Gambling has long been one of the biggest threats to sports in our country. While there are certainly issues like player safety and competitive balance that are more significant, the effects that gambling could potentially have on sports is very large. It may not seem as much on the surface, but the reason we all watch sports is because it is the ultimate reality show. The Chicago Cubs breaking a World Series curse of over a century. George Mason making a shocking run to the Final Four. The Cleveland Cavaliers coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals. Leicester City winning the Premier League title in England. And my personal favorite, the New York Giants beating the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42.
If sports were played on paper and based on probability alone, none of those things would have happened. However, because these games play out in real time in front of the eyes of the world, we become transfixed by them. The best teams don't always win. It is why we cheer for upsets in the NCAA Tournament. It is why we hate Kevin Durant for joining the Golden State Warriors. It is why we can't stand how the Yankees and Dodgers have more money to spend on free agents than everyone else in baseball. Reality shows don't happen in one hour, weekly increments on MTV and CBS. They happen on Sundays during football season. They are why Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith have to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to watch overtime games. The very essence of our love of sports is summed up best by what Chris Berman used to say. "That's why they play the games."
This morning, it was announced that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalized sports gambling, and all 50 states have been given the right to decide whether or not to legalize gambling on sports. In states like Nevada and New Jersey, it will certainly be allowed. Other states like Florida and Utah may be late to join the party, but in the end, I am pretty sure that sports gambling will be legalized throughout the country. Could this possibly be a bad thing? Yes, it could. However, will it end up being a bad thing? I don't think so.
As is the case with pretty much everything in the world today, this all comes down to money. While sports gambling was illegal until today, it was still a multi-billion dollar industry in the black market. Is the injury report in the NFL in any way beneficial to the league? Does the difference between a stint on the 10 day disabled list as opposed to the 60 day disabled list really matter to Major League Baseball? If you want to justify those things, then yes, they do matter. But in reality, they are more important to gambling than they are to anything involving strategy or game planning. Professional sports leagues might not have been willing to admit it, but those things are really much more beneficial to gamblers than they are to coaches, players, and general managers. It used to be something that was inferred but not mentioned. Now, these league can officially acknowledge the reason for the existence of injury reports. They are there because it matters to gamblers far more than it matters to the people actually playing the games.
People that oppose this Supreme Court decision will surely point out things like the Black Sox scandal of 1919. They will bring up Pete Rose and Tim Donaghy. And they will do so rightfully. However, the things that those people will fail to mention far outweigh what they do mention. There are outliers when trying to find a solution to any problem. However, just because outliers do exist does not mean that there is an obvious solution to the problem that is being addressed.
To prove my point, let's look at each of those cases individually, and let's start with Donaghy. Until his exposure as a game-fixing NBA official, Donaghy was unknown to almost the entire sporting public. Officials in any sport are mostly unknown, and Donaghy fell right into that category of an unknown guy wearing a grey shirt with a whistle on an NBA court. However, when it was revealed in 2007 that he was involved with people in the black market and fixing games by giving favorable calls to teams that he and others had bet on, he immediately became the most noteworthy referee in the entire league. What did he get from that? 15 months in prison and a divorce from his wife. Does that sound like something that was worth what he did? Absolutely not.
Next up is Pete Rose. While the true extent of his gambling on games is still unknown, he has admitted to gambling on games after years of denial. He says that he only wagered on his own teams, and only did so while he was a manager, but thanks to his dishonorable and slimy past, I think anyone should pause before believing anything that man says. He is the all-time hits leader. He was a great player. However, he still has not been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and thanks to many years of baseball commissioners denying his ability to be voted in, in my opinion, he has no chance of enshrinement during his lifetime. Any professional athlete will tell you that their ultimate goal is to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame of their respective sport, and when it comes to Pete Rose, he is not going to live to see that happen. Another known gambler disgraced for a lifetime.
The last, and in my opinion, most compelling argument against the legalization of sports gambling is the Black Sox scandal during the 1919 World Series. Tim Donaghy and Pete Rose were individual men who succumbed to the vices of gambling. There are a whole lot of people throughout the country that succumb to that vice, but the only difference is the public has no idea who they are. The members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox that threw the World Series are not only a highly compelling group because of what they did, but they are even more compelling because they are evidence that if the vices of gambling can reach enough men in unison, game fixing in professional sports could be possible.
Most sports fans in 2018 might vaguely know of the Black Sox scandal, but they most likely don't know anything more than it involved "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. However, it was far deeper than just that one man, and it was the only evidence we have in this country of how gambling could truly negatively impact sports as we know it. I will try to make this brief, but doing so may not be easy.
