never had his feet held

[Tisha Thompson]

to the fire, ever. People were wondering, why not take questions? That choice left lots of room for people to speculate about how Ippei could have pulled this off and how all of this added up.

[Steven Akimoto]

How many bets did he make?

[Tisha Thompson]

None of them on baseball, by the way.

[Steven Akimoto]

Isn't that amazing? Not one of them on baseball.

[Tisha Thompson]

Doesn't that send up kind of a red flag for you? For a guy that was so desperate, desperate losing so much money, he never bet on the sport that he was the closest to? Even afterwards, after Shohei Ohtani gave a statement, there were a lot of players who were like, we don't know.

[Steven Akimoto]

We don't know.

[Tisha Thompson]

It's true.

[Steven Akimoto]

We have no idea.

[Tisha Thompson]

I. I think prominent members of Dodgers were still like, we'll see what the feds say. You know, we'll see what the feds say. Because when Shohei accused his interpreter of stealing millions, he elevated a betting scandal to a massive crime. The feds had already been investigating the illegal bookmaking, but now they were turning their attention to Ippei. And central to that investigation would be one man. I gambled bigger than most, right? And I've never seen anything like it. I've seen some wild stuff, but never like this. Matt Boyer, who took Ippei's bets and Shohei's money, who was going around telling everyone he'd hooked the biggest star in baseball. The greed side of me is like, this is great. You know, this guy could lose $50 million and afford it. That's next on the Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani. The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani is based on reporting by me, Tisha Thompson, with support from Tim Keown and the ESPN Investigative Unit. Our producer is Carrie Ann Thomas. Our senior producer is Max Green. Our senior editorial producer is Preeti Varathan. Our associate producer is Gus Navarro. Story editing by Audrey Quinn, Elaine Tang, Eric Neal and Mike Drago. Additional editing by Rebecca Hudson. Our archival producer is Jennifer Wheelock. Our line producer is Katherine Sanke. Production managers are Jason Schwartz and Sheena Williams. Fact checking by John Master Berradino with David Sabino. Additional editorial review from Masa Niwa. Original music by Alison Leighton Brown and John DeLore. Sound design by John DeLore. Chris Buckle is Vice President of ESPN Investigative Enterprise and digital journalism. Marcia Cook, Brian Lockhart, Heather Anderson and Burke Magnus are executive producers for 30 for 30. David Roberts, Mike Foss and Roxanna Scott are executive producers for ESPN.