The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: Wait No

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

Today’s Cast: Dan, Chris, Billy, Roy, Jess, Tony. Dan delivers shocking news of Ohtani’s current scandal in the only form he knows how… dressed as Ted Lasso. This leads the Shipping Container to do a deep dive into the creation of the Visor. Then, Gustavo Arellano, LA Times columnist, joins the show to discuss the scandal the Dodgers are experiencing with firing Shohei Ohtani's interpreter amid allegations of “massive theft”. Billy, being the evil cat he is, shows us the power of misinterpretation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm the host of the CBC podcast, Cue with Tom Power. I get to talk to artists from all over the world, writers, musicians, actors, directors, all kinds of creative people. And we try to have the conversations you have with really, really good friends. The conversations you have when you share a love of something, about ideas, when you want to hear about everything. I feel really lucky to hear about everything. I feel really lucky to have these conversations. Cue with Tom Power, available now on Spotify. This is the Don Leventor Show with the Stugarts Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about DraftKings and all it has to offer throughout

the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Oh shit, Otani. That's a monster international scandal. Are you kidding me? This is what we're going to wake up to this morning. A botched interview on a billion dollar economy. I'm not talking about the sport,

I'm talking about the dude. Are you shitting me? How does something look this stupid? My mustache smells like glue. You already have a mustache, why did you put one on top of? Well, because it's the costume. It's a grid of death punishment and it's Ted lasso, but my the hats too small

We've been buying cheap costumes. My wife's not happy with the metal art budget on the costumes Because this is not this is not great. Like we're a professional show addressing an international sports controversy Unlike many you've seen before with the biggest star in baseball, and I should look like proper Ted Lasso. Have you seen the stuff Apple's making, how good it all looks, how expensive it all looks? Everything on Apple, everything is money. Like, not what you see on Netflix,

where it doesn't look all like money, like giant amounts of money. And look at how I look as Ted Lasso. I mean, I guess the counterpoint would be we're not Party City. Like we're not a Halloween costume store, so it's not exactly what our strength would be. If only your wife knew someone high at the company

that could change the budget. I think I need to change this. I think I do. I think I need to establish a metal art budget so that only I, so that you guys could keep accusing me of this costume kink. How about we just go bankrupt and spend all of DraftKings money on costumes because we're creatives did you like go winless this

season I mean there's a lot of cost I lost a lot I lost like 15 or 16 times I thought I think it was I was 12 at one point I owed 12 punishments at one point and then I come in the other day and they tell me stugatsis paid up And I just don't understand the bookkeeping around here can't be right So should we wait with the jokes or do them now you can do the jokes now fed lasso The mustache it's I'm having trouble with the hat too. I got to do better on the hat. That's small visor. That's my fault The Otani story I do want to get to the the parts of this that are hugely fascinating Cultural because the the handling of a scandal right now when you're talking about the LA Dodgers

Broke the economy of the sport when they got a giant regional television contract It's all made for television stuff all of sports is in these regional contracts or whether dodgers are able to have more players anyone else you see a movie but told you shortstop because we got too many players everywhere and the best of them is babe ruth for our error the biggest star in sports would be the biggest are in that sport and undisputed really if he were american and we all kind of knew him and had a commercial campaign about him

he could bring back baseball individually doing what he does not being from another country where he has to be careful with how he presents in interviews and you don't want scandals with your words and and so we never get to actually know you the biggest star in baseball we don't know you we can't cross the the language barrier and he's tried he keeps coming on she's now with the Dodgers the biggest team in the sport with the biggest uh... asian

each year old help make this sport international and the Dodgers want to be the team not just for the america but because of the star they just got they want or tiny to represent the bridge to how much japan loves baseball because of of the

this has been with some of the greatest trade between our country is that their their greatest stars are allowed to play over here that wasn't always so allowed to play over here and the best of them in baseball is the guy now at the center of the controversy you cannot have which is they don't pay interpreters that well we'd all be interpreters if an interpreter had four point five million dollars to lose gambling we just saw in one of the big scandals you will ever see in sports right now that will mushroom cloud now because now the reporting starts on this for real

and the investigating starts for real but that interview and you guys are going to have to help me with some of the details again this dude is a billion dollar economy whatever is said publicly on his behalf in his country has to be carefully monitored. Carefully monitored. It's a giant budget. The A's payroll this year is $18 million less than it was in 2007. This dude is a baseball team of an economy. He has multiple payrolls.

