The Questions ESPN’s Tisha Thompson Still Has about the Ohtani Gambling Scandal

The first thing Tisha Thompson did when she sat down was ask Rich for his phone.

"I would love to have everyone's phone to start a story," the ESPN investigative reporter said. It sounds like a bit. It is not. When Rich asked how the federal government got Ippei Mizuhara's phone, her answer was almost anticlimactic.

"They asked him," she said. "They said, can we see your phone? And he turned it over."

Thompson came on to talk about The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani, the new 30 for 30 podcast series whose first two episodes dropped Tuesday, with new ones every Tuesday and Thursday through August 11 for six total. Rich listened to both on his flight home from Michigan, because, as he put it, he is a professional.

Episode two is essentially the interview. The one Thompson conducted with Mizuhara before ESPN published on March 20 of 2024. The one that blew the story open.

Getting there took months. A tip, then investigating, then wires showing millions of dollars moving from Ohtani's bank account to an illegal bookmaking operation. For anyone not fluent in MLB rules, Thompson spelled out why that matters. You cannot bet on baseball, and you also cannot use an illegal bookie.

"I'm not in the business of reporting rumors," she said. She described how one careless question becomes a game of telephone and comes back to you as fact, so she reported around Ohtani's name for as long as she could, learning what people organically knew, before a tip pointed her toward Mizuhara.

When she finally went to Ohtani's representatives, the response told her plenty. Within hours, a crisis spokesperson who had just been hired for this called her back.

"That told me that this is serious," Rich said.

The interview itself is hard to listen to. Mizuhara did not want to say how much money it was, calling it embarrassing. Thompson had sourcing saying at least $16 million, then late word that the figure the feds knew about might be $4.5 million. When she put 4.5 to him, he answered, "Yeah, that sounds about right." She asked if it was more. He said he did not think so.

"I had multiple sources telling me it was more than that," Thompson said. "That's a place where as the reporter I can tell you in my head I go, hmm, that's interesting."

Then came the part that still does not sit right. ESPN was about to publish that Mizuhara was the gambler and that he and Ohtani paid the debt off together. Right before publish, the crisis spokesperson called. Wait, wait, wait. Ippei lied.

Thompson scrambled and did a second interview. "I say, Ippei, did you lie to me? He says, yes. I said, did you lie to Shohei? He says, yes."

Sixteen hours. That is how long it took for a man who had described Ohtani as closer than a brother, someone he spent more time with than his own wife, to be accused of massive theft.

The podcast goes past the court documents. Thompson interviewed the retired IRS agent who wrote the affidavit, in his first interview ever. He was one of the agents who read 40,000 text messages between the two men, all in Japanese. Not one of them, he told her, showed anything about betting.

They also obtained a Bank of America recording from February 2022 in which a caller identifies himself as Shohei Ohtani and asks about a $200,000 wire. Thompson traced the call to the same cell number she used to interview Mizuhara.

"That is Ippei Mizuhara's voice," she said.

The bank did not buy it either. The caller said the wire was a car loan. Who needs a $200,000 wire for a car loan for a friend? Bank of America shut the account down, and it took roughly two dozen calls before Mizuhara talked a different employee into reopening it, because he knew everything about Ohtani. He had helped set the account up.

Two years on, Rich asked what questions remain. Thompson did not hesitate. She would love to interview Ohtani.

Rich pushed back on the odds. World Series MVPs, a marriage, kids, dogs. What is the point of rehashing it? Her answer moved the frame off Ohtani entirely.

"When you make a lot of money and you're young, who is near you?" she said. "Who's getting close to you? What kind of choices are the people you trust making?"

That is the lesson she wants aimed at teams, leagues, agents and the media. She is also realistic about the interview, calling Ohtani one of the most inaccessible athletes a reporter has ever tried to get near.

Rich has one Ohtani story of his own. He met him at a Rams game, where Ohtani took a picture with his son and could not have been nicer. The person who got Ohtani's attention and said this kid wants to talk to you?

Mizuhara. Sitting right next to him.