MLB’s fantasy site seems hypocritical when it comes to Pete Rose
We were in Cincinnati on Tuesday night, at the all- star game, so there are certain things that are inescapable, Pete Rose foremost among them.
Baseball’s hit king still resides squarely in baseball purgatory, his accomplishments etched in the record books even as he isn’t acknowledged in Cooperstown because he committed what Major League Baseball has long regarded as an unforgivable sin: He bet on his own sport while in uniform.
And yet, any of the all- stars could return to their clubs for the second half of the season and wager, legally, on their own performance — for or against — in a daily sports fantasy league that’s in partnership with the same MLB that prohibits gambling.
In April, MLB and DraftKings, one of several developing daily fantasy websites, extended and expanded a partnership that allows the site — which pays cash prizes to winners — to co- brand, with MLB, its daily baseball offerings, not to mention allowing DraftKings to partner with individual clubs to offer in- the- ballpark experiences to fans.
This relationship exists, and Pete Rose is banned from baseball? Some in the game are struck by the potential hypocrisy.
“We are watching very closely,” Tony Clark, president of the players’ union, said Tuesday at a meeting of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
“As you might expect, considering where we’ve been and where we’re at, we’re walking a very delicate line, a very sensitive line that could be muddied very quickly depending on what words you use in a sentence. So, it’s something that we’re paying a lot of attention to.”
Clark spoke Tuesday after commissioner Rob Manfred, who with his staff is pouring over the evidence in the Rose case, evidence that he bet on baseball as manager of the Reds in the 1980s, and new evidence, revealed by an ESPN report, that he placed bets on the sport when he was a player, too.
“I frankly was surprised at how much material there was to be reviewed,” Manfred said.
“We’re taking a fresh look at all of that. I remain committed to the idea that Mr. Rose deserves an opportunity to tell me in whatever format he feels most comfortable, whatever he wants me to know about the issues, and I’m sure there will be an in- person meeting.”
Rose and his representatives surely will bring up baseball’s partnership with DraftKings.
The thrust is easy to discern: You’re banning gamblers and promoting, if not gambling, then a more socially accepted way of making money off sporting performance?
Manfred said the league has addressed the issue with players.
“We’ve made absolutely clear to our players and to our front office personnel that we do not believe that DraftKings — or any other daily fantasy — is an appropriate activity for them,” he said.
“We see a very clear distinction between people who can affect the outcome of the game and fans who want to engage through daily fantasy.”
Yet, on the placards posted on bulletin boards in every major league clubhouse, there is no mention of DraftKings or any other daily fantasy site.
Rule 21, which covers “Misconduct” and hangs in every home and visiting clubhouse, addresses three elements of gambling — betting on a game that a player, umpire or official is involved in, betting on a game a player, umpire or official is not involved in, and betting with illegal bookkeepers.
The issue, at its worst, is easy to identify: What’s to prevent a hitter from drafting, on a given day, the pitcher he’s facing that night — and then striking out three times? What’s to prevent a pitcher from drafting, on a given night, a hitter he’s facing that night — and then grooving one to be launched out of the park?
Clark made it clear the union would continue to discuss the potential that the players are receiving mixed messages with the league.
“For right now, we can appreciate how it’s being navigated,” he said. “But rest assured, we won’t turn our attention away from it.”
Because even as Rose and his case draw attention in Cincinnati, it may be the secondary betting issue on baseball’s plate.