Columnist Jeff Haney: Spring training talk underscores baseball’s hypocrisy

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 | 10:57 a.m.

In his autobiography, Lenny Bruce wrote, "There are some people who sell themselves for money. That 'some' constitutes 90 percent of the people I've known in my life, including myself. We all sell out some part of us."

Count Major League Baseball among the guilty parties, because when it comes to gambling, baseball wants to play both sides against the middle.

The sport's official stance when it comes to betting is zero tolerance.

And in the past baseball not only has banned players who bet on games, but also has investigated owners with financial interests in legal casinos, and even slapped probation on one guy who did nothing more than lose a lot of money at the poker table.

Which would be fine -- if the sport's leaders played by their own rules.

It was only 17 years ago that Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were barred from baseball by then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn for accepting public relations jobs with an Atlantic City casino.

Given the enormous changes in the American gambling scene since then, that whole episode now seems as quaint as the old diving horse act at the Steel Pier.

This year in San Diego, for example, in an unprecedented arrangement the Padres' entire season is being "sponsored" by the Sycuan Indian tribe, which operates a thriving casino about 20 miles east of Qualcomm Stadium.

The tribe is forking over a reported $1.5 million for the honor.

And in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, representatives of six major league teams got together at the Four Seasons hotel to discuss a proposal that would make Southern Nevada a third spring training site, along with Florida and Arizona.

When a similar plan was floated a few years ago, news reports said it would cost an estimated $60 million to build spring training facilities here.

Perhaps that would be a smart investment for Las Vegas; perhaps not.

Either way, Major League Baseball, with its stringent anti-gambling policy, should realize a good chunk of those millions are gambling dollars -- some of which were wagered on baseball games.

That should give pause to a sport whose rule 21 (d) dictates a one-year suspension for betting on baseball, and a lifetime ban for anyone who bets on his own team's game.

Baseball officials have never hesitated to deal out harsh sentences for gambling infractions.

The most notorious instance came when eight players were banned for life for their participation in the "Black Sox" World Series scandal of 1919.

More recently, Lenny Dykstra was sentenced to a year's probation in 1991 on the consorting-with-undesirables rap. Seems the Dude was drawing to way too many inside straights in private, high-limit Mississippi poker games.

Then in 1998 baseball turned up the heat on Marian Ilitch, wife of Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, when she invested in a piece of a new Detroit casino.

"Do we have concerns?" baseball boss Bud Selig said at the time. "Yes, if this thing comes closer to being a reality, we will address a significant number of our concerns."

Despite that rhetoric, signs advertising Las Vegas will grace at least three major league stadiums this season -- the BOB in Phoenix, Dodger Stadium in LA, and Pacific Bell Park in another historically great gambling city, San Francisco.

Guess the advertising revenue from those signs helps baseball forget about "a significant number of our concerns."

Baseball's honchos are quick to point out that the ballpark signs contain only the words "Las Vegas." No images of dice, cards or Lefty Rosenthal.

Likewise, the Padres insist that the tribe is the sponsor -- not the casino. Oh yeah, and the tribe is sponsoring the season -- not the team.

But those justifications tend to make your skin crawl the way it does when you see Pete Rose on a TV newsmagazine show saying, "I never bet on baseball," then turning to look directly at the camera before intoning, "And I'll never admit that I did."

How to talk dirty and influence people, indeed.

But the heart of the matter is not the endless Rose debate, or whether pictures of dice should be permitted on Las Vegas billboards, or how the Devil Rays would draw in Henderson.

The heart of the matter is this: Major League Baseball cannot unequivocally condemn gambling at the same time it enjoys the benefits of gambling-generated dollars. Not without looking like a high-class, um ... hypocrite.

Yet a couple of weeks ago six major league teams met with local officials at the Four Seasons to discuss moving their spring training operations to Las Vegas.

As the punch line to an old joke goes, "We've already determined what you are, ma'am. Now we're just haggling over a price."