After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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Minimum monthly payment, down payment, tax and delivery may be required. See store for details. Hey, hey, I hope that you enjoyed the first game of the baseball season before all hell broke loose around Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers, but to a lesser extent. No, it may be that it's a firestorm with the Dodgers too, and that in South Korea or Japan, can you imagine what the Japanese media is doing with this? Oh my gosh, because not only is Shohei Ohtani a superstar and a household name there, but his interpreter and best friend is also recognizable everywhere, not just here in the United States, but obviously in Japan. And if you don't know his background, he worked here in the United States for other baseball players who had come from Japan to help them integrate and to help them navigate the majors, and then he went back to Japan to work in their professional league, and that's where he met Ohtani. And so he's been, they've known each other for over a decade, and they've been working together extensively since 2017. So there's an extended relationship there, and I can only imagine what it's like with the Japanese media who consume everything there is about Shohei Ohtani. They've got to be fit to be tied. So maybe when the Dodgers and the Padres get back to the United States, well, then you've got more of a firestorm here, but the American media can't really reach them.

They're a little more insulated while they are across on the other side of the globe. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. We're glad to have you on board as we head into a Thursday morning.

It'll be March 21st all the way across the U.S. before you know it, which is kind of cray, but Thursday is what? It's the start of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the main bracket. So the Dayton and the final four, the first four are done. The final four are still to come.

We had two more games, both really close. Congratulations to Grambling State, first ever NCAA tournament win, which is awesome. And they're the ninth different historically black college or university to have a win in the NCAA tournament, which is a big deal. And I'm not sure if you know this, but just about 10 years ago, they went through a season, Grambling State. In which they lost every single game on their schedule. Oh, and 28. And now, barely a decade later, they have their first ever NCAA tournament win.

That's an amazing story. And Purdue is next on the docket. Also, it's kind of cool too, because there was a sophomore guard who didn't play at all in the first half of the game against Montana State when they were trailing by double figures. But coach Daunte Jackson made a substitution, put in this sophomore who had more size, felt like he could match up better with the bigs for Montana State.

And that's really what sparked their rally. And then also congratulations to Colorado with a late 11-0 run out distancing Boise State. A pair of, well, some good animals. Buffs and Broncos. My kind of animals. It was really the defense for the Colorado Buffaloes that propelled them to that main bracket.

So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, four of the best days on the entire sports calendar, especially if you are a junkie or if you are a gambler. Oh dear. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on our Facebook page, on our YouTube channel. I still have not had a chance to share the link to our brand new YouTube video in that some of you are finding it anyway. It's our latest edition of Ask Amy Anything on video. Maybe I'll get around to doing it sometime this weekend, but there's so much going on.

We've had so many good conversations that I wanted to re-share. Also, the women's tournament begins on Friday, so you have to have your men's brackets filled out by noon Eastern time on Thursday. Have you joined the After Hours Bracket Challenge? We've got that link up on our show Twitter, After Hours CBS, and you can also find it on my Twitter, ALawRadio, and then our women's challenge. So this is first time ever for us as a show.

I'm really proud of this. That link is also on my Twitter or on our Facebook page. If you don't see it right away, just scroll down a little bit.

You'll be able to find it no problem. You're looking for the bracket games logo. And if you have one email that you use for, say, the men's bracket, if you've done that with us before, that works for the women's bracket as well. You can use that same email, same password, and then when you go and you log in to cbssports.com, which I still need to do, you'll be able to fill out your brackets together or check those brackets once the tournaments begin.

Thanks so much for hanging with us in our bracket challenges. I have no doubt that you're going to kick my rear end because I just go along and pick up sets for fun. It's better that way.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Again, I want to say that I could be very wrong about Shohei Ohtani. He could be gambling. He could be a degenerate gambler. He and Ipe Matsuhara could have believed that they were placing legal bets and then somewhere along the line, holy crap, realized they weren't. The truth could be somewhere in the middle, but I don't have any trouble believing that Shohei Ohtani is bailing out his friend because that's what I would do if I had the money.

