Betting on Baseball Is Now The Norm, But It Still Feels Weird
Back in 2018, the United States Supreme Court opened the door for sports gambling to become legal in virtually every state. Shortly thereafter, under the leadership of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, MLB became a big player in the gambling business.
Three years later, many baseball fans are uncomfortable with the extent to which MLB is involved with the gambling business and the nauseating levels they go to promote their various gaming partners. (If you aren’t nauseated by Big Papi making a fool of himself, flinging fake money around on live television while ARod guffaws fake laughter next to him, I’m not sure how you ended up reading one of my articles.) For the folks who safely circumnavigate pre-game analysis such as that and make it to the game, odds appearing on the side of the screen for different possible batter outcomes as the batter strides to the plate have grated on the nerves of many fans as well.
To be clear, today’s discussion isn’t about the morality of gambling or its connection to MLB. I’ve written previously about how anytime gambling and baseball have come together, it’s ended badly. Furthermore, perhaps using a former player turned spokesperson who ran afoul of MLB security a few years back due to his interactions with illegal underground gambling outfits isn’t the best choice either. If you disagree with my position, that’s cool – reasonable, informed adults can certainly come to different conclusions sometimes. But again, that’s a different discussion.
The bad news I’m bringing you today is that a common refrain from the anti-baseball gambling crowd is flat-out wrong. To wit, if you believe Pete Rose should be reinstated into baseball and presumably elected into the Hall of Fame because MLB now promotes gambling, your beliefs need some questioning.
Regardless of MLB’s current position for fans, if an active MLB player bets on baseball games, he will be banned from baseball.
This is one of the few rules in MLB that is not open to interpretation, feelings, or nuance. The rule is crystal clear, contains no ambiguity, and has been that way for almost 100 years. To that end, if an active MLB player or manager bet on baseball today he’d also be banned for life, just as Rose was. As much as you may not like the extent to which civilians have become involved in gambling on baseball, players are 100 percent aware of the consequences if they do. Rose was 100 percent aware of the consequences of his actions, and he did it anyway.
If in spite of that, you’re still a Rose defender and try to minimize what he did by saying “Well he only bet on his team to win, that’s not that bad. If he bet on them to lose, then he may have thrown the game – that would be worth punishing with a lifetime ban.”
To clarify how dismissive of Rose’s transgressions you have to be to believe that, let’s play pretend: You pretend you’re an illegal gambling bookie. Rose calls you on Friday and bets on the Reds to win. Then he calls you on Saturday and again bets on the Reds to win. Sunday he doesn’t contact you. What do you think Pete Rose thinks of his team’s chances on Sunday? Exactly – inside information is being used whether he bets on his team or not at that point.
Additionally, if you’re feeling sorry for Rose remember that illegal gambling is only the tip of the iceberg with him. A comprehensive discussion of all of his departures from what would considered normative behavior is FAR too long to cover today. I try not to be officious, so respectfully, if Rose is your martyr for anything you might want to look a little further.
If you’re looking for a better comparison of how baseball players have been hypocritically treated with regards to gambling, you can look to two of the best to ever step on a baseball field. Both Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were placed on baseball’s permanently ineligible list by then MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for becoming “goodwill ambassadors” for casinos. Roughly translated, “goodwill ambassadors” meant shaking hands and taking pictures with folks at corporate events, golf outings – even events for charity, for crying out loud – thank God Bowie put a stop to that! For that, two of the best ever were banned from anything to do with MLB.
The good news is that MLB’s next commissioner, Peter Ueberroth, reinstated both Mays and Mantle. The bad news is that he didn’t change anything about the policy saying he “found no fault” with the policy, simply stating that Mays and Mantle were exceptions. Presumably, David Ortiz can get the Mays and Mantle treatment should Rob Manfred deem it appropriate.
Whatever your positon is on the now very deep and broad relationship between baseball and gambling, your position is better suited if you left Rose out of the discussion. Feeling we should all come together in unison to defend, dismiss, or outright forget what he did as an active player and manager is misguided at best.
