During the New York Attorney General’s investigation against daily sports betting site like FanDuel and DraftKings, Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez credit card and billing address surfaced.
MLB spokesman Dan Comiskey told ESPN, “During his year suspension for performance enhancing drug use, Mr. Rodriguez used the websites daily to bet on baseball, basketball, and football. While a majority of the bets were on basketball, at least 30 entries were made on baseball games.
“Last year, while a player, his account showed activity in over 200 games across all sports but mainly on hockey.”
According to the printed out documents given to the MLB, on his account his username was ‘thegreatest4life’ and spent $17,575 that earned $15,140, so a loss of $2,435. The biggest loss would be the lifetime ban from baseball. In retrospect, a more accurate username would be ‘banned4life.’
Rodriguez has made over $527 million in contracts plus millions more in endorsements. Risking his career for a loss of $2,500 is bizarre and irrational. Rodger Fellow, a sociologist professor at New York University, explained that the thrill can override common sense. “Risk takers will always be risk takers. He is not the first professional athlete with a gambling problem. Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan each had their problems. In baseball, Pete Rose is the poster boy of gambling. We may never know or understand why he would risk so much personally for money he didn’t need.”
According to the documents, none of the bets influenced the outcome of a game, but it’s still a big no-no in the baseball world. Longtime baseball journalist Johnny ‘The Hit’ Smith told the New York Post, “I’m not surprised in the slightest.”
“A-Rod just likes making poor decisions. It’s in his genes or something,” said Smith. “At least use someone else’s credit card and information. How dumb can someone be?”
“These are all five, ten dollar games where the top prize is ten grand. He gets paid more to tie his shoes so it must be some mental disorder or the feeling he was sticking it to the league that suspended him for a year without ever testing positive for steroids. Who knows? I’m sure A-Rod’s response won’t be truthful as he digs another hole for himself just as he tries to pass Babe Ruth on the home run leader list.
“I’m sure he’ll say his brother in law was playing with his credit card or some junk like that.”
Rob Manfred, the MLB Commissioner, is looking into the allegations. Penalties for betting on baseball include a lifetime ban. All-time hits leader Pete Rose is currently serving a lifetime ban for betting on baseball. “These allegations are very disappointing, but they are just allegations at this point.
“We’ll be investigating and no judgment has been made. With the nature of the documents, a cautious approach is the appropriate course of action.
“Overall, we have had a great week of baseball and still another six months of hat could be the greatest year of America’s pastime yet. So, let’s not let this be a distraction when our young superstars are changing the game for the better.”
We contacted Rodriguez’s management but did not hear back as this story was published.
