Major League Baseball’s stunning gambling suspensions handed down this month to five players—including a lifetime ban for San Diego Padres prospect Tucupita Marcano—are the product of an unwieldy system that dates back to the seminal MLB gambling scandal with the 1919 Black Sox.
Two pieces of text form the backbone of baseball’s gambling policy: Rule 21(d) of MLB’s own rules and bylaws, and Attachment 61 of the Basic Agreement negotiated between the owners and the MLB Players Association.
MLB Rule 21 has long guided the code of ethics regarding gambling, and it’s behind the lifetime suspensions of uniformed baseball personnel from Shoeless [Joe] Jackson to Pete Rose.
