Contents
Pregame Pepper
Charlie Morton, the NL’s oldest active starter at age 40, allowed one run over seven innings last Friday in Flushing to join Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw and Johnny Cueto as the only active pitchers with at least 2,000 innings pitched . . .
Verlander has a long lead in victories, with 258 at last look, but is still a long-shot for 300 — especially considering his recent injury history . . .
Raisel Iglesias has joined Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman and Edwin Díaz as the only active pitchers with at least 200 saves . . .
After throwing seven hitless innings for the Braves against the Mets in Flushing Saturday, potential free agent Max Fried had allowed four hits in his last 20 innings of work . . .
On the same day, much-hyped Pittsburgh prospect Paul Skenes took a 6-1 lead into the fifth inning of his big-league bow, then watched wildness from the bullpen combine with a sudden thunderstorm to wipe out his effort . . .
This six-man Texas starting rotation is on the injured list simultaneously: Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, Dane Dunning, Cody Bradford and Tyler Mahle . . .
After Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski visited grandson Mike Yastrzemski when the Giants played in Fenway Park May 2, the younger Yaz responded with a home run . . .
Braves manager Brian Snitker once roomed with two-time Toronto manager Cito Gaston in the Florida Instructional League . . .
Gabe Kapler, former manager of the Giants and Phillies, is next in line for Miami after Skip Schumaker.
Leading Off
Banned from Major League Baseball
By Thomas Holmes
Back in April, the baseball world was rocked with gambling allegations connected to superstar Shohei Ohtani. Allegations of theft and fraud along with gambling are involving Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. The story is still developing and all the details are not out yet. However, how involved was Ohtani in Mizuhara affairs? Does Ohtani bear any responsibility for Mizuhara’s actions with connections to MLB?
Ohtani and Mizuhara met in Japan in 2013. At the time, the 18-year-old Ohtani was playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters. Five years later, Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels and brought Mizuhara with him to California.
According to an article published by CBSSports.com, Mizuhara met with a bookmaker named Mathew Bowyer at poker game in San Diego. Mizuhara began placing bets, on credit, but claimed his bets were not on baseball.
In 2022, Mizuhara’s debt exceeded $1 million and he began borrowing money from others. It was not until the following year, when his debts reached $4 million, that Mizuhara asked Ohtani for financial assistance.
Ohtani’s name allegedly appears on two wire transfers totaling $1 million. Under Rule 21(d)(2) reads, “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.” It is unclear whether Ohtani knew that the money transfer was used to pay a gambling debt.
In March 2024, Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers and MLB opened an investigation. Ohtani continues to claim his innocence during the ongoing investigation. In April, Mizuhara was charged with bank fraud for allegedly stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani. How does one not notice $16 million missing? I am sure Mizuhara was being paid handsomely by Ohtani, the Angels, or the Dodgers and there was no need steal money.
Is Ohtani linked to these allegations? Should Ohtani be held responsible for the money he transferred?
Commissioner Robert Manfred handed the investigation over to a federal agency knowing this situation is beyond the scope of MLB capabilities. A recent article in USA Today reports that Manfred does not plan to hold Ohtani responsible for any connection. USA Today asked the Commissioner, “Does MLB monitor gambling?” The answer: “Yes and no.” More mixed signals were sent when the article continued reporting that MLB players can bet on professional sports but not baseball.
Gambling in baseball is as old as baseball itself. Gambling ran uncontrollably throughout 19th century baseball. The Players League was a failed attempt to clean up the game. Another league was introduced in 1900 by Ban Johnson with a courageous effort to clean up the game. It became the American League in 1901.
Currently, there are 226 Blacklisted players and 62 of them have been reinstated. The most famous of them are Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose. Both are banned for their involvement in gambling circles.
Jackson vehemently denied any wrongdoing whereas Rose eventually admitted to gambling in interviews. Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were placed on this list after their playing years were over. In 1983, Mays and Mantle accepted greeter positions at a casino in Atlantic City. Commissioner Bowie Kahn banned them both. They were reinstated in 1985.
Links between gambling and baseball stretch back as far as 1865! Players Thomas Devyr, Ed Duffy, and William Wansley of the New York Mutuals were banned in 1865 for associating with known gamblers. All three players were reinstated by 1870. In 1882, a former player-turned-umpire named Dick Higham conspired to help throw a Detroit Wolverines game. Afterwards the owner of the Wolverines hired a private investigator who discovered Higham was associated with known gamblers. He became the only umpire banned for life.
Judge Landis became the first commissioner in 1920. From the beginning of baseball until 1920, there was no governing body to oversee the sport. He was brought in to clean up the game by removing gambling and players connected to gambling.
Harold Homer Chase, better known as Prince Hal, had a baseball career marred by gambling. Suspicions of Chase manipulating games became known in August 1918. Chase did not hide the company he kept. His crew consisted of known gamblers.
Accusations of fixing games and bribery surrounded Chase his entire career. Commissioner Landis never officially banned Chase from baseball. In the 1920s, he was found playing ball in a semi-pro league with some of the Black Sox players in Arizona.
Hal Chase’s teammate on the 1921 NY Giants, Heinie Zimmerman, promoted fixed ball games. Manager John McGraw benched Zimmerman and kept information from Commissioner Landis. Like Chance, Zimmerman was never officially banned but removed from baseball.
While the 1919 Black Sox Scandal took the headlines of newspapers, other gambling/fixes rings were occurring. Commissioner Landis ruled with an iron fist in the 1920s. Other than the scandal in Chicago, the St. Louis Browns’ Joe Gedeon was conspiring with gamblers and so was the Philadelphia Phillies’ Eugene Paulette. Both received bans in 1921.
