They have been one of many best-known duos in baseball. Wherever star pitcher and slugger Shohei Ohtani went — to observe, to the health club, to Japanese eating places in Orange County — his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was by no means far behind.
His Beatles-like haircut, self-deprecating perspective and rapport with the brand new face of baseball made Mizuhara, a 39-year-old from Southern California, a celeb in his personal proper. However during the last week, the world realized how little was really identified about Ohtani’s former right-hand man, who was fired by the Dodgers after being accused of stealing greater than $4.5 million to cowl money owed with an unlawful Orange County bookmaking operation.
Now that Mizuhara’s life is beneath a microscope, key points of his biography have proved troublesome to verify; others are outright false. His whereabouts for practically a decade after graduating from highschool in L.A. County are nonetheless largely a thriller. He apparently lied in regards to the faculty he attended and overstated the character of a earlier job with Main League Baseball, along with accusations that he misled Ohtani for months — even perhaps years — a couple of playing dependancy.
The Instances visited the realm the place Mizuhara lived throughout his teenage years, spoke with childhood associates and acquaintances and sifted by dozens of pages of information. The portrait that emerged is of a person who spent years looking for a profession that might play to his strengths, together with fluency in Japanese and English — and, with little scrutiny, landed that function with the precise man on the proper time.
Ohtani and Mizuhara have been inseparable for practically a decade, since Ohtani was an 18-year-old rookie for the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Hokkaido. At a somber information convention Monday at Dodgers Stadium, Ohtani mentioned he was “simply past shocked” by what he painted as a betrayal by a longtime member of his internal circle.
Ohtani mentioned he has by no means guess on sports activities and had by no means been requested to make bets on somebody’s behalf. He mentioned by his new interpreter, Will Ireton, that he realized final week that Mizuhari had stolen from him. Mizuhara’s preliminary claims that Ohtani had made the funds as a favor to cowl his playing money owed have been a “full lie,” Ohtani mentioned.
Ohtani’s allegations paint a darkish image of the person who was chargeable for many aspects of the star’s life within the U.S. However Ohtani’s model of occasions raises main questions about how a lot cash may have vanished with out sounding alarm bells in his camp or with the monetary establishments charged with safeguarding his property.
If Ohtani have been protected by the standard roster of enterprise managers and monetary establishments, Mizuhara would have needed to evade all of the protections which are sometimes put in place to defend a rich superstar from fraud and different types of monetary exploitation, consultants advised The Instances.
Mizuhara, who has not been seen in public because the Dodgers performed the San Diego Padres in South Korea final week, didn’t reply to requests for remark. The Instances has not been capable of decide whether or not he has retained an lawyer.
A Dodgers official not licensed to talk publicly confirmed to The Instances that Mizuhara was not on the crew flight again to Los Angeles after final Thursday’s sport in Seoul and was anticipated to search out his personal means dwelling.
However exactly the place house is for Mizuhara is unclear. He has advised reporters that he lived in Tokyo through the baseball low season. He isn’t registered to vote in California, and public information hyperlink him solely to his dad and mom’ dwelling in Diamond Bar, the place a longtime neighbor mentioned she has by no means seen him.
From third-string goalie to sake importer
Mizuhara was born in Japan and moved to Southern California together with his dad and mom within the early Nineties. In a media information issued by the Angels in 2019 and 2020, Mizuhara listed his hometown as Konai, Japan, however associates mentioned he was from Tomakomai, a mid-sized metropolis in Hokkaido.
Mizuhara’s father labored as a chef in Japanese eating places, associates of the household mentioned.
As a baby, Mizuhara fell in love with baseball by the Japanese gamers arriving within the U.S. He mentioned he was swept into “Nomo fever,” the outpouring of enthusiasm for pitcher Hideo Nomo, who joined the Dodgers in 1995 and opened the door to an inflow of Japanese expertise in MLB. He additionally adopted Ichiro Suzuki, a star outfielder who joined the Seattle Mariners in 2001.
