As a teenager, I couldn’t wait for the mailman (in those pre-gender neutral letter carrier days) to stuff my copy of The Sporting News into our mailbox on Erieview Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I read — no, scoured — that newsprint magazine cover to cover, reading the columns by Joe Falls out of Detroit and Wells Twombly from San Francisco and poring over the box scores and stats charts.
TSN was the “Bible of Baseball,” and I was an acolyte, buying their annual publications like the Baseball Guide.
The publication has changed hands several times since the Spink family gave up ownership, and I even visited the latter-day offices once when I was an Associated Press executive. Long removed from its headquarters in downtown St. Louis, the publication had moved to sterile quarters in an office park or strip mall. (Is there a difference?)
I go to the Sporting News website every now and then, hoping to find something that reminds me of the old days when the publication broadened my perspective on big-league (and even minor league) baseball beyond the Cleveland Indians and the American League.
This evening, I thought I’d give it another look. I went straight to the MLB landing page and what did I see? Lead items on Kalshi and Polymarket betting sites, with come-ons for Sporting News-sponsored sign-ups. I even spotted the “Betting” link in the main navigation bar.
Say it ain’t so!
I went no further.
It disgusts me that baseball — the once honorable game that banished Shoeless Joe Jackson and his Black Sox teammates for the 1919 World Series betting scandal — has cozied up to gambling establishments. I don’t begrudge anyone who wants to bet on a game, but the game should not sully itself by associating with elements that were anathema decades ago.
At least our federal government hasn’t stooped to craven levels where top executives line their pockets with ill-gotten gains.
On second thought, strike that. 🧢
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