Coaches and owners were banned from baseball under Commissioner Landis’ reign. In 1924, Giants outfielder James O’Connell and coach Cozy Dolan offered Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand $500 to throw the game. Phillies owner William D. Cox was banned for betting on his own team.
In today’s game, there is a gray line about gambling. Sports betting is a profitable business. Draft Kings commercials are played between innings on television. Fantasy baseball leagues are formed prior to each season.
During my spring training employment with the NY Yankees, I signed a policy letter informing me any involvement with a fantasy baseball league is grounds for dismissal. With pro sports reaching the bright lights of Las Vegas and casinos less than 90 feet apart, could games be influenced? It does not look like gambling has been removed from baseball but modified to pay gamblers a separate way.
Thomas Holmes covers the Tampa Bay Rays for MLBReport.com. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sports Management and worked for the Phillies, Yankees, Blue Jays, Buccaneers, and the Lightning. His email is thomasholmes163988@gmailcom.
Cleaning Up
Long, Heated Rivalry Between Braves and Mets Growing In Intensity
By Dan Schlossberg
It’s not Giants vs. Dodgers, Red Sox vs. Yankees, or Cubs vs. Cardinals but Braves vs. Mets has grown into a pretty significant rivalry.
As a rabid Braves fan who also happens to be a lifelong resident of Northern New Jersey, I’ve had a first-hand view: at the Polo Grounds, Shea Stadium, and CitiField.
Like the Braves, the Mets have had more different home parks (3) than world championships (2). But oh, those division titles!
The Braves have a record 23 of them — five from their time in the National League West and 18 more during their ongoing reign as Beasts of the East.
Do the math: Atlanta owns nearly two-dozen division crowns — most in the major leagues — as opposed to just a half-dozen NL East titles by the “Miracle” Mets.
All kinds of things have happened to intensify their rivalry:
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Hobie Landrith, a light-hitting catcher who was the first expansion draft pick of the Mets, once hit a pop fly down the right-field line that turned into his only home run for the Mets — and deprived Braves ace Warren Spahn of a sure win
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Mets fans had little celebrate in 1962, when the first-year expansion team went 40-120 with two games cancelled by weather, but took a double-header from the Braves on May 12 — to the consternation of Milwaukee fans who watched the game in the horseshoe-shaped Polo Grounds
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Before moving from Milwaukee to Atlanta, the Braves sold an over-the-hill Spahn to the Mets, where he also served as pitching coach but failed to pitch as well as he preached
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Asked if he and unretired catcher Yogi Berra would be baseball’s oldest battery, Spahn said, “I don’t know if we’d be the oldest but we’d certainly be the ugliest”
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The Braves foolishly sold the Mets veteran slugger Frank Thomas, who became the first 30-homer man in Mets history
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Light-hitting utility infielder Felix Mantilla also became a sudden slugger after the Braves sent him to the Mets
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Another Felix, Felix Millan, played well for the Mets after the Braves traded him
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Mets fans thought they could upset future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones by mocking his given first name of “Larry” [it didn’t work]
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Jones hit 45 home runs against the Mets, performing so well in New York that he named his son Shea to spite the fans there
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Chipper saved his very first career home run for Shea Stadium, on May 9, 1995
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Mets fans also berated future MVP Terry Pendleton by yelling, “Terry, you have a girl’s name” [that didn’t work either]
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After Braves closer John Rocker disrespected New York and its NL team, fans focused their venom on him until the Braves famously traded him to Cleveland — during a game at Shea Stadium
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In 1966, future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver signed with the Braves after they drafted him in the first round of the secondary amateur draft (20th overall) but wound up with the Mets after Commissioner William Eckert invalidated the deal, invited teams to match the offer, and allowed the Mets to win a three-team lottery with the Indians and Phillies
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Three years later, the “Miracle Mets” swept the first NL Championship Series — then a best-of-five affairs — from a favored Braves team that inexplicably imploded (with the notable exception of Hank Aaron)
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After Atlanta acquired little-used pitcher Buzz Capra from the Mets right at the end of 1974 spring training, he immediately led the National League in earned run average
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Future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine won his 300th game for the Mets after leaving Atlanta as a free agent but was never the same pitcher he had been for the Braves — and had great difficulty beating his former team (in 2003 alone, he was 0-4 with a 10.35 ERA against Atlanta)
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Fans on both sides relish beating the other more than they enjoy beating any other team
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Long-suffering Mets fans, used to watching the Braves win 14 straight division titles (11 in the NL East) from 1991-2005 and six straight from 2018-2023, savored a pyrrich victory last weekend when DH J.D. Martinez delivered his first home run for the team with two outs in the ninth inning, depriving the Braves of their first no-hitter in 30 years — not to mention a much-coveted shutout victory in Flushing)
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron. He covers the game for forbes.com, MLB Report, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, Here’s The Pitch, and many other outlets. His email is [email protected].
Timeless Trivia: Injury Hex Is No Angel To Trout
“Old baseball people were the best. They had their flaws and were raised in a different day and age but nothing like an Old School baseball executive.”
— Kurt Bevaqua on E.J. (Buzzy) Bavasi, GM of the Dodgers, Padres, and Angels
Injuries have hampered Angels superstar Mike Trout so repeatedly that he’s played in 266 games since 2021 — and never in 120 games since 2019 . . .
The team has never won a postseason game during Trout’s tenure even though he has been American League MVP three times and finished second in the voting four other times . . .
Now sidelined after suffering a torn meniscus in his left knee, Trout will be out until August and could miss at least 100 games this season . . .
Trout, 32, is still owed $248.15 million through 2030 after inking an extension in 2019.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [[email protected]] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [[email protected]] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [[email protected]] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.