Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers take center stage on Thursday as Major League Baseball's new season gets under way on US soil against the backdrop of a gambling scandal that has engulfed its brightest star.
When the Dodgers won the race to sign Japanese superstar Ohtani last December on a lavish $700 million deal -- the richest contract in the history of North American sport -- the move was widely hailed as a blockbuster coup.
