TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Monday, January 05, 2004

What's Legit?
Let's turn the Wayback machine to 1999. On the last day of the season the Houston Astros hosted the LA Dodgers. This was a pennant race that went down to the wire, and the Astros, Reds and Mets all had a shot at the playoffs. The Dodgers, on the other hand, were out of the running. On top of this, their scheduled starter, Ismael Valdez, was away from team because his father had suffered an accident.

Did LA manager Davey Johnson start ace Kevin Brown a "day early"? No, he gave Brown the rest of the season off. And he let Gary Sheffield sit to protect a .300 batting average. Instead, Robinson Checo got the start. Checo looked OK when he struck out Biggio, but he then walked four batters, gave up a double and then walked another batter. Before two outs were collected against the Astros, the game was more or less over.

While baseball managers are given huge amounts of leeway when it comes to filling out their lineups, no Brown and no Sheffield left a bad taste in the mouth. If the Dodgers had a shot at the post-season, you could be sure both would have been in the game. Davey Johnson had been fired by both the Reds and Mets, and hence had some bad blood against those franchises; with that in mind it would have been proper to put his very best on the field rather than serve up a crucial game on a silver plater for the Astros. It looks a little fishy that he didn't and fans of both the Reds and Mets have the right to ask some serious questions. Now imagine how much worse things would look if it came out that Davey Johnson was $500,000 in debt to gambling interests.

Pete Rose has now admitted to betting on baseball, and on betting on his own team (although not against his own team). John Dowd, who investigated Pete Rose for MLB, estimated that Rose owed $500,000 in gambling debts. With this in mind, would you wonder what was going on every time Rose benched a star player? Not to say that Rose was involved in actually throwing a game, but baseball needs to protect itself from even a whiff of a scandal. This is a sport that lost its Championship Series to gamblers. Gambling on baseball was once so common that it even sneaks into mythology:


A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.
The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast.
They thought, "if only Casey could but get a whack at that.
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."


The rules are there for good reason, and they are clear. Bet on baseball, you are out for a year. Bet on your own team (for or against), gone forever.

posted by David 10:58 AM