Lionsgate Television has begun developing a scripted series based on the gambling scandal surrounding LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani\u2019s interpreter.<\/p>\n
The reserved baseball pitcher began a ten-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers\u2014the biggest contract in American sports team history\u2014in December 2023. Several months later and only one day into the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) season, news broke that Ohtani\u2019s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, allegedly stole $16 million from the player to pay off gambling debts.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers fired Mizuhara after the allegations came to light, and he later turned himself in to federal authorities. Investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and MLB are ongoing.<\/p>\n
Thirteen-time Tony Award winner Scott Delman and award-winning writer, author and producer Albert Chen are attached to produce the series. Delman\u2019s past TV credits include Station 11<\/em>, while his Broadway credits include The Book of Mormon<\/em>, Death of a Salesman<\/em>, Raisin in the Sun<\/em> and many more. Chen wrote the sports gambling book Billion Dollar Fantasy<\/em> and was the co-creator, co-host and producer of the All American<\/em> podcast. He also served as senior editor at Sports Illustrated<\/em> and has been a contributor for MLB Network.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a strong track record of creating daring, boundary-pushing series, Lionsgate Television is the perfect partner to bring this unbelievable story to the screen,\u201d Delman said. \u201cIn addition, Albert\u2019s extensive sports journalism background will enable us to connect the dots to make sense of the startling turn of events we\u2019ve seen play out on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is Major League Baseball\u2019s biggest sports gambling scandal since Pete Rose\u2014and at its center is its biggest star, one that MLB has hitched its wagon on,\u201d Chen added. \u201cWe\u2019ll get to the heart of the story\u2014a story of trust, betrayal and the trappings of wealth and fame.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lionsgate Television has begun developing a scripted series based on the gambling scandal surrounding LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani\u2019s interpreter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":20768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[9015,9016,9017,593,9018,9019,9020,9021],"class_list":["post-20765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-albert-chen","tag-ippei-mizuhara","tag-la-dodgers","tag-lionsgate-television","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-scott-delman","tag-shohei-ohtani","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n