The MLB Gambling Scandal Is Just Beginning

➡ The article discusses the rise in crime rates due to legalized gambling, with desperate gamblers resorting to illegal activities to recover their losses. It also highlights the ongoing issue of gambling within professional sports, with players and league personnel involved. The article suggests that the increase in gambling is due to the ease of access, with betting now available on phones and computers. The author also mentions a recent scandal involving two Major League Baseball players indicted for allegedly participating in an illegal sports betting scheme.
➡ Prosecutors claim that Claes and Ortiz, two MLB players, conspired with bettors to manipulate game outcomes. They allegedly shared inside information about specific pitches, which the bettors used to place bets. However, one plan failed when a batter unexpectedly swung at a pitch meant to be a ball, causing a loss. The indictment also suggests that this scheme has been ongoing for about two years, potentially involving large sums of money.
➡ Two professional baseball players are facing charges of wire fraud conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering. They are accused of influencing game outcomes for betting purposes. Despite these allegations, both players maintain their innocence and are currently on paid leave. The situation has sparked discussions about the prevalence of gambling in sports, with concerns that it could lead to more such incidents, especially now that college athletes are allowed to bet on professional sports.
➡ The speaker warns about the dangers of addictive behaviors like drug use and gambling, especially in the context of sports. He argues that making these activities more accessible can lead to more problems, as not everyone can control their impulses. He also emphasizes the potential damage to sports if people believe games are being manipulated due to gambling. Lastly, he advises athletes to protect their careers and personal lives by avoiding these risky behaviors.

Foreign that they started to make legalized gambling in. The crime rate went up in every single category from petty crime right up to serious crime. Every category. The crime rate rose because gamblers get desperate when they lose their money and they don’t know how to make it back and they have no more money to play with. They do things that are desperate because they want to make that money back. They have to. They’re broke now. What are they want to do? How did they know about this? Somebody had to tell him. I’m sure the pitcher didn’t tell him, so somebody had to tell him.

Now, did they try to set Clays up with this? Did the better one get in trouble for something? They didn’t say. Better one was indicted. They said Clays was indicting. Was it set up? Was this an undercover agent? Are they now having undercover people in pro sports to try to find out who’s trying to manipulate the game, who’s trying to make some extra money, who’s trying to defraud the game? I don’t know. But better one is not named. Why not in my view right now. And again, this is a wild guess, but an educated, experienced guest.

Hey everyone. Welcome to another sit down with Michael Francis. Hope everybody is doing well. All is very good, very blessed on this end. As always, my friends, I give all the praise, honor, glory and thanksgiving to our God for that. Well, what did I tell you a couple of weeks ago when this whole NBA gambling scandal hit? I told you that it could be the tip of the iceberg if the department of justice, the FBI is going to continue to look for this gambling issue in all of pro sports and maybe college sports too. I told you that.

Well, it’s two weeks later and now we have something that happened in major league baseball and people, it’s going to continue. You know, the leagues have to understand this and they probably do. But you know, money comes in and people see the money and hey, let’s make money. You know, the leagues have to understand I’ve been telling them this for 30 years, ever since they recruited me to speak to athletes. Why did they recruit me? Had a big gambling operation, a number of bookmakers working with me, and of course we had athletes gambling with us from all the sports in New York and surrounding areas.

So I told them, the more access you give the players, the more problems you’re going to have. Bottom line, players gamble. It is an extension of their competitive spirit. They like to raise the stakes in a competition and they like it. The adrenaline, it’s a Rush, they’re going to continue to do it. The more ability you give them to gamble now, it’s on their phones, on their computers, everywhere they want. It’s so easy. And now the leagues are partnering with all the gambling sites. You know, I can tell you this. I guarantee you the players are even resentful of that.

