November 21, 2025 • 49 mins
With illegal gambling back in baseball's news this month — with two MLB players allegedly aiding in an illegal gambling fix worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — we revisit the Ippei Mizuhara gambling scandal that dominated the news in Dodgerland (and beyond) back in the Spring of 2024, when the first episodes of Dodger Blue Dream were publishing.
The Dodgers fire Shohei Ohtani's interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, after he allegedly steals millions of dollars from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts to a bookmaker in Orange County, who is now federal investigation for illegal gambling.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the show. It's Dodger Blue Dream.
I'm Richard Parks. Thank you for tuning in. It is
the off season. It's that short period of the year
where no baseball is being played in the Major League
since at least you could always get into winter ball.
(00:22):
And I am certainly excited about the World Baseball Classic,
which is happening in the spring of twenty twenty six.
But as of this moment, Dodgers wise, things are relatively
quiet after the pyrotechnics of the twenty twenty five World
Series and the Dodgers' second consecutive title. So what happens
(00:48):
in the baseball off season that you, my dear listener,
would be even remotely interested in. Awards have been announced.
Sho Hey Otani won his fourth MVP award unanimously. We
got to see the reaction video featuring his dog Decoy,
and then his wife Mamiko, and his agent and as
(01:08):
Bilelo and a couple other people are there. But when
Shohey is announced as the winner of the award, it's
kind of cute because he leans over and hugs and
kisses his dog Decoy, not his wife, as a fellow
dog dad, I get it fun stuff. I might be
doing a whole decoy slash Dodger dog episode soon, but
(01:31):
that's for another day. What else there is the hot stove,
off season, trade rumors, free agency, et cetera. The Dodgers
are supremely stacked. The roster is pretty much set, a
lot of long term deals. We kind of know what
we're going to do to try to run it back
and win a three peat in twenty twenty six. But
(01:53):
there are some needs and the Dodgers are certainly in
on a lot of the highest pile players available Kyle Tucker,
for example. And then there was this recent baseball gambling
story involving two Cleveland Guardians pitchers, a Manual Class and
Luis Ortiz have been charged with fraud, conspiracy, and bribery.
(02:19):
They are alleged to have been in on this scheme
to rig individual pitches that people can bet on. You
can bet on any individual pitch that is thrown in
Major League Baseball, And in the case of Class and Ortes,
there was supposed to be this fix where the gamblers
they were in cahoots with one hundreds of thousands of
(02:41):
dollars because they knew ahead of time that Class and
orties were going to throw certain pitches or throw them
certain ways, like they would intentionally throw a ball in
the dirt so that it would be called a ball.
And there is currently both a federal and a Major
League Baseball investigation going on. There isn't really a Dodgers
(03:03):
connection here at all, but there is this one thing,
and I'm just looking at an ESPN story that says
that the fix was on one day in a game
that the Guardians played against the Dodgers, and so one
better placed sixteen parlays in which Class A would be
throwing a ball. So if the charges are true, Class
(03:24):
A has told these illegal gamblers that he's going to
throw a ball, and so of the eight pitches involved
in these bets, seven were successful. The eighth pitch was
a pitch in the dirt that would have been called
a ball except for the fact that our Dodgers center
fielder Andy Pajes swung and missed that pitch in the dirt. So,
(03:48):
in addition to making one of the most memorable catches
in Dodgers' history in Game seven of this twenty twenty
five World Series, Andy Pajes also foiled this illegal betting
scheme at least this one instance. So illegal betting is
once again intersecting with Major League Baseball in a way
that connects very directly to what was the biggest story
(04:13):
in a broad kind of transcending baseball sense of the
twenty twenty four baseball season, the Shohei Otani Ibe Mizuhara
gambling scandal, which of course we covered on this show.
So today we are going to revisit one of our
very first episodes from way back in spring of twenty
(04:35):
twenty four, when amid the beginning of sho Hee Otani's
very first year as a Dodger, the baseball world was
rocked by this crazy gambling scandal involving show Haes then
translator Ebe Mizuhara. And if you listen to this show,
(04:56):
you know all about this. eBay is now in prison
because he stole many millions of dollars from Shohey to
pay off a debt that he had with an illegal
gambling operation in California, which came under scrutiny as part
of a federal investigation. This story broke literally the day
(05:20):
that I was about to hit publish on the very
first episode of Dodger Blue Dream, a podcast I was
starting as a labor of love, just a fun, lighthearted,
joyful tribute to the game of baseball, which I love
so dearly. But then bam, there was this very non joyful,
(05:41):
non baseball story, And so immediately upon launching this show,
I shifted into investigative journalism mode, not really doing the
investigation myself so much as reading a lot of it,
but also reading these federal documents and exhaustively researching and
fact checking this crazy gambling story, the story of Ipe Mizuhara,
(06:06):
took over my life for a couple months, which resulted
in two fairly long and very dense episodes on this scandal,
which I would argue are the most comprehensive, responsibly framed,
exhaustively researched, and certainly dramatically retold version of these events
(06:29):
available even to this day. So over the next two
weeks here on the Feed, we're going to revisit these
two episodes that were released back in the spring of
twenty twenty four, The Talented Mister Epay and The Complaint
Against Epay. If you haven't heard these, think about saving
(06:50):
them for your next session on the treadmill or your
neighborhood walk, or you're doing the dishes, raking the leaves,
you know, whenever you do your podcast cast time, I
recommend these to you. They're good and if you remember
them and you listen to them when they came out,
maybe listen to them again. They're good. I am proud
(07:11):
of them. It took a lot to get it all
right and reminded me a lot of my newspaper days.
When I was making them, I was thinking a lot
about this Philip Seymour Hoffman movie that I saw once
like twenty years ago, called Owning Mahoney, about a gambling addict.
It's just a heartrending topic, and I tried to take
(07:31):
the perspective of the people involved and imagine what this
must have been like for them while relaying the facts
of the story in as accurate and concise a way
as I could. So that's the deal. It's a rebroadcast.
Thank you for listening to Dodger Blue Dream Today's episode
(07:52):
The Talented Mister eBay coming up after the break. When
(08:15):
I started this project, I knew that the Dodgers were
going to be something we'd all want to talk about,
but I never could have guessed we'd be talking about this.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're following that baseball player shoe Hey Otani seven hundred
million dollar contract with LA Dodgers. And now there's some
weird stuff going on with gambling, four and a half
million dollar betting scandal.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Addiction lies, millions of dollars in illicit gambler's debt, and
two brothers torn asunder. Today we bring you the story
that has defined the start of the twenty twenty four
Los Angeles Dodgers baseball season.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Will they throw this guy out of baseball? If it's
proven that he bet on baseball.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
They better throw him baseball. That's all I'm gonna say.
If you bet off baseball, better throw it out. That
is truly wild, and as a fan, it's kind of heartbreaking.
Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream. I'm Richard Parks. I'm a writer, podcaster,
(09:24):
and diehard Dodger fan, born and raised in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the story of the twenty
twenty four baseball season. This is a documentary about a
year we will never forget. Today's episode, the talented mister
(09:51):
Ebe imagine for a moment, you're the most famous baseball
player on the planet. You are incredibly rich and incredibly important.
(10:13):
You are valued in every measurable sense by every powerful
person you could possibly think of as a messiah like
figure here to save baseball. You just signed a contract
for seven hundred million dollars to play a child's game
in a foreign country. Your life is baseball, and you
(10:34):
treat your body as a sacred machine. You sleep ten
hours a day plus naps on a nine thousand dollars
custom mattress made by a company you do ads for
in Japan. You speak openly of your love of sleep,
but little else. You recently married in secret to a
woman even your fellow teammates hadn't met. It's not in
(10:56):
your interest to be anything but private, but you do.
You have to talk to the media, and there are
scores of reporters whose lives revolve specifically around you and
your movements. Grown men twice your age who brought their
families here clear across the world to write stories about
how special you are. You've been famous for a long time.
(11:16):
You were famous when you were a teenager, when you
were playing for the ham Fighters in Hokkaido. That's when
you met this guy. Ipe you were eighteen, he was
twenty six. He grew up in the US, the birthplace
of baseball, the place you hope to move to one
day to play in the major leagues. And since then,
(11:41):
Epe has been by your side every step.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Show Hayes interpreter mostly Show Hayes best buddy, close friend,
Epe Mizuhara, Ipe Mizuhara.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Trust. Can you imagine the trust required? Baby Zuhara was
not just show heo Tani's interpreter. They went through this
life together for more than a decade. Show Hey, the
boys star and Ipe, the older brother and the protector.
