Has “Spot Fixing” Finally Been Spotted in MLB?

Letter to Ephesians: Sports gambling & game rigging has always been a bane to USA sports but WSJ says, “MLB’s latest investigation (into ‘Spot Fixing’) raised specter one of the most pernicious forms of corruption has arrived.” Has it? Or, has helping bettors on a single pitch been around forever?

Recall the White Sox Scandal & movie “Eight Men Out.” Eight players were banned from baseball after mysteriously underperforming in the 1919 World Series, including a not too bright “Shoeless Joe Jackson.” He had a few uncharacteristically bad moments but statistically had a pretty damn good series. Say it ain’t so, Joe, that you helped throw the series but maybe, yeah, you tanked a throw or two to get the fixers off your back OR agreed to a very limited roll of “spot fixing”? Probably a far-fetched theory. But, the idea popped into this cynical brain when “Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz spiked a slider in the dirt to begin the 3d inning of his most recent outing ... There was no reason to think twice about one that one that slipped ... But within the gambling industry, alarms were blaring. A betting integrity firm had identified unusual wagering activity on that specific pitch being a ball – a pitch Ortiz had just hurled so wildly that it couldn't have been hit with a tree branch.”

Apparently, “Similarly strange bets had come in on Oritz’s first pitch of the 2d inning of a game 12 days earlier” and it, too, “was a slider that bounced before reaching the catcher.” Let’s, of course, give Ortiz the benefit of the doubt for now BUT ... “Last week MLB put the 26-yr-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic on nondisciplinary paid leave while it investigates ... If Ortiz is found to have been involved with betting on his own performance, he would likely be banned from the sport for life...”

Davd Soul