It was only a matter of time before Pete Rose chimed in about the ongoing drama surrounding baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who is alleged to have stolen $4.5 million from Ohtani to cover his own gambling debt.
Rose, the all-time Major League Baseball hit king, commented on the matter in what appeared to be a sarcastic manner in a video that was posted to Instagram and spread across social media.
Ohtani. JoshBoy10/X
“Well, back in the 70s and 80s I wish I’d had an interpreter. I’d be scott-free,” Rose said in the 21-second clip.
Rose is sitting next to a man identified as Matt Thrash in the video, though it’s unclear where or when the video was recorded.
The Reds legend was banned from baseball for life in 1989 after an MLB investigation found that he had bet on games, specifically 50 Reds games in 1987.
The current betting scandal involving Ohtani’s former interpreter has once again rocked the baseball world and placed the relationship between betting and sports into the spotlight.
The situation involving Mizuhara became particularly bizarre after he claimed in a 90-minute interview with ESPN that Ohtani had been aware of money transfers made in his name to the illegal bookmaking operation alleged to be run by Mathew Bowyer, only to retract his comments and have them disavowed by a spokesperson for the Dodgers star.
In his first public comments about the situation, Ohtani told reporters on Monday that he never bet on baseball, went through a bookmaker or agreed to pay off Mizuhara’s debt.
“Up until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know this was happening,” Ohtani said.
Ohtani said that he only became aware of what had been happening when Mizuhara was addressing the Dodgers after the first game in Seoul, South Korea.
He said that Mizuhara was stealing money from his account and “telling lies.”