Joe Maddon tries to make sense of the Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal

On opening day for Major League Baseball, Joe Maddon still had a perfect perch to see balls being struck onto fields of manicured, green grass.

“To the left is the eighth green. I can see the mountains off in the distance a little bit,” Maddon said Thursday from his home at the Valley Country Club in Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania. “I got the ninth tee box to my right and across the kitchen is the first fairway. If you hit your drive too long on the second hole, a par 3, it’s in my kitchen.

“The view is spectacular. That’s why I’m here now. I could live anywhere.”

The 70-year-old Maddon also has a rare vantage point from which to view the biggest story in baseball, the one that involves the former Los Angeles Angels and now Dodgers superstar, Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, is accused of betting $4.5 million with an illegal bookie operation that was raided in California.

Ohtani’s name appeared on the betting slips. Originally, Mizuhara said that’s because he had gambling debts that Ohtani was helping him pay. Now Ohtani says he was a victim of a large theft and fraud by Mizuhara, who stole money from his accounts.

Maddon managed Ohtani for three seasons with the Angels, after previous stints with the Rays and Cubs, and he knew Mizuhara well.

“I was absolutely gobsmacked by the whole thing,” Maddon said. “No way. For those of us who were around both of them for a period of time, there’s no way anybody could see this coming, and nobody believes it from either side, what they’re suggesting. Me included, I did not believe that Shohei would bet, I don’t believe that Ippei would break the trust with Sho. I mean, I was with them every day and I would communicate with them every day. That’s how we got to the point where (Ohtani) became a two-way player.

“What I’m trying to say is I’ve had a lot of conversation and communication with these guys. They were inseparable, like everybody has suggested and it’s true. They seemed to always get along well. … I never saw an argument or disagreement between them. All of us would like to have the same set of values and he was friends with Ippei, so you trust that he picked the right guy. Then when you talk with Ippei, yeah, I get it. I understand why they’re so close and he trusts him. …

“There was never a reason to even consider there was a disconnect.”

Maddon said Ohtani never demonstrated a thirst for the trappings of wealth. He signed the richest contract in sports with the Dodgers: 10 years, $700 million. But he opted to defer the majority of that salary, with $68 million due in equal installments each July 1 from 2034 to 2043.

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“Sho has never demonstrated to be a materialistic person,” Maddon said. “I don’t know how generous he is, philanthropically what he looks like. … But just what he did with the Dodgers, my explanation was this: He always talked about winning.

“When I heard that, first of all, I thought, ‘Wow, Andrew Friedman, (the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations and a former Rays GM), really figured something out or pulled something out of his hat. But then I started reading where it was Shohei’s idea.

“That also demonstrates where Sho is coming from. He’s not materialistic. Why would he attempt to augment his money based on betting when it doesn’t matter? Because he knows it’s always going to be there. You know, the Beatles are still making money. The Rolling Stones are still making money. Other iconic groups are still making money because they’re universal for all time. So is he.”

On a larger scale, Maddon believes that the prevalence of sports gambling in the United Stats poses one of the biggest threats to all professional leagues.

Maddon fumbled around his cell phone to call up a column by New York Post reporter Joel Sherman, who summarized the situation best for him:

“It reads, “Ironically, the death of sports will come when no one believes in what is taking place to a point in which no one would want to bet on it.’ ” Maddon said.

Maddon went on to say, in his own words, why he’s no fan of leagues embracing sports betting.

“There are all these different things that people find entertaining to pass the time but they’re not necessarily the right thing to do and we’re making this gambling thing even easier,” he said. “I don’t get it. I’m not a subscriber. It could hurt baseball. It could hurt sports in general.

“It’s insider trading. That’s all it is. When a player can manipulate a game, it’s insider trading.”

Maddon planned to spend much of opening day working to complete the addition of a new room on his home that will include a greenhouse, where he will grow honeysuckle, potatoes, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes and herbs.

He’s recovering from minor back surgery and has only been cleared to chip and putt again.

Maddon says he doesn’t miss baseball, especially the analytics-driven version. But he also won’t rule out returning to the dugout if the perfect opportunity presents itself.

“I haven’t had sugar in three weeks,” he said. “With my back surgery, I’m starting to feel better. On the backside of this, because if I do this again, if I want to come back into baseball again, if I get a chance to, I definitely want to be clicking on all cylinders and that’s the overarching plan.”

Maddon says he hopes people will wait for MLB to complete its investigation before leaping to conclusions about Ohtani or Mizuhara.

“Let MLB investigate as they said they are,” Maddon said. “I think the only problem with that, and even I’m a victim of this, whatever the conclusion is, do you believe the conclusion based on the way things are reported?

“Whose agenda is it? How much money is involved in this? All this causes me a little bit of skepticism.”

Gambling? Ohtani? An interpreter stealing millions from him? Maddon struggles to understand it.

“A Japanese kid came to the United States and he is Ringo, Paul, John and Geroge all wrapped into one and the hit songs aren’t done,” Maddon said. “They’re going to keep coming and coming and coming. He doesn’t have to try and create more money, it just happens naturally.

“It doesn’t make sense. It. Doesn’t. Make. Sense.”