The mysterious life — and questionable claims — of Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter
They were one of the best-known duos in baseball. Wherever star pitcher and slugger Shohei Ohtani went — to practice, to the gym, to Japanese restaurants in Orange County — his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was never far behind. His Beatles-like haircut, self-deprecating attitude and rapport with the new face of baseball made Mizuhara, a 39-year-old from Southern California, a celebrity in his own right. But over the last week, the world learned how little was truly known about Ohtani’s former right-hand man, who was fired by the Dodgers after being accused of stealing more than $4.5 million to cover debts with an illegal Orange County bookmaking operation. Now that Mizuhara’s life is under a microscope, key aspects of his biography have proved difficult to confirm; others are outright false. His whereabouts for nearly a decade after graduating from high school in L.A. County are still largely a mystery. He apparently lied about the college he attended and overstated the nature of a previous job with Major League Baseball, in addition to accusations that he misled Ohtani for months — perhaps even years — about a