A-Rod, Poker and MLB.

After a few quiet years of no Alex Rodriguez controversies, the tabloids have dusted off their presses. The papers here in NYC have reported that A-Rod is being investigated to see if he was involved in any underground and illegal poker games in 2009. It is believed that the games were frequented by such A-list movie stars as Tobey McGuire, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. You know what I think about it? I really don't care.

Now, I understand Major League Baseball's sore spot when it comes to gambling. The game has yet to shake off the results of the 1919 Black Sox scandal where a number of Chicago White Sox players took bribes to throw the World Series. I mean look at Pete Rose, forever banned from the game for betting on the game. The league banned legends Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays for a year because they took a job at a casino AFTER they had retired. Mantle and Mays aside, A-Rod's case differs from the others I listed. 

Where these Black Sox and Rose examples affected the play of baseball, A-Rod is playing poker, not betting on Baseball games. Sure, I understand the point where his bosses and MLB told him directly andI indirectly to stop engaging in underground card games but haven't we all not listened to our bosses. I was told once to not date within the office. Did that stop me? Not at all. A-Rod is a man who has millions on top of millions and if he wants to act like many Americans do and spend his money in a card game then so be it. So it's fine if players host  poker parties at their homes whether illegal or not but they can't join in one anywhere else AND they can play cards in the clubhouse before, during and after games sure sounds hypocritical to me.  

I understood MLB's position in 2005 that by A-Rod participating in the NYC underground poker games it would expose him to possibly danger and a seedy element. In the end, he's a grown man and many a grown man (or grown woman for that matter) whether rich or poor enjoy playing cards whether online, at a casino, in a friends' basement or in a bar. If he was placing bets on baseball then I would agree with MLB 100%. No player should do so since his actions can possibly affect the way a game is played. That would ruin the integrity of how the game is played by him in response to the betting line. But with this situation, it just seems to me that MLB is taking it's anti-gambling crusade a little too far. Agree? Disagree?

FH