Shohei Ohtani "Lied" Apparently But It Doesn't Matter

For some reason, Shohei Otani just cannot miss controversy as of late. I honestly do feel like the whole gambling thing is probably behind us. I'm just going to go on a limb and guess Ippei was a serious addict and lied about everything initially, and it will be taken care of. I don't believe Shohei was gambling himself on anything, let alone baseball. I don't think the jokes are behind us. I feel like we can use them as long as it's known as a joke. Until proven otherwise, Shohei isn't in any trouble with that. But now we have another controversy. This time not as serious, not as legally serious with any potential damning implications, but it's definitely a pretty weird sequence of events that went down, so I'm going to take you through the timeline. In the Dodgers' final game against the Giants in their three-game series this past week, Shohei connected for his first Dodger home run. I mean, bro hit this ball harder than Ivan Drago's punch that killed Apollo Creed, but not quite as hard as you should be hitting that subscribe button right now if you haven't already. Just straight up demolished it deep into the Dodger Stadium bleachers in right field where a woman came up with the ball. She fortunately had the ball just land right under her where she picked it up and got it. Everyone's celebrating, everyone's happy, and it's of course a historic moment. So naturally, the security immediately took her to seemingly authenticate the baseball and figure out a way to get it back to Shohei. But this was as quick as ever. I mean, these security guards got there so fast, they were ready to take her away from the crowd before she even got it. The ball was in the air and they instantly knew where it was going to land. They somehow knew that. I'm surprised they didn't catch it themselves and start flash speed running back to the Dodger clubhouse. So she gets it, goes with security, and after the game, it's revealed by Ohtani that he exchanged the home run ball for a ball, two caps, and a bat while also meeting the fan. Everything seems great, the woman is happy, she got to be a part of such a magical moment while also not making it about herself, W's all around. But then she quote tweeted Angel's reporter Sam Blum's report on the exchange and said she didn't meet Ohtani. According to the woman who was at the game with her husband, not only did she not meet Ohtani, but the security staff separated her from her husband after she got the ball while also claiming that they pressured them and left them little choice but to hand over the baseball for what they considered a low ball offer. That baseball, according to an auction house representative, would be worth at least $100,000. And the woman also said the team officials included the quote on quote threat of refusing to authenticate the baseball if she decided to take it home, meaning it would lose its value or at the very least reduce it by a ton. So from the way she was tweeting about it the next day, she seemed happy and satisfied with the whole situation. She got the ball, gave it back to Shohei, and gets memorabilia from it. But in this article by Sam Blum, she and her husband seemed upset and bitter on how the Dodgers handled the situation, with what they felt was rushing and pressuring the situation for her to give them the ball. According to Ohtani himself, like I said, his post game comments implied that he did, saying I was able to talk to the fan and was able to get it back. Obviously it's a very special ball, a lot of feelings toward it, I'm very grateful that it's back. But you also have to add the context that that quote was said through Ohtani's translator, not Ipe, his new one. So it of course definitely could be lost at least somewhat in translation. I don't know if you knew this, but Japanese and English are very different languages, and Ohtani never explicitly said that he shook the woman's hand, got the ball from her, gave her a hug, and said thank you or whatever. There's a good chance that it did get lost a little bit in translation, and that Ohtani just meant that he was able to communicate with the fan in a sense where he had a third party to be able to negotiate and get the ball back to him. A Dodger team spokesperson declined to discuss the fan's grievances, but a team official did tell The Athletic that the Dodgers are open to a further conversation with the fan about the transaction. The husband is definitely the more upset one here, at least it really seems that way, seeing that he feels that they took advantage of her and wouldn't let him talk to her or give her any advice, with there also being no way for them to leave, also claiming he was kept at a distance from his wife by stadium security guards and told they couldn't talk to each other. Plot twist, Ohtani actually secretly had the Japanese mafia working security that day, and that's what was going on here, but no. I do see the point of the husband, especially, I don't really see the need to separate the couple, that seems a little too much, which is why the Japanese mafia thing comes in, but at the end of the day, I don't really think it's that big of a deal. I do think the Dodgers will reimburse them if they really want to be, and I don't think Shohei lied as a lot of the narratives might be saying. I know he literally himself said that he was able to talk to the fan, but again, there is a strong chance that that was just lost in translation, and he just meant he was able to somehow communicate with the fan. Of course, some people are going to take this as Ohtani being a liar and paint him as a selfish person or whatever, and I know some of it might be jokes, but there are some people I think are genuine, and it also just continues to show that you can be the greatest person in the world no matter who you are, and you're always going to get hate, so it is what it is. Shohei Ohtani is so obviously someone who isn't a bad person, so it's very clear that any hate thrown his way does not have any valid merit to it. But, at the end of the day, it was a fun moment for everyone involved, including, of course, Shohei, and he's already at number two on the season, smacking his second homer in his first game ever at Wrigley Field today. Let me know what you think, thank you for watching, and I'll see you soon.