Mizuhara attended Chaparral Center Faculty and Diamond Bar Excessive Faculty in japanese L.A. County. By his junior yr, yearbook images present, his trademark curtain of darkish hair fell over his brow, paired with a small earring and a choker-style necklace. Mizuhara was not talked about on any sports activities groups — together with baseball — or any educational golf equipment.
However Kemp Wells, who coached the varsity soccer crew, mentioned Mizuhara was the third-string goalie. He didn’t play usually, he mentioned, however was a tough employee and wished to be there.
“We have been all the time attempting to maintain individuals included,” Wells advised The Instances. “We didn’t need to simply reduce this child. He labored arduous.”
Wells additionally taught Mizuhara in Twelfth-grade English and remembered him as a quiet, regular scholar. Twenty years later, Wells mentioned, the one college students who stand out in his reminiscence are “the actually good ones, and the actually dangerous ones,” and Mizuhara was neither.
Data present Mizuhara graduated from Diamond Bar Excessive in 2003. What he did for the following 10 years of his life stays largely unclear.
The biography furnished by the Angels and cited by many media retailers mentioned Mizuhara graduated from UC Riverside in 2007, however the college’s information “don’t present a scholar by the identify of Ippei Mizuhara having attended,” spokesman Johnny Cruz advised The Instances.
Associates and acquaintances mentioned Mizuhara tried his hand at a number of careers, together with working at a sushi restaurant and for a sake importer. Court docket information present that Mizuhara was within the U.S. in 2004 and 2009, when he was cited for dashing in Riverside County.
When the sake distributor confronted a wrongful-termination declare from a former worker in 2008, Mizuhara filed a declaration supporting the employee, court docket information present. The case was later dismissed with prejudice, and the case recordsdata have been destroyed, a Sonoma County court docket spokeswoman advised The Instances. The corporate has since gone out of enterprise.
Yasuo Matsuki, the chef and proprietor of Sushi Koto in Fountain Valley, advised a Japanese publication that Mizuhara had labored for the restaurant and had enrolled at one level at a college for on line casino sellers, however didn’t end the course. Workers at a number of on line casino colleges in Southern California, which prepare college students to be card-room sellers, advised The Instances they’d no file of Mizuhara attending.
On Wednesday, Matsuki declined an interview request, however an worker on the restaurant confirmed that Mizuhara had labored there. The restaurant, which has provided Ohtani and Mizuhara with sushi previously, had a framed 2016 Nippon-Ham Fighters poster and {a photograph} of Ohtani in his Angels uniform on the partitions.
‘Oh, my God, this man’s unreal’
Some publications reported final week that Mizuhara was working as an interpreter as early as 2010 for Hideki Okajima, who performed for the Crimson Sox from 2007 to 2011. The crew mentioned in a curt assertion that Mizuhara had by no means been employed there, including: “Please know that we’ve got totally checked our recordsdata to make sure we’re offering correct data.”
Mizuhara labored as an interpreter for Okajima “throughout Yankees spring coaching in 2012,” in response to media guides issued by the Angels in 2019 and 2020. The left-handed reduction pitcher had been invited to attend the New York crew’s spring coaching in Florida in 2012, however failed his bodily examination and was reduce earlier than coaching began.
The now-retired participant advised a Japanese information journal that Mizuhara had been employed to be his interpreter, and was reduce free after Okajima failed his bodily. He mentioned the 2 males stayed in Florida for per week anyway, whereas Okajima educated on the Yankees facility in Tampa. They shared meals, he mentioned, and Mizuhara inspired Okajima to attempt to make it again to the key leagues.
The subsequent month, Okajima signed a one-year contract with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and moved again to Japan.
Shortly afterward, Mizuhara was employed by the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Hokkaido to translate for American gamers. Mizuhara advised Sports activities Illustrated that when Ohtani joined the crew in 2013 as a rookie out of highschool, his first impression was: “Oh, my God, this man’s unreal.”
