In the 1970s, when the Pete Rose era was at its peak, Major League Baseball still had an air of innocence. There wasn’t a single betting booth in the stadium, not a single FanDuel ad in game broadcasts, and the league lacked an official sports betting partner.
Pete Rose
Rose’s death on Monday at age 83 brought back memories of that distant era and a good dose of cognitive dissonance. His fame was due equally to being one of baseball’s greatest players and one of its most infamous. In 1989 he was banned from the game for life for regularly betting on baseball, including his own Cincinnati Reds while a manager. That forever closed the door to the Baseball Hall of Fame, where his entry would have been a sure bet.
But over the past several decades, baseball has lost that innocence, recognizing that many fans have a financial stake in the outcome of games. The professional sports world, including M.L.B., has become deeply intertwined with the gambling industry. The explosion began with a 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down bans on organized sports betting in most states. Monthly betting grew from $50 million to more than $1 billion last year, according to figures cited in The Atlantic by Charles Fain Lehman, who described the terrible social and economic costs that sports betting has on ordinary people, especially those at the bottom of society.
From this perspective, should we think differentlyRose’s shame, It’s hard not to.
Rose, or any other player, would most likely face a significant ban today for betting on baseball, which is still considered a cardinal sin, according to Marc Edelman, a law professor at Baruch College who studies gambling. However, considering the 180-degree swing in the sports world’s position toward gambling in general, Edelman believes Rose may have deserved reinstatement.
Except for one more sin: Rose lied for years about his gambling. He only officially admitted to betting on the Reds in a book published in 2004. He defended his honor by stating that he never bet the Reds to lose, but that in itself was a signal to bookmakers about the game’s expected outcome.
Certainly, betting on a game by its protagonists is an unethical act, worse than using performance-enhancing drugs. Both constitute betrayals. However, juicing is more like cheating and lying to the audience, whereas betting involves selling out your fellow players and undermining the entire attempt.
Finally, we should probably not forgive Rose simply because baseball executives are seeing monetary signals. “He violated the holy law,” said Dan Okrent, the writer who created Rotisserie Baseball. “It’s the one thing everybody knows you can’t do.” However, because to baseball’s embracing of the gambling industry, we may soon see other players share Charlie Hustle’s embarrassment. Okrent stated, “There’s no question they’ve invited the monster in.”