No. 14: Arizona Diamondbacks
All right, now Shohei Ohtani has spoken. I don’t think he said anything unexpected, but he is on the record now saying through his new interpreter:
“I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do that on my behalf. I have never went through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Up until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know this was happening.”
“Ippei [Mizuhara] has been stealing from my account and has told lies.”
“[Mizuhara] never revealed to me there was this media inquiry.… Ippei has been telling everybody around that he has been communicating with Shohei on this account, to my representatives, to my team—and that hasn’t been true.”
“On a personal note, I’m very sad and shocked that someone who I’ve trusted has done this.”
Ohtani added that it wasn’t until the story broke and Mizuhara admitted his gambling problem to the team that he had any idea what was going on. “At that moment,” he said, “obviously it was an absurd thing that was happening, and I contacted my representatives at that point… that when my representatives found out Ippei had been lying the whole time.”
A lot of this has been reported earlier, particularly by ESPN’s Tisha Thompson, who has been all over this story, so there’s probably nothing in here that feels earth-shattering. But I’d say that hearing Ohtani himself say it publicly, when I’m sure he was advised by some to stay quiet until stuff became clearer, lends a new kind of gravitas to this storyline. Ohtani mostly has stayed to himself, of course, so it’s impossible to say that any of us really know or understand him. But he has never given any indication of being a liar or being rash or being duplicitous. And to completely make up a story like this would be career-threatening suicide; I just can’t believe he would do it.
This story is far from over, I’m afraid, and I’m sure there will be lots of theories and side stories and perhaps even actual news to break over the next while. As sincere as Ohtani seemed, he didn’t really answer the question of how Mizuhara was able to wire millions and millions of dollars from his account without Ohtani or his accountants or any of his representatives noticing. He didn’t really answer the question of why the crisis manager initially allowed Mizuhara to go into grand detail about Ohtani lending him the money or how the crisis manager got a “quote” from Ohtani basically confirming that. (I suppose the crisis manager should probably speak to some of this.) He didn’t really answer how Mizuhara could have so thoroughly and completely gained his trust and the trust of everyone around him, including a lot of very shrewd people whose entire jobs revolved around making sure Ohtani didn’t fall prey to a con artist with an ever-more opaque past.
Of course, this wasn’t the time and this wasn’t the place for Ohtani to answer any of those questions. He seemed to speak from the heart. He wanted to put the crux of his story out there, and he did put it out there, plausibly and with feeling. I hope he was telling the truth. I hope investigations confirm it. I hope.
OK, back to the previews!
Wait, were the Diamondbacks really in the World Series?
Here are all the World Series teams of the 21st century, ranked by run differential:
2019 Astros, +280
2016 Cubs, +252
2018 Red Sox, +229
2022 Astros, +219
2007 Red Sox, +210
2002 Angels, +207
2021 Astros, +205
2013 Red Sox, +197
2004 Cardinals, +196
2017 Astros, +196
2018 Dodgers, +194
2017 Dodgers, +190
2013 Cardinals, +187
2004 Red Sox, +181
2011 Rangers, +178
2002 Giants, +167
2023 Rangers, +165
2009 Yankees, +162
2003 Yankees, +161
2019 Nationals, +149
2006 Tigers, +147
2001 Diamondbacks, +141
2020* Dodgers, +136
2021 Braves, +134
2008 Phillies, +119
2010 Giants, +114
2009 Phillies, +111
2008 Rays, +103
2007 Rockies, +102
2016 Indians, +101
2010 Rangers, +100
2005 White Sox, +96
2001 Yankees, +91
2005 Astros, +84
2015 Royals, +83
2011 Cardinals, +70
2015 Mets, +70
2000 Mets, +69
2012 Giants, +69
2022 Phillies, +62
2020* Rays, +60
2003 Marlins, +59
2000 Yankees, +57
2012 Tigers, +56
2014 Giants, +51
2014 Royals, +27
2006 Cardinals, +19
2023 Diamondbacks, MINUS-15
It was inevitable, of course, that the more teams they added to the playoffs, the more likely it would be that a team with a negative run differential would make it to the World Series. Last year, two of the six teams that made it into the National League playoffs had negative run differentials—the Marlins, at minus-57, had the worst run differential to ever make it into the postseason—and the Diamondbacks got hot at the right time, twice came back from behind against the Brewers, ran into a Dodgers team that was so beat up they were planning to start me in Game 4, then somehow took the final two games in Philadelphia in the NLCS.
It was a gallant run, and while it did not exactly capture the hearts and minds of America—2023 was by far the lowest-rated and least-watched World Series ever, with each of the first four games setting unfortunate lows—it did introduce some to the exciting talents of Corbin Carroll, who in his first season established himself as one of the very best players in the game. We also got to spend some time with Ketel Marte and Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly and Christian Walker and guys like that.
We probably don’t want to rehash all of our opinions about the baseball playoffs, but I do think it’s worth discussing something: Are the Diamondbacks the most surprising team to appear in any North American championship since the turn of the century? I’d say they have to be the most surprising baseball team, based on the negative run differential*.
*The 2014 Royals are probably second. Maybe the 2019 Nationals, though they were loaded. So were the 2006 Cardinals, who underachieved during the season while they were getting healthy.
The most surprising NFL Super Bowl team of the century so far?