DrungoHazewood

Henderson is going to be the new Super Ben Zobrist. He'll start at every position while OPSing .875. Also pitch relief so the O's can get around that unbearable 13 pitcher limit.

Yes, if it belongs anywhere it's a strip mall in Glen Burnie with a burner phone place, a nail salon, and a bar that features Keno.

It's like the Baptist church renting out their parsonage to the local madam and her employees to have a party every week. We completely condemn their behavior and understand that it will almost certainly lead to negative consequences, but as long as it's going to happen anyway we might as well make a buck off of it.

The message is decidedly mixed when it's "don't ever get involved with the people running the sportsbook in section 305, or the other guys who have advertisements all over the stadium they paid us huge rolls of cash for, they're really bad."

I think it's dangerous to rely on the idea that the players and umps and managers have more money than the gamblers and their financiers as the firewall between scandal and no scandal. Something like 50% of pro athletes (the reference is NFL, but I'm sure other sports are similar) are bankrupt within a few years of being out of the league. Giving a 20-year-old $5M usually results in them spending $5M in short order and getting very accustomed to that kind of lifestyle. A $500k injection from a wise guy might look pretty enticing to a guy who might be out of the game and out of cash next year.

See my post about six or eight up. Societal problems from gamblers with no self control being enabled to lose their shirt by MLB. And the ever-increasing reliance on revenue streams based on betting on game outcomes that could influence on-field behaviors outside of wins and losses and pennant races. In other words, if lots of money is put on today's game there's a chance that it's worth it to the gamblers to find the participant (player, ump, manager) who is most vulnerable to exploitation and exploit him. MLB's position used to be that's a very bad thing risk and we're not doing it. We remember 1919. Now it's more like "eh, what could happen? We're all getting rich here."

I get the whole personal responsibility aspect, but I think you too quickly dismiss the societal problems that come from businesses like the Orioles and government pushing risky behaviors by people with little or no self-control so they can make a buck. You say it's not MLB's fault if morons do dumb stuff, knowing full well that there are plenty of morons perfectly willing to do dumb stuff if the Orioles give them the opportunity.

You know I'm as un-grumpy old man as it gets on most stuff. I'm all for automated ball/strikes, and I have a list of changes to the game I'd entertain that would make a traditionalist go pale and start twitching. I'd move the mound back 3-6' tomorrow if I could. I want to ban all mound visits, and enforce a strict 15 second pitch clock even during pitching changes. I think all unsuccessful pickoff throws should count as balls on the batter. But I'm not going to back off on the potential problems resulting from a professional sports league getting into bed with sports gambling establishments.

Sure. Just like relatively few people who pick up a beer are alcoholics, and many people who smoke don't get lung cancer. Most people will not bankrupt their family at the Orioles sportsbook. Some will. But then the Orioles and MLB start counting on this revenue stream. The bookkeepers and the marketers immediately start thinking of ways to increase gambling revenues, take more risks. As cable money declines, attendance stagnates or declines across the league, and streaming doesn't make up for it, gambling may well slide in and fill that gap. What happens in 2030 or 2040 if gambling money is 30%, 40% or more of revenues? Every day people are putting big money on the Orioles to lose. People are putting not-insignificant money on the closer to blow today's save? With all this being not only legal, but out in the open and the teams are heavily incentivized to keep the revenues flowing someone is going to look the other way when some poor schlub puts his entire $2M retirement savings on some rookie making MLB minimum striking out to lead off the game and... whatta you know, he does strike out. Or even better, some ump making $250k a year and he's officiating a play that someone put 10 times that down on the outcome. There's a reason that the early professional leagues very publicly distanced themselves from gambling, and MLB has done that for nearly 150 years. Backtracking on this will probably be fine for most people most of the time. Until it isn't.

You get it! Baseball would be in great shape if a huge gambling scandal hit because everyone under 40 would just keep going to all those games and watching on TV less than the NFL, NBA, soccer, NASCAR, movies, streaming, social media, etc.

Camden Yards was paid for, at least in theory, by lottery proceeds. So, yeah!, free stadium. Paid for by the folks lining up at the grocery store to play their numbers. 483 of them. When you're in line behind them and just want to pay your $3 for milk before it curdles. I don't know, maybe Memorial Stadium wasn't so bad.