My first question, first big interview with ESPN, how do
(12:16):
we spell your last name? Ipe? Is there? Show Hey
is so young.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
He doesn't know the real answer, but whatever he has
to fill out papers, he puts the agent there. I
mean I watched him for the five years with the
fighters Saigne You, He and the talent.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
They moved to the US together. When show He came
to the majors, I knew he had what it takes
and I don't think it was going to be this good.
And for every big moment since then, there's epek Here.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Is the great show Hey Otani with the golden medal.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
This is the guy behind him. This is ape Otani's translator.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
He won't catch for a show hey during the twenty
twenty one home run derby.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
What a fun moment doesn't mean he was show his
catch partner, his driver, and his constant companion as he
rose to superstart him. Well show hey and epay, thank
you so much again, and welcome to the Los Angeles
dodgrict SODEC. So it went way beyond baseball. Well you
breakfast every day. I'm within three hundred and sixty five
(13:20):
days of the year, Epe told the Athletic. So it's
going to be tough if you don't get along on
a personal level, I get a lot of less swims.
People that are around show her like his parents, seeing
how he's doing and stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So business.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Acute.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Yeah, we're not friends or anything.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We're just business partners. It's easy to imagine how fame
on this level could be insanely isolating. Add to that
the language barrier, the culture shock of moving to the US,
the unheard of success. How many people could possibly understand,
how many people could show Hey possibly trust, Which is
(14:03):
why this story breaks my heart and we joined it
with breaking News Right now show.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Hey Tani is speaking for the first time since this
interpreter was fired for alleged massive theft.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
He's given a statement live from Dodger Stadium. Let's listen in.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Minasa Maimino concussion of Mina.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I've always this kittle.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
I'm very sad and shocked that someone who I'm trusted
and has done this, Ie has been stealing money from
my account and has told lies. I didn't know that
I had a gambling addiction and was in debt. All
(14:53):
of this has been a complete lie. In conclusion, I
do want to make it clear that I never better
on sports or has woefully sent money to the bookmaker. Yeah.
I'm looking forward to focusing on the season, and I'm glad.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That we have this opportunity to talk.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Julie, I said, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show. Both
the IRS and Major League Baseball are investigating what happened.
(15:45):
As it stands, everybody involved has something to lose. For Epay,
he's already been fired and it seems like his gambling
addiction is very serious and very bad. He also mentioned
in his life public interview that he hadn't told his
wife about his problem, and there's a lot of negative
attention on him, and people online are insane. Is he
(16:07):
okay for Show Hey? He lost his friend and his
most famous confidant. He's apparently out millions of dollars and
there are these investigations and he's subject to that inquiry
and all that comes with it. Baseball players thrive on consistency.
This is a major monkey wrench thrown into what we
(16:28):
know about the routines of his life, his public persona,
everything at a moment when the attention and the pressures
on him are at an all time high. Will this
affect his ability to perform? And now to the team,
the Dodgers, it would be very bad to lose any
bit of what shohe Otani is bringing to this team,
this once in a lifetime player. The Dodgers have spent
(16:50):
seven hundred million dollars on and built their plans for
the next decade around and there are a lot of
other players on the team besides Show Hey. What are
they going through around this team? Chemistry is a real thing,
and this is media attention of a different order and
major League Baseball they don't want anything to happen to
show Hey. This man is the face of baseball around
(17:13):
the world. He is actually here to save baseball. The
entire industry is counting on him. And as a fan,
you just want to see this guy play. You don't
want him to be under investigation and mixed up in
all this.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, they throw this guy out of baseball. If it's
proven that he bet on baseball, they better throw it out.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
When show Hay signed his seven hundred million dollar deal
to become a Dodger in December, Epay immediately became a
part of the story.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Show hayes interpreter mostly show Hay's best buddy, close friend
epe Mizuhara.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He's the other guy on stage with the biggest baseball
player on the planet, and he gets just as much
airtime because we don't know what show Hay is saying
until Epey tells us. In this kittle.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
So, his name is Dekoping. He has an American name
and it's Decoy.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And he's got a look. You know, he's got a vibe.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You're very popular around everyone's digging your haircut over there.
How many people now say they want to have the
Epey haircut?
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Working man Zero.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, she is a Japanese woman, and which is part
of the reason why he became a character instantly on
our show. Even before this news came out. She's a
normal Japanese woman. It felt like Ipe was going to
be a really fun, colorful aspect of following show Hay
during the next decade in Los Angeles. A deep cut, perhaps,
but a fun part of being a fan. They were
(18:43):
like frickin' frack inseparable and convincingly friends. It is not
hyperbole to say that as fans, we start caring about
these players. By extension, we started caring about Epe and
Shohei's first season as a Dodger is just about to start.
(19:04):
There are still snow caps on the San Gabriel Mountains.
The smell of pink flowering jasmine is filling the air
in Los Angeles the sea and nothis is in bloom
and Griffith Park. It is spring. It is the blank page,
and we were all feeling like the Dodgers were going
to write us a pretty amazing story this year Dodger.
(19:35):
No matter how this shakes out and whoever is guilty
of what, there's one thing I keep coming back to
Ipe and show Hay, the inseparable duo, are now split.
What happened? How and when did the trust between these
two break down to the point that show Hay is
(19:58):
publicly disowning his best in front of television cameras. How
did things spiral so badly out of control that we
ended up here?
Speaker 6 (20:08):
All of this has been a complete lie Lie Lie, Lie,
Lie line line.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Here's a timeline of what we know. The following is
based on things first reported by ESPN.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
The twenty twenty four Major League Baseball season set to
get underway.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
We are at South Korea, Soul to be exact. The
whole thing took place on the grandest stage as the
Dodgers took the field for the first game of the
twenty twenty fourth season on March twentieth in Seoul, South Korea.
Oh say, can you see you can get quicklil you
also tell me complete it. This is Showhay's first game
(20:51):
in Dodger Blue after signing a contract for seven hundred
million dollars. Good periods and the whole world is watching.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Hey o Tani, Here's arrival marks start of a new chapter.
With so much anticipation, had so much expectation to come
for his arrival.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
There's Ebey in the dugout Browns follow one ball, one stride.
He knows something we don't. At the end of this game,
he's going back into the Dodgers clubhouse and he's going
to confess what he's done.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Garbage.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Stultani again reaches out, specs it to short. There's Kim,
there's good guys forces later and you see one of
the tools that is probably underappreciated just given everything that
he does.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
He's got great.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Speed, he got horn. Ebey's life has been unraveling for
the past forty eight hours as a months long investigation
by ESPN has reached a boiling point. He has a
gambling addiction, and he's accrued millions of dollars of debt
with a bookmaker in southern California who is now under
(21:57):
federal investigation for illegal game. They've got wire transfers sent
to the bookie to pay down Epay's debts, totaling a
million dollars with show Hay's name on them. The day before,
after learning about this from ESPN, sho Hay's agent had
confronted Epay and hired a crisis communications spokesman and earlier.
That same day, before the game, the spokesman in Epay
(22:20):
had sat for a ninety minute interview with ESPN. Epay
had confessed to it all. He'd met the bookie at
a card game in twenty twenty one. He told the
reporter they were introduced by Atlanta Braves infielder David Fletcher,
who had previously played with Otani on the Angels. Shortly
after he met the bookie, Epay told the reporter he
started betting on sports, but not on baseball, using credit.
(22:45):
By the end of twenty twenty two, he'd amassed a
million dollars in debt and was borrowing money from friends
and family, but not show Hey. I couldn't share this
with show Hay. Epay told the reporter. It was hard
for me to make my ends meet. I was going
pay check to paycheck because I kind of had to
keep up with his lifestyle. But at the same time,
I didn't want to tell him this. At the time,
(23:07):
ipe told ESPN he was making about eighty five thousand
dollars a year. In twenty twenty two, show Hay was
making five point five million dollars and was earning much
more than that. In endorsements. Most estimates say at least
forty million dollars each year. Ipe described his relationship with
Shohey to ESPN as quote brothers, and he said that
(23:31):
he feared losing show Hay's trust.