Hey, we’re not allowed to gamble. But here we are, the leagues, they’re in bed now. They’re partners with gambling sites, and they’re earning a lot of money, and they’re earning it on our backs because we’re the players, we’re the ones they’re betting on. But they tell us we can’t bet, we can’t gamble, we can’t bet on anything. Nonsense. These players are resentful. Some of them, the ones that want to gamble, they’re resentful saying, hey, why should we hold back when they’re making money on our backs? That’s kind of what they’re thinking. I know that for a fact.

Let’s leave it at that. I don’t put people in trouble and name names, but I know it for a fact. I’ve had a lot of contact in the last couple of weeks with people involved in the sport. So I know what’s going on. And I’ve known this all along. When I woke up last Thursday and I’m getting bombarded by all the networks, they wanted to talk about this because I’m kind of the go to, you go to guy on this. I’ve been doing it for years. I wasn’t surprised at all. I wasn’t shocked. They said, michael, are you surprised? No, I’m not.

Not at all. Because this has been going on forever. The only thing that did surprise me was that four of the five New York families were involved in this, which meant to me right then and there. And I told them this is widespread because I guarantee it wasn’t the families all working together. It was different parts of different people and different families working separately. And they found it all out. Why did they find it all out? Well, they have informants. No doubt about it. With the NBA gambling scandal, there was one guy, one. Whether he was an informant or an undercover agent, I don’t know.

We don’t have that information. But this one Guy had over 3,000 texts and communication among the participants in this alleged scheme. Let me be clear on this. Everybody’s innocent until proven guilty. You know, I’ve said that thousands of times, because that’s what I believe. I’m only saying these are the allegations. But I will say this. Players are gambling league personnel day gambling, no doubt about it. And they’re gambling more now than they did in my day. Why? Because they have more access. They don’t have to go to only a bookmaker and look for one around town.

They don’t have to go to the sports book in Vegas. They can gamble anywhere on their phones, anywhere that they want. So it’s going to continue, people. And if the FBI wants to put a division in to monitor gambling in pro sports, college sports also, then they’re going to continue making these arrests. They will find people out, no question about it. And if they do the same thing like they did in Wall street with the SEC monitoring what goes on in Wall street, they’re going to continue to make arrests, no doubt about it. I’m going to read an article about what happened in Major League Baseball in the last day or two.

It’s been news, you probably know about it, but let me give you my perception of it. And, and as I read through it, I’ll talk about something specifically that I’m aware of. My friends you may not have heard, but I now have a wine branded in my name, Franz East Wine. I’m very proud of it. It comes from the world’s first vineyards. We have alcoholic wine and non alcoholic wine. Several varieties, fruit varieties, you’re going to love it. Different than anywhere you’ve ever tasted before. So enjoy this with your friends. Go to franz easwine.com and offer you shouldn’t refuse but a taste you’re going to love.

And this is the title of the article is what Emanuel Clays great picture with the Guardians texted better after allegedly planned rigged pitch went awry. The now let me tell you what it means by these rigged pitches. These are proposition bets. These are bets you can bet on things that happen during the game that are separate and apart from the score, the final score. They’re just different. When it comes to a pitcher, you can bet on the next pitch that he’s going to throw. And of course, if the pitcher knows the next pitch that he’s going to throw, whether it’s going to be a ball or a strike or he’s going to hit the batter, he can let somebody know, hey, bet this on that next pitch because this is what I’m going to throw, remember? I mean it’s that easy.

Yes. These gambling sites you can gamble on almost anything that happens in a game. Anything. I mean, so it gets people’s juices. You don’t have to be an Athlete to enjoy it, but athletes specifically enjoy it. And look at how easy that is. I’m a pitcher. I want to make some money, or I want to help somebody out, or somebody’s got, you know, got the goods on me or something I did wrong. I want to help them make money. I don’t want to take it out of my pocket. I. So I said, listen, here’s what you can do.

