Squanto wrote:
CriminallyVu1gar wrote:
I said no. ARod playing in underground poker games has no bearing on anything even if he was playing with guys who gamble on baseball. If ARod himself isn't gambling on baseball, I see no issue.
If you truly believe that, you don't really know the game.
There's also a hell of a lot more to this story than just one illegal poker game. (And Stu : these were illegal because the house was taking a cut. Although I don't know where the games were played, home poker games are legal as long as the house isn't taking a rake or otherwise profiting from the game itself. This was not that. )
I'm not a big fan of mixing in-sport life with out-of-sport life. If ARod wants to take steroids, or punch Jonathon Papelbon in the face, something done within the sport that has a bearing on his presence within the sport, then suspend the shit out of him. But if he wants to be an idiot outside of the sport, or hang out with unsavory characters, then take away his toy (money) and his ability (free time) with fines and imposed check-ins and mandated charity work.
If the out-of-sport infraction is illegal, and punishment for it means that the athlete is indirectly "suspended" (i.e. Plaxico going to jail obviously means he can't play football), then fine. I just want the punishment to fit the crime and to inhibit the ability and desire to commit said crime. I'm not sure a suspension is the best way to do that.
What do I need to know about the game in this instance?