$4.5 Million Gambling Debt

Morning! We’d usually be writing about stats and scores, with maybe a crazy dunk thrown into the mix. We’d then round out the day with a little golf talk, but today is a little different. We’ve got a bit of a wild story coming from the Dodgers, and the Madness is officially here.

Let’s get going. The goal is to have you in and out in less than 5 minutes.

Here we go.

Ohtani’s Word vs His Translator

Is this an enigma, or are we in some sort of linguistic wormhole, and we’re not sure who we can really trust? How do we know who is telling the truth?

One easy way would be to learn Japanese, but we ain’t got time for that!

❓️ Confused? Me too! Here’s what’s going on. Shohei Ohtani, the dude who just signed the most expensive contract in MLB history this offseason with the LA Dodgers, is in the spotlight, but not for hitting home runs. It’s for a gambling debt. A FOUR point FIVE MILLION DOLLAR GAMBLING DEBT that isn’t even his.

💸 Ohtani’s translator and long time friend, Ippei Mizuhara, has gotten himself and the MLB star caught up in a gambling scandal where Mizuhara owed the large amount of money to an illegal bookie in Southern Cal. At first, it looked like Ohtani had paid off the debts to be helpful and keep his man out of trouble, but now the stories are coming out. It’s Ohtani’s word against his translators, and the translator says that Ohtani lent the money to him, but Ohtani and his legal team are saying that Ohtani(it would be weird if his translator was still translating) is now a victim of theft and didn’t know anything about the payments going to the bookkeeper.

👉️ There’s no way we’re getting to the bottom of this anytime soon, but for the Dodgers fans out there, you don’t have to worry too much. None of the bets were on baseball, so there's no suspension that anyone needs to be concerned with.

Here’s what Dodger fans DO need to be concerned with

⚾️ The MLB had a pseudo opening day yesterday when the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres played a game in Seoul, South Korea. It’s part of a two-game series that you realistically can’t watch unless you’re awake at 3 am on either coast. The Dodgers won 5-2, so they currently has the best record in baseball.

👀 Today’s game is a little different, and as we’re finishing today’s newsletter, the Dodgers are trailing 12-11 after eight innings. The Dodgers have their newest phenom, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, start at pitcher, and it didn’t go super well. He only pitched one inning and gave up four hits and five runs. That’s not exactly the debut you want out of a dude you just spent $325 million on.

👋 p.s. Mookie Betts has the first home run in the MLB season.

Why Do We Give Famly Members A Mic?

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott’s brother, Tad Prescott was being interviewed the other day and he offered up his top 10 QB list.

Here it is.

1. Patrick Mahomes

2. Dak Prescott

3. Lamar Jackson

4. Josh Allen

5. Aaron Rodgers

6. Joe Burrow

7. Tua Tagovailoa

8. Jared Goff

9. Matthew Stafford

10. Joe Flacco

There are some obvious flaws in this list. Like Joe Flacco being #10, Tua being #7 and ummm Dak being #2. And while I don’t think Jalen Hurts is an awesome QB I do love Tad’s answer when asked why Hurts wasnt’ on the list…. It’s because this was a list for QBs not RBs. lolz

please stop giving people microphones!

Let’s Look At Some Stats and Scores Now

NBA

🏀 Chet Holmgren led the Thunder to a 119-107 win last night with 35 points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 of his own as well.

🏀 The Boston Celtics narrowly escaped with a win against the Milwaukee Bucks. This is the Celtics 7th straight win and the final score was 122-119. Jayson Tatum put up 31 in the win. On the flip side, Damian Lillard scored 32 for the Bucks

🏀 The Clippers go a 116-103 win against Portland. Paul George was good for 27, Kawhi had 24, and James Harden had 19.

NHL

It was blowout central on the ice last night

🏒 The Maples Leafs bulldozed the Washington Capitals after Auston Matthews scored a goal in the first 16 seconds of the game. Matthew scored 2 last night, leading Toronto to a 7-3 win.

🏒 The Dallas Stars and Arizona Coyotes battled it out last night, but the difference makers would be the 2nd period where the Stars scored 3 goals. Final was score was Dallas 5, Arizona 2.

🏒 The LA Kings dusted the Minnesota Wild 6-0. there were 6 different goal scorers for LA, and Anze Kopitar recorded his 1,200th career point last night

Let the Madness Begin

We’ve got 48 games being played in the NCAA tournament between now and Sunday. We’ve got 16 today, 16 tomorrow, 8 on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday.

We tip the action off today at 12:15 pm ET on CBS when 8-seed Mississippi State and 9-seed Michigan State face off. We’ve got a game starting just about every 30 minutes after that until the last game tips off at 10:05 pm ET between 7-seed Washington State and 10-seed Drake.

Here’s a full schedule for today.

Another Thursday On The PGA Tour

⛳️ After an exciting and wild finish to the Players Championship, pro golfers remain in Florida as they tee it up today at one of the most challenging tracks on tour. We’ve got 72 holes at the Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort in South Florida for the Valspar Championship. The total purse is $8,400,000, and the winner gets $1.5 million of that. It’s a par 71 course that totals 7,209 yards and is actually the 7th toughest-ranked course on the PGA Tour.

You already know ESPN+ is streaming the action this a.m. and you can also watch on the Golf Channel from 2-6 pm ET if there are some blowouts in March Madness and you need to refresh your eyes.

Tune in and check out players trying to hit the tight fairways, stay out of the water, and mess around with all the doglegs the course provides!

You should be a little more informed than you were 5 minutes ago, so that’s a good day for us!

Enjoy all the games today and we’ll catch up with you tomorrow for what should be a beautiful Friday!

-The Daily Breakroom