I don't, but if I did, I mean, I could cover your $20 gambling bet, but that's pretty much it. And I'd be angry and I'd be pissed, but I do think that it's something I would do, so that's why I can understand why Ohtani would do this for his friend. What if the truth is somewhere in the middle? What if Ohtani and Ipe Matsuhara were gambling together? And what if Matsuhara, now that they realize, A, it's illegal and B, this bookie is under investigation and all of this is about to come out in the wash, what if Ohtani's camp came up with this plan where Matsuhara would fall on the sword, essentially, would take all of the gambling on himself, admit to a huge gambling problem, make sure everyone knows that it was him and not Shohei, and in doing so, yeah, loses his job, but protects this man who is the moneymaker, right?

And protects a guy that is his friend. Or I guess there are some of you who believe that this was Shohei Ohtani completely and Matsuhara is just the fall guy. That to me seems really unbelievable, actually. I don't believe that story at all, and I will readily admit that I don't like to believe the worst in people, but also I don't think if you're super smart or if you are a degenerate gambler and you're trying to hide it, that you somehow think it's a good idea to pay the bookie out of your own account and then write loan in the line item.

I mean, if you're Shohei Ohtani, first of all, you're one of the most recognizable people in the entire world. Second of all, you can set up another bank account in Mitsuhara's name. You can set it up in your wife's name.

The wife that you didn't want, I'm not saying that's a good idea. I'm just saying these are things that degenerate gamblers come up with, right? They're trying to hide it. They're trying to cover their tracks. It seems really dumb. Which, you know, not that they can't be dumb, but it seems really dumb that you would pay it out of your own bank account and not have any worries that your name is actually on the wire transfer if you're trying to hide it.

So I guess there's a lot of different ways that you can look at this. The crazy part is Mitsuhara did a sit-down interview with ESPN, gave a detailed account, trying to get out ahead of it. According to ESPN, once they realized that these wire transfers were about to be made public by virtue of this federal investigation, not into the player, not into Otani and his interpreter, but into this bookie, once they realized they were about to get exposed to those wire transfers who were about to get exposed, they decided to do a sit-down interview. Otani's camp sent Mitsuhara to do the interview. He did 90 minutes.

He answered all these questions. He gave a detailed account. And then the very next day, they say, no way, that's not what happened. And instead, Mitsuhara stole the money from Otani.

Now, to me, that seems the most unlikely. But gosh, how much that would change everyone's opinion of Otani if this was actually his debt or they were doing it together. And then his attorneys turned around and accused Mitsuhara of stealing the money. I mean, it's one thing to fall on the sword and say, these are my gambling debts. It's entirely another to accuse your brother and your friend of stealing four and a half million. He could go to jail if they decide to press charges.

So I don't know. That's why I have a hard time jumping to that extreme. To me, it feels like they're backpedaling because they're scared. They now realize Otani very well could get wrapped up in this and roped into it and that he could be putting his baseball career in jeopardy. At the very least, could get accused of placing illegal bets. Now, there's no record that they bet on baseball. And baseball does allow players to bet, just not on their own game.

And of course, it needs to be legal. So it's a little bit different than the NFL policy. So I know there's a lot of gray area and there's a lot that doesn't make sense, but I just have a hard time believing that they're such great friends and their brothers. And that if they were gambling together or these are Otani's debts, they're actually going to accuse this guy of a crime if he didn't commit it.

If that's the case, Producer J, wouldn't you think the tide would so drastically turn against Otani? Not for betting. If he's betting... Okay, Calvin Ridley, he got suspended for a year for gambling. Not that it was $4.5 million, but I don't think anybody really cares that much. I mean, he served his time. He's back in the NFL. He's got a job. He's got a new contract.

