00:00So I'm watching the Dodger parade yesterday, and after the parade, you know, a lot of players are giving speeches with the fans,
00:07and they're celebrating their second consecutive World Series win, and something stood out to me in that, and it's Shohei Ohtani.
00:14Yeah.
00:15Shohei Ohtani grabbed the microphone without an interpreter having a microphone next to him.
00:20He did.
00:20And spoke beautiful English, like a full command of the English language, and it took me aback for a second.
00:29Because despite being in our country and being a professional baseball player here for almost, what's it, eight years now, I think it is, right?
00:35It's been a while now, yeah.
00:36Between the Angels and the couple years he's been in L.A. with the Dodgers.
00:40We were always told that he did not speak English, which is why he's always had an interpreter.
00:45He had him with the Angels, quite famously, Ipe, who's in prison right now for the fraud involving the gambling scandal with Matthew Borey, the bookie,
00:52and now a couple years with the L.A. Dodgers.
00:54But it was so refreshing to me to hear Shohei Ohtani in front of 50,000, 60,000 Dodger fans at the stadium after the parade speak in beautiful, perfect English.
01:06And I think it's great, right?
01:07So I applaud him for doing that.
01:09It might have been hard for him to speak English in front of so many people, but he clearly does not need an interpreter.
01:15Is that fair for me to say?
01:16Yes, he doesn't need one.
01:17He does not need an interpreter.
01:19I believe that he and many other players who speak other languages as their primary language and not English.
01:25English is a secondary language.
01:27Many of them, I think, use the interpreter as a crutch or a manner to not have to deal with the American media, right?
01:34Yeah.
01:34So it's easy for me not to get in trouble with what I say or nothing gets confused in what I say because I never say anything.
01:41I just count on my interpreter to say one game at a time.
01:45You know, I tried my best today.
01:47All the cliche quotes, right?
01:48Mm-hmm.
01:49All right?
01:49And I think a lot of players, I don't care whether it's Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese.
01:55I don't care the language.
01:55I think a lot of guys speak perfect English.
01:58They just don't want to because screw us, right?
02:01Or screw the English media, okay?
02:03Okay.
02:03But here's where I'm going to take this one mini step too far, okay?
02:07All right.
02:08If we all agree now that he speaks beautiful English and he understands English, you can accept that?
02:14Yes.
02:15Based on what I saw yesterday?
02:16Mm-hmm.
02:17Then if you go back to when he was with the Angels and the first year with the Dodgers,
02:21when he had Ipe as his interpreter, maybe he wasn't an interpreter for him.
02:28Is there any possibility that the real reason he was keeping Ipe around, and I'm asking the question, I'm not accusing, is there the possibility that Ipe's only real role was to be a gambling buddy?
02:46I can't rule it out.
02:49Is that not possible?
02:51It's possible.
02:52Because remember, all these other gambling investigations take months and years before the feds announce something.
03:00For example, we're dealing with one right now in the UFC with a featherweight lesser-known fighter who's alleged to have fixed the match last week, okay?
03:09And that's going to play itself out much like the NBA did with, albeit less interest because it's UFC, not NBA.
03:16But if we agree that Shohei speaks perfect English and we agree that having the interpreter is more out of ease and not having to deal with the English-speaking media and just let the interpreter handle it,
03:29maybe we haven't really investigated why he has the interpreter or why he had the original interpreter for as long as he did when he clearly understands English.
03:42And again, I'm not accusing.
03:44I'm just doing my job as an inquisitive guy.
03:48It's a good question.
03:49Now, on the one hand, I don't believe he knew perfect English when he got here.
03:53I accept that.
03:53I think he's got to that point now.
03:55But the gambling scandal around him was not his first year in baseball.
03:59It's when he went to the Dodgers.
04:01Right.
04:01And obviously, he goes to maybe the last year with the Angels.
04:04Yeah.
04:04So, he's learned English over time.
04:07Now, the counter, if someone's trying to go just fully defense, there was a guy named Alan Turner.
04:12He was Ichiro's interpreter basically for the whole time.
04:16Ichiro speaks perfect English.
04:18That's right.
04:18Because I think some guys just don't want to talk.
04:21Right.
04:22So, the question is.
04:22And it's easy just to have a buffer saying, you answer the questions.
04:26I could even talk gobbledygook to you.
04:28The interpreter knows what to say.
04:29Right.
04:30We'll clean it up.
04:30Yeah.
04:30So, like, how far do we take this?
04:33Because I can't rule it out what you said.
04:35I can't rule it out.
04:36Well, Ichiro wasn't involved in a gambling scandal.
04:38So, we don't have to talk about it.
04:39I hear what you're saying.
04:40He had an interpreter the whole time.
04:41And again, I'm not accusing him.
04:42I'm just, I'm still on this issue with how quickly the investigation got shut down.
04:46That's true.
04:47How quickly he got exonerated.
04:48How quickly the interpreter accepted a plea deal from the feds.
04:52How quickly he went to prison.
04:53All those things don't happen.
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