And you cannot let him get embarrassed and look like not only is there a bad crime here, but they're bad at the cover up too because it looks like this interpreter is what Antoine once was for Eudonnis Haslam when there was an arrest here in Miami on marijuana in a car and we all said we wanted an Antoine. Tell me I'm wrong that this

interpreter, that the translator doesn't look today like this is look I don't want to speak on behalf of a country but when it comes and especially a country that's not mine but when it comes to cultural integrity and rep representing yourself a certain way and not just as a citizen but as an athlete on behalf of your sponsors in Japan this scandal of integrity is a monster and so now I ask you guys, what's true here? Because the reporting is early. Well, no one knows. That's the thing.

And best case scenario, it seems like maybe they told the truth at the beginning and Shohei still committed a crime. So best case scenario is he still committed a crime. Worst case scenario is he has a massive gambling problem. Yeah. Dan, I went ahead and made a Web here so you guys can kind of have an idea of what's going on with the Otani situation Well, we have Otani here in the middle, right and then from there it goes to Mizuhara

Who's in his interpreter his translator? There's a couple questions. I have around Mizuhara, right? This still pretty comprehensive. It was it is so let's see if we can zoom in this story Jessica have you have you participated? Is this a group project or is it just Tony? Tony has created it. No this is a Tony thing. Alright so Jessica you're recusing yourself. You don't want to be seen near what it is that Tony has been told to. You know I can't really read the handwriting yet. I'm a doctor in some sense. But Dan, Ted Lasso right after the divorce. That's what you look like. Divorced Ted Lasso? Well that's the whole character. But like right after.

Right, but he didn't look different than that in the pilot. Did he write? Well Roy now tells me he signed the papers in the second season. So you know what, I take it back. Yeah, they were separated and then in the middle of the show he ended up finally signing the papers for divorce. What was like, post nuptial? What was prime visor era?

Like visors are 90s an era that's behind us. Same as rollerblades. It's steve spurrier. I'm a visor gal I'm not gonna lie. I love a visor I wear a visor for pickleball golf tennis all the sports that I play down here in miami Which by the way, I probably play more sports than Anyone else and in our entire show. Yes, and even I couldn't run a six-minute mile Tony No Taylor said he could smash a six-minute mile I didn't see shit well Greg Cody first claimed that he could Proceeds me they would advisors it burns the top of your head, Zee, if you don't have hair, yeah.

I have a ponytail, so my scalp is covered. Tony, hold on a second. We will get to your chart, because you've clearly investigated this better than both ESPN and the LA Times. It seems like you've gotten to the bottom of it. I wanna know. I'm close. I feel like before we get into the nuts and bolts

of what Tony thinks, we should kind of just explain what happened first. Yeah, let's talk about real facts and then Tony's reality. And I I will in a second but Jessica's brought up something slightly more important which is what was the viral visor era? Was it Spurrier? Like Billy was that when I associate visors with someone making that champion I don't know if cool but fashionable I associate Steve Spurrier with a visor and throwing a visor and just general guy who likes golf.

Head football coach. I think of Gus Melzahn, too. He was a big visor guy for a while. Visor vest situation. Is anyone doing it well now? You're saying Ted Lasso is the latest. This is the reason that you're bringing it up. Lane Kiffin does a good visor.

Put it on the poll, please, at Levitage Show. Does Lane Kiffin do a good visor? Because he was a staple of Spurriers because he would throw it. Butch would rock a visor too, even up until like three years ago at FIU, but like his visor was also like the padded visor that was from like the 80s and I don't know where he was getting those made, but he was still rocking one. I was actually gifted a visor earlier this week. I was at a school event, and my daughter used one of those little bingo dapper things. What are those things called?