Speaker 7 (23:40):
Rule twenty one in baseball subsection D.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Do you know what that is?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah, I'm familiar with it.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Major League Baseball takes betting very seriously. If a Major
League Baseball player or employee like Epe is found to
be betting illegally or betting on baseball in any way,
could face a lifetime ban from the sport.
Speaker 8 (24:03):
The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is
the sad end of a sorry episode.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
One of the greatest baseball players to ever live, the
hit King, Pete Rose, will never be inducted into the
Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball. Rose knew
the rule, It's still posted in every Major League clubhouse.
But he broke it anyway.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So why would you violate it?
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Well, I wish I could answer that question, but I
just can't.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I was wrong. I'm just stupid. The worst thing I
ever did in my life.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
This is the man who said I'd walk through hell
in a gasoline suit to play baseball. Illegal gambling operations
are notoriously predatory. They offer credit in part because a
gambling addiction will drive you to make wildly irresponsible decisions.
This is why the IRS is currently investigating Matthew Boyer
(24:59):
the book in Orange County Ebey was using. So why
would Ipe hide this from Showhy? Did he feel he
was protecting his friend? Did he know he was endangering
both their careers? Did he feel somehow that his gambling
violated the terms of their relationship? Ebe told ESPN he
(25:23):
didn't bet on baseball and that he didn't know the
bookie he was using was illegal when he first started
using him. But he kept his gambling a secret from
Showhy nonetheless for years, while racking up more and more debt,
Things got worse. By early twenty twenty three, Epe's debt
(25:44):
was four million dollars. He told ESPN he feared for
his safety and that somebody might come to his house.
This is when, according to Ipe's original interview with ESPN,
he finally went to OTA for help. I explain my situation.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
He says.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Obviously he wasn't happy about it, but he said he
would help me. Ebe described a scene in which he
and show Hay together logged into show Hay's bank account
on show Hay's computer and sent a handful of transactions,
each at five hundred thousand dollars over the course of
several months to pay off Matthew Boyer, the bookie in
(26:28):
Orange County, and by the time of Ebe's interview on
opening day in Korea, ESPN had seen two of those
wire transfers, both with show Hay's name on them. Ebe said,
show Hey quote didn't have a clue that the person
he was paying back was a bookie. I just told
him I need to send a wire to pay off
(26:49):
the debt. When asked if he thought he was putting
himself or show Hay at risk by asking to pay
it off, Ebe said, I don't think either of us
thought about that at the time at all. Ipe described
the guilty felt after asking for show Hayes help. It
was hard to see him. He said, he's a great guy,
(27:10):
and Ipe told ESPN that Shohey has never gambled, and
Quote thinks gambling is terrible. That's what Ipe told an
ESPN reporter in the presence of a crisis communications spokesperson
who was hired by Sho Hayes agent Nez Bilelo, who
Ipe had also been going back and forth with about this,
in addition to other unnamed representatives of Sho Hayes and
(27:33):
apparently possibly top Dodgers executives in the days leading up
to the first game of the season in Seoul, South Korea. Horner,
here's Freddie Freeman.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Hofgozo, Tommy, and he's got that thick stolen easily twenty
three bags last year.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
And you'd imagine this is what was on his mind
for most of the ballgame, knowing he'd have to confess
to the entire team after the last out, and on
top of everything else, ESPN reported Rob Manfred, the Commissioner
of Baseball, who was in Soul to see show Hay's debut,
had been alerted to the situation.
Speaker 9 (28:07):
Here's Otani with two on and one. They slights the
first pitch. Pitch it in the lornt centerfield. Get that's
a base hit. Here's what's coming around there. He'll score
standing it is five to two.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
As show, hey, show hey. He was having a really
good debut. The Dodgers out away from you.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
He started to show here.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
With two out in the bottom of the ninth inning,
the camera's cut to show Hay as he walks through
the dugout. He sidles up to Epay and he says
something to him. Ipe, who is talking to somebody else
off camera, turns to show Hay and smiles and says
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 9 (28:48):
And then the game ends and the Dodgers win the
first game up twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
They are one hand.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
Ah after this victory. Years and I.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That moment in the dugout in the ninth inning is
the last time we'll see them on camera together. Maybe Ever?
What was Shoh saying? What was Epay thinking? Moments later,
they're in the clubhouse behind closed doors. It's time for
(29:24):
Epay to confess. According to ESPN, in addition to the
entire team, the meeting is attended by Dodgers owner Mark
Walter and Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of Baseball Operations
who led the effort to sign O Tommy to the
Dodgers in the off season.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
We were getting ready to publish our story.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
This is Tisha Thompson, the reporter who led the investigation
for ESPN.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
There was a meeting right after the game was over.
In South Korea, and MS Harr gets up again based
on what I've been told, says something to the effect
of I'm sorry, I apologize. I have a gambling problem.
Another player says, so what, so what?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
You might have noticed that gambling is on the rise
in the United States. Just five years ago, a Supreme
Court ruling effectively legalized commercial sports betting in the US,
and gambling is now legal in thirty eight states. One
in five Americans bet on sports in twenty twenty two,
according to Pew Research, and we bet one hundred and
(30:39):
twenty billion dollars on sports last year according to S
and P Global. This change is creating a paradox for
Major League Baseball, which within months of that Supreme Court
ruling had partnered with DraftKings, MGM and fan duel. Betting
is a cardinal sin in baseball. It can get you
(31:00):
and for life, the equivalent of excommunication from the Church
of baseball. But also, betting is everywhere in baseball. I
listen to more baseball podcasts than I listen to any
other kind of podcast, and they are filled with ads
for betting sites and apps. And Major League Baseball does
not have a rule against its players and employees betting
(31:21):
on other sports legally. The point is to hear that
somebody is betting on sports in a baseball clubhouse might
not come as much of a surprise to a player.
So what, Well, it's not legal to bet on sports
of any kind in the state of California, and illegal
(31:41):
gambling operations are illegal. For an MLB player or employee,
the only thing worse than betting on baseball would be
betting on baseball illegally. Then you get the double whammy
of both the federal crime and the most severe rule
violation possible. Whether he knows all this or not, but
the moment Epey was standing in that clubhouse before all
(32:03):
the Dodgers and team officials and his best ye show, Hey,
he knows the reporters have seen two wire transfers, each
totaling five hundred thousand dollars sent to an illegal bookie
in southern California to pay off his illegal gambler's debt,
and he knows that those transfers have Shohei Otani's name
(32:24):
on them.
Speaker 7 (32:25):
Another player says, so what, And that is when the
president of the Dodger says, well, Otani paid off.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
The debts according to ESPN's source, a Dodger's official who
was in the room that night, Andrew Friedman stands up
in front of the room, including all the players, and
tells them that Shohey helped Epey pay off his debts,
which is the same thing that epe said in his
interview with ESPN earlier that day, but it is something
(32:57):
that is never said again. After this point, the story
changes because this is where show he takes over.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
So during the team meeting, obviously was speaking English and
I didn't have a translator on my side, but even
with that, I kind of understood what was going on
and started to feel that there was something amiss. And
so up until that team meeting, I didn't know that
(33:44):
I had a gambling addiction and was in debt and.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
What's it?
Speaker 6 (34:00):
So I'm looking look at Just prior to the meeting,
I was told by epei Hey, let's talk one to
one Indie hotel after the meeting, so I waited until then.
Speaker 7 (34:12):
They meet oh Tahani, who he's not human in English,
everyone says that, but he has enough understanding of English,
according to the sources we talked to yesterday to start
to say wyat.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Then there is a ride back to the hotel, maybe
the two road together. We don't know. Imagine you're the
most famous baseball player on the planet. Even in your
big life filled with travel, attention, and pressure. This week
has been a doozy. You flew to Korea with your
(34:52):
new wife to play your first ever game as a Dodger,
and your sleep spin a little off. But you did it.
You had a good game, a hit in our a
stolen base, and the Dodgers won. Time to get back
to the hotel, log some good sleep, get up and
do it all over again the next day.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
But now this.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
According to ESPN, the clubhouse meeting took place at eleven
pm soul time. Sometime over the next hour and a
half E Bay and show Hey meet one on one
at the Fairmont Ambassador Hotel and Seoul a skyscraper with
views of the Han River. How many times before had
(35:39):
these brothers sat in rooms just like this, late at night,
an unfamiliar place alone. It is the look in his eyes,
the tone of his voice, that thing he does with
his hands, and you know, let's just.
