With the commissioner of baseball’s decision not to reinstate Pete Rose comes a rather embarrassing conundrum: on one hand, the so called integrity of the game is upheld with the exclusion of admitted and habitual gamblers but, on the other hand, the very close association with DraftKings and Fan Duel and the like apparently continues. What Peckerhead did was dead wrong and he is rightfully paying the price with no evident remorse. Major League Baseball, however, is hypocritical to the extreme to join with organized gangs that are openly looting fans who are either naive or just too stupid to abstain. The hypocrisy here is comparable to the way everyone involved strained hard to look the other way during the steroid era when team earned run averages were in the fives.
I don’t mean to imply that betting by fans on individual player performances has the potential to affect wins and losses in the manner of the Black Sox scandal, but what it definitely has the potential for is the harm to fans financially while they dream of the big jackpot. It’s no different than playing the numbers. The trouble is, ever since the Mob got states involved in various lottery games and casinos sprouted all over the country, throwing your hard earned money away not only became legal (for the most part)but also acceptable, worthy behavior.
The biggest change in sports in the last 25 years or so is the amount of money involved. Television has had everything to do with that, with the result being that television now dictates most of the rules as far as scheduling and sponsorships. Therefore I would not expect that any TV executive who wants to remain employed will ever say no to any entity that wants to fork over a bunch of cash in exchange for air time. That’s why the DraftKings ads and logo were plastered all over our screens all last season. So what I suggest is that the commissioner maintain some consistency by dropping the ban on Pete Rose unless he orders the banishment from MLB of the gambling sites. Could that happen? In this age where not only is poker considered a sport but also people actually watch other people play it, I have serious doubts; it’s about as likely as a Republican presidential candidate telling the Koch brothers to ram their money up their asses.