Arace: Pete Rose may have a point when it comes to Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers' international superstar, met the media on Monday for the first time since his longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was accused of illegal sports gambling and fired. Ohtani did not answer questions. He merely issued a statement from his new interpreter. In part, it went like this:
“I never bet on baseball or any other sports. I have never asked anybody to do that on my behalf. I have never gone through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Up until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know this was happening.”
Later Monday, Pete Rose, who bet on baseball games and was hammered with a lifetime ban by the commissioner, back when commissioners acted in the “best interests of the game,” chimed in via Twitter/X:
“Well, back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, I wish I’d had an interpreter. I’d be scot-free,” Rose said in a brief video posted by Zach Gelb.
There are those, especially in the Hit King’s hometown of Cincinnati, who believe Rose deserves a reprieve. Their thinking goes something like this: Rose made some mistakes, sure, and he might be addicted to gambling, but for goodness' sake, is he the only player since the Black Sox scandal of 1919 to have bet on the game? The man is the all-time Hit King with 4,347 hits – 67 more than Ty Cobb and almost 500 more than Henry Aaron – and he has come very close to showing remorse. He should be reinstated so he can be elected to the Hall of Fame before he dies.
To this point, I’ve always found that kind of thinking to be porous. There’s a sign that hangs on every clubhouse door at every level of the game, a sign that says gambling on the game makes a player “permanently ineligible,” and Rose was probably face-to-face with that sign 10,000 times.
Every time there is a scandal, Rose chimes in and says, “See? I’m not the only slimeball out there. I’m not as slimy as ‘roid freaks like Barry Bonds, who literally destroyed the record book, and cheaters like the Houston Astros, who stole the World Series, and nobody’s throwing them out of the game. They probably know as many mobsters as I do.”
OK, but that doesn’t make the sign on every clubhouse door moot.
My suspicion has long been that Rose may be vexed by being ineligible for the Hall of Fame, but what he will really never get over is the cost of his ban, which is, by his estimation, is $100 million. He has attempted to recoup these losses in Vegas. Presumably, he’s not there yet.
But for the first time since 1989, back when they had commissioners (in this case, the late Bart Giamatti) and Rose was banned from the game, I think Charlie Hustle has a point. I can’t believe I’m saying that.
The owners’ chief financial officer, Rob Manfred, who currently holds the title of commissioner, is living Giamatti’s nightmare. If Rose is a betting man (ahem), he’s laying money that Manfred doesn’t have the guts to do what Giamatti did – namely, appoint a special counsel who is beyond reproach to compile an exhaustive investigation into the Ohtani matter, to protect the integrity of the game.
Did Ohtani bet on baseball?
His interpreter has been accused of placing illegal bets, through a shady California bookmaker named Matthew Boyer, and using millions of dollars of Ohtani’s money to cover his losses. The story being fed to the public is that the interpreter didn’t bet on baseball and Ohtani didn’t bet on anything.
This story is fluid. The interpreter first told ESPN that Ohtani paid off the debts. The interpreter recanted and said Ohtani knew nothing of the situation. The interpreter was fired, Ohtani lawyered up and his counselors said he was the “victim of a massive theft.”
When this story began breaking last week, most folks had the same initial reaction. It was the same reaction Rose probably had. We’re supposed to believe that Ohtani is on the books for laying out millions to cover gambling debts, but they weren’t his gambling debts? And neither the highest-paid ballplayer of all time ($700 million over 10 years, much of it deferred) nor his longtime friend/interpreter placed a nickel on a baseball prop?
If you’re Pete Rose, you want Manfred to have the same intestinal fortitude that Giamatti had. You want Manfred to hire a special counsel to investigate this thing from every angle and issue another 225-page Dowd Report, complete with every interview, bank record, smartphone history and any other piece of evidence you can get your hands on. And you want Manfred to have the guts to act on the facts, wherever they lead.
But you’re betting Manfred won’t do this, because he’s a tool. Baseball now embraces gambling. Perhaps, even on baseball players gambling on baseball games. There will be no Dowd Report II. That's not where the money is.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: MLB needs to perform an exhaustive investigation in Ohtani's case
