Angels manager Mike Scioscia had some strong comments toward Pete Rose and gambling in baseball.
On Monday it was reported that Rose bet on baseball as a player, something he has denied for a long time. The news was all over the baseball community so, naturally, Scioscia was asked about it.
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"We've survived PEDs. This game will never survive gambling," he said. "Will never ... if there's an allusion that anybody in this game is making bets on performance, whether it's pro or con, baseball will just unravel. That's why the penalties are very stiff, and if all the allegations are true against Pete, that's a price he has to pay."
People are welcome to their opinions, but baseball surely seems to side with Scioscia's point of view. As he points out, the penalty for gambling is extremely harsh. Rose has been banned from baseball for life.
Performance enhancing drug users have been ostracized, but they haven't been made permanently ineligible like Rose. MLB's punishment for a first-time violation for PED use is an unpaid 80-game suspension. Harsh, but not as harsh as gambling: A player found to be betting on baseball games faces an automatic one-year suspension. A player who bets on a game in which he has “a duty to perform” faces an automatic permanent ban, even if the player was betting on his own team to win.
It isn't until a player's third violation for PED use that he is permanently suspended from organized baseball.