It's forgotten. It's a very rich contract. I don't think the majority of the sports world holds anything against people who gamble. I mean, it's nefarious. Like, oh, I do that. They've got a problem.

Whatever. But to accuse your friend, and this is essentially what Otani's attorneys are doing, accuse your friend of stealing $4.5 million from you and turning it over to the authorities. If that is actually what happened, or if that's their story and they're sticking to it, Otani's popularity is going to take a major hit. Because that's nasty. That's nasty. If it's not true that he didn't steal the money, but you're letting your friend potentially get charged with theft and go to jail, that's... I mean, talk about a different shade of law. If there's really anything worse you could do to a friend than something like that, let them go to federal prison for something that you committed, there would be no coming back from that at all.

No matter what you did, there's no coming back from that. But again, even if the account is true, the first account, which is that Mitsuhara does have a gambling problem, that he did ask Otani to bail him out, and Otani did it, and now his camp is freaking out, it's still underhanded. I can't imagine, I guess, I try to put myself in these situations, I can't imagine then turning on my friend. As mad as I might be at him or her, at my brother, as mad as I might be at my brother for incurring these deaths like an idiot, I still would never all of a sudden do it about face and say, he stole it from me! No, well that's where this gets all really weird to me, and I don't know if that's where it got weird for him, but the only way that that would make sense for Otani to do that and not be the worst person in the entire world were to be if there was some agreement between him and... Mitsuhara?

Mitsuhara. That they wouldn't press charges or something like that. We'll get through this, whatever, five years from now it'll all be worth it, it'll be forget it, there's some sort of deal. But for the sake of my career, right, exactly.

Right now, you take the fall guy from me, and we'll twist this, everyone will think you're the bad guy, but don't worry, you'll be okay, you'll be taken care of. That's the only way that that scenario would make sense. Unless Shohei's just a horrible person. Right, unless Shohei's just a jerk, which is what I'm saying, like if that actually comes out, I don't think the gambling, because Phil Mickelson's a degenerate gambler, Michael Jordan is a degenerate gambler. Now, they have the money, they can do it, so Shohei has the money, and he's legally gambling, which in this case, it wasn't legal, but for the majority of the United States, what they did, or what he did, is perfectly legal.

Right, it just happens that in California it's not. It's courage, whoever watched a game in a state that is legal, you can't watch more than five minutes of a game without getting asked to bet on the money line. Exactly, so I don't think anybody has any issue with the gambling part, especially if you're rich and you have the money. Doesn't Floyd Mayweather bet like billions of millions, millions of dollars on things?

I'm sure he does. But he has money, so it's completely different than if you, you're the one who incurred gambling debts but you turn around and blame your friend for stealing from you. I mean, those are two complete extremes. You can't do that unless there's, like I said, there's this under the table agreement that, I mean they're both wrong in bad scenarios, but either Shohei's a terrible guy and that's the case, or there's just a lot more here. Which there probably is a lot more here. I don't know if, again, the Dodgers are in on trying to work this out or if it's just Otani's attorneys who had a major meltdown and decided there's no way we can get out from under this unless we put everything on him and make it more convincing by accusing him of stealing from you.

Wow. It went from Otani trying to help him to essentially Otani accusing him. Now he hasn't come out himself and done it, but his spokesman and his attorneys are doing it. I would, you would think if you're hiring spokesman and attorneys that they run it by you before they speak for you, right? That's their job.

Yes, especially since it's his money. Right. I don't know. It's- But man, ugh, it makes me kind of sick to my stomach. The whole thing does- The pivot on the false part is what's really, really, I don't know if interesting is the word, but it's curious. Oh, it's curious, all right. Did you happen to find that J.B. Bickerstaff audio?

I do have it, yeah. Okay, so this also caught our attention just because we were talking about the betting and we were kind of going over the details of the story and J.B. Bickerstaff of the Cavaliers gives us yet another kind of picture of what it's like to be in the sports world these days with gambling all the rage. And he says he's being threatened by gamblers and that he's actually had to go to the league because it's become that big of a problem.