You know, I’m gonna throw a ball the next pitch, okay? Bet on that. Just bet on that. Whatever amount of money you put down, bet on it and you’re gonna make some money with me. You do that a couple of times, you’re gonna make somebody wealthy. You’re in debt, you owe a bookmaker, you’re gonna make them wealthy. You’re gonna make all this money back without having to go into your pocket. Look at how easy it is. But sometimes things get screwed up. Let me read this article. That’s what happened here. While federal prosecutors alleged that Guardian’s closer Emmanuel Claes, a great picture, by the way, was involved in an illegal sports betting scheme, that didn’t always go according to plan.

Remember, innocent until proven guilty. These are allegations. Right now, I am not making a decision either way. I’m only telling you, yes, it’s possible. No doubt about it. You’ll agree with me. As I read, Claes, along with fellow pitcher Luis Ortiz, another great one, was indicted on Sunday. Usually indictments don’t come down on a Sunday. That’s weird. But hey, they did it. With prosecutors alleging that Claes and Ortiz agreed in advance with their co conspirators on specific pitches that they would throw in MLB games, which in turn, their co conspirators, the people making the bets, then use that information to place hundreds of fraudulent bets on those pitchers.

Now they’re saying they’re fraudulent bets. They’re not fraudulent bets. They made the bets. What happened is they had inside information. So they call it fraudulent bets because you had inside information. But the betters, hey, if they get information, they’re allowed to bet. They shouldn’t even be in trouble for it. Hey, somebody told me this was going to happen, so I made a bet. Why should they be in trouble for it? Think about it. If the pitcher wants to do it, it’s up to them. I don’t. I don’t know. And you know what? As we read this, you’ll understand what I mean.

However, in one instance, on May 28, 2025, day after my birthday, according to the indictment, Place’s plan went awry when one batter swung at a pitch that the Cleveland pitcher allegedly threw out of the strike zone on purpose, costing Claes and the Betters money. So here’s what happened. He bet that it was going to be a ball. The next pitch, he was throwing it out of the strike zone. The batter wouldn’t swing at it, but somehow he did. And therefore they made the bet that that pitch was going to be a ball. But the batter swung at it.

He missed it, so it was a strike. So they lost on that. Now, how can you control that? Normally, if you throw something pretty well out of the strike zone, the batter’s not going to swing at it. Even though I’ve seen some batters do some crazy things, swing us up, pitches that I don’t even think I would have swung at, and I’m no pro ball player, but this is what happened here. So maybe he didn’t throw it far enough out of the strike zone. Who knows? Or maybe the batter just, you know, he was reaching. I don’t know.

The Guardians were playing the Dodgers, and after confirming through text that he was all set to take part in the scheme that particular day, the Dodger player who was at bat, Andy Pages, swung at the pitch that was low and outside the strike zone. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Okay? He texted the person that was placing the bet. Well, how did they know about this? Somebody had to tell him. I’m sure the pitcher didn’t tell him. So somebody had to tell him. Remember when I said, the guy placing the bet, what did he do wrong? If he was told by the pitcher, hey, I’m throwing a ball and he bet on it.

I don’t see what he did wrong. Is he in his scheme? They can say it’s a scheme to defraud Major League Baseball. I don’t know. That’s kind of. That’s kind of a stretch. It’s kind of reaching, in my opinion. I’m not the law. I’m not the government. But you decide if somebody comes up to you and says, hey, I know for a fact that next pitch is going to be a ball, and you bet on it, did you do something wrong? I don’t know. Which leads me to believe there’s something a little crazy going on here.

The indictment alleged that Claes and the betters wagered approximately $4,000. Clay’s makes a lot of money. $4,000. You say to yourself, why would he do that? Total that the first pitch that would be thrown would be a ball or A hit by pitch. Probably should have hit him. Would have been better off. Okay, let me keep going here. Approximately 20 minutes after better one. Now they’re not releasing Better One’s name. Let me get to that. Lost the wager. On May 28, 2025, Better One sent a text message to the defendant, Manuel Clays de La Cruz. A GIF image of a man hanging himself with toilet paper.

