Could the Black Sox scandal happen again?

[Moose Milligan]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27798308/could-black-sox-scandal-happen-today

Long article.  Some highlights:

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One hundred years might seem like a long enough time to wait. But what we are talking about here is the Black Sox scandal, baseball's darkest hour and an oft-told tale that has captured the imagination of historians, novelists, filmmakers and those fans who feel the betrayal in their bones. The gamblers and crooked ballplayers who conspired to fix the outcome of the 1919 World Series robbed people not only of their money but also of their faith in baseball.

That's why baseball became puritanical about gambling, why Rule 21d, the prohibition of betting, has been posted in clubhouses since 1927, why the all-time hit king, Pete Rose, was banished from baseball. For years, MLB argued in courts to prevent states other than Nevada from legalizing sports gambling. But then Major League Baseball and MGM Resorts announced last November that they had entered into an agreement to promote legalized gambling just in time for the 2019 season, and ever since, the gnats of irony have been buzzing about.

 

 

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Deep in the heart of the casino floor is a sportsbook and restaurant called Moneyline, where a litter of puppy TV screens surrounds one big 40-inch LED mama. Turned to various sports events, they shed their ambient light over gamblers nursing drinks and burgers while studying their crib sheets before tapping their phones or heading to one of the six betting windows. Today, the action is mostly about baseball: 15 games on the schedule, starting with the Washington Nationals at the St. Louis Cardinals at 1:15 p.m., and ending with some West Coast evening tilts.

 

 

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If Arnold Rothstein was the most renowned gambler of his day, that distinction today probably belongs to James Holzhauer, whose run on "Jeopardy!" earlier this year (32 wins, $2,464,216) captivated the nation. Holzhauer, who became a professional gambler because he couldn't get a job in Major League Baseball, was kind enough to answer a few email questions. When asked what his reaction was when MLB and MGM announced their deal, he wrote: "I had two reactions. 1) It's long overdue for leagues to recognize the legitimacy of sports gambling. 2) Apparently, MLB could put a price on its so-called 'integrity,' after all."

 

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But even upstate New York -- namely, Cooperstown -- is having a problem with the new policy. In August, esteemed Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan wrote a scathing column that took baseball to task for barring Rose from the Hall of Fame. "Keeping him out because of gambling when you are now officially in partnership with gambling interests is hypocrisy of the highest order," Ryan wrote. "Pete Rose didn't come back to baseball. Baseball came back to him. Give the Hit King his plaque."

Ryan doesn't think the character clause is cause to keep Rose out. "Pete Rose is no angel, but neither are a lot of guys in the Hall of Fame," he says. "We're keeping a player with 4,256 hits, 17 All-Star appearances and three world championships out of Cooperstown because he did something that baseball now says it's okay to do."

 

 

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Kevin Braig, an attorney from Columbus, Ohio, is uniquely suited to talk about the subject because he is an expert on gaming, a die-hard sports fan (he grew up in Cincinnati watching Rose) and a baseball historian with a particular interest in the 1919 Black Sox. Braig agrees with Holzhauer that gambling is too well-regulated now to allow a repeat of 1919: "By moving into the gambling space, MLB is strengthening the integrity of the game. There was no commissioner then and a weak National Commission that did not want to engage with gambling at all. There is another reason we should trust the outcomes. The most valuable asset in sports is rivalry -- Ohio State vs. Michigan, Yankees vs. Red Sox. Nobody has a greater interest in making sure that the games are contested to maximize authentic, genuine rivalry than an organization like MLB.

"I have zero, zip, zilch concern about MLB and gambling. None."

 

 

 

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Dominguez should know. In one chapter of his book, he relates a story about former Red Sox star David Ortiz. In the summer of 2005, Dominguez says he became suspicious about a member of Ortiz's clubhouse entourage known as "Monga." Dominguez says that an informant close to Monga, Ortiz's "top aide-de-camp," witnessed Monga placing a bet on a game in Chicago between the Red Sox and White Sox. Dominguez had Monga and some other members of the group banned from the clubhouse. Ortiz was not happy.

Dominguez takes it from there: "The All-Star Game was at PNC Park in Pittsburgh in 2006, and I was sitting at home watching the Home Run Derby when I saw Monga on the field -- along with several [others] I had identified to MLB as shady characters -- toweling off Ortiz and other Dominican players. For god's sake, they were practically getting at-bats.

 

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Andy has had his own distinguished career, first as the GM of the Twins, who won the World Series in '87 and '91 under his guidance, then as the president of the Cubs, who won their first postseason series in 95 years under him in 2003, the Orioles and -- after a three-year sabbatical -- the Phillies. And now there's a fourth generation: His own sons, Drew and Reed, work in baseball.

"My grandfather and father would have had very different views on legalized gambling for baseball," Andy says. "Larry would have thought, 'This is great. It'll create fan interest.' He lived through the Black Sox Scandal, but he was also all about bringing people to the ballpark.

"My father would have been much more cautious. He would want to make sure we checked all the boxes on integrity and public perception before we went ahead. No, he might not have thought it was a good idea to introduce legalized gambling exactly 100 years after the Black Sox.

"As for me, all I can say is that it's a whole new world. I was looking at a betting app the other day and watching the odds change, and I realized that times are changing too."

 

 

[Aglets]

Pete Rose bet on games WHILE he was playing/managing right?

Is MLB really saying it's ok for players to do that now?   I can't believe that.

[MongoBoy]

On 10/18/2019 at 1:56 PM, Aglets said:

Pete Rose bet on games WHILE he was playing/managing right?

Is MLB really saying it's ok for players to do that now?   I can't believe that.

I don't know the story, but did he bet on his own team?

Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were both suspended for only one year.  Not just for gamblimg, but being associated with 'undesirable persons'.  Nowadays a lot of players could be considered undesirable.

As for betting, I still think Richie Garcia got a bit of help paying off his gambling debts after that HR call.

[Aglets]

Yes he bet on games his team was involved in.

[backwardsk]

Probably not.  Most, if not all, of those guys are dead.  They sure as hell are not in a position to throw games today.

[weams]

Sure it could. What is more likely is that the umpires can be got. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, weams said:

Sure it could. What is more likely is that the umpires can be got. 

[Number5]

[atomic]

I don't know if you remember Art Schlichter QB for the Colts.  He was drafted 4th overall and quickly lost his signing bonus to gambling. He was so far in debt that he went to the FBI for protection against bookies. 

He is currently serving 10 years in prison and has been in prison most of his life because of his gambling causing him to use fraud to get money from people.  

So yeah it could happen again. I don't think you are getting 10 people to do it but you could get a starting pitcher to blow a game on purpose. 

[ChrisP]

I thought this got bumped because Hou is down 2-0!!

[OFFNY]

28 minutes ago, ChrisP said:

 

I thought this got bumped because Houston is down 2-0 !!!

 

o

 

I was ........ Gerrit Cole found $10,000 that was promised to him underneath his pillow the day before Game 1.

 

o