I personally have had my own instances with, you know, some of the sports gamblers where, you know, they got my telephone number and were sending me, you know, crazy messages about, you know, where I live and my kids and all that stuff. So it is a dangerous game and a fine line that we're walking for sure. It brings added pressure. It brings, you know, a distraction to the game that can be difficult for players, coaches, referees, you know, everybody that's involved in it. We really have to be careful, you know, with how close we let it get to the game and the security of the people who are involved in it because, again, it does carry a weight. You know, a lot of times the people who are gambling like this money, you know, pays their light bill or plays their rent and then the emotions that come from that. So I do think we're walking a very fine line and we have to be extremely careful in protecting everybody who's involved. He's getting threats to his family over how the Cavaliers perform. He's not even the dude that's on the court. That's crazy.

But it's what happens when a big game goes south. How often do we hear about athletes receiving death threats on social media? On Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page After Hours with Amy Lawrence, 855-212-4227. Tony's in Dallas. Tony, what do you think? Oh, I'm telling you, producer Jay was right from the start. It was a Tony making the bets. I'm telling you. I know you don't think so, Amy. So why do you think so?

I'm going to tell you why I say that. You got bookies that will lose their life for taking bets when people don't have enough money. You are a public figure that's assumed to make so much money. How much credit do you think a bookie will give you?

No more than maybe $500,000. This guy gave this guy $4 million of credit in bets. He's not giving no Joe Blow that kind of credit. He's giving it to a Tony because a Tony got the money. Good point.

I'm telling you, the facts is right there. It's going to show because if a Tony gets found to make these bets, everybody loses. Everybody from the owner to the team, him, everybody. Baseball, they don't want this dude.

You will have ten fall guys that will go down for it. And of course his friend will say he stole the money too. A Tony can give him $4 million to go away. His family will be nice.

You got people go to jail for years that's innocent and don't even get $100,000. So for a couple of meetings, he'll sit in jail and come back and say, I stole it. Man, you can see it.

The writers on the wall cleared all our doors. Interestingly about face though, right, that they seemed like they had a plan. If that's what you're saying and these are Otani's bets or the two of them bet together and they had a plan and then all of a sudden somebody freaked out and decided that wasn't good enough. And so instead now the story is this guy stole from him. That's the way you say it so it can look like Otani has nothing to do with it at all. And that's not the truth.

I mean you could tell. No bookie not taking no bet from nobody they don't know has that kind of money. And no interpreter don't have that kind of money. Let's look at that one fact right there. What would let a bookie take those kind of bets?

This bookie will lose his life to whatever he affiliated with for taking those kind of bets for that kind of high stakes from a regular interpreter? Well, we do know that his salary over the last I guess it was six, seven years is close to a half million dollars a year. So it's not like he makes nothing. But I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Four million dollars.

Because the living is about two or three hundred thousand just every day living. No, no bookie not taking no bet. A bookie gonna know who he's getting them kind of bets from. And another thing I was saying this is what make great athletes great. They just attitude to win at all costs. That's what got Michael Jordan in trouble. That's what got Phil Nickerson in trouble. They just want to win.

It don't matter if it's in their sports where they compete or gambling. It's about winning. When you get caught up in that winning you don't even think about what you're doing and how much money you're losing or what's the outcome. You think about it later.

But at the time Jordan was gambling with a known criminal figure and paying him millions of dollars and then when it all come out. Okay we're going to retire for a couple of years. But go play baseball for the same owner of the Chicago Bulls.

Hello. And then you come back. Nobody do that. You know why.

Joy is the perfect example of autonomy. If Jordan don't play basketball the whole league and everybody lose. So we're not going to lose.

You retire and that man say he stole the money. And we're going to always come out all right. Come on. It's simple. It's simple now.