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Checking. And finally, when we went back to the hotel
and talked one to one, that was when I found
out that he had a master's need things and it
was revealed to me during that meaning that he he
paid admitted that he was sending money using my account
(36:25):
to the bookmaker, and obviously I did not never agreed
to pay off the debt or you know, make the
payment side be a bookmaker.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Otani's representatives had continued to rely on Mizuhara to communicate
with Otani while they were dealing with the situation, according
to ESPN, and Mizuhara did not tell Otani what was happening.
According to Otani, media outlets began asking questions about the
wire transfer his last week, but Mizuhara never relayed those messages.
(37:04):
That's from the Athletic.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
So all of this has been a complete line line.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Line Nez Ballelo, the Crisis Communications spokesperson, top Dodgers executives,
Tisha Thompson from ESPN, All these people were working off
of the same story. Ipe's story. Up until this point,
(37:37):
Ibe had been lying to everybody. If you believe Shohei
Otani and the reports that people kept using Ipe as
an interpreter even as this was going on, which would
also mean nobody had spoken to Showhy directly about this at.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
All, Amos, And at that moment, obviously I was it
was an absurd thing that was happening, and I've contacted
my representatives at that point.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And according to Showhy, it was him who had to
get in touch with everybody else that had already been
involved for the past forty eight hours to let them
know what's going on, benguishing.
Speaker 8 (38:20):
Next to next mons.
Speaker 6 (38:22):
When I was finally able to talk to my representatives,
that's when my representatives found out that IP has been
lying the whole time. And that's when I started contacting
the Dodgers and my lawyers, and the Dodgers and the
lawyers at that moment found out also as well that
they have been lied too.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Twelve thirty am soul Time, the crisis spokesman hired by
Otani's agent tells ESPN to hold their story that all
communication between Otani and his agent had gone through Mizuhara.
Two fifteen am souls t The Otani spokesman says, quote,
(39:02):
Mizuhara is despondent and needs to explain his situation to
his family, and says that attorneys are preparing a statement.
Three am. Otani's lawyers issue a statement to ESPN. They
say that shohe has been the victim of massive theft.
Three thirty am, the Dodgers fire Ipe four fifty five am,
(39:27):
less than an hour before sunrise in soul. Ipe gets
on the phone with ESPN. He says he had lied
in his previous interview and walks back much of his story.
He tells ESPN Otani had no knowledge of his gambling activities, debts,
or efforts to repay them. Quote, Obviously this is all
my fault, everything I've done. I'm ready to face all
(39:48):
the consequences. When did Otani become aware of the situation,
ESPN asks, they told me. I can't answer anything, he
says Otani's representatives are they representing U?
Speaker 8 (40:01):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:01):
He says, Are you taking any form of payment to
tell me these things?
Speaker 2 (40:06):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
He says, have you made any kind of agreement to
say these things?
Speaker 8 (40:12):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:12):
He says, You're doing this of your own volition and
free will. Yes. Did you bet on baseball?
Speaker 8 (40:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Did you lie to show Hey? Yes. In a final
conversation with ESPN, the spokesman says that Epay has been
controlling information to show Hey, using his position as the
(40:43):
interpreter and as for show Hey quote, he didn't know
what the buck was going on by the time the
ESPN story actually comes out. It's the story of two
stories what EPA said in his interview initially that Showey
helped him pay off his debts, and the correction of that,
which everybody, including Epay himself, immediately aligned on after that
(41:06):
one on one meeting with Shohy in the hotel that night.
This is wild, and it paints a very strange portrait
of what it's like to be this famous, important, rich
and Japanese in a Major League baseball clubhouse. It's the
highest pressure moment imaginable, opening day show Hay's first game
as a Dodger after signing a contract for seven hundred
(41:29):
million dollars, and it's in South Korea. Everybody knows this
negative story is coming, and they know that the debt
is in the millions of dollars, and they know per
epay that the debt is Epe's and that show Hay's
name is on the wires. So this guy's mixed up
in illegal gambling and he's gotten their star player involved.
(41:50):
And still everybody is going through Epay to talk to
show Hey about this. I mean, I know, he's busy
getting ready for the first game of the season, and
he likes asleep, but still, and somehow Andrew Friedman, the
Dodger's president of baseball operations, the guy who runs the
business side of things, he knows about eBay's lie and
(42:10):
doesn't even know that it's a lie before show Hey
hears about it and he announces it to the entire team,
and show Hay is there trying to follow all the
English and thinking what is he saying?
Speaker 6 (42:23):
What what?
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Because somehow he's the last to know. And I want
to reiterate that this is all based on things other
people have reported and said, so nothing is certain here
and we will see what the investigations proved to be true.
But this order of events that show Hay would be
the last to know of the lie and the one
to expose it is the craziest part of all of this,
(42:48):
and it's pretty devastating, and it definitely could be true
because that's the power that Ebe had as show Hay's
interpreter and as somebody show Hay trusted. The story that
they're painting right now is basically a like, uh, Ridley,
(43:09):
what's that movie?
Speaker 7 (43:10):
Talented?
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Mister Ripley. It's Tom, Tom Ripley, Tom Ripley. We were
at Princeton together, Okay. In the weeks since this story broke,
The Athletic reported that Epe had inaccuracies in a public
biography he used well employed by the Angels, which stated
that Ipe graduated from the University of California Riverside, but,
(43:34):
as first reported in NBC, the university found no record
of his attendance. The biography also said that Ipe worked
for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
The Athletic found reason to question the Yankees job, and
the Red Sox released a very firm statement insisting that
Epe never worked for the team.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
Llween and Annabel we are just outside the gated community
where Matthew Boyer lives. This is also where back in October,
federal agents raided his whole.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
David Fletcher, the braves infielder who Epey told ESPN introduced
him to Matthew Boyer the bookie at a card game,
also disputes what Epe said. Fletcher says that he was
at the game, but that he didn't introduce them.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
Diane Bass says she began representing Boyer after that October
federal raid. The most important thing that I want people
to know is that mister Boyer never met shohe A Tani,
never spoke with Shoheo Tani. The only person he dealt
with was Epay.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
There's much more to this story to be sure. If
ipe really did it, how did he have access to
the accounts, the passwords? Why didn't anybody notice the money
was missing? Could epe have been betting on baseball? After all?
Was he telling lies about show Hay In the narrative
of the talented mister Epey? Shohey did nothing wrong, but
(44:56):
could he be found to have known something about this
or worse? Certainly? So, where do things stand? The La
Times ran a story about how Shohey was not a
target in the federal investigation and that the feds quote
wanted the bookies, not the betters. It seems like the
feds have bigger fish to fry, and that they're not
(45:16):
really interested in show Hay or Epe. As for Major
League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has come out and said
that he hopes that the MLB investigation will take a
quote short time. Baseball mostly seems interested in simply verifying
the story that Shohey has put out there. The last
time Major League Baseball penalized a player for gambling, it
(45:38):
was Jared Cosart in twenty fifteen. Cosart received an undisclosed
fine from Major League Baseball for betting on other sports.
And that was before the Supreme Court ruling that effectively
legalized sports betting in most states. So we'll see what
happens with all that, and we'll keep you posted here.
And in the meantime, there's Baseball and friends. Baseball sure
(46:07):
can be funny. I mean, who could have guessed this
is how we'd start this season? And I got a
feeling that this season has a few more unexpected twists
in store for us. Sure, hope you'll join us for
the ride here on Dodger Blue Dream hang Out. We'll
(46:38):
do the credits now.
Speaker 8 (46:39):
Fans please predates fanay for the second our National Lands
Company by Dodger Say your Morgan is please Walter, lifelong
Dodger fan and multi plant and recording artist Josh Groban.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced by me Richard Parks.
Today's episode was story edited by Caitlin Esh with production
assistants from Angel Curetas. Original music in this episode by
William Ryan Fritch and by me. This episode is a
digest of things that I've read. All the original reporting
(47:32):
was done by ESPN and also the Los Angeles Times,
The Athletic, NBC and other outlets. We'll try to link
to some of the pieces in the show notes. If
(47:58):
you like the show, please let's share it with a friend,
post it to social media, and leave us a review.
