48 h. ago MLB, sportsbooks cap bets on individual pitches in response to pitch rigging scandal

Major League Baseball said its authorized gaming operators will cap bets on individual pitches at $200 and exclude them from parlays, a day after two Cleveland Guardians were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers

Politics

51 h. ago Cleveland 's Luis Ortiz to appear in court over allegations he took bribes to rig pitches

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz is due in court on charges accusing him and teammate Emmanuel Clase of taking bribes to help bettors in their native Dominican Republic win prop bets placed on pitches they threw

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3 d. ago US sports betting crisis grows as MLB’s Clase and Ortiz indicted over alleged rigged pitches

Pair could face 65 years in prison if found guiltyNBA also caught up in its own gambling scandalThe betting crisis in US sports has spread further after Cleveland Guardians players Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted over an alleged scheme to rig pitches during games.Bettors in the US can gamble on whether individual pitches will be balls or strikes. Prosecutors allege claim that Ortiz was paid $5,000 for throwing an intentional ball during a game on 15 June. His teammate Clase, a three-time All-Star, is alleged to have been given $5,000 for facilitating the rigged pitch. Prosecutors claim the pair did so again in a game on 27 June, receiving $7,000 each. Continue reading...

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3 d. ago MLB pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz charged with taking bribes to rig pitches for bettors

Two Major League Baseball pitchers have been indicted on charges they took bribes to give sports bettors advance notice of the types of pitches they’d throw and intentionally tossed balls instead of strikes to ensure successful bets

Politics

1 week ago Blue Jays on brink of World Series crown after Yesavage tames Dodgers in Game 5

Yesavage fans 12 to set rookie Series recordSchneider, Guerrero Jr open with back-to-back HRsToronto can clinch title Friday on home fieldTrey Yesavage delivered a performance for the ages and Davis Schneider homered on the very first pitch of the night as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6–1 on Wednesday, moving within one victory of their first World Series championship since 1993.The 22-year-old Yesavage, who made his major league debut in September, struck out 12 without issuing a walk – the first pitcher in World Series history to do so – while allowing one run on three hits across seven innings. The rookie right-hander, who began the year pitching before a few hundred fans in Class A ball, has now started and won two of Toronto’s three victories in the best-of-seven series. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Shaun Wane requires herculean Ashes effort after Wembley mauling

England head coach must add steel to halt Australia, with Morgan Smithies and AJ Brimson pushing for startsThe scoreline alone offers concrete evidence of how underwhelming England were against Australia in the first Ashes Test on Saturday, but if anyone needed further proof, a glimpse around the Wembley crowd was somewhat telling, too.As a one-sided contest ebbed towards a predictable conclusion, there were cheers among those sat near the press box. Not for an England try, but for a paper aeroplane crafted by a home supporter that had successfully made its way from the top of one tier on to the pitch. It was about the only thing that went right for those of an English persuasion. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Shaun Wane requires herculean Ashes effort after England’s Wembley mauling

The head coach must add steel to halt Australia, with Morgan Smithies and AJ Brimson pushing for startsThe scoreline alone offers concrete evidence of how underwhelming England were against Australia in the first Ashes Test on Saturday, but if anyone needed further proof, a glimpse around the Wembley crowd was somewhat telling, too.As a one-sided contest ebbed towards a predictable conclusion, there were cheers among those sitting near the press box. Not for an England try, but for a paper aeroplane crafted by a home supporter that had successfully made its way from the top of one tier on to the pitch. It was about the only thing that went right for those of an English persuasion. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago From monkey elixir to fentanyl: Tyler Skaggs’s death is merely a chapter in baseball’s 136

As the LA Angels stand trial over the pitcher’s death in the quiet shadow of the World Series fanfare across town, a sport confronts a truth practically as old as the game itselfBefore steroids, before amphetamines and before fentanyl, baseball’s first documented chemical dalliance came from monkey testicles. In August 1889, a worn-down pitcher for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys named James Francis “Pud” Galvin, so nicknamed for his once-devastating ability to reduce hitters to “pudding”, was in need of a spark. He was 32, his right arm a rubbery relic of nearly 5,000 innings pitched, his career on the fade. Then came salvation in a syringe. A French-Mauritian doctor by the name of Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard published a paper – The Effects Produced on Man by the Subcutaneous Injections of a Liquid Obtained from the Testicles of Animals – in which he claimed that a few drops of an extract sourced from dogs and guinea pigs might well make ordinary men stronger and more virile. Galvin, a...

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