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We were told if you pay players a ton of money and there was a huge penalty involved, that will prevent gambling.

Agree. Too many home runs leads to pitchers taking more time between pitches to allow them to gather their strength so they can throw another maximum velocity/maximum spin pitch in order to pile up too many strikeouts. Deaden the ball to reduce home runs so pitchers can pitch to contact and trust their fielders to make outs, so they can just serve up a 90% pitch to most hitters and say here you go, hit it and get yourself out, which doesn’t require several extra seconds to gather strength for.

Wasn’t it Reggie Jackson, talking about fastballs versus Nolan Ryan’s fastball, that sure he likes ice cream, just not ice cream being forced down his throat? Something like that? That’s kind of how I feel about home runs in the game. I’d like them to be a little less common and thus a little more special than they are now.

I would guess that home run/not home run for batters, and strikeout/not strikeout for pitchers, would be probably popular prop bets.

I never said I don’t give a flying fuck about what you think. I never made it about you. Unlike you’re clutching pearls comments, which was definitely about me. As for your whatabout comment regarding alcohol, I’m not railing against that because games haven’t been fixed because of alcohol. In any event, I hope you’re right about the idea that gambling scandals can be prevented by paying players a ton of money and making huge penalties for not complying. Who knows, perhaps Pete Rose wouldn’t have gambled on games in which he had a duty to perform if he had only been paid a ton of money and knew there was a huge penalty for doing so.

I never said I don't give a flying fuck what you think. I don't know where you got that. By your argument, the problem is not the potential of gambling to create scandal the way it literally has many times before—the problem is people who profess fear for the integrity of the game precisely because gambling has created scandal the way it literally has many times before. That's nonsense, brother. Your idea that gambling is harmless fun that hurts no one is laughable. In environments where gambling has been legal and illegal, there is a clear competitive integrity problem with gambling in sports that's been revealed over and over many many times in fixing scandals in both distant and recent history. And that's not even contemplating the social, psychological, and financial damage that gambling, a DSM-5-defined addiction, has wreaked on people throughout history. I would say that someone who believes—I mean seriously believes—that American sports could never experience a fixing scandal in a legal gambling environment—despite that several non-American sports have experienced fixing scandals in a legal gambling environment, and that American sports have experienced fixing scandals in a non-legal gambling environment—is pretty naive.

I think the biggest barrier to a revelation of a major betting scandal in American pro sports would be stonewalling of the media. Baseball has no interest in the black eye a gambling scandal would inevitably land on its face. Shit, man, MLB Network won't even run the movie Eight Men Out on their network anymore. Not only does each of the four North American major sports leagues run owned-and-operated networks that many fans rely on for much of their news, they have also gotten a lot a lot smarter about controlling which writers from outside media get access to teams and players. Remember how Fenech got shit-canned from the Tigers beat? That wasn't because he was banging some girl in a parking garage, or whatever that bullshit scandal that one rag blog claimed about him. After all, if the best writer in the game can get fired from his MLB Network gig for making gloves-on criticisms of Manfred in a publication not even owned by MLB, how many baseball writers are going to risk their professional necks following the crumbs on a baseball gambling scandal for however long it takes to properly expose it?

Also, fewer pitching injuries and more innings from starters, which would probably lead to fewer pitchers needed on active rosters. Maybe we would even see a return to 11-man pitching staffs and a couple additional bench spots for position players. Perhaps platooning could make a big comeback in the game.

I also don't give a flying fuck about how much increased revenue leagues and team owners make from their association with gamblers. That doesn't make it a better game on the field, as far as I'm concerned.

Even though I couldn't give less of a shit about how much gambling is a major part of international sports, there are plenty of examples of game-fixing in the legalized gambling era, like this, this, this, this, and this. I don't think legalized gambling is good for the game of baseball, and no amount of your shaming me will make me change my mind about that.

The frog is getting warmer.

