By David Downey | Contributing Writer
Not long after Shohei Ohtani began mesmerizing Southern California baseball fans with his prowess on the pitching mound and at the plate, Tyler Baugh got a text message from one of his best friends.
The friend was watching Ohtani pitch on TV when an Angels coach walked out for a chat.
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He did a double take when he noticed who joined them at the mound. Could that be one of his friends from high school?
The friend snapped a cell phone photo and texted it to Baugh.
“He said, “Am I tripping out? Is that Ippei?” Baugh recalled.
Sure enough, the young man translating for one of the world’s most popular baseball players was the kid they played video games and soccer with, and sat next to in Coach Kemp Wells’ English class at Diamond Bar High School: Ippei Mizuhara.
Mizuhara, who graduated from the east Los Angeles County school in 2003, helped Ohtani communicate with managers, coaches, teammates and the news media while he played for the Angels. Now he is performing that role during spring training in Arizona as Ohtani prepares for his much-anticipated first season as a Los Angeles Dodger.
Mizuhara, through Dodgers’ spokesperson Jon Weisman, declined to be interviewed.
Ohtani joined Major League Baseball in 2018 after starring in Japan and he speaks mostly Japanese — though he surprised many recently by delivering a most valuable player award acceptance speech in English.
Mizuhara translates Ohtani’s Japanese to English, then others’ English to Japanese for Ohtani.
But Mizuhara is more than an interpreter. He is an inseparable close friend of Ohtani’s and a fixture in the dugout.
He often catches the star’s bullpen sessions, a Diamond Bar High alumni report states.
He plays catch with Ohtani during pregame warmups. He was the catcher when Ohtani competed in the Home Run Derby during…
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