You're playing bingo? Just the circle that you hit the, you know what I'm talking about, Dan? You're asking me? Yeah, you've never played bingo? Yes, you're just talking about the marker that leaves a splotch on your bingo card. I don't know what that's called.

It was decorated with that. And then I thought, you know what? I'm gonna be a visor guy moving forward, and I haven't worn it since. But I haven't had the occasion. Mike Gundy, big visor guy. I feel like they're still in. I don't think they've gone anywhere. But the examples that we're giving are all old men

who no one would consider fashionable. Well, I might. Spurrier wasn't that, but Spurrier did it with winning in a way that was cooler I think but I don't think any of us are talking about the fashion of of this I'm I'm wondering whether right now The visor is something that is a good gift when if you're getting it at your kid's school or the visor put it on the pole Please juju at LeBata show is a visor a good gift

Well, I don't think Mike Gundy has much of a choice in a matter of because of that mullet. That's what I mean. If you have a big ponytail, visor is the perfect headgear of choice because hats very difficult. You have to fit the ponytail through the little thingy or through the bottom which is uncomfortable. But a visor, you can have it high on your head and the visor goes around it and it's a perfect look. When do you think the visor was invented and what do you think the idea behind it was?

Because you, whenever it is, you're trying to make sure that some of your hair is seen. You're trying not to cover all your hair because someone invented the visor because maybe you don't want to wear a hat because you think you're going bald and you don't want to have a hat always over your head. What's-

It's when you want to cover your face, but you don't want to cover your head. I think you emit a lot of heat from your head which is why if you have the visor you're actually cooler because the heat is going out of your head. The visor is a cooling system, it's less sweat and so you think it was invented not as a fashion thing of any kind but like this is we're going to streamline the aerodynamics of sport by making your head less hot Sweating exactly shade and emitting less heat makes makes you cooler

The visor was invented by William Bauer in London for sports like horseback riding and golf in 1860 the Brooklyn excisers wore headwear with a visor to shade the eyes while playing baseball The New York Knickerbockers wore straw hats with a visor to shade the eyes while playing baseball, the New York Knickerbockers wore strong hats with a visor in April 24, 1849. And so did we graduate from the visor to the baseball cap? To the, like, what order, the visor must have been invented before the baseball cap, is that what you're saying? I'm going by what I'm seeing right here.

I understand, you're blaming the internet. I get it, we're doing this in real time. There's some danger in doing it that way. I'm seeing the hat was invented in 3200 BC. The actual hat. No, that's a hat of any kind. That's a hat of any kind. I was talking about the baseball cap.

What do you think the original hat look like is it just a piece of cardboard leaf probably a big-ass leaf They put like a thing on Baby wood in 1903 Spalding introduced the first stitch visor which became the standard for baseball caps So okay introduced the first stitched visor which became the standard for baseball caps. So, okay, the baseball caps did come after the visor. So, we started with the visor and then added the head cover and the cap and cut it off. That's fascinating. This is what we learned today. Now, Chris, you were right though as the executive producer of the show, and I'm sorry, this crooked mustache makes me wacky.

You're being a responsible person when you say, how about we give people who are just waking up and don't know this story, Dan, you're 15 minutes into the show, why don't you tell them what happened with Otani? Forgive me for that, I just assume that everyone's so connected at this point that you're getting news throughout the night from your iPhone seeped into your brain because you're just connected to it.

And so you don't wake up in the morning and find out anything from us. That would be great. I mean, some people would probably not like that, but I'd love if my phone just fed me all of the information I needed to know while I was asleep and I woke up and I had it. Billy, you're a candidate for Neuralink already, wow. We're headed to all that stuff. I saw that the Washington University School of St. Louis or something like that, had a 10 year research plan and they now are ready

to produce a pill that can produce the physical effects of working out without you working out. And we're headed there. So a mini heart attack without you running, is that what we're doing? I mean, you don't, tell me I can't knock out the electric car and Musk all out of the economy if I invent a pill that makes people who don't want

to work out just get the benefits of working out. I mean that's what it is. That already exists. Go to any like spa or whatever, just go to Hialeah. You have those boards that just vibrate and you stand on them. Some old people just don't even stand. They just sit and you stand on it with your feet

and just like shakes and you're like good. Or they have like the ones that are like the electric like pulses that go through. It's like you do 20,000 ab crunches. the ones that are the electric pulses that go through your like. It's like you do 20,000 ab crunches. Exactly right, you're just laying there drinking a Mai Tai and then they're doing like, oh you just did 60,000 crunches, here's a six pack.

