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Posted By: davidcycleback

As they say, "Sport is a game of rules." It isn't "Sport is a game of laws."

If the rules are clear and written out (Must touch a base to be safe, football field
is 100 yards, 9 players only on field, banned for life if bet on baseball), these
are what are to be followed. Speed limits and drugs laws are beside the point, unless
they are part of the rules. Baseball never said betting on baseball was against the law,
they said it was against the rules. And the rules are what a sport follows.

I always find dubious the arguments that Rose should be allowed back baseball for betting,
because so-and-so did drugs or didn't pay alimony or otherwise broke
the law. The betting rule is exclusing from drug and tax laws. Baseball's betting rule has nothing
to do with the US or State laws, just as the distance between bases has nothing
to do with the law. Baseball knows that it's legal to bet on sports and gamble in
many areas. But, because they feel it is important for the game, they have a rule
that forbids players and managers betting on MLB games, and the rule spells out
the punishment.

I've never heard anyone argue that a player should be called safe even though he
didn't touch the base, because other baserunners do coccaine. The rule about baserunning
is clear and written out and, obviously, others' coccaine use is irrlevant to tagging base.
Yet, I hear drug laws and tax laws quoted when discussing baseball following
it's long standing rules about betting. That Fergie Jenkins did coccaine and Duke Snider skipped his taxes
may be interesting and applicable to other situations, but have nothing to do with baseball's
rule on betting.

The other dubious argument is when a fan says, "Well, I can bet on baseball." This factoid
has nothing to do with MLB's betting rules. Despite MLB's rules, this
fan can also play backyard baseball with an aluminum bat, wearing jeans, no shirt,
have a 1" pitching mound, have 5 players per team, set a game at 5 innings and smoke
a pipe while pitching. It is true you can do these things and aren't required
to wear a athletic cup at your job, but this has little relevance to MLB and its
rules. MLB makes its rules for its members only, and isn't even pretending that
their rules should influence or mirror the fans' rules at work and home, or that
their base stealing rules were derived by studing New York Federal Court cases.

In short, for MLB and its members, when it comes to deciding if a player is safe, a
strike is a strike or what is the baseball punishment for betting on MLB, it doesn't matter what
is the law in Pheonix or Fargo or Paris. It matters what are the rules in MLB.