All of these reasons you give for your interest waning in the game are good and valid. To me, they pale against the big reason my interest in the game is in real jeopardy: the integration of gambling into the very fabric of the game. From showing odds and money lines on the MLB Network crawl, to programs about betting on that and many baseball team RSNs,to gambling-related drop-ins on radio and TV game broadcasts, and the eventuality of seeing sportsbooks physically erected within stadiums, the suddenness with which Bsseball has chased after the gambling buck has been breathtaking and appalling. I honestly fear what that might do to the competitive integrity of the game.

You're playing my song. How many years have you guys heard me advocating the idea that deadening the ball will solve practically every problem in the game that has evolved since Chicks Dig The Long Ball started? The reason is simple: pitchers are afraid of giving up home runs. So pitchers have to be super careful to every hitter in the order, because every hitter can take them out of the park. They are trying to induce swing-and-miss on every pitch with maximum velocity and movement, so they end up throwing more pitches per plate appearance and taking more time in between pitches to maximize the gathering of their strength. That might be layering an extra half hour onto game time all by itself. But batters are still trying to jack the ball, which means they're always trying to pull it over the fence, so the shift makes sense to employ on most hitters. Deaden the ball to 1980s-level, and you'll have fewer homers, which means pitchers can pitch to contact, which means batters would need to hit 'em where they ain't instead of hit 'em over their heads, which will eliminate the shift on all but the scariest power hitters. there would be fewer homers, fewer strikeouts, more balls in play, more action on batted balls. I bet fans would come back to see that.

But how will you know which department to connect with if you don’t listen to all of the options in their entirety as their menu has recently changed?

They hooked us when they named the team the “Detroit” Tigers. If they were the Little Caesars Tigers, or had been the Dominos Tigers or the Fetzer Broadcasting Tigers while we were growing up, maybe we wouldn’t care so much about them.

It’s embarrassing how long after I memorized 12x12 that it took me to memorize 13x12.

Do you think China would prop up Russia economically in the face of US sanctions? That seems so unlikely to me.

As I read this, it occurs to me that sanctions work differently against different countries. In the old days, whenever we put sanctions on countries like Iran, North Korea, Cuba, or other small countries, they could run into the arms of another superpower like USSR or China to bypass it. These days, those same small countries need only open up to China to bypass them. And putting sanctions on China itself would be pointless these days since their economy is basically self-sufficient. But putting sanctions on Russia should hurt them a lot, because not only is their economy is teetering, but also, there are no other superpowers who will prop them up in the face of our sanctions. I could see sanctions working under this circumstance.

It’s all about perception to Trump. Sometimes it is better to look badass than to be badass.

Trump was hoping they would all look like badasses. I think this is more what he had in mind.

The system works.

I think talks will start in earnest once the Super Bowl is done.

Yet another compromise, this one to mollify the small states in the union who were used to the one colony-one vote scheme under the Articles of Confederation.

In my Axios Sports newsletter this AM. 5. ⚾️ The problem with league-owned media Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images MLB insider Ken Rosenthal is out at MLB Network after more than 12 years, reportedly due to critical stories he wrote about commissioner Rob Manfred, Jeff writes. The backdrop: In the summer of 2020, Rosenthal's columns for The Athletic analyzing the stalemate between MLB and the MLBPA "featured some light criticism [of Manfred]," writes NY Post's Andrew Marchand. June 16, 2020: "Rob Manfred finally seems to be figuring out he has no choice: Strike a deal with the union and salvage the 2020 season, or ruin his legacy as commissioner of baseball," wrote Rosenthal. MLB Network unofficially suspended Rosenthal following that piece, keeping him off the air (with pay) for nearly three months. When his contract expired at the end of 2021, the network didn't renew it. Of note: Rosenthal, 59, is still a senior baseball writer for The Athletic and an on-field reporter for Fox Sports, so he and his famous bowties aren't going anywhere. What they're saying: "I worked for Turner Sports, which operated NBA TV and NBA.com in partnership with the league, for 14 years. You know what David Stern did when I wrote or said something he didn't like? He called me up and cussed me out. But he didn't go to my bosses and try to fire me." — David Aldridge, The Athletic The big picture: We don't know if the decision to part ways with Rosenthal came directly from Manfred, but the fact that it's even a possibility highlights the problem with league-owned media.