It's great, strap it to your butt, oh the glutes. Tony, I saw something I liked the other day, was it Tony's Tonight? You and I saw, well I don't wanna give a spoiler alert, but you're traveling around some South Florida places that are funny because of how Hispanic they are. Can you tell me please whether you and anyone can pop up at one of these establishments

to do exercise so that people can hear an old woman call you Mi Cielo? Oh, Mireille. That would be Mireille there because I'm taking my shirt off. But yes, Dan, so there's something that we're going to play a little later today that is going to be that and a string of other things that we did around Miami. And we have more to come.

So I can go over to one of those like cool sculpting places or the Av Crunchers 80,000 crunches for a place. Like I could do that. Miami is super weird. We'll get to more of the Otani stuff in a second. Miami is a super strange place, as Jessica has learned over the last three years. And we just said I should go to a place and get massive Botox and come back like just, like the weekend, just like all disfigured.

We, man, I feel like South Florida was the hub, not just in baseball, but for anti-aging stuff. I feel like we were 15 years ahead of everybody else. Every corner down here, you could get a needle in your face and you'd be 25 forever. Like, and then Manny Ramirez and A-Rod discovered them. And then they went through the tanning salons and stuff. They went through the cheaper, worse route.

We had both botanicas, we had little shops anywhere where you, wait a minute, you wanna be 30 forever? Sure, just put this in your forehead. You want a BBL, I got you. Don't ask any questions. Did you guys see- Tire pump, but whatever. Did you guys see, somewhat related to this,

Tracy Morgan's quotes yesterday, which were just incredible, I can out eat Ozempic. Get me all of the quotes. He's gaining 40 pounds of Alondra in his quotes, I can out eat Ozempic. Okay, so this stuff is still in the trial stage. We're not using it for its correct intended use.

I know we were all experts all of a sudden on the vaccine. We were all experts in our own camps. But wherever it is you are on science, we're all good with Ozempic, right? Whatever the consequences are. What, what skinny and it doesn't matter No, it's just but I'm do you know how much money I can make if I tell fat people I got an exercise But you say we already have that I got an exercise pill. They've been working on in st. Louis For ten years school of Washington. Yeah, it's a school of Washington in st. Louis. I didn't understand Washington University in st. Louis

It's a school of Washington in St. Louis. I didn't understand it. Washington University in St. Louis. It's a very, it's like a medical research. You see how we can get confused though, right? So Washington, St. Louis. It's like Indiana University of Pennsylvania. It's one of those weird things you just know. They have that? My ignorance is showing there. I know that this is me problem, not anyone else's,

but Tony was laughing at me because I said Washington and St. Louis and now he's discrediting the whole paper that tells me that I'm soon gonna have, look man, you think people are waking up to the Otani news this morning the Otani news and like I didn't know that they are shocked right now that I am telling them that there is a there's a pill that you don't have to exercise and you'll have you know the the physical benefits of exercise which is

where we're all headed like it if if you give as Ozempic how much is so it's that the people who made Ozempic, how much is that worth? Wait a minute, what's the customer base? America's vanity? Oh yeah, here. Or diabetics. Or that's right, or diabetics. More importantly. We don't know the consequences. It seems like it's still in a phase where if if you don't want to take the vaccine, and you're scared of what things can do to your body, taking something that just makes you lose weight when everybody wants to lose a little bit of weight,

it seems like a great business. Doug Peterson was definitely wearing the visor just to show off the flow, right? Yeah, he's got great hair. Yeah, good salad. He does it well. It also, Doug Peterson though, to explain this to to me because I do feel with him and the visor There's something here that feels

