TORONTO — Major League Baseball has not been immune to sports betting invading its modern game, with two pitchers still on nondisciplinary leave as part of a gambling investigation.
But in light of the NBA’s gambling scandal this week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Saturday that it continues to be “vigilant” on issues surrounding sports betting.
“Obviously, our No. 1 priority is to protect the integrity of the game,” Manfred said before Game 2 of the World Series at Rogers Centre. “We think we have great systems in place that allow us to do that. In addition, we’ve worked really hard to provide resources to players to make sure that they are comfortable and have an outlet when they have a problem with respect to issues related to sports betting.”
MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark said Friday that the safety and well-being of players was “paramount,” with many being threatened by gamblers.
The league’s investigation into Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis L. Ortiz, meanwhile, remains “ongoing,” Manfred said Saturday, as it tries to determine exactly what happened. The root of the investigation is related to pitches thrown by Ortiz that raised “suspicious betting” during games in June.
“The most important thing that we can do is make sure we have systems in place that give us access to data, which puts you in a position to determine if there’s something aberrational going on,” Manfred said. “When you get that, you need to conduct a thorough investigation, make sure you understand exactly what caused that aberration and then you need to discipline them.”
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The night before crushing a historic grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series, Addison Barger slept on his teammate’s couch.
OK, so it was a pullout couch, in Davis Schneider’s hotel room that overlooks the field at Rogers Centre. But it worked so well, with Barger crushing the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, that he returned to the couch for another night’s sleep ahead of Saturday’s Game 2, according to a social media post from Schneider’s sister.
The FBI has arrested 31 people involved in a rigged poker game ring backed by the New York City organized crime families.
- Ernest Aiello — reputed Bonanno mobster
- Nelson “Spanish G” Alvarez
- Louis “Lou Ap” Apicella
- Ammar “Flapper Poker” Awawdeh
- Saul Becher — professional poker player
- Chauncey Billups — Portland Trail Blazers coach, NBA Hall of Famer and 2004 NBA champion
- Matthew “The Wrestler” Daddino
- Eric “Spooky” Earnest
- Lee Fama — professional poker player
- John Gallo
- Marco Garzon
- Thomas “Tommy Juice” Gelardo — reputed Lucchese mobster charged in 2013 for beating porn star girlfriend
- Jamie Gilet
- Tony “Black Tony” Goodson
- Kenny Han
- Shane “Sugar” Henne
- Osman “Albanian Bruce” Hoti
- Horatio Hu
- Zhen “Scruli” Hu
- Damon “Dee Jones” Jones — NBA player from 1998 to 2009
- Joseph Lanni
- John “John South” Mazzola
- Curtis Meeks
- Nicholas Minucci
- Michael Renzulli
- Anthony Ruggiero Jr.
- Anthony “Doc” Shnayderman
- Robert “Black Rob” Stroud
- Seth Trustman
- Sophia “Pookie” Wei
- Julius Ziliani
“He’s a head case, but he’s funny,” Davis Schneider said.
A night after playing his first game since Sept. 6 because of a sprained left knee, Bo Bichette was out of the Blue Jays lineup for Game 2 but grounded out in the seventh inning as a pinch hitter for former Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who started at second base instead against Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
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Bichette, who went 1-for-2 with a walk in Game 1 before being pinch run for by Kiner-Falefa, was clearly still hobbled by the knee despite his strong return. He made a terrific play on a ground ball up the middle that saved a run in the third inning, but came up gingerly, favoring his left leg.
“He felt pretty good after the game,” Schneider said. “Checking in with him today, probably feels a little bit better than he expected. Again, when we put him on the roster, we did because we thought he could help us win, which he did [Friday], and keeping in mind that he hasn’t played in seven weeks.”
Max Scherzer will start Game 3 for the Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium, with Shane Bieber following in Game 4. The Dodgers are set to throw Tyler Glasnow in Game 3 and Shohei Ohtani in Game 4.
— Additional reporting by Jon Heyman