Personally, I have no problem with him gambling on anything other than baseball. Even if he was betting on his team winning, I'd have no issue with it (although MLB would, for sure). Then again, I'm disgusted that Pete Rose is still not in the Hall.
We’ve litigated the Rose thing over and over. Betting on your own team, especially as a manager, is as close to game fixing as you can get, and is worthy of a total ban.
Your original post described a hypothetical attempt to charge Ohtani with violations of federal laws as a way to “frame” him.
It was late and by “frame” I was referring to charging him with an obscure law which is rarely used for the purpose of having him flip on their primary target in this case being the illegal gambling operation. Nothingburger meaning he isn’t going to jail for betting with a bookmaker, something millions and millions of people do every year, some legally as a profession. …he’ll maybe have to make statements to support the charges against the operation to improve their legal leverage to negotiate a plea but as far as legal issues what else are you expecting? His primary issue is going to be with MLB.
I disagree with how rare it may be, but I understand your point and I don’t have an issue with that. Apologies for the digression.
I don't have a problem with a player doing it as long as he is betting on the team to win, since a player should always be putting their best effort into the team winning every game it plays.
Colonel Jessup don't I feel like the fucking asshole dot gif
That is my full expectation as well. "We're cooperating fully, right now I'm just focused on what I can control which is preparing to play baseball and help my team." yada yada
Read @Remagellan ’s last paragraph above. Betting on your team to win yesterday tells the bookies that your team will probably lose today if you don’t bet in them because you overused your best reliever(s) yesterday to win your bet which means you don’t have them available at their best today.
In addition, Mizuhara not only never graduated from the University of California, Riverside, he never attended it.
No it was me as I was not clear at all (do not post >midnight of long weekend).
I saw that after I posted. I still consider Rose to be an incredible competitor that would never jeopardize his team winning, but have to also agree with you and @Remagellan that it's a slippery slope and cannot be condoned. I hadn't considered that angle.
I expect he’ll add in a statement about how neither he nor anyone in his circle ever made any bets on baseball.
It's well known that he inserted himself into the lineup even though better match ups were available when he was chasing Ty Cobb and the all time hits record. Hell, he needed roughly 2,600 more at bats to get around 60 more hits.
I agree 100% about the court of public opinion, but at this point he and the PR folks MAY have bigger concerns for what he offers. I guess we'll find out in a few hours.
Rose was / is a degenerate gambler. He 100% would have (did) jeopardized his team winning if that meant he could have lowered his debts.
Another angle is that he overused his best relievers in games he bet to win. He possibly risked promising young careers in order to ensure his bets played out. That's unforgivable.
I'm not sure how the merch $$$ is divied up, but I would think that it's the endorsement $$$ that should be a bigger concern.
This is why I kind of lean toward naivety here, as I don't think Ohtani would have signed the contract the way he did if there was even a chance of his endorsements drying up.
I'm hoping he was naive, but I can't say I'm leaning that way. Between Ohtani's protection of his privacy and the language barrier, he's almost a blank slate to the American baseball fan. There seem to be a lot of people throwing an ignorance of the law defense his way, but that's assuming he's prone to ignorance.
The easy one is that if *he* was betting and winning, there could be tax implications.
When I was a small time bookie in my 20’s I had two NHL players betting with me. Hockey too. They didn’t bet on their teams games but they literally never won. Athletes are notoriously terrible gamblers.
As was mentioned upthread….
If his interpreter truly stole $4.5M from him, how would he even know if the guy bet on baseball?
He wouldn't. Which is why it's in his best interest to not say anything. As an interested observer who thrives on chaos, I hope he says a lot.
Good point. Maybe he just says that he never bet on baseball and never asked anyone to bet on baseball for him. Or he does the smart thing and says nothing.
Why wouldn't you? How he bets is info I can use to set lines and odds for other bettors. Especially if he's betting on his own games.
Because we later saw the betting logs and there was not a single wager placed against the Reds.
Or the interpreter was the financial advisor...stranger things have happened.
I'm seeing that Ohtani will read a statement at 5:45 PM ET and will not be answering questions.