The indictment stated, even though the Cleveland Guardians won the game, approximately 10 minutes later, Clays responded to Better One with a GIF image of a sad puppy dog face. Now, Better One, they’re not naming this guy, in my view right now. And again, this is a wild guess, but an educated, experienced guess. He might be the informant, because how would they know? Now, did they try to set Claes up with this? Did the Better One get in trouble for something? They didn’t say Better One was indicted. They said Claes was indicted. Was it set up? Was this an undercover agent? Are they now having undercover people in pro sports to try to find out who’s trying to manipulate the game, who’s trying to make some extra money, who’s trying to defraud, you know, the.

The game? I don’t know. But Better One is not named. Why not? In my opinion right now, and it’s an assumption only I could be wrong, that’s probably the informant. That’s probably how the government knew. Now, was the informant planted? Like I said, did he get in trouble in another way and decided to cooperate? Was he squeezed? Let me throw this out. Also, was the mob involved in this? Possibly. Possibly. They had Better One in there. Could be. Right. And then Better One, for some reason, turned bad and started cooperating with the government. There’s a million ways that the government could have found this out.

Really? There’s so many ways it could have found. Maybe it was on a wiretap, maybe they were surveilling. Maybe they got somebody else, got in trouble and said, hey, you know what? I know where this is going on in another place. So many people start to talk when they get in trouble. Trust me. Especially if they’re not, you know, used to this kind of stuff and they want to save themselves. There’s different ways. Were the mob guys behind this? Did they put Better One up to this? Did Clay get in trouble with one of the bookmakers and decided this is a way for me to, you know, to pay off the debt, that they’ve got something on me? Are they blackmailing him? Who knows? It could be all of the above.

Maybe we’ll find out as this thing continues. Place has not been arrested yet following the unsealing of the indictment on Sunday. And it’s alleged that he began rigging prop bets around May 2023, while Ortiz is said to have become involved in June 2025. So think of this. Claes allegedly started doing this in 2023. Two years, two years. He was doing this two seasons. Oh, maybe three. 22, 23, 24, 25. Three seasons before it caught up with him. How much money was made? Think about it and look at how easy it is, how easy it’s on a pitch.

These proposition bets make it easy. Now, granted, you don’t win a lot on these prop bets, but if you could do it consistently, you do, because the house takes a good cut, they take their percentage, you don’t win as much. But if you’re doing it consistently and look how easy it is. Yeah, I’m gonna throw a ball. Bet on that. That’s how many ways you can bet today, you can bet on. For those of you that are experienced gamblers, you know, you can bet on almost anything. Anything at all, you know? But for those of you that are not experienced, this is how far it’s come.

You can bet on anything. That’s why people have a blast with this. It’s like playing a game, except it’s real money being won and lost. So you expect athletes not to get involved in this. Could you imagine when they’re talking amongst each other, can you imagine if one of them gets in debt, how easy it is to him to get out of it? If he has one person he can trust, just one. You. You get me next to that athlete right now and let me be the one placing the bets. Forget it. I can place them in different places around town.

I can do it in such a way where nobody’s going to know about it. Trust me, never get caught. But this guy, two years, he got away with this. How many games or how many propositions were fixed? And you know what? Maybe it didn’t even impact the outcome of the game, because these are separate and apart from the outcome of the game. If you throw one ball, if you. If you. If you’re on a mound for six innings, right, and you give information on six, seven, eight, nine, ten pitches out of. Out of that many pitches that you’re going to throw in six innings, who’s going to really know? Think about it.

You can make a ton of money if this is done consistently. Consistently. Every time that picture comes up. What, every five days. Now it’s a, they usually pitch on five days rest. If it’s a reliever, he comes in a couple of times a week. They can make a lot of money. Think about it. And it’s not only the pitcher, it’s the batters too. It’s, it’s everybody involved in the game. There’s so many. Go look it up on Major League Baseball. Go look up on the NFL. Go look, look at proposition bets and look at how many different ways you can bet within the context of a game.

