MLB and the Faustian Bargain

“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

Major League Baseball knew they were playing with fire when they jumped into bed with gamblers. Now it has come back to bite them in the ass. Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz will be banned for life and will probably serve jail sentences because they rigged prop bets in games. The payoffs were chump change for a guy making millions (Clase signed a 4-yr, $20M deal in 2022). In Ortiz’ case, he would be arb-eligible next year and was making $782K this year and was looking at potential millions down the road.

Gambling is stupid. But if people want to piss their money away then they will. So, the best thing to do is make gambling hard. Or at least inconvenient. There has to be something annoying or irritating about betting on sports (or anything else) because that will discourage some of the more destructive behaviors. I’m not opposed to legal gambling. I just think it should not be done on your fucking smartphone! Make people go to a casino, an OTB, a sportsbook, whatever. And for god’s sake don’t advertise the “apps” during the games!

In baseball what matters is what goes on between the lines. The Dodgers are going to outspend everyone. The Yankees will attract more talent than a smaller-market club. The financial structure of the game can be seen as “unfair.” So what! If the games are legit, that is, the umpires call the balls-and-strikes without outside influence, then the advantages are smaller. A cheap, no-name club can still beat the big shots. That’s all a fan really wants, to know that their plucky underdogs can win because everyone is playing by the same rules on the same “level” playing field.

The owners are a sad bunch. They have all the fucking money in the world and it’s not enough. They have to monetize every goddamn thing they touch. The game is already awash with corporate billions, there was no need to get into the gambling business. It’s ugly and it’s stupid.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts for the day.

–M.C.

p.s. the line is from Casablanca if you aren’t familiar with the movie (policeman Paul Henreid shuts down Humphrey Bogart’s nightclub for illegal gambling while having his own winnings handed to him)