by Paul Semendinger
March 22, 2024
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I'm not one for rumors and such, I most often stay with just the facts. And I hope this is a lot of talk about nothing. I hope Shohei Ohtani isn't actually part of what could be a scandal that rocks baseball...
Rather than me recapping what is reported elsewhere, if you haven't seen this story, I suggest you read one (or all) of the links below:
Please tell me... not regarding Shohei Ohtani, specifically, of course, but in regard to baseball as a sport... who didn't see the potential for this (or a future) scandal a mile away? This was clear from 40,000 miles away. Because of gambling's ties to baseball (and most organized sports) a major scandal will come that could, and probably will, change the sport and the way people see the game, forever.
Even if this proves to have nothing to do with Shohei Ohtani, even if he's 100% innocent and if he wasn't involved, this should serve as a huge warning to baseball - and all major sports -that gambling and sports do not, in any way, mix.
I have written about this a number of times, but we must credit our own Ed Botti who wrote the first in-depth article about the dangers of sports and gambling here on Start Spreading the News a few years ago. Here is Ed's article:
Professional sports are enjoyable to watch for one basic reason... we believe the games are legitimate, for real, and not influced by gambling and cheating. Sports are fun to watch because we believe what we are watching is real - that the athletes are truly competing. If it is found out that the games aren't legitimate, the entire reason for watching that sport (or any sport, in a much larger sense) is gone. If a great play is made, it's only great if it happened for real. If it is part of a script or if the game is rigged, sports loses its appeal. Completely. If the outcome is scripted, you might as well just watch a movie.
Unfortunately, gambling is now a huge part of professional sports. The many gambling sites throw tons of money into all of the major sports. One cannot watch a game without being innundated by gambling ads. They are all over the place. They're on the TV ads, radio ads, and they are plastered all over the stadium walls. Sports saw only the money from gambling and not the potential for a huge scandal and jumped right in with the gambling sites.
If this Ohtani story isn't the one to break the game(s), another will follow. There is simply too much supposed easy money available to too many people for a scandal to not occur. And, again, once that happens, sports as an entity to be trusted is done. This will be far worse than any PED scandal. This will rock the sport. Also, it's bad enough that the industry sets odds and makes untoild millions of dollars on the game's outcomes. But the prop bets that allow people to bet on almost anything in and around the game, makes the potential for rigging a play, any play, extremely possible. In fact, I think it would be naive for any to assume that it won't happen. If a fringe pitcher learns he can earn a large amount of money, not by fixing a game, but by throwing one pitch out of the strike zone, for someone, that temptation will be too great to overcome. And Major League Baseball allows all of this to be advertized, and tacitly encouraged on every single broadcast, countless times.
I've said this many times before, but I have been approached, many times, to place gambling ads on this site. I am against sports gambling and have always said no to the people making those offers. I never want to promote gambling so I have never even entertained any of the offers made to me. I don't want people coming to SSTN and finding themselves involved with gambling because of ads that I put on this site. I have passed on many many dollars... I wish the people in sports, the ones already making gazillions, had as well. They're playing a very dangerous game, it might, just might be blowing up around us right now.
This Ohtani situation might be nothing. But, it might be something. If nothing else it serves as a huge warning for where this is all leading, one day.
None of this is good for the game.
It would be wonderful if the major sports all took a hard stance and broke away from their close ties with the gambling industry.
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POSTSCRIPT: Ethan heard this analysis from Craig Carton on WFAN yesterday. It is VERY WORTH listening to.