I'd love to hear from you in a review with
a question or a thought about the show, so we
can tweak the approach as the season goes on. Thanks
for listening. We'll see you next time. All right, That
(48:48):
was it the talented mister e Pay. Next week on
the Feed, we will bring you the complaint against Epay,
which continues this story, delving into all the details that
became available in a one hundred page criminal complaint that
I spent a lot of time with back in the
spring of twenty twenty four. So look out for that
(49:11):
next week. Thanks again for listening.
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the show. It's Dodger Blue Dream.
I'm Richard Parks. Thank you for tuning in. It is
the off season. It's that short period of the year
where no baseball is being played in the Major League
since at least you could always get into winter ball.
(00:22):
And I am certainly excited about the World Baseball Classic,
which is happening in the spring of twenty twenty six.
But as of this moment, Dodgers wise, things are relatively
quiet after the pyrotechnics of the twenty twenty five World
Series and the Dodgers' second consecutive title. So what happens
(00:48):
in the baseball off season that you, my dear listener,
would be even remotely interested in. Awards have been announced.
Sho Hey Otani won his fourth MVP award unanimously. We
got to see the reaction video featuring his dog Decoy,
and then his wife Mamiko, and his agent and as
(01:08):
Bilelo and a couple other people are there. But when
Shohey is announced as the winner of the award, it's
kind of cute because he leans over and hugs and
kisses his dog Decoy, not his wife, as a fellow
dog dad, I get it fun stuff. I might be
doing a whole decoy slash Dodger dog episode soon, but
(01:31):
that's for another day. What else there is the hot stove,
off season, trade rumors, free agency, et cetera. The Dodgers
are supremely stacked. The roster is pretty much set, a
lot of long term deals. We kind of know what
we're going to do to try to run it back
and win a three peat in twenty twenty six. But
(01:53):
there are some needs and the Dodgers are certainly in
on a lot of the highest pile players available Kyle Tucker,
for example. And then there was this recent baseball gambling
story involving two Cleveland Guardians pitchers, a Manual Class and
Luis Ortiz have been charged with fraud, conspiracy, and bribery.
(02:19):
They are alleged to have been in on this scheme
to rig individual pitches that people can bet on. You
can bet on any individual pitch that is thrown in
Major League Baseball, And in the case of Class and Ortes,
there was supposed to be this fix where the gamblers
they were in cahoots with one hundreds of thousands of
(02:41):
dollars because they knew ahead of time that Class and
orties were going to throw certain pitches or throw them
certain ways, like they would intentionally throw a ball in
the dirt so that it would be called a ball.
And there is currently both a federal and a Major
League Baseball investigation going on. There isn't really a Dodgers
(03:03):
connection here at all, but there is this one thing,
and I'm just looking at an ESPN story that says
that the fix was on one day in a game
that the Guardians played against the Dodgers, and so one
better placed sixteen parlays in which Class A would be
throwing a ball. So if the charges are true, Class
(03:24):
A has told these illegal gamblers that he's going to
throw a ball, and so of the eight pitches involved
in these bets, seven were successful. The eighth pitch was
a pitch in the dirt that would have been called
a ball except for the fact that our Dodgers center
fielder Andy Pajes swung and missed that pitch in the dirt. So,
(03:48):
in addition to making one of the most memorable catches
in Dodgers' history in Game seven of this twenty twenty
five World Series, Andy Pajes also foiled this illegal betting
scheme at least this one instance. So illegal betting is
once again intersecting with Major League Baseball in a way
that connects very directly to what was the biggest story
(04:13):
in a broad kind of transcending baseball sense of the
twenty twenty four baseball season, the Shohei Otani Ibe Mizuhara
gambling scandal, which of course we covered on this show.
So today we are going to revisit one of our
very first episodes from way back in spring of twenty
(04:35):
twenty four, when amid the beginning of sho Hee Otani's
very first year as a Dodger, the baseball world was
rocked by this crazy gambling scandal involving show Haes then
translator Ebe Mizuhara. And if you listen to this show,
(04:56):
you know all about this. eBay is now in prison
because he stole many millions of dollars from Shohey to
pay off a debt that he had with an illegal
gambling operation in California, which came under scrutiny as part
of a federal investigation. This story broke literally the day
(05:20):
that I was about to hit publish on the very
first episode of Dodger Blue Dream, a podcast I was
starting as a labor of love, just a fun, lighthearted,
joyful tribute to the game of baseball, which I love
so dearly. But then bam, there was this very non joyful,
(05:41):
non baseball story, And so immediately upon launching this show,
I shifted into investigative journalism mode, not really doing the
investigation myself so much as reading a lot of it,
but also reading these federal documents and exhaustively researching and
fact checking this crazy gambling story, the story of Ipe Mizuhara,
(06:06):
took over my life for a couple months, which resulted
in two fairly long and very dense episodes on this scandal,
which I would argue are the most comprehensive, responsibly framed,
exhaustively researched, and certainly dramatically retold version of these events
(06:29):
available even to this day. So over the next two
weeks here on the Feed, we're going to revisit these
two episodes that were released back in the spring of
twenty twenty four, The Talented Mister Epay and The Complaint
Against Epay. If you haven't heard these, think about saving
(06:50):
them for your next session on the treadmill or your
neighborhood walk, or you're doing the dishes, raking the leaves,
you know, whenever you do your podcast cast time, I
recommend these to you. They're good and if you remember
them and you listen to them when they came out,
maybe listen to them again. They're good. I am proud
(07:11):
of them. It took a lot to get it all
right and reminded me a lot of my newspaper days.
When I was making them, I was thinking a lot
about this Philip Seymour Hoffman movie that I saw once
like twenty years ago, called Owning Mahoney, about a gambling addict.
It's just a heartrending topic, and I tried to take
(07:31):
the perspective of the people involved and imagine what this
must have been like for them while relaying the facts
of the story in as accurate and concise a way
as I could. So that's the deal. It's a rebroadcast.
Thank you for listening to Dodger Blue Dream Today's episode
(07:52):
The Talented Mister eBay coming up after the break. When
(08:15):
I started this project, I knew that the Dodgers were
going to be something we'd all want to talk about,
but I never could have guessed we'd be talking about this.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're following that baseball player shoe Hey Otani seven hundred
million dollar contract with LA Dodgers. And now there's some
weird stuff going on with gambling, four and a half
million dollar betting scandal.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Addiction lies, millions of dollars in illicit gambler's debt, and
two brothers torn asunder. Today we bring you the story
that has defined the start of the twenty twenty four
Los Angeles Dodgers baseball season.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Will they throw this guy out of baseball? If it's
proven that he bet on baseball.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
They better throw him baseball. That's all I'm gonna say.
If you bet off baseball, better throw it out. That
is truly wild, and as a fan, it's kind of heartbreaking.
Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream. I'm Richard Parks. I'm a writer, podcaster,
(09:24):
and diehard Dodger fan, born and raised in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the story of the twenty
twenty four baseball season. This is a documentary about a
year we will never forget. Today's episode, the talented mister
(09:51):
Ebe imagine for a moment, you're the most famous baseball
player on the planet. You are incredibly rich and incredibly important.
(10:13):
You are valued in every measurable sense by every powerful
person you could possibly think of as a messiah like
figure here to save baseball. You just signed a contract
for seven hundred million dollars to play a child's game
in a foreign country. Your life is baseball, and you
(10:34):
treat your body as a sacred machine. You sleep ten
hours a day plus naps on a nine thousand dollars
custom mattress made by a company you do ads for
in Japan. You speak openly of your love of sleep,
but little else. You recently married in secret to a
woman even your fellow teammates hadn't met. It's not in
(10:56):
your interest to be anything but private, but you do.
You have to talk to the media, and there are
scores of reporters whose lives revolve specifically around you and
your movements. Grown men twice your age who brought their
families here clear across the world to write stories about
how special you are. You've been famous for a long time.
(11:16):
You were famous when you were a teenager, when you
were playing for the ham Fighters in Hokkaido. That's when
you met this guy. Ipe you were eighteen, he was
twenty six. He grew up in the US, the birthplace
of baseball, the place you hope to move to one
day to play in the major leagues. And since then,
(11:41):
Epe has been by your side every step.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Show Hayes interpreter mostly Show Hayes best buddy, close friend,
Epe Mizuhara, Ipe Mizuhara.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Trust. Can you imagine the trust required? Baby Zuhara was
not just show heo Tani's interpreter. They went through this
life together for more than a decade. Show Hey, the
boys star and Ipe, the older brother and the protector.