Jacksonville gritty Gritty like lived hard hard scrabble like it didn't hit the same in Philly the but no But everything happening Doug Peterson is a different time 1970s trans Am's like that man ruled the earth that a man that looked like that ruled every neighborhood in 1970 absolutely got cowboy boots on yeah a Marlboro Red No, all the other husbands and fathers were scared of that man when he walks Yeah, and he walked through with his visor and his hair and jeans and all the women loved him and of course he would lead your team to 10 and 7 and disappointment

in the playoffs. The Dan LeBotard Show with Stu Gutz is sponsored by BetterHelp. A lot of us spend our lives wishing we had more time. The question is, time for what? Go for a run, take a nap, read a book, show up for a friend. If time was unlimited, how would you use it? The best way to squeeze that special thing into your schedule is to know what's important to you and make it a priority. With more time available, individuals may find it easier to schedule therapy sessions without feeling rushed or overwhelmed.

This can lead to more consistent attendance and greater engagement in the therapeutic process. Therapy can help you find what matters to you, so you can do more of it. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Learn to make time for what makes you happy with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB today

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Stugarts. Okay. Very good. This is the Don LeBattar show with the Stugats. Give me the Otani details, please. Glad you asked, Dan. Okay, so we've got a lot to cover in a short amount of time. Obviously, you see we have a lot of- Well, not your details. I want the factual details. No, these are the facts. I know, but okay, those are some facts, but I want to get the

facts from our executive producer who's insistent here that we get to the sports facts of the day, because we're 20 minutes on what might be the biggest sports scandal of our time. To Billy's point, there's not a lot we know for certain. The one thing we know for certain is that bank records show Ohtani's name on two $500,000 wire transfers sent to an associate of Bowers, which is a gambling, like under...

Syndicate, yes. Like an illegal gambling outlet. But syndicate sounds... I love that word. It's a great word. Let's talk about this for a second, but syndicate... It can't be called a syndicate

and he'd pretend he doesn't know what's going on. If the word syndicate is in it, you know. Sounds like some knowledge out of work. Let me not wire you any money. March is a big month for syndication. Yes. All right. It's a great word. Sounds like some John would let me not why are you a march is a big month for syndication? Yeah, right? It's a great word it Why why is there a syndicate in the middle of this? Well, it's not in the middle

It's core. It's more off to the side, right? The whole the whole situation is that the syndicate was investigated by the US government, right? Which is where they found Otani's name, right? So we go back up to Otani. Yeah, I erased it with my finger, my bad. So if we start with Otani right at the top, right? Mizuhara, his translator, has a lot of things going on. He, quote unquote, has been gambling with Bauer, Boyer, whatever, however you pronounce it, who is the head of the syndicate, right?

He gets caught with a $4.5 million debt. They're figuring out, hey, where did this money come from? How did they do the wire transfers? That was part of the US government investigation. So we go back to Mizuhara. He says, I didn't know it was illegal. I bet on DraftKings before. I thought that this guy was just another guy

that I could gamble with. Wrong. ESPN interview comes up. Hey, I'm bad at gambling. This is incredible. What? Bad gambler, that's another part. Bad gambler, question mark?

How can you be that bad of a gambler? So yes, you can be yeah I don't understand that point some opinion Tony keep your politics He says it in the actual article if you guys read the article Mizuhara comes out as part of a statement says I'm a really bad gambler snowballed out of control There's nothing I can do about it, which is why it's why you said how can you? gambler snowballed out of control there's nothing I can do about it which is why it's why you said how can you be that bad of a game just stop right there just

for just a second okay I love to get to so I know but I and we're gonna talk to somebody right the LA Times is following this story more why we have Tony then we are me and him could talk about it the guy from the LA time I'm just really confused right now and maybe more details will come out and I'll seem like an idiot I can clear this all question. Why is this interview being done? Why is somebody being put in front of a camera to say an explanation here for what happened and then everyone starts backtracking like and every and and makes it obvious to all wait a minute that's not the interpreter like that's an obvious fall guy like he was

thrown out in front of the camera. We don't know that. not the interpreter. Like that's an obvious fall guy. Like he was thrown out in front of the cameras. We don't know that. We don't know that he was an obvious. I'm going to try and wait all journalistic credibility and get reckless. Here is something we like to call reckless speculation. What we know. You're good.

