“Baseball is the heart of America. As a patriot, I would never do anything to degrade …”
“Besmirch. It’s better.”
“… to besmirch our national pastime.”
–Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), rehearsing his testimony with his attorney before the grand jury convened to determine whether the 1919 World Series was fixed, “Boardwalk Empire,” Season 1, Episode 8 (“Hold Me in Paradise”)

Too soon?

One hundred years might seem like a long enough time to wait. But what we are talking about here is the Black Sox Scandal, baseball’s darkest hour and an oft-told tale that has captured the imagination of historians, novelists, filmmakers and those fans who feel the betrayal in their bones. The gamblers and crooked ballplayers who conspired to fix the outcome of the 1919 World Series robbed people not only of their money but also of their faith in baseball.

That’s why baseball became puritanical about gambling, why Rule 21d, the prohibition of betting, has been posted in clubhouses since 1927, why the all-time hit king, Pete Rose, was banished from baseball. For years, MLB argued in courts to prevent states other than Nevada from legalizing sports gambling. But then Major League Baseball and MGM Resorts announced last November that they had entered into an agreement to promote legalized gambling just in time for the 2019 season, and ever since, the gnats of irony have been buzzing about.
http://www.espn.com/espn/rss/news

“Baseball is the heart of America. As a patriot, I would never do anything to degrade …”
“Besmirch. It’s better.”
“… to besmirch our national pastime.”
–Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), rehearsing his testimony with his attorney before the grand jury convened to determine whether the 1919 World Series was fixed, “Boardwalk Empire,” Season 1, Episode 8 (“Hold Me in Paradise”)

Too soon?

One hundred years might seem like a long enough time to wait. But what we are talking about here is the Black Sox Scandal, baseball’s darkest hour and an oft-told tale that has captured the imagination of historians, novelists, filmmakers and those fans who feel the betrayal in their bones. The gamblers and crooked ballplayers who conspired to fix the outcome of the 1919 World Series robbed people not only of their money but also of their faith in baseball.

That’s why baseball became puritanical about gambling, why Rule 21d, the prohibition of betting, has been posted in clubhouses since 1927, why the all-time hit king, Pete Rose, was banished from baseball. For years, MLB argued in courts to prevent states other than Nevada from legalizing sports gambling. But then Major League Baseball and MGM Resorts announced last November that they had entered into an agreement to promote legalized gambling just in time for the 2019 season, and ever since, the gnats of irony have been buzzing about.
http://www.espn.com/espn/rss/news