Tisha Thompson in 2024 broke news about one of the biggest and most surprising scandals in sports — the transfer of large sums of money from baseball great Shohei Otani’s bank account to illegal bookmakers. Two years later, she just might have more to say on the subject.
Thompson will lead a six-part podcast series, “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani,” produced under ESPN’s long-running “30 for 30” banner. The podcast debuts July 28 with a drop of the first two episodes, with new chapters released every Tuesday and Thursdays through August 11. The program not only examines the surprising incident but also the collapse of the friendship between Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara, his interpreter and the person who used the pitcher’s money to cover gambling debts. Listeners will be able to hear, for the first time, audio from the only press interview Mizuhara ever granted.
The conversation, says Thompson, represents “probably one of the most important interviews I’ve ever done in my career, and it is also the strangest interview I’ve ever done.”
Sports fans were hooked on every last detail of the Ohtani imbroglio. Here, after all, was a player who had yet to demonstrate any landmark performance in the U.S., and who had in 2023 struck a 10-year contract with the Dodgers valued at $700 million. “This is all taking place in the lead-up to his debut in a Dodgers uniform, and Major League Baseball was going all in on showing that he was already the face” of the organization,” says Thompson. “He was the big, emerging star and so much money and marketing dollars had already been spent.”