It's the leap everyone's making. No, but we don't need to make that leap. We don't need to make that leap. We're just covering you. Because we don't know enough. Notice how this is a web of facts, there's no leap here. Yeah, well the bad gamber thing was a kind of question. That wasn't a fact, yeah.

What we do know is this. There was a story. They tried to paint Shohei as the good guy who was bailing out his friend. He then elaborated on this story and told more story, and then Shoheies people quickly realized. Oh Even in this story show Hayes implicated for a crime So we now need to change our story

So he does the ESPN interview and then they go wait. No massive theft They said wait, no All right, Bill I think what we can all agree on here Is that the real crime is that California is not a draft King state? You want to avoid all this it's so easy to avoid all of this somebody should have mentioned it earlier Gambling has been so normalized, so fast. Brian Kelly, big visor guy.

Does that make it better or worse for the visor? None of these are good. No, no, Doug Peterson, come on. I might have to switch to hats. The Dan LeBotard Show with Stu Gots is sponsored by BetterHelp. A lot of us spend our lives wishing we had more time. The question is, time for what? Go for a run, take a nap, read a book, show up for a friend.

If time was unlimited, how would you use it? The best way to squeeze that special thing into your schedule is to know what's important to you and make it a priority. With more time available, individuals may find it easier to schedule therapy sessions without feeling rushed or overwhelmed. This can lead to more consistent attendance and greater engagement in the therapeutic process.

Therapy can help you find what matters to you, so you can do more of it. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Learn to make time for what makes you happy with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash D-L-B. Don LeBretard punctuate this segment with what is your strike three call. Strike one would be

Right and then you stand up and you give a good point to the right two guts That's same for strike two, but strike three you get down low you got your hands behind the catcher All right, the right arm goes up into the air. Yeah, and then you finish it with the punch Flings way up into the air into the air. This is the Don Lebatar show with its two gods. This is exactly what this man should look like, working in the bowels of journalism doing good reporting doing the hard stuff nobody wants to do anymore in the dirt of investigations uh... gustavo are a yano is a columnist for

the l a times in his paper he's one of four by lines on this story involving what could be to a pretty seismic scandal if more reporting unveils what looks like right now a real cluster bleep. So Gustavo, thank you for joining us on the West Coast. Walk us through your reporting on this. We've done a very poor job of that this morning. Walk us through your reporting on how it comes to be that this story comes to be.

First and foremost, thank you so much to have me. It's an honor. My cousins are finally paying attention to something I've ever done in my 25 year career, all because of you. Yes, thank you. And thank you for your work because these stories are hard to report

and they need vetting. And I just couldn't believe that from what I've read so far this morning It feels like the reporting was far out in front of the people reacting to it because they didn't know how to react to it Yesterday and they did so very poorly. So walk us through your reporting, please. So this is how it goes for years Federal prosecutors in Southern California have been investigating these gambling rings, illegal gambling rings in the past. Well, currently one of them has got caught up,

Yassiel Puig, the former Dodgers player, was pleaded not guilty to betting on, you know, betting illegally. So what ended up happening in the course of one of these investigations, sources told us that one of the names that had been part of one of these rings was Shohei Otani. And so we got a hold of it. We reached out to Otani's representatives. They come back and they tell us, oh, well, we didn't know anything about this. But by the way, we didn't know anything about this. And we asked his translator, Mizuhara, what's up with this? And apparently, this is according to them, Mizuhara said was not forthcoming. So then they come to us and they're like, oh, doctors are like, by the way, he's fired. Otani's attorneys, their exact quote, we have found out that someone has

engaged in quote, massive theft of Otani, and we are going to pursue whatever's possible, any legal recourse is. And yeah, that's a story that has been told through them, and we'll leave it at that. Does that ring true to you? I know you're a columnist and there's some reporting here, and so I want the facts separated from opinion, and I don't wanna be gratuitously scandalous,

but walk me through because you guys have to lawyer all this stuff and you guys have to be very careful about the reporting on this so when that's the explanation after how many days was that the explanation and how bumbling was it or how orchestrated was that as the response? I cannot speak to that because we are continuing to report the story. I, what I can say is that we have been working on this story for a while.