I know you want to play the best in everybody Amy. But it's the writing on the wall. Okay. Well I appreciate your points Tony. Thank you so much for that insight. It's okay.

Tony in Dallas. I guess I mean I can't tell you I have a ton of experience. I've never once placed a bet with a bookie. So that's just first of all I don't have money.

I work in radio. But I'm also a terrible loser. That's not me. But I never thought about that. Now I will say this and I'll offer this from the story that Tisha Thompson put out there. According to I think it was the attorney for the bookie.

Okay. So either an attorney or spokesman for the bookie. As Mitsuhara the interpreter is telling ESPN and anybody who will listen that Shohei had nothing to do with this, apparently the bookie had someone speak out for him and say that he never met or dealt with Shohei Ohtani.

Now I don't know if that's a presumptive strike. But if what you think is that they're all deny, deny, deny, deny, deny about Shohei Ohtani and you see the statement come out from the bookie and his camp that he never met Ohtani and didn't deal with Ohtani but saw Ohtani's name on the transfers and essentially allowed people to think that Ohtani was gambling with him. That's his story is that he never met Ohtani but he did see Ohtani's name on the money that was coming in the wire transfers that were coming in. And so he allowed people to believe that Ohtani was a client to boost his own business right like hey Ohtani is one of my clients so come bet with me.

I can understand why that's good for business. But his attorney again the bookie's attorney told ESPN he never met or spoke with Shohei Ohtani but wouldn't answer any other questions. Mitsuhara on Wednesday afternoon once again reiterated that Shohei had no knowledge of gambling, let me rephrase that, he reiterated that Shohei had not gambled and then did the about face where he said Shohei did not know anything about the gambling debts and had not transferred the money to the bookie's associate. But we know that's not the case because the wire transfers are there.

Gosh, I sincerely hope that it's not Shohei Ohtani but then I think again how crappy is that? To accuse him of theft if it's not true. Oh. Huh.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You can find us on Twitter after. Call from Mom. Answer it.

Call silenced. Instacart knows nothing gets between you and the game. That's why they make ordering from your couch easy. Stock up today and get all your groceries for the week delivered in as fast as 30 minutes without missing a minute of the game. You have 47 new voicemails. Download the app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order.

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And that sneeze means you do not want to venture out into all that pollen. And that's your cue to download the Instacart app and get free delivery on your first three orders. Offer valid for a limited time. $10 minimum per order.

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Plus receive a free adjustable base with select mattress purchases and shop top mattress brands like Stearns and Foster, Tempur-Pedic Purple and Beautyrest Black with 60 months special financing only at Ashley. Subject to credit approval. No minimum purchase required.

Minimum monthly payment, down payment, tax and delivery may be required. See store for details. Our CBS, the bracket challenge is for both the men and the women. Also on our Facebook page and our phone number 855-212-4227 here on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. I really feel that that swing that he pulled it in the air foul really took a good swing. And I think that that kind of bled into that at bat where he ended up lining a ball to right field and had another big base hit later in the game.

So just a good night overall from Shohei. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Well Dave Roberts was busy talking about Shohei's debut on the baseball diamond with his Dodgers and with some crazy foul ball that put a hole in the Go Chuck Skydome. And then he drives in a run to cap a rally in the 8th inning and the Dodgers are 1-0. But then all hell breaks loose.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. And then he drives in a run to cap a rally in the 8th inning and the Dodgers are 1-0. There's so many different layers to this. We could go around and around and around because we're obviously missing some pieces. And we don't know why the about face.

And I will readily admit I would rather believe the best in people. It's just so hard for me to believe that Otani with his best friend and his support system for the last 10 years would turn around and just accuse him of stealing. So I don't think that necessarily came from him. But gosh, I think most American fans, probably Japanese fans too, would overlook the gambling or get over the gambling part of it. The problem is the bets they were placing were illegal. Which means Otani, if it's him gambling or partly gambling, would be subject to a suspension. And so the baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred, has the discretion.