My first question, first big interview with ESPN, how do
(12:16):
we spell your last name? Ipe? Is there? Show Hey
is so young.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
He doesn't know the real answer, but whatever he has
to fill out papers, he puts the agent there. I
mean I watched him for the five years with the
fighters Saigne You, He and the talent.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
They moved to the US together. When show He came
to the majors, I knew he had what it takes
and I don't think it was going to be this good.
And for every big moment since then, there's epek Here.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Is the great show Hey Otani with the golden medal.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
This is the guy behind him. This is ape Otani's translator.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
He won't catch for a show hey during the twenty
twenty one home run derby.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
What a fun moment doesn't mean he was show his
catch partner, his driver, and his constant companion as he
rose to superstart him. Well show hey and epay, thank
you so much again, and welcome to the Los Angeles
dodgrict SODEC. So it went way beyond baseball. Well you
breakfast every day. I'm within three hundred and sixty five
(13:20):
days of the year, Epe told the Athletic. So it's
going to be tough if you don't get along on
a personal level, I get a lot of less swims.
People that are around show her like his parents, seeing
how he's doing and stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So business.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Acute.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Yeah, we're not friends or anything.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We're just business partners. It's easy to imagine how fame
on this level could be insanely isolating. Add to that
the language barrier, the culture shock of moving to the US,
the unheard of success. How many people could possibly understand,
how many people could show Hey possibly trust, Which is
(14:03):
why this story breaks my heart and we joined it
with breaking News Right now show.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Hey Tani is speaking for the first time since this
interpreter was fired for alleged massive theft.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
He's given a statement live from Dodger Stadium. Let's listen in.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Minasa Maimino concussion of Mina.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I've always this kittle.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
I'm very sad and shocked that someone who I'm trusted
and has done this, Ie has been stealing money from
my account and has told lies. I didn't know that
I had a gambling addiction and was in debt. All
(14:53):
of this has been a complete lie. In conclusion, I
do want to make it clear that I never better
on sports or has woefully sent money to the bookmaker. Yeah.
I'm looking forward to focusing on the season, and I'm glad.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That we have this opportunity to talk.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Julie, I said, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show. Both
the IRS and Major League Baseball are investigating what happened.
(15:45):
As it stands, everybody involved has something to lose. For Epay,
he's already been fired and it seems like his gambling
addiction is very serious and very bad. He also mentioned
in his life public interview that he hadn't told his
wife about his problem, and there's a lot of negative
attention on him, and people online are insane. Is he
(16:07):
okay for Show Hey? He lost his friend and his
most famous confidant. He's apparently out millions of dollars and
there are these investigations and he's subject to that inquiry
and all that comes with it. Baseball players thrive on consistency.
This is a major monkey wrench thrown into what we
(16:28):
know about the routines of his life, his public persona,
everything at a moment when the attention and the pressures
on him are at an all time high. Will this
affect his ability to perform? And now to the team,
the Dodgers, it would be very bad to lose any
bit of what shohe Otani is bringing to this team,
this once in a lifetime player. The Dodgers have spent
(16:50):
seven hundred million dollars on and built their plans for
the next decade around and there are a lot of
other players on the team besides Show Hey. What are
they going through around this team? Chemistry is a real thing,
and this is media attention of a different order and
major League Baseball they don't want anything to happen to
show Hey. This man is the face of baseball around
(17:13):
the world. He is actually here to save baseball. The
entire industry is counting on him. And as a fan,
you just want to see this guy play. You don't
want him to be under investigation and mixed up in
all this.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, they throw this guy out of baseball. If it's
proven that he bet on baseball, they better throw it out.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
When show Hay signed his seven hundred million dollar deal
to become a Dodger in December, Epay immediately became a
part of the story.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Show hayes interpreter mostly show Hay's best buddy, close friend
epe Mizuhara.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He's the other guy on stage with the biggest baseball
player on the planet, and he gets just as much
airtime because we don't know what show Hay is saying
until Epey tells us. In this kittle.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
So, his name is Dekoping. He has an American name
and it's Decoy.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And he's got a look. You know, he's got a vibe.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You're very popular around everyone's digging your haircut over there.
How many people now say they want to have the
Epey haircut?
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Working man Zero.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, she is a Japanese woman, and which is part
of the reason why he became a character instantly on
our show. Even before this news came out. She's a
normal Japanese woman. It felt like Ipe was going to
be a really fun, colorful aspect of following show Hay
during the next decade in Los Angeles. A deep cut, perhaps,
but a fun part of being a fan. They were
(18:43):
like frickin' frack inseparable and convincingly friends. It is not
hyperbole to say that as fans, we start caring about
these players. By extension, we started caring about Epe and
Shohei's first season as a Dodger is just about to start.
(19:04):
There are still snow caps on the San Gabriel Mountains.
The smell of pink flowering jasmine is filling the air
in Los Angeles the sea and nothis is in bloom
and Griffith Park. It is spring. It is the blank page,
and we were all feeling like the Dodgers were going
to write us a pretty amazing story this year Dodger.
(19:35):
No matter how this shakes out and whoever is guilty
of what, there's one thing I keep coming back to
Ipe and show Hay, the inseparable duo, are now split.
What happened? How and when did the trust between these
two break down to the point that show Hay is
(19:58):
publicly disowning his best in front of television cameras. How
did things spiral so badly out of control that we
ended up here?
Speaker 6 (20:08):
All of this has been a complete lie Lie Lie, Lie,
Lie line line.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Here's a timeline of what we know. The following is
based on things first reported by ESPN.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
The twenty twenty four Major League Baseball season set to
get underway.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
We are at South Korea, Soul to be exact. The
whole thing took place on the grandest stage as the
Dodgers took the field for the first game of the
twenty twenty fourth season on March twentieth in Seoul, South Korea.
Oh say, can you see you can get quicklil you
also tell me complete it. This is Showhay's first game
(20:51):
in Dodger Blue after signing a contract for seven hundred
million dollars. Good periods and the whole world is watching.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Hey o Tani, Here's arrival marks start of a new chapter.
With so much anticipation, had so much expectation to come
for his arrival.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
There's Ebey in the dugout Browns follow one ball, one stride.
He knows something we don't. At the end of this game,
he's going back into the Dodgers clubhouse and he's going
to confess what he's done.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Garbage.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Stultani again reaches out, specs it to short. There's Kim,
there's good guys forces later and you see one of
the tools that is probably underappreciated just given everything that
he does.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
He's got great.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Speed, he got horn. Ebey's life has been unraveling for
the past forty eight hours as a months long investigation
by ESPN has reached a boiling point. He has a
gambling addiction, and he's accrued millions of dollars of debt
with a bookmaker in southern California who is now under
(21:57):
federal investigation for illegal game. They've got wire transfers sent
to the bookie to pay down Epay's debts, totaling a
million dollars with show Hay's name on them. The day before,
after learning about this from ESPN, sho Hay's agent had
confronted Epay and hired a crisis communications spokesman and earlier.
That same day, before the game, the spokesman in Epay
(22:20):
had sat for a ninety minute interview with ESPN. Epay
had confessed to it all. He'd met the bookie at
a card game in twenty twenty one. He told the
reporter they were introduced by Atlanta Braves infielder David Fletcher,
who had previously played with Otani on the Angels. Shortly
after he met the bookie, Epay told the reporter he
started betting on sports, but not on baseball, using credit.
(22:45):
By the end of twenty twenty two, he'd amassed a
million dollars in debt and was borrowing money from friends
and family, but not show Hey. I couldn't share this
with show Hay. Epay told the reporter. It was hard
for me to make my ends meet. I was going
pay check to paycheck because I kind of had to
keep up with his lifestyle. But at the same time,
I didn't want to tell him this. At the time,
(23:07):
ipe told ESPN he was making about eighty five thousand
dollars a year. In twenty twenty two, show Hay was
making five point five million dollars and was earning much
more than that. In endorsements. Most estimates say at least
forty million dollars each year. Ipe described his relationship with
Shohey to ESPN as quote brothers, and he said that
(23:31):
he feared losing show Hay's trust.
Speaker 7 (23:40):
Rule twenty one in baseball subsection D.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Do you know what that is?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah, I'm familiar with it.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Major League Baseball takes betting very seriously. If a Major
League Baseball player or employee like Epe is found to
be betting illegally or betting on baseball in any way,
could face a lifetime ban from the sport.