When Ohtani signed with the Angels in 2018, Mizuhara got here with him to the US. His job — a mixture of physique man, interpreter and buddy — made him an object of fascination for the media and to Ohtani followers.
Past serving to translate interviews with journalists, conversations with coaches and banter within the dugout, Mizuhara was a continuing presence in Ohtani’s life, taking movies of him figuring out, working errands, arranging meals, serving to to handle his schedule and even corresponding together with his dad and mom, associates and sponsors in Japan.
When the Angels traveled, Mizuhara ate breakfast with Ohtani on the resort each morning earlier than getting on the bus to the ballpark, he advised Bally Sports activities in 2018. He mentioned he additionally fielded inquiries from Ohtani’s associates and sponsors in Japan: “Each time he does properly on the sector, I normally get 15-20 texts.”
He advised Sports activities Illustrated the identical yr: “His schedule’s so distinctive, there are occasions when no person’s round to throw with him. I’ll step in and play catch.”
Mizuhara mentioned he received married in 2018. He advised a Japanese reporter that after the marriage, Ohtani stunned the couple with a marriage present: He would pay for his or her honeymoon.
Even within the low season, Mizuhara was with Ohtani consistently, monitoring his exercises and sending movies of his weight coaching to Angels’ trainers. He additionally joked that he spent extra time with Ohtani than together with his spouse.
After Ohtani introduced his shock marriage to a Japanese girl in February, it was reported that their spouses had grown shut. Mizuhara’s spouse runs an Instagram web page exhibiting the couple’s small canines, as soon as posting a picture of the pets lined up and watching baseball, every sporting Ohtani’s No. 17 Angels jersey.
‘No one anticipated it’
Ohtani and Mizuhara have been final seen collectively chatting within the dugout through the Dodgers’ season opener March 20 in opposition to the Padres in Seoul final week. Afterward, Mizuhara and Dodgers executives addressed the crew within the clubhouse. Based on a number of individuals with data of the assembly, gamers have been advised that Mizuhara had a playing drawback and Ohtani had paid his money owed final yr.
Ohtani mentioned Monday that as a result of Mizuhara wasn’t translating for him, he didn’t perceive every little thing within the assembly, however “began to really feel that there was one thing amiss.” At their Seoul resort afterward, Mizuhara advised Ohtani that he had amassed an enormous playing debt and was utilizing his accounts to pay it off.
Mizuhara has not been charged with a criminal offense. Federal authorities are investigating the allegations in opposition to him in addition to Mathew Bowyer, the suspected sports activities bookie to whom Mizuhara was mentioned to have despatched cash. Bowyer’s San Juan Capistrano dwelling was raided in October.
It’s unclear what’s subsequent for Mizuhara. Along with the federal probe, MLB introduced Friday that Mizuhara and Ohtani are each beneath investigation.
“We have been shocked once we noticed the information,” mentioned an acquaintance of Mizuhara’s, who requested anonymity to keep away from being related to the scandal. The 2 males met by associates greater than a decade in the past in Japan and had dinner a number of occasions whereas Mizuhara was working for the Fighters. Mizuhara was a pleasant man, he mentioned, and a person of few phrases.
“He was a tough employee,” the acquaintance mentioned. “No one anticipated it.”
Mizuhara’s dad and mom nonetheless stay in Diamond Bar, in a cluster of condos and flats organized round leafy courtyards. Their cream-colored constructing had the blinds drawn. Japanese media has been staking out the house for days, and this week nobody got here to the door.
A reporter with a TV station spoke to Mizuhara’s father by the closed door of the condominium final week. He advised the reporter in Japanese: “I don’t know something. Go away.”
Hana Parks mentioned she and her husband have lived subsequent door to the Mizuharas for greater than a decade, and located them to be good and quiet neighbors.
“We have now two small youngsters and so they’re loud,” she mentioned. “They don’t complain.”
Instances employees writers Nathan Fenno, Jack Harris and Dylan Hernández contributed to this report.
