Of Bets And Bloody Jeans

Baseball, Major Sports, Tennis

Posted by SK, February 23, 2008 - 4:59 pm

 

Members of DeepSlant Nation may have noticed that we’ve refrained from discussing the Major League Baseball performance-enhancing drug clusterfuck for the most part.  Mostly because we’re sick of the media’s 24/7 coverage of the damn thing.

But let me recap what’s happened on this front so far this year.  Somehow, a former US Senator became an investigator, and a former trainer with a penchant for keeping syringes and bloody gauze in his basement became a household name.  Jose Canseco somehow became relevant again with a pool party 10 years ago, and a current member of the US Congress actually made it a point to discuss Roger Clemens’s bloody jeans.

And what of Mr. Bloodypants?  He’s now thrown his old trainer, his wife, and his best friend all under the bus while possibly lying to Congress to try and save his own ass.  Yeah, he’s a class act all around, that one.

But back the truck up the turnpike a little bit.  Why are we so concerned about this?  Is taking HGH or steroids REALLY destroying the integrity of the game?  Should Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens be Beelzebub and Mephistopheles for sports fans?  Or should we as sports fans be more concerned about someone like Nikolay Davydenko?

Some may remember that Davydenko was the former #4-ranked mens tennis player on the ATP tour.  Last August he withdrew from a match at the Prokom Open in Poland with a foot injury.  Betfair, a British online gambling company, received about $7 million of bets on the match.  That was 10 times the normal amount.  Which wouldn’t have caught anyone’s attention except that most of the money was on Davydenko’s opponent, Martin Vassallo Arguello, who was ranked #87 in the world at the time. 

Betfair cancelled all wagers, but the question remains.  Did Davydenko throw the match?  Or perhaps did he tell certain people he was injured?  Apparently, nine bettors in Russia stood to make over $1.5 million if he lost.  To me, that just seems like too much of a coincidence.  But the ATP still hasn’t finished it’s investigation or told the public anything definitive.  They’re probably hoping we forget about this.  But this has been an ongoing problem with tennis, and is only the highest-profile case of questionable actions due to gambling.

Also last August, NBA referee Tim Donaghy pled guilty to two felony counts related to gambling.  Donaghy admitted to betting on games in which he officiated. He said he would communicate his picks of winners of NBA games to gambling associates, and was paid for the correct ones. He also said he told associates which referees were scheduled to officiate games, their relationships with certain players and teams, and the health status of players.  The NBA investigated, and Commissioner Stern called Donaghy a “rogue” referee, and that his case was an isolated incident.

So we’ve got players possibly throwing tennis matches under the influence of gamblers, and referees betting on games they officiate.  But we’re still worried about players taking performance enhancing drugs?

Look, steroids and HGH are illegal unless prescribed by a doctor.  And they’re banned by all major league sports.  Athletes that take them face federal drug charges in addition to suspensions and bans from competition.  If someone is willing to take those risks in addition to the medical side effects to gain that extra edge, why should we care?  They’re risking shrunken testicles and female facial hair to provide us as fans with a better, faster, stronger, higher-scoring product.  Of course, you’ll say that us fans probably aren’t top of mind while they’re shooting themselves up.  More than likely it’s the fat contract that awaits them.  But who buys the tickets and merchandise that pays those salaries?

My point is this.  It seems we are a lot more concerned about athletes taking PEDs to gain an edge than we are about the influence of gambling on our sports.  After all, I have yet to see a congressional hearing on gambling.  But I would argue that the influence of gambling is a lot more destructive to the integrity of a sport than steroids, HGH, or whatever the hell else comes along next.  Canseco, McGwire, Bonds, Clemens, Marion Jones, Shawne Merriman, whoever.  At the end of the day, these athletes were just trying to do what we pay to see them do - win.

But the influence of gambling is much more dangerous.  It’s presence destroys the very essence of sports - the thrill of competition.

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