The damage was so devastating that MLB appointed its first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, solely to clean up the mess. The scandal remains shrouded in myth, but it involved eight players who were banished from baseball for conspiring to throw the World Series. The MLB rule is in plain view in every clubhouse-including Pete Rose’s clubhouse, right as he was breaking it-because of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Elsewhere in these ballparks are gambling signs of a different kind: ads and sponsorship logos for DraftKings, BetMGM, FanDuel, and the like.
It says that any player, umpire, or employee of a team or the league who bets on a game they’re not involved in will be banned from MLB for a year if they are involved in the game, the ban is for life. In every Major League Baseball clubhouse, a sign with Major League Rule 21(d) is prominently posted.