Speaker 8 (24:03):
The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is
the sad end of a sorry episode.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
One of the greatest baseball players to ever live, the
hit King, Pete Rose, will never be inducted into the
Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball. Rose knew
the rule, It's still posted in every Major League clubhouse.
But he broke it anyway.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So why would you violate it?
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Well, I wish I could answer that question, but I
just can't.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I was wrong. I'm just stupid. The worst thing I
ever did in my life.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
This is the man who said I'd walk through hell
in a gasoline suit to play baseball. Illegal gambling operations
are notoriously predatory. They offer credit in part because a
gambling addiction will drive you to make wildly irresponsible decisions.
This is why the IRS is currently investigating Matthew Boyer
(24:59):
the book in Orange County Ebey was using. So why
would Ipe hide this from Showhy? Did he feel he
was protecting his friend? Did he know he was endangering
both their careers? Did he feel somehow that his gambling
violated the terms of their relationship? Ebe told ESPN he
(25:23):
didn't bet on baseball and that he didn't know the
bookie he was using was illegal when he first started
using him. But he kept his gambling a secret from
Showhy nonetheless for years, while racking up more and more debt,
Things got worse. By early twenty twenty three, Epe's debt
(25:44):
was four million dollars. He told ESPN he feared for
his safety and that somebody might come to his house.
This is when, according to Ipe's original interview with ESPN,
he finally went to OTA for help. I explain my situation.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
He says.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Obviously he wasn't happy about it, but he said he
would help me. Ebe described a scene in which he
and show Hay together logged into show Hay's bank account
on show Hay's computer and sent a handful of transactions,
each at five hundred thousand dollars over the course of
several months to pay off Matthew Boyer, the bookie in
(26:28):
Orange County, and by the time of Ebe's interview on
opening day in Korea, ESPN had seen two of those
wire transfers, both with show Hay's name on them. Ebe said,
show Hey quote didn't have a clue that the person
he was paying back was a bookie. I just told
him I need to send a wire to pay off
(26:49):
the debt. When asked if he thought he was putting
himself or show Hay at risk by asking to pay
it off, Ebe said, I don't think either of us
thought about that at the time at all. Ipe described
the guilty felt after asking for show Hayes help. It
was hard to see him. He said, he's a great guy,
(27:10):
and Ipe told ESPN that Shohey has never gambled, and
Quote thinks gambling is terrible. That's what Ipe told an
ESPN reporter in the presence of a crisis communications spokesperson
who was hired by Sho Hayes agent Nez Bilelo, who
Ipe had also been going back and forth with about this,
in addition to other unnamed representatives of Sho Hayes and
(27:33):
apparently possibly top Dodgers executives in the days leading up
to the first game of the season in Seoul, South Korea. Horner,
here's Freddie Freeman.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Hofgozo, Tommy, and he's got that thick stolen easily twenty
three bags last year.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
And you'd imagine this is what was on his mind
for most of the ballgame, knowing he'd have to confess
to the entire team after the last out, and on
top of everything else, ESPN reported Rob Manfred, the Commissioner
of Baseball, who was in Soul to see show Hay's debut,
had been alerted to the situation.
Speaker 9 (28:07):
Here's Otani with two on and one. They slights the
first pitch. Pitch it in the lornt centerfield. Get that's
a base hit. Here's what's coming around there. He'll score
standing it is five to two.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
As show, hey, show hey. He was having a really
good debut. The Dodgers out away from you.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
He started to show here.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
With two out in the bottom of the ninth inning,
the camera's cut to show Hay as he walks through
the dugout. He sidles up to Epay and he says
something to him. Ipe, who is talking to somebody else
off camera, turns to show Hay and smiles and says
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 9 (28:48):
And then the game ends and the Dodgers win the
first game up twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
They are one hand.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
Ah after this victory. Years and I.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That moment in the dugout in the ninth inning is
the last time we'll see them on camera together. Maybe Ever?
What was Shoh saying? What was Epay thinking? Moments later,
they're in the clubhouse behind closed doors. It's time for
(29:24):
Epay to confess. According to ESPN, in addition to the
entire team, the meeting is attended by Dodgers owner Mark
Walter and Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of Baseball Operations
who led the effort to sign O Tommy to the
Dodgers in the off season.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
We were getting ready to publish our story.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
This is Tisha Thompson, the reporter who led the investigation
for ESPN.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
There was a meeting right after the game was over.
In South Korea, and MS Harr gets up again based
on what I've been told, says something to the effect
of I'm sorry, I apologize. I have a gambling problem.
Another player says, so what, so what?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
You might have noticed that gambling is on the rise
in the United States. Just five years ago, a Supreme
Court ruling effectively legalized commercial sports betting in the US,
and gambling is now legal in thirty eight states. One
in five Americans bet on sports in twenty twenty two,
according to Pew Research, and we bet one hundred and
(30:39):
twenty billion dollars on sports last year according to S
and P Global. This change is creating a paradox for
Major League Baseball, which within months of that Supreme Court
ruling had partnered with DraftKings, MGM and fan duel. Betting
is a cardinal sin in baseball. It can get you
(31:00):
and for life, the equivalent of excommunication from the Church
of baseball. But also, betting is everywhere in baseball. I
listen to more baseball podcasts than I listen to any
other kind of podcast, and they are filled with ads
for betting sites and apps. And Major League Baseball does
not have a rule against its players and employees betting
(31:21):
on other sports legally. The point is to hear that
somebody is betting on sports in a baseball clubhouse might
not come as much of a surprise to a player.
So what, Well, it's not legal to bet on sports
of any kind in the state of California, and illegal
(31:41):
gambling operations are illegal. For an MLB player or employee,
the only thing worse than betting on baseball would be
betting on baseball illegally. Then you get the double whammy
of both the federal crime and the most severe rule
violation possible. Whether he knows all this or not, but
the moment Epey was standing in that clubhouse before all
(32:03):
the Dodgers and team officials and his best ye show, Hey,
he knows the reporters have seen two wire transfers, each
totaling five hundred thousand dollars sent to an illegal bookie
in southern California to pay off his illegal gambler's debt,
and he knows that those transfers have Shohei Otani's name
(32:24):
on them.
Speaker 7 (32:25):
Another player says, so what, And that is when the
president of the Dodger says, well, Otani paid off.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
The debts according to ESPN's source, a Dodger's official who
was in the room that night, Andrew Friedman stands up
in front of the room, including all the players, and
tells them that Shohey helped Epey pay off his debts,
which is the same thing that epe said in his
interview with ESPN earlier that day, but it is something
(32:57):
that is never said again. After this point, the story
changes because this is where show he takes over.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
So during the team meeting, obviously was speaking English and
I didn't have a translator on my side, but even
with that, I kind of understood what was going on
and started to feel that there was something amiss. And
so up until that team meeting, I didn't know that
(33:44):
I had a gambling addiction and was in debt and.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
What's it?
Speaker 6 (34:00):
So I'm looking look at Just prior to the meeting,
I was told by epei Hey, let's talk one to
one Indie hotel after the meeting, so I waited until then.
Speaker 7 (34:12):
They meet oh Tahani, who he's not human in English,
everyone says that, but he has enough understanding of English,
according to the sources we talked to yesterday to start
to say wyat.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Then there is a ride back to the hotel, maybe
the two road together. We don't know. Imagine you're the
most famous baseball player on the planet. Even in your
big life filled with travel, attention, and pressure. This week
has been a doozy. You flew to Korea with your
(34:52):
new wife to play your first ever game as a Dodger,
and your sleep spin a little off. But you did it.
You had a good game, a hit in our a
stolen base, and the Dodgers won. Time to get back
to the hotel, log some good sleep, get up and
do it all over again the next day.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
But now this.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
According to ESPN, the clubhouse meeting took place at eleven
pm soul time. Sometime over the next hour and a
half E Bay and show Hey meet one on one
at the Fairmont Ambassador Hotel and Seoul a skyscraper with
views of the Han River. How many times before had
(35:39):
these brothers sat in rooms just like this, late at night,
an unfamiliar place alone. It is the look in his eyes,
the tone of his voice, that thing he does with
his hands, and you know, let's just.
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Checking. And finally, when we went back to the hotel
and talked one to one, that was when I found
out that he had a master's need things and it
was revealed to me during that meaning that he he
paid admitted that he was sending money using my account
(36:25):
to the bookmaker, and obviously I did not never agreed
to pay off the debt or you know, make the
payment side be a bookmaker.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Otani's representatives had continued to rely on Mizuhara to communicate
with Otani while they were dealing with the situation, according
to ESPN, and Mizuhara did not tell Otani what was happening.