The Chicago White Sox in 1919 were fully equipped to be one of the best teams in all of baseball. The owner of the team, Charles Comiskey, was a very penurious man. Despite the greatness of multiple members of his team, he was unwilling to pay them what they felt they were worth, and what the open market suggested they were worth. Of the eight members of the team involved with the fix, none made more than $4,000 per season. All of them were unhappy with their salaries. When they were approached by black market gamblers, they were offered $100,000 to split amongst them however they saw fit. Divided evenly into eight, that means each man would get $12,500. That was over three times the salary of most of them. Joe Jackson was one of the best players in all of baseball. Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams were front of the line starting pitchers. It was a plan that could possibly work, and because the payoff was so high, the men accepted the offer. Why did they accept the offer? The answer is simple. Money. As I stated before, most things in this world come down to money. That is why people who do not agree with this Supreme Court ruling will argue against it. Players could possibly be baited into throwing games because of big payoffs. However, thanks to our obsession with sports, and our undying need to consume them, in my opinion the money is not enough now.
The only reason the Black Sox were willing to throw the World Series is because as a group, they were willing to take the risk because they believed they were not being compensated for their abilities on the field. It would not have worked if the lowest paid members of the team were paid off. Surely, guys that sat on the bench for the 1919 White Sox must have felt like they were not making the money they thought they deserved. However, the throwing of the series only worked (and in reality, it did not actually work in the long run) because the best players on the team were involved. In order for gamblers to truly cause something like that to happen again, the money would simply not be enough.
Kevin Durant makes $26 million per year. LeBron James makes just under $31 million per year. James Harden makes $28 million. Is it possible to buy those guys off? Maybe. Realistically though, the answer is absolutely not. Joe Jackson was paid three times his salary to throw the World Series. That means that in order to tempt Kevin Durant to throw the NBA Finals, the cost would be $78 million. And that still does not account for his teammates that are also making millions of dollars. The benefit is not even close to what the cost is. I don't care what year it is, and what kind of numbers you can present to me that involve inflation or anything else like that. There is no way that the premier players of all professional sports can be bought off in 2018. They simply make too much money. Could you possibly pay the 12th man on the bench of the Warriors to do their best to throw a game? It's possible, but unlikely. Could you possibly pay a back end of the rotation starting pitcher to throw a game in the World Series? Once again, it's possible but not probable. And even if that did happen, those guys just simply are not important enough to have an impact on the outcome of something that could be worth a payoff big enough to be worth the risk to gamblers.
Despite a whole lot of history and rambling here, my point is simple. Sports can still be susceptible to the vices of gambling. However, I think we have reached a point where the money simply does not make it possible to have any real impact. A $12 beer at AT&T Park might be excessive, but if gambling windows were situated right next to those beer stands, I could guarantee that there would be a longer line there than at the concession stand. With the possibility of professional leagues now being able to reap the rewards of yet another vice of its patrons, my only question is why it took this long for such a thing to happen. Within the next decade, I think we will see enormous profits for all sports leagues in this country thanks alone to gambling. How confident am I that such a thing will happen? Tell me the odds as of today, and I will bet a whole lot of money that my payoff will be twice as large in half as many years.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Coming off a tough series against the Nationals, Arizona will open a series at home tonight against a Milwaukee Brewers team that has been pretty good through the first month of the season. Patrick Corbin will take the mound, and hopefully he can continue what has been a magnificent start to the season for him.
Daily Giants Update: In a bit of a surprise, the Giants cut offensive lineman Adam Bisnowaty today. I thought he would get a shot to compete for a starting job on the offensive line, so it was unexpected to see him gone before training camp even started. He wasn't anything special last year, but he still seemed worthy of a look for the upcoming season. I'm not there at the facility watching him every day though, so if he is gone, then I'm sure the team found it justified.
Daily NHL Update: The Washington Capitals finally climbed the mountain that is defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs, and now hold a 2-0 series lead on the Tampa Bay Lightning. If they have any chance of finally winning it all, it looks like this might be the year. Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals is tonight, as Winnipeg looks to take a commanding lead of the Golden Knights.
Daily NBA Update: The Celtics beat the Cavaliers last night to take a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Western Conference Finals begin in just over an hour, and with all due respect to the Celtics and Cavs, whoever comes out of the West will be a sure favorite to beat whoever comes out of the East and win it all.
