Did He Touch Home?

[Mondogarage]

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Football? Meh, now it's all about point spread and gambloors, not the game, so of course it's most important to get it right. Baseball? It's still a game.

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Baseball spent its first 50 years as a popular spectator sport in America (pretty much until the 1920s) as little more than a medium for gambling -- something akin to horse racing today. While the Black Sox were obviously the most notorious culprits, the so-called Golden Age of baseball was absolutely rife with gambling. Much of the reason baseball attained the popularity it did in the late 19th/early 20th century is because ballgames were populated with gambloors who used the game as a medium for prop bets with each other.

And if you think gambooling on baseball by the masses stopped after the Black Sox, consider that tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) changed hands just in twoplustwo run fantasy baseball leagues this season.

It has never been "just a game".

/hijack

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I think you miss my point -- I'm not denying gambling in baseball. My point is that the football experience is now completely dominated by gambling, and that is not the case with baseball. What happens on 2+2 is hardly a microcosm of what the general public sporting experience is, but I'm pretty sure you'll find whatever $$$ is wagered overall in baseball is but a few small percentage points of what it is in football, over the course of any given year. And, of course, it's that amount of money at stake that makes "getting it right" all-important.

Not that blowing calls in baseball is forgiveable or excuseable, but I still believe if not for the kazillions wagered on football, there would be less insistence on instant replay.