Agree that the Dodgers look terrible. And I understand the human impulse not to want to appear greedy. But I don't know why people continue to return these baseballs. Hang on to it, pick your spot, and try to sell it for as much as you can. The feeling that you owe some sort of obligation to the game or to players who make this much money escapes me entirely.
― clemenza, Friday, 5 April 2024 01:52 (two months ago) link
A rookie's first HR, I guess I'd return that--but I don't think I'd be in any rush if it were Wyatt Langford or Jackson Holliday.
― clemenza, Friday, 5 April 2024 02:43 (two months ago) link
the refusal to authenticate the baseball by the stadium is pretty bush league. i wonder what they could do to get around that?
― 龜, Friday, 5 April 2024 11:51 (two months ago) link
It’s definitely a dirty bit of business. Given how much the ball was worth if sold, it really underlines how bad the handling of it was.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Friday, 5 April 2024 11:57 (two months ago) link
He's waaaaaaaarmiiiiiing
― H.P, Friday, 5 April 2024 19:50 (two months ago) link
Things I love: Teoscar Hernandez throwing sunflower seeds at him whenever they're in the same frame
― H.P, Friday, 5 April 2024 19:52 (two months ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/business/shohei-ohtani-ippei-mizuhara-plea.html
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 11 April 2024 01:27 (one month ago) link
The biggest unanswered question, imo, was "how would Ippei have taken that much money from Shohei without him knowing?" and the NYT report clears that up: https://t.co/QvDtdzj29r pic.twitter.com/mquNvwR8pi— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) April 11, 2024
― symsymsym, Thursday, 11 April 2024 02:26 (one month ago) link
oh dear lol
― brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 11 April 2024 03:07 (one month ago) link
Ippei Mizuhara has been charged with stealing $16 million from Shohei Ohtani
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 11 April 2024 17:47 (one month ago) link
Investigators also relied on recorded phone calls from the bank in which Mizuhara falsely identified himself as Ohtani to "trick and deceive" bank employees into authorizing the transfers.
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:08 (one month ago) link
What the fuck these details are insane
"MIZUHARA messaged BOOKMAKER 1 stating, “Have you seen the reports?” BOOKMAKER 1 responded, “Yes, but that’s all bullshit. Obviously you didn’t steal from him. I understand it’s a cover job .. MIZUHARA then responded, “Technically I did steal from him. it’s all over for me.” "— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) April 11, 2024
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:09 (one month ago) link
Here's the complaint against Mizuhara. It's 37 pages.https://t.co/ZiewNKezAT— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) April 11, 2024
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:12 (one month ago) link
So yeah, that Ohtani statement where he was very unambiguous about what happened, because the forensic information backs up the story of the theft:
In an interview with law enforcement, Victim A stated that he did not authorize these transfers from the x5848 Account. 6. The transfers from the x5848 Account were made from devices and IP addresses associated with IPPEI MIZUHARA, an individual who was, until recently, employed as Victim A’s translator and de facto manager. Text messages on MIZUHARA’s mobile phone show that in September 2021 MIZUHARA began gambling with BOOKMAKER 1’s illegal sports book, and began losing substantial sums of money in late 2021. Bank A records show that during the same time period, the contact information on the x5848 Account was changed to link the x5848 Account to MIZUHARA’s phone number, and to an anonymous email account which is connected to MIZUHARA based on data found on MIZUHARA’s mobile phone.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:20 (one month ago) link
g. On or about November 17, 2023, BOOKMAKER 1 messaged MIZUHARA stating, “Hey Ippie, it’s 2 o’clock on Friday. I don’t know why you’re not returning my calls. I’m here in Newport Beach and I see [Shohei] walking his dog. I’m just gonna go up and talk to him and ask how I can get in touch with you since you’re not responding? Please call me back immediately.”
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:21 (one month ago) link
On or about January 2, 2022, MIZUHARA asked BOOKMAKER 2 if BOOKMAKER 1 could “reload my account? I lost it all.”BOOKMAKER 2 responded, “BOOKMAKER 1 bumped you 50k.”On or about January 15, 2022, MIZUHARA told BOOKMAKER 2, “Fuck I lost it all lol . . . can you ask BOOKMAKER 1 if he can bump me 50k? That will be my last one for a while if I lose it.”
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:32 (one month ago) link
I can’t stop reading this, I’m in the horrors
On or about November 14, 2022, MIZUHARA messaged BOOKMAKER 1 stating “I’m terrible at this sport betting thing huh? Lol . . . Any chance u can bump me again?? As you know, you don’t have to worry about me not paying!”
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:35 (one month ago) link
it gets so much better (worse)
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:36 (one month ago) link
OK, I'll come clean. Yes, the buy-in for our fantasy league is $16 million, and, yes, Ippei was in it last year. But it's not my fault he drafted Alek Manoah in the first round.— Grant Brisbee (@GrantBrisbee) April 11, 2024
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:39 (one month ago) link
unreal. Unreal!!!!
The complaint alleges that Ippei placed about 19,000 bets between December 2021 and January 2024, all with Ohtani's money. The complaint says Ippei won $142,256,769.74 and lost $182,935,206.68, with a total net loss of $40,678,436.94.— Laura J. Nelson 🦅 (@laura_nelson) April 11, 2024
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:41 (one month ago) link
hope he feels bad, Ohtani's gonna have to play for 20 years to make that up
― frogbs, Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:50 (one month ago) link
that's ~20 bets a day for three years. did this gambling operation have an app or something?