I think the Orioles have a big incentive to make sure all the addicted gamblers come to their games. Well, at least until they're completely destitute.

I mean, I guess I could just be completely cynical and cheer on the gambling. It's essentially a regressive tax on those who can't do math and those with an addiction. I don't gamble, so I don't pay the tax. In the larger scheme I get some benefits from the taxes and (perhaps) the Orioles having a larger revenue stream that I never have to contribute a dime to. So society is worse, is harsher, is more like Pottersville than Bedford Falls. People who exercised somewhat poor judgment are bankrupted and probably have to be supported at substantial cost by that same society. But who cares, I get very slightly lower taxes and the O's might get an extra free agent.

Baseball: Rule #1 is never bet on baseball Rose: I'm going to put a bunch of bets on baseball and get really indebted to gamblers while I'm still involved in the game and then lie about it for years and make a bunch of cash on autographs and memorabilia signed by The Baseball Martyr and Hit King Baseball: Okay, let's give you our highest honor and the opportunity to speak your mind to the world! Rose in the Hall is completely nonsense. It's like putting Al Capone and Jefferson Davis on Mount Rushmore.

And the sport if/when the scandals hit. Half the reason boxing went from huge to kind of a joke and a sideshow is that everyone assumed a lot of matches are fixed by the gamblers. If Ruth hadn't appeared at almost the same time as the Black Sox scandal and Landis hadn't cracked down hard who knows what might have happened to baseball. Now everyone's like, nah, that'll never happen, baseball is way too popular.

Because no matter what the issue some people revel in taking the opposite side.

He's got to be the worst fundamentals pitcher ever. He had no control and led the league multiple times in walks, wild pitches, hit by pitch. As a professional he was 1-for-106 with 97 strikeouts as a batter. DRS has him as a -34 fielder, while peers like Bedard and Guthrie were positive. And then there was that interview with Dave Trembley after a few beers where he pretty much straight up said Cabrera was on industrial quantities of steroids. That was an ugly chapter in the franchise's history.

I've resigned myself to every team hooking themselves up to a gambling money IV, and nothing good will come of it. Sure, some folks like Sports Guy will have a good time. But mostly it's a tax on people with an addiction, that's where the money's made. It's like the Betsy Brandt quote from the last episode of Better Call Saul on Monday: "You. You helped the two-faced poisonous bastard behind it all. And for what? Money. You did it all for money." There's no positive side to this, it's being able to afford another free agent by preying on Uncle Buck putting $50 on the Twins to beat the Orioles. And this is the franchise that's beating the $150M Red Sox with a $25M budget. So even worse, it's not even for the payroll. This is preying on Uncle Buck so the Angelos boys get a little richer.

I mean, if everyone's going to be smoking meth anyway hopefully the Orioles find a way to monetize it.

If you're streaming with the MASN app you still see that commercial 11 times a game. Interspersed with a graphic of what looks like a cell phone with MASN's logo on it for a minute or two, like they didn't have anything else to air.

Isn't gambling cooler if all the gamblers look like John Candy from Uncle Buck, and there's real risk that some guy with a pinkie ring is going to hit you with a pipe if you don't pay up? Maybe it would be a good idea to combine your gambling safe space with one of those places where you can get clean needles and antiseptic wipes and stuff. That would probably be popular in Baltimore. Nice service for the community.

By saying they're not a crapshoot, you're implying that there are active steps you can take to have more success in the playoffs. How do you plan to peak at the right time? How do you make your fans more or less passionate about playoff games? I went to late season and playoff games in '97, '12, and '14 and the fans were nuts. And the Orioles still didn't get a trophy.

That's too bad. Last time a MLB game was played in a field that size was 1884, at old Lakefront Park in Chicago. That was the year the White Stockings hit 142 homers, 103 more than any other team.

I was thinking about Giancarlo Esposito setting up a secret meth lab hidden behind the RF wall, but this would work, too.

The best thing about gambling is that one minute you have $2000 and you can pay your rent and buy groceries, and the next minute you can't! Thrilling!