Once we told them what we had found, there was initially we don't know anything about this. And then all of a sudden we get this and we're like, that's interesting. And so that's what we had to run with. But running with something doesn't mean that the story is done. Running with something doesn't mean

that there's not gonna be further examination of what's going on. And that's now the game that we're gonna have to play. Well, when you say running something, because now the information really, now people will get real information because you're only able to get this on the outskirts of this because suddenly you're reporting around a syndicate there are investigations going on but now we'll get closer to what's real here and what is the story's next steps in your mind? Remember this is something

that has been going on these legal gambling rings for a long time. One of the people involved with Otani's name came up in an investigation for a guy where I'm from in Orange County, Matthew Bauer, who has, it's alleged that he's running this illegal gambling ring. What we do know that there's been federal, there has been findings, rather legal, he's had to pay out a million dollars to certain casinos for not being able to pay his markers. So that Otani's name, Otani's name, Otani's name is a very, very, very, very, very, very, There's been findings rather legal. He's had to pay out a million dollars to certain casinos for not being able to pay his markers.

So that Otani's name is connected. And by the way, the feds are not saying he's done anything wrong. No one is saying he's done anything wrong. Bauer, Boyer, Bauer, whatever his name is. Bauer's attorney says, my client has never had anything to do with Otani at all. All the blame currently by Otani's representatives is being put on Mizuhara. His translator who has been by his sides from the moment, really going back to when Otani was back in Japan and came here with him with the angels, was going to be with him with the Dodgers, was still translating

for him, by the way, when we were asking these questions, as recently as Wednesday, our story dropped Wednesday, so Wednesday night in Japan, so something is going on, and that's what we're trying to get at. All right, Gustavo, I need to, you need to walk us through something here, because you really are surrounded by books here. And I believe, I'm gonna report this exclusively right now.

This man right here is the last standing journalist in America, even though he is sitting. He is in a room full of books and he is protecting, he's protecting journalism here. When your byline appears on this story, your byline means everything in that story is fact. You are a columnist. You are paid to give your opinion. Separate for me the reporting on this with what you, the opinion columnists, thinks happened here. Where are we in this story? You have said, Oh, Tony has not done anything wrong, but

you have presented in front of Multiple cultures now the possibility of a giant sports scandal. What do you think this is? my How can I put that? Lo we're a serious pain your parking on my ponga not in sion miss heffes man Dicho K for a static loss or a porter or not? Well, I said columnist and doesn't know what I'm a reporter, I can't be a columnist, so I can't give my opinion, but what I can say is that something is happening and Otani is the best player in the world and that he's in this scandal, well, it's awesome, right?

Okay, this excellent. He said Shohei did it. I'm gonna translate that. Don't do that to Gustavito. Do not do that to Gustavito. Stop that, Billy. Hey, out, out with him. Out Gustavito. Stop that, Billy. Billy, penalty box. Oye, pa fuera. Pa fuera con el.

Penalty box. La gargantija. Out, out, out, Billy. Out. This is a big suspension. This is, I don't know what the penalty needs to be. That is not what he said. How did he do that, Dan?

That is not, you, that is not what he said. What he said, and I'm sorry to do this to you publicly, Gustavo, because you and your paper, what they're doing to you here, is an act of sheer cowardice. You just told us that you're only allowed to do this as a reporter, you're not allowed to give your opinion on anything here, even though you're an opinion columnist.

And I appreciate the journalism in this, but you are talking to your friends about what your opinion is in private and I want that opinion because you know more than anybody here about what's actually happening so far because this is going to unspool into something that's not a matter of opinion you because all he said Tony the short translation on what he was allowed to say is something is happening here He said something happened to the biggest baseball player in the world. I don't know.