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:52 (one month ago) link
It’s crazy. Ippei also said that he lost a lot of money on crypto in one of his texts to the bookie.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:59 (one month ago) link
the best part is how ippei apparently spent $325k on ebay buying baseball cards with the intent of reselling them later (for a profit???)
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:04 (one month ago) link
I have to say I am stunned the forensic evidence showed Ippei did this.
― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:05 (one month ago) link
I cannot stress enough how bad his management and financial team comes across here. "Agent 1" has apparently never spoken or texted with him using a non-Mizuhara interpreter or in English, despite employing his own interpreters to communicate with other clients.— Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler) April 11, 2024
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:05 (one month ago) link
yea I mean I like Ohtani as much as anyone but it pretty clearly seemed like a coverup, glad to be wrong on that
― frogbs, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:06 (one month ago) link
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:06 (one month ago) link
i don't really get that though - if shohei has his bff interpreter available 24/7 why would you employ your own? xp
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:06 (one month ago) link
we need to figure out how to preserve the "this is all a conspiracy to cover up ohtani gambling on sports" section of this thread in a polystyrene cube for eternal reflection
― na (NA), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:07 (one month ago) link
#freeippei truther Shasta is going to be devastated
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:12 (one month ago) link
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:13 (one month ago) link
if you brought your own translator that's a pretty big signal to shohei that you don't trust his translator
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:19 (one month ago) link
kinda funny seeing people saying stuff like "I think some of y'all owe Shohei Ohtani an apology"...like come on. he's a once-in-a-generation talent who seems to break records every game he plays, he's gonna make a billion dollars playing baseball and he's also pretty handsome, the man can take it
― frogbs, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:25 (one month ago) link
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:27 (one month ago) link
easy to say now with the benefit of hindsight, but would you really have been willing to question shohei about the guy who he's seen playing catch on christmas with, who shohei spends every hour of his (limited) waking day with and who you suspect could probably get shohei to drop you as an agent if he wanted to?
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:31 (one month ago) link
Ok but why didn’t the agent keep pressing on that account? Like are secret accounts exempt from tax returns or something? That’s blatant malpractice on their side, sorry.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:37 (one month ago) link
Like literally this would have come to light years ago if someone at CAA had sacked up and asked Ohtani directly for access to the account, which he assumed they were already handling for him
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:38 (one month ago) link
This guy really sounds like Colonel Parker the more I hear about him
― omar little, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:40 (one month ago) link
in america taxes are handled from W-2s - IRS never asks for any info about bank accounts.
in the grand scheme of things, ohtani's angels pre-2023 payroll account ($3M in 2021, $5.5M in 2022 on a pre-tax basis) is a minnow compared to his endorsement accounts. it didn't start getting big until ohtani pulled in $30M in 2023 which it also seems is when ippei really got in the hole
i'm just saying there was a 0.001% chance for upside and a 99.99% chance for downside for that agent to go behind ippei's back in this scenario, without knowing what we know now
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:44 (one month ago) link
The report says that CAA asked about it and flagged up the danger of Ohtani’s tax returns not containing all relevant information. Ippei attending meetings without Ohtani present seems like something they should have flagged up as a problem.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:50 (one month ago) link
i dunno, i'm sure ohtani is not the first big leaguer client they've had who skipped a meeting about filling out their taxes.
the language about risks re: inaccurate returns is just standard language any accountant would say in that situation (because it's true, and also not that big a deal - just file an amendment later!)
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 19:55 (one month ago) link
Thankfully nothing bad happened when nobody followed up
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:01 (one month ago) link
thankfully we all have the benefit of hindsight to look at this with!
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:04 (one month ago) link
i think anyone w/ an understanding of how megastar celebrities are typically treated by people around them would not find it surprising that people at CAA were apparently unwilling to imply to ohtani that his best friend wasn't trustworthy. i'm not excusing CAA nobody needs to do that for a sports agency but what i am saying is that it's very standard for people who surround a money generator on the order of ohtani's magnitude to take the approach of doing whatever possible to not upset the apple cart. it's why the kinda people who can actually say uncomfortable or true things to super duper famous people are incredibly valuable, most people are far more interested in protecting their relationship w/ the person
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:10 (one month ago) link
You literally don’t have to imply he’s trustworthy. Can’t be that difficult to ask “what’s going on with this account, just need to check for something”.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:16 (one month ago) link
what if that account is his derek jeter "🤫 gift basket" account? you're going to make him explain that to you?
― 龜, Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:24 (one month ago) link
good on him for playing the game the right way IMO
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:25 (one month ago) link
you'd think it's a hard earned lesson for CAA, but also if ohtani continues to employ them, then from their perspective, their coddling of him is still effective at their no 1 goal which is continuing to be in business w/ him. maybe he's the kinda guy who looks at the situation and takes it as a wake up call to change his circle, but some athletes/celebs really like being coddled!
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:33 (one month ago) link
Yeah I agree with that. He should definitely be asking some difficult questions about some of these details, but maybe he just wants to draw a line under it and move on.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Thursday, 11 April 2024 20:38 (one month ago) link