let's get excited about...shohei otani

The story in my head (which is most generous to Shohei) is: Ippei got that gambling gene, Shohei helps him out a bit, Shohei/Shohei's lawyers say "hey, you can't give money to your right hand man to gamble as a top sports player, heard of pete rose?" Shohei says "Ippei, it's time to go "

^^so yeah, a mix of falling and pushing. Obvs heaps of conjecture but that seems like the simplest explanation with the facts laid out. That said, I am fully ready to laugh into the abyss when Shohei gets banned from baseball and the Dodgers stay on the hook for 700mil

Can we keep our libellous Shohei speculation in one thread please

― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Wednesday, March 20, 2024 3:54 PM (five minutes ago)

This thread is only for people who spell his family name OTANI or 大谷, people like... Shohei Otani himself.

Surely getting banned from MLB for gambling would be a breach of contract and invalidate the Doyers salary payment obligations, no?

If not, well played *checks notes* Nez Balelo

Maybe. Dodgers stayed on the hook for Bauer the whole time 'that' mess went down iirc.

The really interesting question here is, suppose my story is relatively correct and with the feds looking into it, mlb/feds can see shohei did transfer to illegal bookies.... Is Ohtani too big to fall? It's obviously in the interest of MLB to sweep this one as deep under the rug as possible, but do they have the levers to do that? Do the feds care?

Maybe it's a trap to bring him back to the Korean or Japanese leagues. "Banned from MLB, what a shame"

He and Bauer could finally be bunkmates

So he either goes 5/5 5hr's or 0/5 5k's tonight right

Cannot believe this is happening. Wake me up in a week when he's suspended or when he beats the rap. It's all too much for me

feeling some whiplash after only having just learned about the existence of ippei from the breathless sports illustrated article that calls ippei shohei's bestest and most beloved friend

Verducci’s prose has really fallen off. Are we sure that’s him? I mean this is giving big Allegra Coleman energy:

But like an Italian sports car, even at rest his angularity and aura connotate agility and speed. The power is all under the hood.

I’m bumping this non canonical thread solely for Steve Shasta

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJMwnsvXUAEX04s?format=jpg&name=small

I'm kinda curious about who knew what and when between LAD/MLB/Otani's PR dept because Ippei getting fired only AFTER the story broke AND his interview(s) is incredibly sketchy...

I don’t know the exact exact timeline but I think the LA Times story (ippei stealing) dropped right before the ESPN one (two stories). Ohtani’s agents are professionals, I don’t see how the first interview fuckup happened

https://i.imgur.com/K4HSNvI.jpeg