Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay is aghast that Shohei Ohtani has not had to answer any questions about the gambling scandal involving his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
Mizuhara, who was also a close friend of the Dodgers slugger, has been accused of misappropriating $4.5 million of Ohtani’s money to pay illegal gambling debts.
Ohtani held a press conference last month and read a prepared statement denying that he has bet on sports and claimed to have had no knowledge that Mizuhara had taken millions from his account until the media started looking into the story.
Since that time, he has not answered any questions about the matter, which is under investigation by both the feds and MLB.
A fan named Ken in Connecticut called into Kay’s ESPN New York radio show on Tuesday and wondered how this story, which was a bombshell two weeks ago, has seemingly gone away entirely.
“The most unbelievable thing to me, fans don’t care about this, the guy has never had to take questions on this. Not once!” Kay mused.
“What other athlete, in any professional sport, would be allowed to remain mum — not say a word other than a prepared statement and never take a question!”
Co-host Don La Greca said that while Ohtani may be an international star, he has benefitted from the regional aspect of baseball where fans are mostly concerned with their own teams rather than the sport at-large.
“It’s just amazing to me, after every tough loss, Francisco Lindor, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto talk,” Kay continued.
“This guy doesn’t have to answer a question? And he’s in the middle of what could be one of the biggest scandals in baseball history and he has not answered a question.”
The two questions Kay said that Ohtani should have to answer are whether he bet on baseball (which he denied in the press conference), and how he and his financial representatives possibly could not have noticed millions of dollars missing from his bank account.