Without a doubt, professional sports has embraced their relationship with gambling. It used to be taboo to associate the two, but now there is an incredible amount of advertising revenue associated with it.
Most people our age grew up with the pro and college football betting sheets in which you would pick a three, four, five (or perhaps more) parlay to win some cash through a “bookie”.
Heck, when we were in high school, another student passing out the “schedule” and taking wagers on the NFL.
But the leagues themselves condemned wagering, mostly because the players would have to be involved with “ne’er do wells”. We know about the Black Sox Scandal and Pete Rose, but probably less are aware that in 1963, the NFL suspended star players Paul Hornung, the ’61 league MVP and Alex Karras for betting on games.
Basketball has had point shaving scandals mostly involving college basketball, and of course the whole Tim Donaghy scandal whereas a referee, he was betting on games and making calls that influenced them.
Even though there is legal gambling now, we really don’t do it much, in fact, if we do, it is usually when we are out of town. And because we have been around sports our whole life, the prop bets are something we stay away from, because so many things can influence them.
We bring this up, of course, because of the news involving Guardians’ pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz this past week. It is very likely neither will ever play Major League Baseball again, and even if somehow, they are only suspended for a year, the organization won’t allow them to throw another pitch for Cleveland.
There is no defense for either pitcher. There is a mandatory meeting in spring training that covers gambling and although we have never been in a big-league clubhouse, it has been reported that there are signs about gambling posted.
We are sure both Clase and Ortiz felt they weren’t doing anything to alter the outcome of the games, but they are just fooling themselves. Of course, they were.
It was reported that Clase was allegedly texting his co-conspirators during games, which is also a violation of MLB rules. Reading that gave us the chills.
And we are sure there are other situations such as this being investigated in the big four professional sports. Just in the last month, you have had this and the situation involving Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat, Chauncey Billups, and former Cavalier player Damon Jones.
MLB recently asked its partners in gambling to place a limit on the amount of money wagered on these prop bets to $200. Perhaps a better solution would be to ban these types of bets in all major sports.
You can bet on the overcome of the game, but not on individual performances.
As soon as people don’t have confidence that the result in professional sports is not on the up and up, it’s the end of the popularity.
If Clase is indeed found guilty, he wasted what could have been a great career. He’s arguably the best closer in the baseball right now, leading the American League in saves three straight seasons (2022-2024) and has a career ERA of 1.88 over 360 innings and 366 appearances.
It’s time for professional sports to be proactive in getting this situation under control, and they need to do it right away.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 