The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani: "The Letter O" — Episode 1

It's November 2024, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are celebrating their World Series win. Manager Dave Roberts calls a name to the podium, and Shohei Ohtani steps up, a head taller than his teammates, wearing a t-shirt and backwards ball cap. He takes the mic and says, in English, without an interpreter for one of the first times publicly: "Thank you." That's all. The crowd roars. By any measure, his first season with the Dodgers was extraordinary — he started the "50-50 club" for home runs and stolen bases, and many believed he could become the best baseball player of all time. But just months earlier, at the start of that same season, Ohtani was caught in a scandal that could have ended everything.

The Tip That Started It All

ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson began working on the story a full year before the scandal broke. The tip seemed to have nothing to do with baseball. It came from a federal court document still under seal — a list of items seized from a house in California. Computers, hard drives, cell phones. But also $40,000 Breitling watches, handbags from Chanel, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton. Casino chips. Lots of them. The house belonged to a man named Matt Boyer. The feds also seized a cash counting machine, sports betting records, and receipts for offshore bank wires.