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Sports

Gambling and Athletes Don't Mix at Any Level

There is no bigger sin in sports than a player agreeing to fix a game.

As an athlete, there is no greater crime in sports than betting, fixing, or point shaving for monetary gain.

Look at Pete Rose, the most prolific hitter in baseball history, and yet most casual fans from this generation have no idea who he is, or what he contributed to the game—pre-gambling of course.

For Pete's sake—no pun intended—he compiled the most hits in major league history (4,256), played in the most games (3,562), had the most career at-bats (14,053), and is No. 6 all time in runs scored (2,165). Yet he is neither in the Hall of Fame nor allowed to be a part of MLB ever again—this after he was found to have bet on games while manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

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 On Tuesday, 10 people, including three with ties to the University of San Diego, were charged with conspiracy to commit sports bribery, conducting an illegal gambling business and distributing marijuana. The indictment included the names of USD’s all-time scoring and assists leader Brandon Johnson, former Torero player Brandon Dowdy and former assistant coach Thaddeus Brown.

According to the reports, Johnson took a bribe to influence the outcome of a February 2010 game. But according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the suspicious game against UC-Riverside was in December 2009, which the Toreros lost, with Johnson going 2-for-10 shooting, 0-of-5 from three, and scored only 10 points.

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This problem leads back to a college athlete’s mindset that he is superior to everybody around him and feels that he should be getting a financial advantage for making the school so much money—see for my complete rant on college athletes getting paid.

The problem is that athletes think because they have a special set of skills that not everyone has or can reach, they are set on a pedestal above everyone else and should be treated as such.

The only problem is, that is not the case.

Sure, they are really good at one set of skills, but others can claim the same thing.

Should I be more important than somebody else because I am a journalist and have the writing skills? No.

But since pro athletes are paid a lot more money than the working class, they feel as if everybody owes them because they let us see how special and talented they are.

You will be hard-pressed to find a job that is more stressful and has higher stakes than that of a professional athlete—and to a lesser extent a college athlete with school commitments, trying to make it to the pros.

We expect athletes to be almost superhuman in everything they do, including in their life outside of sports. The pressure put on them both on and off the field is unfair, but as with any job there are sacrifices that have to be made.

But this is no excuse for an athlete partaking in illegal activities for any reason.

With the FBI indictments, a large shadow is being placed on USD’s athletics department, and the NCAA recently announced that it will start its invesigation after the FBI completes its probe. At a Friday morning press conference, USD officials from the president on down tried to answer media questions on the whole mess.

All because of the greed of a few people, every athlete on USD’s campus will suffer in some way, and that not fair for the other programs and players that have held themselves to the high standard that comes with being a Torero.

Observations from the week that was April 10-15:

The Padres new camouflage uniforms are the best version yet, but the only problem with the new ensemble is the lack of matching pants. It looks as if designers got super creative with the top half of the uni, then got bored and grabbed the closest pair of pants they could find…

In my first column I said that the Padres wouldn’t miss Adrian Gonzalez—yeah, not so much. The Padres offense is batting an anemic .208 and has scored only 39 runs on the season. Gonzalez is hitting .268 with a home run and seven RBI for Boston…

The Sacramento Kings potentially played their last game in Sacramento on Thursday, and with it came many strong emotions from their fans and announcers—see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M06-ZfDT5JE. It makes you wonder what will happen in the coming year(s) when, and if, the Chargers do decide to leave…

Fantasy Corner:

Fantasy Baseball season is starting to get into the swing of things and owners can start pulling their hair out. First-round pick Albert Pujols, batting .226 with only two home runs, is headlining the list of players struggling at the plate so far.

Add to that players like Joe Mauer and Josh Hamilton, who have recently been placed on the DL, and you have the start to another crazy season.     

For the record:

Hey Major League Baseball, can we get some scheduled doubleheaders once in a while? For a sport that cares for its history so much, why can’t we bring one of the greatest parts of baseball back?

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