Just so you know, in case you missed it earlier, Marco and I were just talking about this. The policy in baseball is completely different than the one in the NFL. In the NFL, you can bet on absolutely nothing. No sport. Not legal.

Not illegal. You cannot place bets on football at all. You can't place bets at all in the facilities, right? And it can't be the illegal kind of bet.

So it's different. You have certain stipulations. But with baseball, you can bet on anything except for baseball. As long as it's not an illegal bet, obviously. So it's different in that NFL has more guidelines to it about when and how and where.

Baseball, they're not going to limit you from placing bets as long as they're not illegal and as long as it's not on their game. So the interpreter's claiming they didn't know or he didn't know the bets were illegal. Which may be true. I mean, it may be true.

But either way, if it's Otani's name, he can be subject to a suspension. But it's one thing to have your interpreter fall on the sword for you and say, these were all my bets. He was bailing me out. I did a bad thing.

I have an addiction. And you're right, he may very well be saying that because that way he can take the fall. But then turn around and accuse him of four and a half million dollars in gambling debts.

Like four and a half million dollars of stealing to cover his gambling. That's a completely different story. Again, which is why you talked about the missing pieces. There's missing pieces here. Something's not right.

And again, it was changed in 24 hours. It went from, it's, you know, the interpreter, it's my fault. Otani was helping me out. Everybody, Otani, okay with it. Otani's camp, okay with that story.

Everybody's good. One day later, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Otani didn't know that you were paying these off. You stole four and a half million dollars from him. And then again, it goes into the idea of, well, how does he have access to four and a half million dollars of your money anyway? And how would you not know the money's disappearing? Yeah, that he's wiring money from you into an illegal gambling. There's just missing pieces.

There's missing all kinds of stuff. That seems so implausible to me. I don't believe that somehow his interpreter had access to his account enough that he could wire four and a half million dollars and nobody could notice. Yeah, and then you bring up the idea that, you know, Major League Baseball can get involved because he could wind up being suspended because the bets are illegal bets. So did, you know, now to go down the, you know, rabbit hole of conspiracy, does Major League Baseball, were they involved and they realized that they don't want to suspend their biggest star? So do you think that's possible? It's possible, yes. Is it plausible? I don't know, but anything's possible. And yeah, Major League Baseball, as much as, you know, they don't want black eyes for their sport and they realize that this is the biggest star and it's an international star, yeah, it looks bad.

First day with a new team, $700 million. And if you have to wind up suspending him somewhere down the road, whether it be, you know, next week or next month, it looks awful for Major League Baseball and they don't want that. Does that mean that they would cover this up and put the interpreter through a legal action? I don't know. I don't know how far they would go. I don't know if that would be them getting involved or if the camp thought maybe this doesn't look good and they're trying to distance themselves.

I don't know. The only thing I know is the second story doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah, no, that one I don't believe at all. And there's got to be some sort of lie involved because you can't have two stories that contradict each other.

That are complete opposite. The Dodgers are saying they had no idea about this until Tuesday and well, I guess it was Wednesday in South Korea. So they had no idea about it until, I guess the ESPN may have reached out to them for comment, but somehow they didn't know about it until it was just about to go public.

So that's what they're saying. And if that's the case, do you think MLB would have known about it? Because if MLB knew about it, you think they would have put the stop to the illegal bets going back to last fall? Well, I mean, if Major League Baseball knew about it, they would have obviously been involved in some sort of way, whether it was the, you know, the idea of the story or the cover up or the money transfer. I guess they don't have the technology of the NFL who tracks your phones. Yeah, but again, it wasn't his, it wasn't his bets.

It was the wire transfer was in his name, but the bets was done from his interpreter. So Major League Baseball wouldn't necessarily have known, or maybe they're not as on top of it as the NFL, which is weird when you look at Major League Baseball's history. Never mind the Black Sox and Pete Rose still screaming, banging on the door, trying to get into the hall of fame. It is stunning that they allow their athletes to bet.

