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“He left the door open for the owners to change the rules. They did not.”

And I applaud them for that. Gambling was displayed a detroyer of the game and Ban Johnson took it out of the parks in 1903. But the incident that really exhibited the profanity of the game was the 1919 black sox scandal. But we don’t know how many players performances were effected by betting and approachability of people trying to make a buck on the games. Mobsters like Arnold Rothstein were “connected” to the MLB players for many years and was involved with sports betting as early as 1910 when he established a casino in Manhattan and mentored people like Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Bugsy Siegel.

So the gambling rules in sports, to include baseball, had been around for decades before Rose broke them. But the bad part is he lied to the fans. And that is the worst of all. And he was sent to prison for not paying taxes on those gambling actions.

Pro sports have swept things that the public didn’t directly see under the rug before. But this was right in the face of the fans. Kind of like pro football and Carrol Rosenbloom. Names like Al Capone, Sam Giancana, and Vincent Alo were some of his “acquaintenances” tied into gambling casinos that included open betting. And there’s also Edward DeBartolo Jr., then head of the 49ers, paid a Louisiana governor $400,000 to get a riverboat casino license. The governor went to the slammer; DeBartolo got a wrist slap but had to leave the 49ers. (He was an owner) And in pro football two names come to mind about caught gambling:

Alex Karras and Paul Horning.

It isn’t just Rose. And the integrity of the game was better for the owners standing by their decision on him. The owners and media did the same thing to Barry Bonds. He was only found guilty of evasive tesimony and not perjury or use of steroids.

wy69