Something is happening here is not an exclusive report. There was also a curse in there somewhere. Yes, yes. What was it? What did he say? I said chingazo. I don't think Cubans say chingazo. I'd say coño. All right, so you're not allowed to tell us what you think happened here, but what are some plausible probabilities that we can walk through based on the facts in your reporting? I am totally allowed to say my opinion, of course, because I'm a columnist. But this is what we, I'm just telling you what we know that here you have the biggest

name, Otani, in the world for professional sports, coming up in a federal investigation involving a guy who has a shady past. We are still going through this as everyone is. There has been no charges filed. Bowers, Bowers home was raided in October. He has, of course denies anything. There has been no charges filed against him, though. The feds, they are not talking.

They did not give a comment to us or anyone else who is reaching out to them. So this investigation is ongoing. But if you want to put it in just based on the facts, the biggest baseball player in the world, his name has popped up in an investigation. What his side is saying that it's his translator who has been by his side forever, as long as he's been in Major League Baseball, he is accused of, this is what the attorney said, massive theft. You do not say massive theft just lightly. When myself and my colleagues, Nathan Fennow, Adam Elmaryk, Dylan Hernandez, Jack Harris, and oh my God, Paul Pringle, of course our editor,

when we put our bylines to something, anytime. Yeah, you can say whatever you want online, but when you're gonna put it in a page for the Los Angeles Times, yeah, we have our facts and we're gonna run with the facts that we have. That much I could say. It seems like either way we're gonna run with the facts that we have. That much I could say. It seems like either way we're just dealing with, either in either scenario, either Otani is a great friend who is just picking up a friend's gambling debt,

or this guy, the translator is a great friend because Otani has a huge gambling problem and he's taking the fall for it. So either way there's a great friend here. Okay, that's the reporting? That's the reporting. Either way there's a great friend here. That, that's the reporting. That's the reporting. Either way, there's a great friend here. That's my takeaway. Okay. How suspicious did the, how strange did you find the interview and the reaction to the interview?

So you're talking about the ESPN interview where the, where Mizohara says one thing and then later on he pulls something he says like oh no you know they basically cancelled the interview what he said at first he said that Otani was there with him writing these wire transfers ESPN had these wire transfers that showed that there was two five hundred thousand dollars uh transfers to a third party that then that went to Bauer. Look, when you're a reporter and you interview somebody and then all of a sudden they say, oh no, uh-uh, that didn't happen, you have to wonder what is going on. And there's wondering and then there's reporting and any, you know, any reporter worth their weight in salt, they're going to continue to report and

that's what we're going to do at the Los Angeles Times. It's just sort of funny as a controversy from the the bowels of all those books, like you're saying something is happening here and that's all that was reported today. Like that is what the scandal is so far. There's an investigation into something is happening here. It might be a massive theft. Tony, give us give before Gustavo gets out of here, give him your theory succinctly put please well again This is not my theory. This is just a fax as we talked about it with Tauito Good to see you good to meet you what I have here is Mizu Hara who's connected to Bauer or Boyer We don't really know how to pronounce his name. I also heard that you didn't either so that's good to know

But we have we have a couple webs here I don't know if you can see my board we had Mizu Hara at the center of it, right? Then we had the ESPN interview. And then he said, wait, no, that's not what happened. What happened is a massive theft. But who, who is the massive theft from? That's what we're trying to figure out here. That's the stolen. And it's too early, it's too early, right?

To say, Gustavo. No one's questioning that. It'd be Otani the theft was from. No, but who stole it? That's what we're trying to figure out. Who's gambling? This looks like a web from that meme of it's always sunny in Philadelphia. was from. No, but who stole it? That's what we're trying to figure out. This looks like a web from that meme of it's always sunny in Philadelphia. How did that one come out? Nailed it, but it's also been right because every time you said something, I've pointed at the web because you said something that I've had on the web. All right, Gustavo,

thank you. Yes, the audience has caught on to us. Gustavo, thank you. That is Fred Armisen. This has all been a skit. It's been a journalism skit. Thank you, Gustavo. Thank you. That is Fred Armisen. This has all been a skit. It's been a journalism skit. Thank you, Gustavo. Un placet. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Gracias.