'The Betrayal of Ohtani' + Skubal Sweepstakes Heat Up
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right, hey, it's Blair and Barker for Thursday. Off day for the Toronto Blue Jays, no off day for us. Nope. At least, you know, we'll determine whether or not the show goes off the rails or anything, but I mean, or whether or not it's an off day in terms of our abilities, but we're working. We got some good guests today. We got some really good guests today. We have a ton to get to. The Jays have today off, as I mentioned, they open a series against the St. Louis Cardinals tomorrow. Lance Lynn, co-host of Cardinal Territory, Pretty decent pitcher in his day will join us. Danny Wexelman, host of Sirius XM's MLB Network Radio and Cardinals reporter will join us. We'll take a deep dive into the Cardinals.
Jason Beck covers the Tigers for MLB.com. He's covered the Tigers for a long amount, a number of years. He'll join us to talk about Derek Skubal, which is a name that everybody's talking about. Indeed, if you're following any of the social media accounts, reports today, the tone seems to be that a lot of people think Derek Scouble is going to end up with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Dodgers of basic... I think there's a quote out there from a Dodgers official saying, we're always in on the best players or best pitchers in baseball, and he is one of the best pitchers in baseball. So, and not only that, the Dodgers have the type of minor league system. Quite frankly, if I was the team that had... a guy like Tarek Skubal and was getting rid of him, the Dodgers are frankly the only team I'd be dealing with because they've got a lot of prospects.
Well said.
So anyhow, there's a lot to get to. And in a few minutes, we're going to be joined by Tisha Thompson, investigative reporter with ESPN. ESPN has a six-part podcast series out dealing with Shohei Otani's relationship with his interpreter, Ipe Muzahara. And, of course, we all know about the massive gambling illegal sports betting scheme. That was reported a couple of years ago involving his interpreter, involving payments from an account linked to Shohei Ohtani to a bookie in California. There's a lot of layers to this story, starting with the fact that in California, sports gambling is illegal. So the only way you can gamble in California is to use a bookie if you do it illegally. It is really complicated.
The reporting that went into this, the number of trails that needed to be followed are remarkable. And quite frankly, a piece of audio, Tisha interviewed the interpreter for 80 minutes and hearing somebody essentially implicate themselves for 80 minutes is is remarkable and then and i've got to tell you there's i've only gotten around episode four comes out next tuesday i've only gotten around through the three episodes there's a lot of questions i'm dying to ask i'm dying to ask tisha i'm hoping she can answer without giving away the rest of the uh the rest of the series but um Yeah, through three episodes, I will say this. I've learned a lot about Shohei Ohtani. Frankly, this is just me again, just from what I've heard so far, all of it, I understand the culture now.
I understand Shohei Ohtani's culture as a baseball player in Japan because my response was always, my first reaction is, okay, bank... I don't care how much money you make. I've got to think that $500,000 coming out of your account, you're going to notice. There's a complete, there's a complete cultural thing happening with Shohei Otani and Japanese baseball. They literally, I didn't know this. They literally are in their own world. And it is entirely possible is my reading. It's entirely possible that, that, a dude just may not know that this is happening because all he's ever done in life is play baseball.
Yeah, to the normal person, that's really hard to believe though, right? But then when you hear this... Ipe, yeah, come out and basically talk the way he's talking and he was pretty open about everything. And then, you know, the sort of the conversation, the laughter when they were playing the game in episode two, I think it was like they're...
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:09–5:13
2
What trade buzz surrounds Tarik Skubal and which teams are reportedly interested?
5:13–7:44
3
How does the Dodgers’ farm system make them a favorite for trading for top pitchers like Skubal?
7:44–9:57
4
What does ESPN’s new podcast reveal about Shohei Ohtani’s relationship with interpreter Ippei Mizuhara?
9:57–12:43
5
How did investigative reporting uncover the gambling scandal and what makes the sourcing remarkable?
12:43–48:43
6
What did Tisha Thompson learn from the 80‑minute interview with Ippei Mizuhara?
48:43–49:40
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Blair & Barker
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Vladdy's Controversial Contract Comments
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Blue Jays on the Brink + Red Sox Shed Chad Tracy's Interim Tag
Do-or-Die in Baltimore