Jim Alexander: What a news day this has been.
We have Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, as the subject of a Justice Department complaint in connection with his gambling with an illegal bookmaker – and we’ve learned, according to the paperwork, that he bet somewhere in the neighborhood of $325 million from December 2021 through January 2024, and lost more than $40 million more than he won. And we also learned that the feds have determined there was theft from Ohtani’s accounts, and it wasn’t the $4.5 million previously reported but more like $16 million.
And that’s not even the story everyone’s talking about.
O.J. Simpson died today from cancer at the age of 76, and my first response when I saw the news was, “Rest in peace?”
To say the reaction is muted is an understatement, because his football achievements – Heisman Trophy winner, Hall of Famer, NFL yardage record-setter, etc. – became moot in 1994 when he was charged with the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. He was acquitted in criminal court but found liable in civil court, and the process not only changed the way we viewed him but served as a vivid reminder: It’s dangerous to take heroes and celebrities at face value.
Think of it: It’ll be 30 years in June since the slow-speed chase on the freeway, with O.J. and his USC teammate Al Cowlings in the white Ford Bronco with a gaggle of law enforcement vehicles trailing – and just about every news helicopter in Southern California following the procession.
Mirjam, you remember where you were, or what you were watching, that afternoon?
Mirjam Swanson: I was watching the basketball! Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals, having just gotten into hoops, probably. And then … a most surreal shared American experience for the ages. I re-watched a segment of it on YouTube this morning and it’s all the more bizarre, crowd noise and Marv Albert’s audio bleeding over a visual of the Bronco…
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