• October 16, 2024
Inside the 'very predatory' world of illegal betting that lured Shohei Ohtani's interpreter

Inside the ‘very predatory’ world of illegal betting that lured Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter

[ad_1] In the story Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara initially told to ESPN, the two men logged into Ohtani’s bank account together on eight or nine occasions in 2023 and wired increments of $500,000 to Mathew Bowyer, an alleged illegal bookmaker under federal investigation. In the story Ohtani told the public days after Mizuhara recanted his…

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Final MLB offseason grades: Which teams passed — and which teams failed

[ad_1] The Athletic’s MLB offseason grades 1.0. By Tim Britton, Grant Brisbee and Aaron Gleeman According to a report by an economics professor at Yale University, roughly 80 percent of all grades handed out to undergraduate students last year were As. Too bad for major-league executives, then, that they don’t attend Yale (at least not anymore, in several…

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MLB begins investigation into gambling allegations surrounding Shohei Ohtani's interpreter

MLB begins investigation into gambling allegations surrounding Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter

[ad_1] MLB began a formal investigation Friday of gambling allegations surrounding Ippei Mizuhara, the longtime interpreter of Shohei Ohtani, who was fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers this week amid conflicting stories about money paid for gambling debts. Commissioner Rob Manfred’s office said in a statement that the league had begun its formal process through…

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The Athletic

The Angels adjust to life after Shohei Ohtani: ‘Like being kicked out of the band’

[ad_1] TEMPE, Ariz. — Every morning for the past six years, no matter how early Angels players and staff got to Tempe Diablo Stadium, they saw a throng of Japanese media standing on the Tempe Butte mountain overlooking the team’s spring training complex. This wasn’t a recreational sunrise hike. Every camera was zoomed in, waiting…

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The Athletic

2024 MLB ‘Wild-Card Era’ Franchise Rankings: Rangers break into top 10, Cubs fall out

[ad_1] As Jonah Heim squeezed the final strike of the 2023 postseason and Josh Sborz spiked his mitt on the mound to celebrate the Texas Rangers’ first World Series title, a thought crossed my mind: How will this change the franchise rankings? See, the Wild-Card Era (1995 to present) franchise rankings are not a creation…

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Which teams, front offices and managers are feeling the most pressure? Insiders weigh in

Which teams, front offices and managers are feeling the most pressure? Insiders weigh in

[ad_1] As the February sunshine beams down on all of baseball, and the standings say that everyone is undefeated, it’s easy to melt into a zen state of spring training nirvana. But there’s one question in our annual spring survey that jolts us back to life. That’s the part where we ask our voters —…

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Top 100 MLB prospects 2024: Keith Law’s rankings, with Jackson Holliday at No. 1

Top 100 MLB prospects 2024: Keith Law’s rankings, with Jackson Holliday at No. 1

[ad_1] Welcome to this year’s ranking of the top 100 prospects in baseball. I’ve been compiling and writing such rankings for 17 years now, and those of you who’ve read them before will find the format here similar to those from the recent past. My farm reports covering at least 20 prospects in each team’s…

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The Athletic

How Brock Purdy’s Super Bowl journey was forged by his dad’s minor-league baseball career

[ad_1] Allegiant Stadium can host up to 72,000 fans for special events like Super Bowl LVIII. If every player in the history of Major League Baseball got a ticket, there would still be almost 50,000 available for Sunday’s game in Las Vegas. Pat Mahomes, whose son Patrick is the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs,…

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The Athletic

Stark: 5 things we learned from the Baseball Hall of Fame election

[ad_1] COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — There were Adrián Beltré and Joe Mauer. This was their first Hall of Fame election. They won’t need a second. On Tuesday, they became baseball’s newest first-ballot Hall of Famers. And that stamps them as baseball royalty, connected forever to this special stamp of greatness. Beltré reeled in 95.1 percent of…

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Baseball Hall of Fame ballots: The Athletic's voters explain their selections

Baseball Hall of Fame ballots: The Athletic’s voters explain their selections

[ad_1] Look, we get it. The Baseball Hall of Fame is a breathtaking idea. It’s a celebration. It’s a history lesson. It’s a pilgrimage. The museum in Cooperstown is home to heroes and memories and the posters on our walls. The very notion can fill a fan with wonder, and actually being there feels like…

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