Truth and fiction hard to separate as scandal ensnaring Mizuhara, Ohtani grows

TOKYO — Gambling on sports has been going on for as long as there have been sports, in every country of the world.

In Japan, back in 1970, the ‘Black Mist’ game-fixing scandal almost destroyed Japanese professional baseball. It ended with several players being banned for life. The going rate yakuza were paying at the time to participate in a fix was ¥500,000 per position and ¥1 million for a pitcher. It was said in order for a fix to succeed it was necessary to have a catcher, a pitcher, one infielder and one outfielder in on the scheme. It was not easy to intentionally lose a game. It required finesse.