San Francisco Chronicle

Red Sox 6, A’s 4: No sweep in Boston, but Piscotty makes great catch in stands.

- JOHN SHEA John Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle’s national baseball writer. Email: jshea@sfchronicl­e.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHe­y

The first full season for widespread legalized betting on baseball will come on the anniversar­y of the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

How appropriat­e.

We’ll read stories and watch documentar­ies on Joe Jackson and seven others who got lifetime bans for their parts in fixing the 1919 World Series, and we’ll celebrate them because that’s what we do with villains for whom we have a soft spot.

But Shoeless Joe and the other Black Sox won’t suddenly become eight men in, and Pete Rose won’t get any closer to the Hall of Fame just because legal wagering can be placed on the Reds. Or Giants or A’s.

Monday’s Supreme Court decision that opened the door for states to regulate and tax sports betting will alter how people watch and consume games, but it’s still against the rules for players and staff to bet on baseball, and Rose and the Black Sox will remain banned because their punishment­s serve as a deterrent, a message to those in today’s game that gambling has dire consequenc­es.

Even though MLB is in bed with daily fantasy-league operators.

Sports owners are seeking a 1 percent “integrity fee” from the legalized betting industry, which really is a we-want-apiece-of-the-action fee. Teams would try to justify it as a fee for supplying the content and protecting and enforcing the integrity of the game, which they ought to be doing anyway.

The union will want its share, too, which will make for livelier negotiatio­ns for the next collective bargaining agreement. We don’t know exactly how this will play out and where betting will take place, whether it’s online and mobile or at casinos, racetracks or even ballparks.

Imagine walking up to an in-stadium betting window or waving down a vendor — or simply using a phone — to bet the over-under on how long the starting pitcher will last or when he’ll throw his first wild pitch.

Suddenly, there would be more action on games and more prop bets. More partnershi­ps with sports book operators. More fan interest and better TV ratings. More incentive for the younger audience to pay attention, baseball’s dream.

The possibilit­ies are limitless, just not for Charlie Hustle and Shoeless Joe.

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