Exploring the Impact of Legal Sports Betting on MLB Players
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00:00Okay, so a couple of columns come out this weekend.
00:06One from the Washington Post, one from USA Today, Mike, about the dangers of sports betting
00:11surrounding major league baseball.
00:14And actually, this is not a huge surprise.
00:16I mean, now that sports betting is legal in a lot of places, fans are going to get unruly.
00:20They're going to get crazy.
00:21And this is because they're fans.
00:23I guess the question I would have for you, and in particular with the USA Today article
00:28is, Mike, did you feel that this was over the top?
00:30Did you feel that this was a little bit, the articles were a little bit more than what's
00:38actually going on here?
00:40Because naturally, sports betting, Mike, let's keep it real, has been around for a really,
00:46really, really long time, just not in the legal market.
00:50So I would imagine maybe because it's legal, that's partially the reason here.
00:56What is your opinion on what you read?
00:58Yeah, Craig, I can just only go by my own experience being in clubhouses and in locker
01:02rooms for the whole 2010s.
01:04I was a sports reporter like you, traditional sports reporter.
01:08I don't think I heard one thing about this stuff.
01:10It was definitely going on, I'm sure, on the illegal offshore sites.
01:14But now that it's so prevalent, I think the interesting comment was made by, maybe it
01:18was Paul Seewald, the Diamondbacks, he said, now everybody's a fan, but they're not really
01:22a fan of teams.
01:23Now they're a fan of their bets.
01:24And so then that, if people are betting too much money and they're losing those bets,
01:29that could potentially fall on the players in terms of how much money people owe.
01:33And players are saying they're getting Venmo requests, they had to change their Venmo name
01:37or put it to private.
01:38You saw one general manager say he was getting threats and the police had to be getting involved.
01:43So yeah, I mean, I think it's something where you hope that the players don't do it.
01:46We did see a player violate it.
01:47Chelsea Jaynes of the Washington Post talked to Carlos Mendoza, who said they just took
01:51an online course, and Joey Gallo of the Nationals, who said, yeah, we get it at this point.
01:56We know we can't bet.
01:57But obviously, I mean, you give it to 25 guys and the minor leaguers on 30 teams and somebody's
02:03violating it.
02:04And unfortunately, that happened.
02:05And so we saw a lifetime ban and saw the Otani scandal.
02:08Thankfully, he was cleared by the federal authorities.
02:10He's not involved.
02:11Baseball can't afford to have a player of that magnitude, I think, be involved in something
02:15like this.
02:16It's totally different when you have a shortstop, a fringe player that's involved, and another
02:21when you have the face of your sport involved.
02:22So yeah, I think you have to continue to educate these players, take the appropriate actions.
02:27We did see a 2021 arrest, as Bob Nightingale pointed out, for a fan who, you know, went
02:33over the line.
02:34He threatened players, said he would dismember their bodies and stuff like that.
02:38I mean, that's insane talk.
02:39And so he didn't, I think, as Bob pointed out, he didn't get a day in jail for it.
02:44He was reprimanded, but not to that extent.
02:46So perhaps the penalties need to be harsher to make sure if you're a fan or player, as
02:50we saw at the Lifetime Ban, you know, you do this, don't do the crime if you can't do
02:54the time.
02:55I mean, that's to lose your dream or potentially your livelihood and end up in jail.
02:59I mean, I think there has to be, you know, significant sanctions on this, significant
03:03discipline so that this prevents from happening in the future.