Baseball: Shohei Othani sees image in check due to scandal – 04/01/2024 – Sport

Since March 19, the entire length of Tokyo’s fashionable Omotesando shopping street has been dominated by photos of Shohei Ohtani: the talented star of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, holder of the most lucrative contract in the history of the sport, and now , the immaculate face of Kose Decorté brand liposomal skin repair serum.

On the other side of the world, somewhere between the murky world of online sports betting, suspicious bank transfers, confessions of gambling addiction, investigations and a now-missing confidant accused of “massive theft” by Ohtani, 29, himself, the image of the Japanese star is a little scratched.

At the center of the mystery is Ippei Mizuhara. The Japanese man, who spent much of his life in the United States, acted as Ohtani’s interpreter for many years. Before he was summarily fired by the Dodgers and completely disappeared from public view a week ago, Mizuhara told ESPN that he had accumulated large gambling debts — US$4.5 million (R$22.5 million) — that his good friend Ohtani had paid off. in your name. Mizuhara did not respond to a request for comment.

Once everyone started to realize how big a problem it could be for the baseball star (gambling is illegal in California), Mizuhara said Ohtani never knew about the transfer. In a later press conference, Ohtani directly accused Mizuhara of stealing money from him and said he had no idea about the theft until his friend confessed last week.

The questions surrounding the player’s status still far outweigh the answers, but frenzied speculation on both sides of the Pacific could put both Ohtani and American baseball in trouble. At issue is his role as the face of MLB (Major League Baseball) — for which he has been the victorious, record-breaking megastar the sport so desperately needed in the fight for viewership against social media, online gaming and streaming services.

Ohtani was born on July 5, 1994 in Oshu, Japan, to athletic parents. His father played baseball at a local semi-professional club, and his mother competed in badminton. He grew up during a fruitful period for Japanese baseball players in North America, the golden years of Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui in the MLB.

After participating in Japan’s prestigious national high school baseball championship, Ohtani found early success in the Pacific League played in his home country. Within four years, he joined the Los Angeles Angels in 2018, where he transformed the game in the United States. His rare dual ability to pitch and hit forced the league to change the rules on how team rosters are set. Baseball experts have declared Ohtani the greatest player of our time, comparing him to the epic, game-changing stature of Babe Ruth.

Last year, Ohtani reached a $700 million (R$3.5 billion) deal with the LA Dodgers — an unprecedented 10-year contract that successfully signed him away from the Los Angeles Angels, but which provides, in some small way, common, that payment will be almost completely postponed until 2034.

“There’s a lot more energy around the park from a media and fan perspective,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, before Ohtani had even seen action for the first time in a Dodgers uniform. “What we’ve seen so far has far exceeded any expectations we could have had, with the banter and the way these guys have come together.”

On the formal opening day of the season on March 28, Ohtani rushed for a potential triple only to realize his teammate was still at third base, suggesting team communication has a long way to go.

Before that, he had signed sponsorship deals that will earn him US$65 million (R$324.7 million) this year; the second biggest star in the sport managed just US$7 million (R$35 million). During his 11 years in professional baseball, Ohtani has made advertising and sponsorship deals with a global roster of companies ranging from Porsche, Hugo Boss and Oakley to Salesforce, MUFG Bank and Japan Airlines.

Crucial to all of this has been his reputation as a man so dedicated to perfecting his craft that he is almost boringly clean. Last month, he announced, to everyone’s surprise, that he had quietly married a former basketball player who he described as maintaining her unflashy image as a “normal Japanese woman.”

It is precisely the scale and cleanliness of Ohtani’s image that has made the recent unrest so unsettling. If we believe his account, the ultimate conclusion may be that both he and the rest of the world were victims of a masterful conman in Mizuhara, but the outstanding questions are pressing.

How, exactly, was the money stolen and Ohtani ceded control of his own accounts to Mizuhara? If Ohtani, in fact, just discovered he was being scammed by his friend, is he investigating another part of his professional relationship with him? Was Mizuhara the main go-between during Ohtani’s contract negotiations, and if so, could he have dictated terms around the $700 million deferred salary deal that weren’t Ohtani’s idea?

The skincare campaign’s tagline makes it clear that the issue extends beyond the athlete’s hydrated complexion. “Just like Ohtani, who goes beyond her own achievements, Kosme Decorté’s efforts to create the ultimate in beauty are never-ending.” The biggest question for baseball is what the sport will do if it finds that the reputation of its biggest star is only skin deep.