MartinP.
Senior HTF Member
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- Mar 26, 2007
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- Martin
Something I read in a CBS Sports article:
At minimum, it's clear that professional baseball's attitude toward gambling has changed a lot as sports betting has become legal across the country. Whereas any kind of association with a casino used to be enough to get a beloved retired player placed on the ineligible list(*), the league itself is now partnered with the gambling industry. Indeed, Commissioner Rob Manfred named MGM Resorts the first "Official Gaming Partner of Major League Baseball" back in 2018. And, last March, MLB touted a multi-year agreement with FanDuel that made it "a co-exclusive Official Sports Betting Partner of MLB." Whether that's for the better or the worse is to be determined over the long haul. If nothing else, it ensures that professional baseball and gambling will remain more than mere acquaintances.
(*) Commissioner Bowie Kuhn took any ties between baseball and gambling seriously. Consider how he placed (in 1980 & 1983) both retired Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle on the permanently ineligible list after they took ambassador jobs with casinos. Kuhn even told Mays "a casino is no place for a baseball hero and Hall of Famer," according to a 2020 article by Craig Calcaterra. Mays and Mantle would remain unable to work in baseball for the rest of Kuhn's tenure. Kuhn's successor, Peter Ueberroth, reinstated them in 1985 -- albeit, notably, without taking any issue or exception with Kuhn's original ruling.
At minimum, it's clear that professional baseball's attitude toward gambling has changed a lot as sports betting has become legal across the country. Whereas any kind of association with a casino used to be enough to get a beloved retired player placed on the ineligible list(*), the league itself is now partnered with the gambling industry. Indeed, Commissioner Rob Manfred named MGM Resorts the first "Official Gaming Partner of Major League Baseball" back in 2018. And, last March, MLB touted a multi-year agreement with FanDuel that made it "a co-exclusive Official Sports Betting Partner of MLB." Whether that's for the better or the worse is to be determined over the long haul. If nothing else, it ensures that professional baseball and gambling will remain more than mere acquaintances.
(*) Commissioner Bowie Kuhn took any ties between baseball and gambling seriously. Consider how he placed (in 1980 & 1983) both retired Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle on the permanently ineligible list after they took ambassador jobs with casinos. Kuhn even told Mays "a casino is no place for a baseball hero and Hall of Famer," according to a 2020 article by Craig Calcaterra. Mays and Mantle would remain unable to work in baseball for the rest of Kuhn's tenure. Kuhn's successor, Peter Ueberroth, reinstated them in 1985 -- albeit, notably, without taking any issue or exception with Kuhn's original ruling.