In 2023, Ethics Alarms tersely predicted, regarding the full and loving embrace with which professional sports is snuggling up to online gambling, “This will not end well.” Ah, but there’s money to be made….so, for example, Major League Baseball allows Red Sox Hall of Famer David Ortiz to shill for one of the big online betting concerns during local game broadcasts. Not surprisingly, given that it is the most unethical of all sports organizations, the NFL had the first betting scandal under the new gluttony: In 2023, “Isaiah Rodgers and Rashod Berry of the Indianapolis Colts and free agent Demetrius Taylor were suspended indefinitely for betting on NFL games. Tennessee Titans offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere was suspended six games for betting on other sports.

Next came the betting scandal involving baseball’s most famous star, pircher-slugger Shohei Ohtani, whose translator was caught illegally using the star’s name to pay off a bookie. But of course, there was, and is, more to come.

Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter was banned from the NBA after an investigation last year found that Porter tipped off bettors about his health and then claimed illness to exit at least one game, creating wins for anyone who had bet on him to under-perform. Porter also gambled on NBA games in which he didn’t play, and once bet against his own team. Now another NBA player, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, is under investigation. He is suspected of manipulating his game performance “as part of an illegal sports betting scheme”when he was a member of the Charlotte Hornets.

Wait: pro athletes today make millions of dollars. The 1919 Black Sox scandal (Second mention today!) happened because the players involved were being exploited by their team’s owner and were barely able to feed their kids. Why would millionaire jocks ever get involved with gamblers?

Because a very large proportion of them just aren’t very bright, that’s why. Did you ever listen to Pete Rose when he talked about anything other than baseball? Carl Sagan he wasn’t.

Yesterday, another Major League Baseball gambling scandal was in the news. MLB fired umpire Pat Hoberg for sharing a legal sports betting account with a a professional poker-playing friend who bet on baseball, and then tried to cover up his involvement by deleting messages between him and his gambler friend.

Hoberg “adamantly denied betting on baseball directly or indirectly,” announced Commissioner Rob Manfred, who added that there was “no evidence” that Hoberg directly bet on games or manipulated the outcomes of any games “in any way.” However, Hoberg was fired for failing to “uphold the integrity of the game” and that he “should have known” that his gambling-obsessed friend was betting bet on baseball from an account bearing the umpire’s name. That’s an appearance of impropriety, and nobody is in a position to fix baseball games more than an umpire.

“I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today’s statement,” Hoberg said in his own statement. “Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me. “Major League Baseball umpires are held to a high standard of personal conduct, and my own conduct fell short of that standard. That said, to be clear, I have never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form. I have never provided, and would never provide, information to anyone for the purpose of betting on baseball. Upholding the integrity of the game has always been of the utmost importance to me.”

Well said. Bye.

I heard a former baseball general manager and a former player-turned-pundit discussing this story on the MLB radio channel just now. They couldn’t understand what the big deal was. After all, it’s not as if the umpire had been betting on games, just just his friend. Who often stayed at the umpire’s house. And who bet on baseball using an account set up by the umpire. What’s the matter with that?

Morons.

The worst part of this episode is that Hoberg is widely regarded as the best ball and strike calling umpire there is. He can apply for reinstatement no earlier than the start of spring training in 2026. If it was up to me, I’d ban him now, with no reinstatement possible. An umpire shouldn’t even hang around a professional gambler, never mind set up an online gambling account and share it with him.

There will be more scandals to come. As bets go, it’s a sure thing.