Shohei Ohtani was supposed to offer a bright rebirth of sorts for baseball. Instead, he’s shrouded in controversy and suspicion, and the timing couldn’t be worse.
After Wednesday night’s accusations against his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, experts say it could sour a critical moment for Ohtani and even the game itself. Ohtani’s attorneys claim the Japanese star was the victim of a “massive theft” in a case tied to sports gambling.
The scandal was exposed against a backdrop of Ohtani’s debut with the Dodgers earlier that day, in the first game of the Major League Baseball regular season against the Padres — and the first MLB game played in Seoul, South Korea.
“Yesterday was supposed to be the coronation” of Ohtani, 29, as the sport’s new king, Adrian Burgos, a sports historian and professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told NBC News. “The MLB, regardless of what truth ultimately comes out of this story, has this international global superstar associated with the worst sin of baseball.”
Questions continue to swirl around the player’s knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling habits and his involvement in the case. According to league officials, the MLB was unaware of the case until contacted by the media. They have not been contacted by federal prosecutors and are gathering information, they said.
Given Ohtani’s historic significance as one of the greatest athletes to ever play in the league, along with the expectation of him to revitalize a sport that’s long been waning in popularity, many experts say the scandal could also actually lead to a bump in interest for baseball — but not for the right reasons.
“People are going to totally tune in for the mess. That’s part of Americana charm,” Burgos said.
Both Burgos and Stanley Thangaraj, chair for the study of race, ethnicity and social justice at Stonehill College, whose research in part focuses on Asian Americans in sports, mentioned that viewership is likely…
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