While American baseball has gone a while without a major gambling scandal, Japan’s game has not been so fortunate.
Yomiuri Giants pitcher Kyosuke Takagi confessed Wednesday to betting on baseball, becoming the fourth member of the team found in recent months to have broken the sport’s sacred rule.
Back in October, the Giants learned pitcher Satoshi Fukuda had bet on baseball and launched an investigation that eventually revealed fellow pitchers Shoki Kasahara and Ryuya Matsumoto to have been culpable as well. Takagi lied his way through that probe but eventually decided the con was enough and came clean this week.
“I’ve betrayed all the people associated with me since I started playing baseball in elementary school. I’m really sorry,” Takagi said at a press conference, a day after he told the club he had bet on baseball in 2014.
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“I lied at the investigation but the probing continued and that got to me mentally. I knew the time would come and I decided to tell the truth after speaking to my wife and parents.
None of the four pitchers are alleged to have bet on games their own team was playing in, but as MLB (and presumably Nippon Professional Baseball) makes clear at every turn, players and gambling are not allowed to mix.
The three Giants players previously implicated in the scandal have been suspended indefinitely, and Takagi figures to follow. Maybe because they didn’t bet on their own team’s games they’ll avoid the Pete Rose treatment, but you never know.
NPB seems to be preparing to come down hard. From The Japan Times:
Yomiuri will file charges with the NPB commissioner about Takagi, as stipulated in the organization’s charter, on Thursday.
Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Katsuhiko Kumazaki on Wednesday demanded the Yomiuri Giants crack down on its players.
“It’s extremely regrettable. I’ve ordered the Giants to carry out as rigid and thorough an investigation as is possible,” Kumazaki said. “An investigation committee will be summoned as soon as the charges are brought.”
