Pete Rose trolls Shohei Ohtani with autograph signing: 'I wish I had an interpreter'
Former baseball player Pete Rose recently trolled current MLB star Shohei Ohtani with an autograph signing where he seemed to take shots at the Japanese-born star with what he wrote on the baseballs.
These shots stemmed from the scandal involving Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. At the start of the season, it came out that Mizuhara had been stealing from Ohtani to pay off his illegal gambling debts. However, after some confusion about what Ohtani knew and did thanks to the fact that Mizuhara was translating for him, it appears that Ohtani knew nothing about it.
For his part, Pete Rose doesn’t seem to believe that Ohtani had no idea, as he signed baseballs with the phrases, “Sorry I bet on baseball” and “Ohtani is sorry also.” Rose even wrote “I wish I had an interpreter” on multiple baseballs.
Pete Rose is famous for a few things. As a player on Cincinnati’s ‘Big Red Machine,’ he was nicknamed Charlie Hustle, won three World Series, and is MLB’s all-time hits leader. He’s also been banned from the sport and kept out of the Hall of Fame for gambling on baseball.
Rose, it seems, is still frustrated by the ban and thinks that MLB is displaying a double standard. He also seems to believe the theories that Mizuhara is a fall guy for Ohtani. In those unlikely-to-be-true theories, Ohtani either paid a bookie on Mizuhara’s behalf or Ohtani himself was gambling and Mizuhara is taking the blame.
One major reason that seems unlikely is the evidence and charges that Mizuhara is facing. Federal prosecutors have no reason to lie about the situation to protect Ohtani, and according to the charges, Mizuhara stole more than $16 million from Ohtani.
Clearly, federal investigators see Ohtani as a victim, even if Rose doesn’t.
MLB and sports, in general, have long since been concerned about making sure that the integrity of the game is upheld as much as possible. Going back to the Chicago Black Sox in the 1919 World Series, MLB has been quick to ban players for gambling, and in some cases being aware that gambling was happening on games. Pete Rose is, since then, the most prominent example of a player being banned but he’s not alone.
Baseball isn’t the only sport with this issue either. The NBA recently banned Jontay Porter for life over gambling on games and helping to make certain outcomes for prop bets hit in games he played in.