Sports Gambling: A Risky Business

American sports face a variety of problems, including illegal drug use and the spread of infectious diseases. Although not discussed as often as necessary, the sporting world has another significant issue - gambling. While the legality of how a person places a bet is often questionable, the more important issue is the act of betting. In August 2007, HR.com cited a passage from the California Employment Law Letter containing alarming evidence, such as the statistic that over fifty-percent of employees participate in football pools for the regular season and the Super Bowl. Gambling’s dramatic effects in the workplace is supported by a 2005 CNNMoney.com article that noted a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. The study concluded that interest in the NCAA’s March Madness (see an example of a bracket used for gambling in the image to the left) would cost employers almost $900 million, over $100 million more than the prior year. Earlier this year, Greg Levine of CNBC.com noted another study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which discovered that distractions due to the 2007 Super Bowl would cost employers about $800 million. Clearly, the fact that these two sporting events could cost employers almost $2 billion in productivity shows that gambling is a significant problem in the United States. Gambling’s negative financial impact is not limited to employers only, as Mark Lange of the Christian Science Monitor noted last May that Americans lost $84 billion gambling in 2006. Lange says that gamblers, “…lost more than they spent on movie tickets, recorded music, spectator sports, video games, and theme parks combined”.

Beyond the financial consequences, adults should feel obligated to forego gambling because of its addictive and reckless nature. These types of actions set a poor example for children, and research has shown that children will imitate the actions of the adults in their lives. Public concern with gambling needs to address the potential negative impact gambling adults can have on children, as gambling is not a social woe affecting only adults. Not only does gambling make children associate negative attributes to sports, such as cheating, it also harms children psychologically and physically. The National Council on Problem Gambling discusses some of the various ways minors are exposed to gambling; thus, adults must be aware that a single wager can have an impact on a child. Adults should eliminate gambling from their lives because the potential financial reward for gambling does not outweigh the likelihood of significant monetary loss. Another reason adults should not gamble is because children will learn to emulate the dangerous behavior. A surprising example of this trend comes from the University of Southern California’s student-run newspaper, the Daily Trojan. In a section only available in the print edition, five sports writers do not choose who will win, but rather if a team will cover the spread. One major problem with this situation: not all of the sports writers are old enough to legally gamble in the United States.

Sports gambling may seem to be a minor concern in the context of the many problems in the world today, but the importance of the debate must not be ignored. If gambling truly was a trivial matter, then online gambling companies such as Bookmaker.com would not need to locate their companies in places like Costa Rica, a country which CBSNews.com notes has laws that favor these types of businesses. In the wake of the recent developments like the NBA referee scandal (see the image of troubled referee Tim Donaghy to the left), gambling has developed into an increasingly significant issue in American society. Adult gambling can affect children in various ways; gambling can harm children physically, as this WBEN.com report shows, where a gambling-addicted parent left his child locked up in the car while he gambled. Gambling can also have significant psychological effects, as gambling is an addictive, risky activity that does impairs the development of important character traits like self-control and moderation. Seeing adults gamble, children learn that dangerous behaviors are acceptable. Fiscal responsibility and a non-addictive personality are important traits necessary for a productive life in our modern-day society. Adults who gamble hindering the ethical and psychological development of their children, and this behavior must change, for no one benefits from their mistakes except the bookies and the casinos.

Booing: How the Behavior of Sports Fans Impacts Children

To many people, sports and booing are as connected as McDonald’s and its famous Golden Arches logo—it would be inconceivable to imagine one without the other. While sports fans often boo, sometimes they have positive sentiments to offer athletes. For example, on BroncosFreak, a popular website for the Denver Broncos, the team’s fans showed deep concern for Kevin Everett, a Buffalo Bills tight end severely injured in a recent game. Nonetheless, the fact remains that the sporting world is filled with instances of fans booing inappropriately. A report by the Associated Press shows that even a life-threatening injury did not prevent Philadelphia Eagles’ supporters from making derogatory comments towards Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver Michael Irvin, after he suffered a neck injury during a NFL 1999 game (see the image to the right). ESPN writer Bill Simmons takes a humorous approach to the issue of derisive fan noise in sports in his latest article. Although Simmons’ article provides an interesting viewpoint on the relationship between sports and booing, the column ignores the consequences of the disparaging remarks: the negative behaviors children are learning by listening to profane words and watching the rude actions of adults in their lives. As Melissa Balmain of Parenting magazine writes, children will often mimic the actions of their parents; accordingly, if role models behave rudely, then children will believe that type of behavior is socially acceptable. Federal law does allow people the right to speak as they please, but that does not mean that we should condone inappropriate behavior at sporting events. If there is no popular movement to address this problem, then the federal government should involve itself, as it has in other aspects of sports, like steroids, in order to provide a safe haven for all participants and fans.