It’s mind boggling and it’s exciting and players are definitely going to do it, especially when all they have to do is pick up their phone. Boom, boom, boom, it’s done. Amazing. I’m telling you, it’s amazing. Let me continue. The pair is facing wire fraud conspiracy. Honest services wire fraud conspiracy. I never heard of that one. Conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy charges. Ortiz’s lawyer, Chris Gergales issued a statement denying his client did anything wrong and said Ortiz has never and would never improperly influence a game. There is no credible evidence Luis knowingly did anything other than to try to win games with every pitch and in every inning.

Luis looks forward to fighting these charges in court, Jorgales said, per the Associated Press. Well, listen, that’s a good lawyer. Deny, deny, deny, deny, deny. Of course you do that. We’ll see what the final outcome is. As far as I’m concerned, yes, these players are innocent until proven guilty. I’ve said that all the time, no question about it. No matter what the situation is innocent until until proven guilty. I believe that 100%. Both players have been placed on non disciplinary paid leave in July after Major League Baseball started the investigation. Now when they say Major League Baseball and started the investigation, did they start it or did the FBI contact them and say, listen, we have this information and you better look into it.

Who knows how we don’t have that information yet. Could have went either way. Major, maybe Major League Baseball started it and they in turn told the FBI, who knows? But obviously the FBI, Department of Justice made them fishing around here for a while. We saw the NBA deal, now we’re seeing it. Major League, Major League Baseball. So this has been going on for a while and like I said, and I’ll repeat myself if it continues, if they say, hey, we’re going to put a division of our agency in charge of pro sports and gambling and we’re going to see what we continue to develop, they will keep developing new cases, no question about it players are not going to stop.

They’re not going to stop. And if they go into college sports, going to get even worse. Especially now that these college players, many of them are getting paid. The good ones are getting paid. They have money. And they’re allowed now to gamble on pro sports. As of a couple of weeks ago, the NCAA allowed them to before when I was doing this. And right up until two or three weeks ago, they weren’t allowed to gamble on anything. Nothing at all. It was a violation. They could get suspended, lose their, you know, position, the whole bit, lose their scholarship, everything.

But now they’re allowed to gamble on pro sports because the NCAA said they wanted to give them equality with their peers on campus. Their peers on campus were able to gamble. So why shouldn’t those student athletes be able to gamble? That was their reasoning, as far as I know. So I believe you’re going to see more in college sports, too, if they are paying attention to it. I showed you how easy it is. Go look up people. Go look up proposition bets on every sport. They’ll give you an encyclopedia on how to place bets on every sport.

Get in touch with one of these. Look into one of these gambling sites, and they’ll show you. I don’t do it. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t gamble. I really don’t. I learned from the people that got destroyed gambling, and I don’t gamble. You know, I got to tell you a quick story. My father, he always told me three. He says, michael, there’s three things that could kill you. Wine, gambling, and women. Watch all three of them. Don’t get involved, of course. Drugs, you knew, that was a whole different thing. Wine, gambling, and women. Okay, Dad, I get it.

One day, a bunch of my friends wanted to go to the track. I said, okay, let’s go. My dad wouldn’t like it, but let’s do it. Well, right? I had a Lincoln Continental back then. We had hubcaps. Remember hubcaps? Okay, we had hubcaps. I go in and with a bunch of my guys, my friends, and I was like 19 years old. 18. 19. Just before my father went to prison in. When did he go in? 1970. So I was like 18 years old, right? Just allowed to vote legally. So I go in and I bet on nine races.

