IRON MOUNTAIN — As most of you know by now, there is another betting scandal in Major League Baseball and for the past couple of days I’ve been plagued by the oddities of the situation.

Instead of it being a Charlie Hustle-esque betting scandal, there is a little bit more complexity to the Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara situation.

Apparently, Mizuhara was able to transfer $4.5 million to a bookmaker, by way of Ohtani’s account, without Ohtani’s knowledge, to pay his gambling debts.

After signing a 10-year, $700 million deal to join the Los Angeles Dodgers one could be convinced that maybe Ohtani didn’t realize anything was missing amongst all those numbers.

However, in an unprecedented move, Ohtani deferred $680 million from his contract into the future and only makes two-million a year.

So it’s not like he’s sitting on such a large amount of cash that a $4.5 million transfer would go unnoticed.

On top of that, doesn’t your bank have a responsibility to inform you when someone is trying to transfer that amount out of your account? I guess not.

And still, that’s not the strangest part of all of this.

Ohtani has leaned on his interpreter to help communicate with his teammates. However, in 2021, Fabian Ardaya asked Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout if Ohtani was bad at anything.

This is what he said, “I would say English, but he’s mastered that.”

Immediately, the antennas went up.

If he can communicate with his teammates, why was Mizuhara around?

Now, what I say next may make me seem like I spend my weekends in a tin foil hat. Just know I don’t.

But what if Mizuhara is falling on the sword for his best friend? Could the gambling addiction actually belong to Ohtani?

While we may not get that answer for a long time, I think it is worth pondering.

The only hole in the argument would be him deferring over 97% of his pay check into the future. If he was a gambling addict, he would be more likely to want as much money front loaded as possible to keep the fun going.

No matter what happens when the MLB investigation closes, he is the global face of baseball. For a sport which is quickly losing popularity amongst the technological generations, suspending its star seems unlikely.

I guess we’re going to have to wait to see what happens.

Now let’s get to the local sports.

Last week, I talked about players in the area that stood out to me during the 2023-24 boys varsity basketball season. However, I wasn’t able to touch on everyone.

So this week, I’ll start with Forest Park.

Head Coach Jason Price and the Trojans no-doubt had an incredible season, bringing a District and Regional crown back to Crystal Falls. Only coming up one win short of a trip to the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

This was largely due to the ability to keep fresh legs on the court as they rotated five-in and five-out all season long.

However, down the stretch, one player truly stood out.

Vic Giuliani, a freshman, took over in the District Final in Norway. He scored 20 points against Norway to secure the District title, Giuliani wasn’t done there. He added 58 points in Forest Park’s final three games of the year.

On top of that, Kevin Giuliani was one of the most dominant post players I witnessed this season. Even if the ball wasn’t falling, he was a load in the paint for every team the Trojans faced.

And that’s not even mentioning the shooters, Gaven Rintala, Matt Showers and Grayson Sundell or the defensive masterminds that are Felix and Gabe Quevedo.

It’s hard not to think that a Division 4 State Title could be in the cards for the 2024-25 season.

The Nordics are a young squad that continued to grow throughout the season and will be a force to reckon with next year. This was largely due to the play of sophomore Spencer Kramer.

Although he battled through injuries down the stretch of the season, Kramer poured in a 31-point performance against Republic-Michigamme in the opening round of the MHSAA Division 4 Districts.

Outside of Kramer, North Dickinson has multiple players who can make an impact. Trenton Kramer, a freshman, sophomore Brady Jungwirth and sophomore Ty King are going to help make the Nordics a team to reckon with in 2024.

One of the teams that was a force during the 2023-24 season was the Florence Bobcats.

Not only did they feature one of the purest scorers I’ve ever seen, William Kelley, they constantly played like a team.

Kelley was the driving offensive force, seemingly able to score at will. No matter where he was on the court, Kelley was guaranteed to put on a show each time he took the court. As a result, he etched his name in Florence history after crossing the 1,000 point threshold on Dec. 11, 2023.

However, he wasn’t alone as multiple players contributed every night for the Bobcats. Among them were Trent McLain, Logan Koski, Truth Setner and Dustin Williams. Each of them contributed something different to Florence, but they all were incredibly important to its season.

Niagara was very similar to Florence this season.

Tommy Martin also reached the 1,000 point mark this season, as a junior, after a 17-point outing on Jan. 28.

Martin was the unquestioned No. 1 offensive option for the Badgers, but he wasn’t alone.

Blake Holmes was a force on the glass and he possesses a beautiful mid-range jumper that harkens back to the days of Richard Hamilton with the Detroit Pistons.

Cameron Schiefelbein is a maestro in the paint and showed that multiple times throughout the year. He also isn’t afraid to get after it on the glass and that was a big key for Niagara.

Next week, I’ll go over the women’s basketball teams and we’ll turn our attention to spring sports.

If you have a suggestion to improve local coverage or a tip on an upcoming sporting event we might not know about my email is schase@ironmountaindailynews.com.

I’ll see you out there!