FS1’s Craig Carton Not Buying That Shohei Ohtani’s Interpreter Didn’t Bet on Baseball: ‘I Don’t Accept That and I Lived the Life’

Fox Sports host Craig Carton doubts that the interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani didn’t bet on baseball considering his massive gambling debt.

ESPN on Wednesday revealed stunning details about the events leading up to the firing of Ippei Mizuhara — Ohtani’s longtime friend and interpreter. In an interview with reporter Tisha Thompson, Mizuhara admitted to having a gambling addiction and owed around $4.5 million. Mizuhara then claimed Ohtani settled the debt for him by wiring the money to Southern California bookie Mathew Bowyer. He emphasized that he did not bet on baseball.

Then, Ohtani’s lawyers “disavowed” Mizuhara’s account of events and accused him of “massive theft” by taking the money from Ohtani without the star’s knowing.

The conflicting stories have muddied the waters in an already confusing situation, with some believing Ohtani’s side of the story is nothing more than a cover-up.

Carton seems to be of the same belief. Speaking from his own troubled experience with gambling, he also explained why it’s unlikely Mizuhara avoided baseball when it came to his bets.

“Here’s the reality: if you’re a compulsive gambler and you’re in hot water and you’re losing game after game after game, whatever you’re betting on,” Carton said on Thursday’s episode of The Carton Show, “and you’re desperate to get whole, you’re desperate to try to get some of that money back, the way a compulsive gambler thinks… ‘Well I’m down half a million bucks, so the only way to get out of it is to bet myself out of it,’ which is not the way to do it, obviously.

“If I’m in a hole financially and I’m gonna try to bet myself out of it, what am I gonna bet on? I’m gonna bet on something I feel like I know the best. I’m gonna bet on something I might have inside information on… I’m naturally gonna bet on baseball because I know that the best; and beyond that, I’m gonna bet on a Dodgers game because I’ve got all the information that isn’t public. So, it’s a very huge leap of faith for you to ask somebody to believe that I bet myself into a $5 million hole and never bet on baseball to get out of it. I don’t accept that and I lived the life.”

Watch above via Fox Sports 1.