Nine. And I lose seven out of the nine. I wasn’t betting big money. I have big money, but I lose seven out of the nine. I said, man, my father, he must have something to do with this. Maybe he’s watching Me. And can I be that bad, that unlucky? Well, not only did I lose seven out of the nine, you know, races, but when I go out to get in my car, somebody robbed all my hubcaps. And I said, you know what? This is a sign. I am not gambling. Whenever I went to Vegas, I gambled with house money.

We had things set up. I used to gamble at the Dunes Hotel back then, but I took markers, you know, from then, and we paid them back a little bit at a time. We didn’t have to do it. I took a lot of market. I was gambling with house money, never with my own. I just don’t gamble, you know, I got two boys. Sometimes they get a little overboard. I tried to tell them not to gamble. People. I’ve seen more people destroy their lives over gambling than I have. Drugs or alcohol. Maybe because I was in the business of it, but I seen it, and it’s.

It’s just as addictive as anything else. The problem with gambling, you don’t see it. There’s no physical signs. Drugs, you see it. Alcohol, you see it. Gambling, you could be hiding it for a while until it’s too late, until you’re broke, until you do something to make up. I’ve seen people go rob banks, students go rob banks when they got in debt. And not for a lot of money, a couple of grand, but they didn’t know what else to do. I can relay story after story, story after story. And if you want me to do a whole video on that, I’ll do it with examples of people that got themselves in trouble and went out to do atrocious things.

I want to tell you this, too. Look it up. Look up the stats. You know, every city. And now I think there’s 38 states across the country that have legalized gambling. But before all these states made it legal, every city that they started to make legalized gambling in, the crime rate went up in every single category, from petty crime right up to serious crime. Every category, the crime rate rose because gamblers get desperate when they lose their money and they don’t know how to make it back and they have no more money to play with. They do things that are desperate because they want to make that money back.

They have to. They’re broke now. What are they going to do? Don’t take my word for it. Go do the research on it. You’ll find out. Every single city, the crime rate rose in every city category, from petty crime right up to serious crimes. So listen, if you have a. A Tendency to be addictive. If you have that kind of personality. You got to be careful with gambling and athletes. Come on, they’re so competitive to begin with. My son in law, my future son in law, played with the San Francisco Giants. He was a pitcher in their system for five years in the minor leagues.

Darn good pitcher. Great kid, by the way. You know, he’s not a kid be 30 years old. But you know, even he told me stories. You know, look, they love to gamble. You know, how much money is lost in a. But in a bus ride or a plane ride? Of course, in the minor leagues, you don’t make that much money. But think about the pros. These guys got money to burn, money to burn. And this is fun for them. And it’s competitive. They don’t want to just sit in a plane. They sit in that plane and they’re playing.

They’re playing poker, they’re doing whatever, trust me. And when they can gamble, they gamble if it’s just for the fun of it. But you know what? Even when it’s just for the fun of it, they lose and they lose big. And then things start to happen, okay? And if organized crime is involved and they get the finger on you, forget it. You’re trapped at that point. Let me finish this up, okay? The latest sports betting scandal comes weeks after the NBA was rocked by mob link schemes that involved a current NBA head coach and player. You know all about that, right? We, we talked about that.

And I have to tell you, you know, for the last two weeks, I can’t even begin to tell you how many shows I’ve been on from cnn. I did a special on Netflix. I mean, you know, National Geographic, I mean, a whole bunch of. Because everybody’s interested in this. Because, look, people, you know, when they first drafted me, drafted me, I sound like I’m a player. I’m not a player. When they first recruited me, I should say to speak to the athletes when I was leaving prison, all right, a couple of months to go in prison.

You know, it was widespread then, it really was. But now it’s to a whole different level. An entirely different level, because now they have access. You know, I am a firm believer the more access you give to people for things that are no good for them, the more trouble you’re going to have. You know, even legalizing marijuana, you know, look, it’s a touchy subject because people say, you know what? Marijuana is marijuana, it doesn’t lead to other things. And. But look, I had a sister that died of an Overdose of drugs. And she started by smoking weed.

