Mark Madden: Something seems sketchy with Shohei Ohtani, but does MLB want to know?

As MLB and the NBA face calamitous gambling scandals, one wonders how ESPN covers them without casting a bad light on ESPNBet, the company’s online sportsbook.

Networks and leagues are sponsored so heavily by bookies. It’s everywhere. (My radio program, too.)

Gambling and sports are directly and massively intertwined now, probably too much so. It was better when sports betting had to be done through your local (illegal) bookmaker. It felt like separation of church and state.

Then again, Shohei Ohtani’s translator allegedly lost $4.5 million to an illegal bookie. (They still exist. It’s the American entrepreneurial spirit in action.)

That’s right, a mom-and-pop bookie supposedly gave an interpreter a $4.5 million line of credit. One of many holes in that story. (More later.)

If Ohtani bet on baseball, he’s got to be suspended for a year. If Ohtani wagered on games involving his own team, he’s got to be banned for life. (That rule includes any level of baseball. Ohtani couldn’t parlay the Hiroshima Carp and Nippon-Ham Fighters. Not sure what the latter has against ham.)

The real craziness is in the NBA, where Toronto bench player Jontay Porter left two games early because of supposed injury, thus enabling his prop unders (points, rebounds, etc.) to easily hit. DraftKings says that Porter’s prop unders were the biggest moneymakers on both of those NBA nights.

Those are classic “gambling irregularities.” Who the heck bets on Jontay Porter’s props, let alone bets big? I didn’t know who Jontay Porter was before this. (Even larger wagers were supposedly turned away.)

This is too fishy to cite coincidence. Let’s see if dots are connected.

Unlike MLB, the NBA’s gambling punishment isn’t cut-and-dried. Betting on the NBA is prohibited, though, and this case seems extreme. Where’s Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis when you need him?

The NBA should send Ohtani a thank-you note. While Porter’s alleged malfeasance seems more obvious, Ohtani’s stardom obscures that situation.

Pete Rose chimed in: “I wish I’d had an interpreter. I’d be scot-free.”

If MLB ignores what Ohtani may have done, will that get Rose made eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame? Stay tuned. (That’s a slippery slope. Rose might then feel entitled to millions of dollars he didn’t get because he couldn’t manage.)

Something sketchy happened with Ohtani. The story keeps changing.

Ohtani and the interpreter initially said Ohtani paid off the interpreter’s debt. A friend helping a friend. But Ohtani has since accused the interpreter of theft.

How did the interpreter steal $4.5 million? Did he wait till Ohtani was asleep, then take it out of Ohtani’s wallet? How did Ohtani lose track of $4.5 mil?

The situation is mostly neutered if it can be concluded that no bets were made on baseball. Anything beyond that is minutiae. But how is that decisively proven with an illegal bookie?

Ohtani’s an odd guy, the definition of a stranger in a strange land. He kept his marriage secret, he kept his free-agent negotiations secret and now this. Suckers gots to know. This is bigger than Kazuchika Okada signing with AEW.

This drama is going to drag on forever. Like yen through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

MLB doesn’t really want to know what happened. Just in case. The stooge baseball media will facilitate. This kind of cover-up could use Richard Nixon as a crisis manager.

The likeliest possibilities:

• Ohtani bet, using the interpreter as a runner.

• The interpreter stole $4.5 million, making Ohtani a total idiot.

• Everybody is lying about everything.

• Rose is the next Pirates manager.

I’m going with the initial option: Ohtani bet through the interpreter. What Ohtani bet on, I don’t know.

Maybe he took the under on Justin Fields’ turnovers. That would be an easy way to lose $4.5 million.