Yeah, there's a lot of, you know, again, when you get in bed with the devil, there's a lot of things that go along with this for all these sports once they opened up Pandora's box and the gambling in and of itself. So I don't know if Major League Baseball knew. I don't know if the Dodgers knew. I mean, he's only been there, what, a month? I don't know if the Dodgers knew all this.

Well, these go back to last fall. Right, so did the Dodgers really know all this? Look, when they vetted to be able to sign the contract and to get Otani to come to the other side of town, to come to the Dodgers from the Angels, you think they were this, they weren't looking for this.

No, no idea. They were looking for a lot of different things. I don't think this was top of their list. I just think it's really actually just so funny because I know we, I know we think like what dummy would incur his own illegal gambling debts and then send the money from his own bank account because that's the easiest thing to transfer. But then you remember Otani's in his 20s and people in their 20s do a lot of dumb stuff.

I did dumb stuff when I was in my 20s. But that just seems to me like if you're not, if you're trying to hide it, you don't send it from your own damn bank account. Again, you're right, but it also could be that maybe they didn't realize that they were, what they were doing or maybe they thought because it was illegal, they would be able to, you know, I don't think the illegal gambling ring wants to, we're getting money.

Nobody wants to open this door. So maybe they just thought it was going to get covered up. Maybe it's as simple as just stupid, you know, just not thinking, just doing stuff that, you know, we were doing this forever. I mean, you didn't incur $4.5 million in a night. You've been doing this for a while.

That's Phil Mickelson territory right there. So that's what I mean. So like maybe it just became second nature, became habit and that's, and they didn't realize that's, all these things are plausible. It still goes back to the question of what's the real story? And I don't know if we're going to know the real story. That's the problem. Somebody will tell the story at some point.

They'll get paid a lot of money to do a tell all. Maybe E-Pay Matsuhara at some point. All right. On Twitter, A-Law Radio, Javier and Brandon, we'll get to your calls coming up next 8-5. Visit Carvana.com to finance your next car. on all of our award-winning Hyundai models, like the tech-filled Tucson and Kona, as well as the spacious Palisade. Enjoy wherever you go with the peace of mind that comes with America's best warranty and three years or 36,000 miles of complimentary maintenance.

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State Farm, Bloomington, Illinois. 5-2-1-2-4-2-2-7. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. A couple games this spring has been really cool. Like I let off the game with a hit. Then he hits a double. Then he hits a homer. Or he hits a single. And it's like, dang.

We had one game where he went single, single, single. And it was like, boom, within like five pitches. I was like, wow, this is kind of fun.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Man, it feels a whole lot different than it did 24 hours ago. In fact, we were just about to go to South Korea and talk to Jesse Agler of the Padres.

This time, 24 hours ago on our last show. And it was all about the baseball and the buzz around Ohtani. If you watch the game or listen to the game on the radio like I did, you heard the crowds every time Ohtani came up to bat.

Every time he did anything, it was this incredible crescendo of noise inside the Gochuck Skydome. And according to the reports now, and this is not just ESPN but also our friend Michael Duarte of NBC LA, right after the game is when all hell broke loose and Ipe Mitsuhara went to the Dodgers and spoke to the team, told them he had a gambling problem, told them about, I don't know how much he told them, but told them what was about to come out. And this is in the wake of him doing a sit-down interview with ESPN, taking accountability, saying his friend Shohei bailed him out but was ticked at him. And that's why the wire transfers as opposed to just giving him the money. And now the story has so drastically changed to the point where Ipe is doing a 180 and saying Ohtani knew nothing about the wire transfers and he knew nothing about my gambling debts. I just so badly want to believe that Shohei Ohtani wouldn't hang his best friend out to dry and allow him to be accused of massive theft to save his own rear end.