According to Otani, media outlets began asking questions about the
wire transfer his last week, but Mizuhara never relayed those messages.
(37:04):
That's from the Athletic.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
So all of this has been a complete line line.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Line Nez Ballelo, the Crisis Communications spokesperson, top Dodgers executives,
Tisha Thompson from ESPN, All these people were working off
of the same story. Ipe's story. Up until this point,
(37:37):
Ibe had been lying to everybody. If you believe Shohei
Otani and the reports that people kept using Ipe as
an interpreter even as this was going on, which would
also mean nobody had spoken to Showhy directly about this at.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
All, Amos, And at that moment, obviously I was it
was an absurd thing that was happening, and I've contacted
my representatives at that point.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And according to Showhy, it was him who had to
get in touch with everybody else that had already been
involved for the past forty eight hours to let them
know what's going on, benguishing.
Speaker 8 (38:20):
Next to next mons.
Speaker 6 (38:22):
When I was finally able to talk to my representatives,
that's when my representatives found out that IP has been
lying the whole time. And that's when I started contacting
the Dodgers and my lawyers, and the Dodgers and the
lawyers at that moment found out also as well that
they have been lied too.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Twelve thirty am soul Time, the crisis spokesman hired by
Otani's agent tells ESPN to hold their story that all
communication between Otani and his agent had gone through Mizuhara.
Two fifteen am souls t The Otani spokesman says, quote,
(39:02):
Mizuhara is despondent and needs to explain his situation to
his family, and says that attorneys are preparing a statement.
Three am. Otani's lawyers issue a statement to ESPN. They
say that shohe has been the victim of massive theft.
Three thirty am, the Dodgers fire Ipe four fifty five am,
(39:27):
less than an hour before sunrise in soul. Ipe gets
on the phone with ESPN. He says he had lied
in his previous interview and walks back much of his story.
He tells ESPN Otani had no knowledge of his gambling activities, debts,
or efforts to repay them. Quote, Obviously this is all
my fault, everything I've done. I'm ready to face all
(39:48):
the consequences. When did Otani become aware of the situation,
ESPN asks, they told me. I can't answer anything, he
says Otani's representatives are they representing U?
Speaker 8 (40:01):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:01):
He says, Are you taking any form of payment to
tell me these things?
Speaker 2 (40:06):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
He says, have you made any kind of agreement to
say these things?
Speaker 8 (40:12):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:12):
He says, You're doing this of your own volition and
free will. Yes. Did you bet on baseball?
Speaker 8 (40:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Did you lie to show Hey? Yes. In a final
conversation with ESPN, the spokesman says that Epay has been
controlling information to show Hey, using his position as the
(40:43):
interpreter and as for show Hey quote, he didn't know
what the buck was going on by the time the
ESPN story actually comes out. It's the story of two
stories what EPA said in his interview initially that Showey
helped him pay off his debts, and the correction of that,
which everybody, including Epay himself, immediately aligned on after that
(41:06):
one on one meeting with Shohy in the hotel that night.
This is wild, and it paints a very strange portrait
of what it's like to be this famous, important, rich
and Japanese in a Major League baseball clubhouse. It's the
highest pressure moment imaginable, opening day show Hay's first game
as a Dodger after signing a contract for seven hundred
(41:29):
million dollars, and it's in South Korea. Everybody knows this
negative story is coming, and they know that the debt
is in the millions of dollars, and they know per
epay that the debt is Epe's and that show Hay's
name is on the wires. So this guy's mixed up
in illegal gambling and he's gotten their star player involved.
(41:50):
And still everybody is going through Epay to talk to
show Hey about this. I mean, I know, he's busy
getting ready for the first game of the season, and
he likes asleep, but still, and somehow Andrew Friedman, the
Dodger's president of baseball operations, the guy who runs the
business side of things, he knows about eBay's lie and
(42:10):
doesn't even know that it's a lie before show Hey
hears about it and he announces it to the entire team,
and show Hay is there trying to follow all the
English and thinking what is he saying?
Speaker 6 (42:23):
What what?
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Because somehow he's the last to know. And I want
to reiterate that this is all based on things other
people have reported and said, so nothing is certain here
and we will see what the investigations proved to be true.
But this order of events that show Hay would be
the last to know of the lie and the one
to expose it is the craziest part of all of this,
(42:48):
and it's pretty devastating, and it definitely could be true
because that's the power that Ebe had as show Hay's
interpreter and as somebody show Hay trusted. The story that
they're painting right now is basically a like, uh, Ridley,
(43:09):
what's that movie?
Speaker 7 (43:10):
Talented?
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Mister Ripley. It's Tom, Tom Ripley, Tom Ripley. We were
at Princeton together, Okay. In the weeks since this story broke,
The Athletic reported that Epe had inaccuracies in a public
biography he used well employed by the Angels, which stated
that Ipe graduated from the University of California Riverside, but,
(43:34):
as first reported in NBC, the university found no record
of his attendance. The biography also said that Ipe worked
for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
The Athletic found reason to question the Yankees job, and
the Red Sox released a very firm statement insisting that
Epe never worked for the team.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
Llween and Annabel we are just outside the gated community
where Matthew Boyer lives. This is also where back in October,
federal agents raided his whole.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
David Fletcher, the braves infielder who Epey told ESPN introduced
him to Matthew Boyer the bookie at a card game,
also disputes what Epe said. Fletcher says that he was
at the game, but that he didn't introduce them.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
Diane Bass says she began representing Boyer after that October
federal raid. The most important thing that I want people
to know is that mister Boyer never met shohe A Tani,
never spoke with Shoheo Tani. The only person he dealt
with was Epay.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
There's much more to this story to be sure. If
ipe really did it, how did he have access to
the accounts, the passwords? Why didn't anybody notice the money
was missing? Could epe have been betting on baseball? After all?
Was he telling lies about show Hay In the narrative
of the talented mister Epey? Shohey did nothing wrong, but
(44:56):
could he be found to have known something about this
or worse? Certainly? So, where do things stand? The La
Times ran a story about how Shohey was not a
target in the federal investigation and that the feds quote
wanted the bookies, not the betters. It seems like the
feds have bigger fish to fry, and that they're not
(45:16):
really interested in show Hay or Epe. As for Major
League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has come out and said
that he hopes that the MLB investigation will take a
quote short time. Baseball mostly seems interested in simply verifying
the story that Shohey has put out there. The last
time Major League Baseball penalized a player for gambling, it
(45:38):
was Jared Cosart in twenty fifteen. Cosart received an undisclosed
fine from Major League Baseball for betting on other sports.
And that was before the Supreme Court ruling that effectively
legalized sports betting in most states. So we'll see what
happens with all that, and we'll keep you posted here.
And in the meantime, there's Baseball and friends. Baseball sure
(46:07):
can be funny. I mean, who could have guessed this
is how we'd start this season? And I got a
feeling that this season has a few more unexpected twists
in store for us. Sure, hope you'll join us for
the ride here on Dodger Blue Dream hang Out. We'll
(46:38):
do the credits now.
Speaker 8 (46:39):
Fans please predates fanay for the second our National Lands
Company by Dodger Say your Morgan is please Walter, lifelong
Dodger fan and multi plant and recording artist Josh Groban.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced by me Richard Parks.
Today's episode was story edited by Caitlin Esh with production
assistants from Angel Curetas. Original music in this episode by
William Ryan Fritch and by me. This episode is a
digest of things that I've read. All the original reporting
(47:32):
was done by ESPN and also the Los Angeles Times,
The Athletic, NBC and other outlets. We'll try to link
to some of the pieces in the show notes. If
(47:58):
you like the show, please let's share it with a friend,
post it to social media, and leave us a review.
I'd love to hear from you in a review with
a question or a thought about the show, so we
can tweak the approach as the season goes on. Thanks
for listening. We'll see you next time. All right, That
(48:48):
was it the talented mister e Pay. Next week on
the Feed, we will bring you the complaint against Epay,
which continues this story, delving into all the details that
became available in a one hundred page criminal complaint that
I spent a lot of time with back in the
spring of twenty twenty four. So look out for that
(49:11):
next week. Thanks again for listening.
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