MLBPA’s Clark says safety concerns up amid NBA gambling scandal

TORONTO — Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark said Friday that “there is a lot of work to be done” by MLB in the wake of another sports gambling scandal hitting the NBA this week.

Speaking before Game 1 of the World Series at Rogers Centre, Clark reiterated that he is concerned about the problems sports gambling presents to players, including safety worries as threats directed at athletes from gamblers mount.

Clark pointed to the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018 — giving states the go-ahead to legalize betting on sports — saying the union had players “within 24 hours reach out, suggesting they were suddenly being followed by gambling sites and other entities.”

“It’s just a different world,” Clark said. “So, every time, again, something happens, yeah, our concerns become greater, and everyone on some level recognized that the world was going to be different.”

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MLB has confronted several scandals in recent years as sports gambling has become more prevalent across the United States. Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been on non-disciplinary paid leave since July as part of the league’s investigation into sports gambling. Last year, outfielder Tucupita Marcano was banned for life for placing bets on baseball games. In February, umpire Pat Hoberg was fired for violating the league’s gambling rules.

“We work closely with the league to ensure the safety and well-being of our players,” Clark said. “So, that remains front and center. That alone, with the educating of our players, making sure that they understand what they can and can’t do is consistent and constant. But rest assured, every time there’s a situation that arises related to gambling, the concern doesn’t lessen. It gets greater.”

Clark also stressed that the union remains adamantly against implementing a salary cap in the next collective bargaining agreement and that the Dodgers winning back-to-back titles would not materially change negotiations for the next CBA, calling that prospect “a lot of chatter.”

The Dodgers are seeking to become the first club to repeat as champions since the Yankees won three consecutive titles from 1998 through 2000.

“The sky was falling as the Yankees repeated,” Clark said. “Here we are nearly 30 years later, and the industry has grown exponentially. The idea that there is excellence among the clubs, you tip your hat to those clubs. There’s opportunities for all 30 teams to be excellent. Some are investing in that excellence. Some aren’t.”

The Dodgers’ payroll and luxury tax penalties this season are a combined $509 million, by far the most in baseball. The Blue Jays’ $242 million payroll ranked fifth. After winning the National League pennant, Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts made headlines by addressing critics of the Dodgers’ spending, joking that the team needed four more wins to “really ruin baseball.”

“The question for me would be: Who is working to create the narrative that is challenging the excellence that we’re seeing?” Clark said.