Wednesday, August 3, 2011

All-In Against A-Rod

Alex Rodriguez and Jay-Z
Reports have come to light in the past few days that Major League Baseball is summoning Yankees All-Star 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez to the Commissioner's office once again.  Only this time it's not for alleged steroid use, but instead for one of Rodriguez's hobbies that has nothing to do with baseball.  Gambling, and to be more specific, high stakes poker.  It is not the first time that A-Rod has been linked to poker games across the country and apparently MLB is taking these allegations very seriously.  After A-Rod was spotted at a popular poker parlor with Phil Hellmuth in New York City over 6 years ago, baseball officials told him to stop and stay away.  It appears that Rodriguez did not clearly understand the message because now reports are out that he participated in at least two different high stakes games, one in Beverly Hills with actors Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Leo DiCaprio amongst others, as well as a game he organized himself that ended in a near brawl with one participant who refused to pay up after suffering over $500,000 in losses that particular evening.  I understand that gambling is a very touchy subject in and around baseball with everything that happened with Pete Rose back in the 70's and 80's.  In fact, it is so taboo that it is merely referred to as the "G" word as to not even breath life into such a word.  However, the gambling that A-Rod is participating in has nothing to do with baseball, betting on baseball, or fixing the outcome of baseball games.  So many of these so-called "baseball purists" that are calling for A-Rod's banishment from the game certainly have their own skeletons in their closet, though they would have you believe they are holier than thou.  Gambling is so popular and common amongst professional athletes that if you were to take a poll throughout the 4 major professional sports, I'd be willing to bet (pun intended) that 85-90% currently or have in the past participated in some form of "illegal" gambling at one time or another.  The number of cards games such as booray, spades, poker, or dominoes that take place on any given professional teams bus, charter flight, locker room, or hotel is unbelievably high, to the point that I can guarantee you it is a DAILY occurrence.  Quite frankly, gambling is so popular amongst young male professional athletes who have a whole lot of money and a whole lot of free time on their hands.  To think that the only place that people go to gamble regularly is Las Vegas and Atlantic City is not only extremely naive, but a tad foolish.  To think that so many people are calling for Alex Rodriguez to be suspended for a significant amount of time, because he chooses to spend some of his $30 million annual salary playing Texas Hold 'Em is absolutely ludicrous.  In all reality, A-Rod wasn't the participant in that game that actually lost the $500k, but even if he was, that's not even a drop in the hat to him.  When word had leaked about Charles Barkley's gambling addiction and the money that he owed to a Las Vegas casino a few years back, certain folks across the country found cause for concern.  Turns out, Charles is a millionaire and can afford to gamble, but the fact of the matter is, Alex Rodriguez has made 4-5 times more money in his career than Barkley ever did.  He certainly can afford it, although it appears that money isn't the issue here.  If the MLB front office really wants to suspend Alex Rodriguez for how he chooses to spend his spare time, then they had better start taking a closer look at what "illegal activities" are taking place in and around their clubhouses, hotels and charter jets on a daily basis.  And for once, we are actually not talking about steroids and performance enhancing drugs.