Two Sports Gambling Issues

I must start today with a tip of the hat to Broderick Crawford and his catch phrase on the old TV show, Highway Patrol.

Since yesterday’s rant focused on my position that this is the time to legalize and regulate sports gambling, I want to present two issues here that tangentially related to that. In the past week or so, the IOC found it necessary to channel the words of Baron Pierre de Coubertin – the man who resurrected the Olympic Games – with regard to three boxers from the recent games in Rio. The good Baron once said:

“The day when a sportsman stops thinking above all else of the happiness in his own effort and the intoxication of the power and physical balance he derives from it, the day when he lets considerations of vanity or interest take over, on this day his ideal will die.”

It seems that these three boxers – two Irishmen and one from Great Britain – stopped thinking of the happiness in their own efforts long enough to wager on some of the boxing events that were ongoing. I read the reports here as carefully as I could, but I did not see any indication that the IOC thought that they had bet on the matches that they participated in.

Here are the punishments handed down:

Each of the three boxers received a severe reprimand from the IOC. [Aside: If “severe reprimands” were worth more than unit of unicorn upchuck, there would be no crime problems in the world.]

Each boxer – should he be eligible to compete in future Games and should he qualify – will have to show that he followed an educational program established by the IOC. [Translation: They have to take a training course.] The way the IOC thinks about this is that they must actively participate in the educational programs established by the IOC, the Olympic Organizing Committee in either Ireland or the UK and the AIBA which is the international federation that oversees amateur boxing competitions.

The Olympic Committees in Ireland and in the UK were also reprimanded for failing to inform their athletes about the content of all the IOC rules that might apply to them. [Aside: Unless that means those Committees get a smaller share of the various bribes that flow through the Olympic Movement, I doubt that will “leave a mark” on any of those folks.] Moreover, they are directed to do a better job at this sort of “informing” in future Olympiads. [Wow! I bet that stings. Oops, Am I allowed to make a gambling reference here?]

The AIBA does not receive a reprimand here but the IOC puts it on notice that the IOC expects the AIBA to make sure that its regulations for its competitions are congruent with the regulations contained in the Olympic Code. The AIBA is to set up its own education programs and is to inform the IOC of the content of those programs to assure congruency with the Olympic Code.

I know nothing about these 3 boxers other than what is above. If Rio was the end of their amateur boxing career, I doubt that any of the stuff summarized above means anything at all to them. If any of them are turning pro, none of that means anything to them. All of this is great theater and allows the IOC to appear to be on a moral high ground – a place they occupy about as frequently as the Chicago Cubs win the World Series.

If – based on the example above – you have the idea that the “gambling related” items for today are only of marginal importance, you will be happy to know that the second one is about as important as the first one. According to a report last week in the Dayton Business Journal, lawyers representing Pete Rose have sent a letter to the Baseball Hall of Fame asking the Hall of Fame to reconsider Rose’s eligibility for inclusion there.

This issue is a sports version of Whack-A-Mole. As soon as it is bludgeoned out of sight in one venue, it pops up in another. It seems that the basis for this letter for eligibility reconsideration stems from the reconsideration that Commissioner Rob Manfred conducted about a year ago where he chose not to reinstate Rose into baseball. The lawyers have seized upon this statement from Rob Manfred with regard to Hall of Fame eligibility:

“It is not part of my authority of responsibility here to make any determination concerning Mr. Rose’s eligibility as a candidate for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. In fact, in my view, the considerations that should drive a decision on whether an individual should be allowed to work in baseball are not the same as those that should drive a decision on Hall of Fame eligibility. … Thus, any debate over Mr. Rose’s eligibility for the Hall of Fame is one that must take place in a different forum.”

My position on this issue has been for the last 25 years that Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame for what he did on the field during his career. If in the modern day incarnation of the Hall of Fame there need be societal norms attached to one’s candidacy, then my solution would be to put two narrative plaques beneath the busts of the players in the Hall:

Plaque #1 would recount his statistical achievements and explain why – as a baseball player – he was one of the elite ever to play the game.

Plaque #2 would explain to the visitor how/why this person fell short of a societal norm or ran afoul of a baseball rule.

Note please that my solution to the presence of societal norms today would ease the debates about players from the Steroid Era getting into the Hall of Fame. It would – unfortunately – also require that “second plaques” be added to the busts of more than a few of the older members of the Hall of Fame whose behaviors then would surely offend lots of folks today and people who are offended today would engage in a Twitter jihad to make that person’s candidacy a cause celebre.

If we were to move to a social stature where betting on sporting events was not stigmatized, we could avoid both of the sorts of situations that I have described above. That would make the world a better place – which is sort of what Baron Pierre de Coubertin obviously hoped to do by resuscitating the Olympic Games.

Finally, here is a comment regarding the Rio Olympics that I found in Brad Rock’s column, Rock On, in the Deseret News recently:

“Late night host Conan O’Brien: ‘It’s been reported that after winning three gold medals in Rio, Usain Bolt was caught cheating on his girlfriend. More impressive, he was also found with another woman just 14 seconds later.’”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………