I mean, it's a matter of personal opinion I suppose. If you're a billionaire or pretty damn close to it, think about his endorsements. It's not just the money that he makes from playing baseball, though a lot of this Dodgers salary is deferred. But think about the endorsements. The man is a billionaire. If he wants to gamble millions, at least he's not gambling out of his butt, right? At least he has the money to do it. So the gambling is not really the issue, though I can understand the bets are illegal and so baseball would have to respond to that.

But I think far worse of people who would hang their best friends out to dry and or even if it's his attorneys that he would go along with it. Dave Roberts is speaking right now, producer Jay tells me, and we'll have it after the top of the hour. And I highly doubt he's going to say much, but at least he has to hear the questions.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Javier is in Chicago. Javier, what do you think? Hey, how you doing, Amy?

I'm good, thank you. Yeah, no, I'll just that last caller like Tony, I'm like, hey, if Michael Jordan was secretly suspended, that makes no sense to me. Why would David Stern do that?

If it's a secret, why would why wouldn't you just let him play instead of losing hundreds of millions of dollars? Right. But any but anyway, I guess, you know, the story is only 12 hours old, so not even that much old.

So we got to like I guess we just got to wait and see like how everything plays, you know, how everything plays out. It doesn't it does not sound good. I agree.

None of it sounds good. And it's even worse now that there's been this about face like it was a lot to take even before that. Right.

Because the interpreter got fired. But now to find out that there's been a complete reversal of the story, recanting of the story, that's when it gets really fishy. Yeah. And I think it's it was interesting that you were talking about that earlier, because like Japanese culture, there's a lot of like like shame is a big thing. Yes, culture.

Yes, honor and shame. Exactly. I'm wondering if that's like a big part of it, too. Yeah, I have no idea.

It's just crazy. And I know we haven't heard from Ohtani himself. I don't know if they're making him available before this game, but he certainly will have to speak after the game or at least be available in the locker room or the clubhouse. I don't know how he could possibly live with himself to allow his attorneys to accuse his best friend, not just an employee, his best friend of massive theft. And wouldn't you think then, Javier, they're not allowed to be in contact.

Right. There's no way that these guys could ever communicate again or at least be together again. I mean, that sucks.

I'm trying to think of myself with a best friend. I can't even imagine that. No, because, yeah, no. And I understand that, too, because you were perfectly right. I mean, if I had it like that, I obviously don't.

But if I had it like that, I'd bail my best friend out any time of the week. Right. Me too. Me too.

I want to believe the best. But I also know that sometimes I look like an idiot when I do. No, no, it is.

I'm the same way. But yeah, you know what I mean? Oh, this sucks. I know it does.

The baseball season just started and now we got to deal with this. Yeah, it definitely sucks. Are you listening on AM 670, the score? Well, no, I have the app. Oh, gotcha. Okay.

We want to make sure we give pub to our Chicago station. Oh, no, no, no. 670. Awesome. Oh, no. Mully and Huh, Parkins and Spiegel. Oh, no.

Those are my guys. Okay, good. Glad to hear it. Well, thank you so much for listening, Javier.

No, of course. Thank you, Amy. Appreciate you.

855-212-4227. So Dave Roberts after the top of the hour and because we were a little bit late getting to break this last segment because the story just there's so much to wrap your brain around, right? We'll let you hear from Dave Roberts.

I have no idea. I'm going to check on Twitter as soon as we go to break to find out if anyone's even tried to get to Otani or tried to talk to any of the other Dodgers. The team can only protect him from for so long. There are rules about him having to meet the media.

I mean, I guess he could pay the fine, but we will get to more of your calls after the top. You can also find me on Twitter. A law radio. Yes, it's March Madness, not this time. We weren't expecting this kind of March Madness. You can join the after hours bracket challenges and find them on Twitter and Facebook. It's after hours.

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But hurry in. These deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Now get 0% APR or up to 1500 bonus cash on the Hyundai Tucson. Now during the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Offers end soon. Call 562-314-4603 for details.