My brother, I don’t know if he started by smoking weed, but he smoked a lot of weed, you know, and then he went on to higher things when he had his drug issues. So is it a gateway drug? Yes, it is. For those people that can’t control it and want more and outgrow the high that marijuana will or weed gives them, then they move on to more potent drugs. It’s a fact. So why would you make it more available? Why would you make it legally more available to people? People that don’t know. They don’t know if they have an addictive personality.

They don’t know that. So you’re giving it to them to try it out. Why? Well, Michael, they’re adults, and they should be able to control themselves. Well, yeah, that’s true, but some people just can’t. So why would you tempt them that way by making it legal? And look, there’s a lot of studies coming down about marijuana. I’m not going to get into all of that, and I’m not going to repeat it now. And I know I’m mixing apples and oranges, but I’m really not. Because gambling, they’re addictive. They both had the potential to addict you to what they.

They provide. So, look, you got to be careful. You know, I’ve been preaching this now for 30 years, you guys, to be careful. And look, the leagues have to hold themselves responsible. I’m sorry. They do. You know, back in 2017, 2018, Pete Roselle was telling everybody the dangers of gambling and how bad it is and how athletes shouldn’t gamble and people shouldn’t be gambling. I knew it wasn’t real back then because they want you to be gambling on their sports because it creates more interest in the sport. Of course they do. They don’t want their players gambling, but look what they’re doing.

They’re putting it out there. Hey, we’re partners with all these gambling sites. We’re making money with these gambling sites based upon your performances, your backs. You guys are doing the work. So, you know, the players, like I said earlier, they resent it. So, look, you opened up a big can of worms here, and it’s going to continue. And I’m telling you this. We’ve already seen it this season with the. With some college athletes. We’ve seen it already, and we’re going to continue to see it. How bad is it going to be? I don’t know. One. One thing I wanted to say, Kevin Hallahan, who Is a great friend.

He was the. The head of security for Major League Baseball. He’s one of the guys that recruited me, him and Horace Bomber and Kevin said to me, michael, you know, this is really urgent. You need to come and speak to our players. Because in Major League Baseball we can get over the steroid issue. We’ll deal with that. You know, know, some players will, Will, will suspend them. We’ll do what we did with whatever. We can get over that. We can get over that. You know, we can get over some abuse. You know, guy gets out of line, he abuses people, maybe sexually abuses his wife, we can get over that, too.

Isolate an incident. We can’t get over gambling. If people start to think that our sport is being rigged and it’s not played fair and the players are manipulating the game or the umpires are manipulating the game or the coaches, we’re not going to get over that. That will really hurt the sport. And he was right on. And Kevin was, Was very, very diligent about what he did. And he did a great service to Major League Baseball back then, as did Horace Bomber for the NBA. So look again, Tip of the iceberg, proving it now. We’re going to see more of this.

If they continue these investigations, they’ll have to. It’s going to continue. These athletes, many of them think they’re invincible. They don’t know who they’re talking to. They’re not street people, so to speak. They don’t know that the person they’re talking to could be a snitch, could be an informant, could be an undercover operative. Who knows? They get on. They do texts, they make phone calls. It’s silly stuff. They don’t know how to protect themselves. They think they’re invincible. And I understand that. They’re making money, they’re heroes, everybody loves them, you know, center of attention. But they don’t know.

And if they continue, they’re going to be reckless, they’re going to be careless, and they’re going to be caught. So my advice to all of you out there, protect your career, protect your families, protect your. Your. Your personal lives, and don’t get messed up in this. When you get out of the sport, do whatever you want, but while you’re in it, be careful. That’s it. My friends, how do I always leave you? Same way. Be safe, be healthy, and God bless each and every one of you. I always say, there’s your family, your community, your neighborhood, your loved ones.

And God bless America. Yes, I’ll see you next time. Stay tuned. Sa.
[tr:tra].