Sports have changed significantly over the last few decades, with such factors as free agency and medical advances (both legal and illegal) creating stronger athletes and decreasing team loyalty, among many other developments. As Chris Jenkins of USA Today reported in 2005, even players agree that baseball has been impacted by steroids. Accordingly, some fans feel they have not just the right, but the duty, to boo. Oftentimes, fans feel justified to express their displeasure at the rising prices to attend a game, such as $8 for parking and up to $125 for a single ticket to a game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. According to Simmons, it is as if many fans feel that part of the ticket price includes the right to boo whomever and whenever they please. While the First Amendment certainly protects the right to freedom of speech, people should nonetheless exercise good judgment before speaking. Michael Bradley, in an editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, justifies unconstructive fan noise in Philadelphia by saying that, “Philadelphians have suffered more disappointment and heartache than citizens of any other city.” Bradley also argues that booing is how people “do it” in Philadelphia. He could not be more incorrect; this type of behavior is inappropriate.

Simmons, Bradley, and other writers have ignored the broader significance of booing in professional sports. Countless numbers of families bond over tailgating and then going to a football game, or over attending a basketball game on a special family pack, such as the one offered by the Indiana Fever of the WNBA. It would be naïve to dismiss the impact of adults’ behavior on children at these games. While it would also be inappropriate to limit the abilities of fans’ to express their opinions, is it truly necessary, for instance, to imbibe significant amounts of alcoholic beverages and use cuss words to address athletes? Or to throw items onto the playing surface? The answer to both of those questions, and all other examples of scathing remarks by fans, is no. Sometimes a child mimics an adult’s behavior in an endearing way, as this father suggests; other times, as former Kansas City Royals coach Tom Gamboa can attest, a parent can lead a child to disastrous results. With regards to booing, the old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do” will simply not suffice. A change of culture in the American sporting world is needed in order to present a more fitting example for the nation’s children, and all it takes is paying more attention to the appropriateness of one’s language and behavior. Although freedom of speech is an important right, children also have the right not to be bombarded with crude behavior in a public setting. American sports fans just need to ask themselves what is more important: making negative, hurtful remarks at sporting events (as seen in the image above) or raising their children properly? Maybe then the sporting world will take notice.

Aluminum vs. Wood Baseball Bats: Social Responsibility Governing Athletics in the Twenty-first Century

Participating in youth sports is an important aspect of development for children in the United States. Engaging in physical activities teaches children important life skills, such as teamwork and responsibility, as well as keeping children physically fit. However, a recent City Council decision in New York dealing with the use of aluminum bats, upheld in United States District Court, has hung an ominous cloud over youth baseball. The choice to ban aluminum bats negatively impacts the youth in the five boroughs of New York City because the ban makes baseball less accessible, costlier, and less enjoyable for its players.

The fact that the 2006 Major League Baseball World Series was the lowest rated since the statistic has been tracked, as well as the decreasing participation in youth baseball, reflects the lack of interest in baseball nationwide. A 2006 news article claimed that about 41 million children were competing in youth sports (such as the children in the image to the right); surprisingly, only one sport mentioned had declined in popularity since 1996: Little League Baseball.

One problem facing youth baseball is that compared to other sports, it is especially difficult to have a spontaneous “pick-up” game. For example, basketball requires only a ball and two circular objects to represent rims to play. Soccer just needs a ball and a few cones. Baseball is strikingly different in its need of multiple pieces of equipment and the necessity of several players, as well as a large playing surface.

Another major disadvantage for baseball as a youth sport is the cost. Beyond gloves, pads and cleats, bats are an additional expense. Youth wood bats can range, on average, from $15 to $70, depending on such factors as the store where it was purchased, professional athlete endorsement, and other reasons. Youth aluminum bats are often more expensive, averaging in price from $30 to $250. Despite the price difference, aluminum bats are in fact more cost-effective because wood bats are more likely to crack during use. Thus, in the long run, more money would be spent replacing wood bats (and replacing them) than on aluminum bats.

However, it would be irresponsible to ignore the benefits of wood bats. It is true that the professional leagues in the United States utilize wood bats; therefore, using wood bats in youth leagues would provide a more appropriate setting in which one could judge an individual athlete’s potential for success in professional baseball. Also, wood bats typically have a smaller “sweet spot,” or the best point of contact for which a player can get a good hit. Accordingly, wood bats enable one to better assess an athlete’s “true” ability, and how much his or her baseball statistics were enhanced by the aluminum bat (an analysis of three different types of bats, including a wood composite bat made of multiple materials, can be seen in the image to the left).

Nonetheless, one must focus on the importance of baseball beyond being a farm system for the professional leagues. If aluminum bats have not been conclusively proven to be more dangerous than wood bats, (and they have not), then there should be no problem for youth leagues to utilize them in competition. If aluminum bats allow less talented individuals to have a little more fun playing baseball because they make it easier to get a hit, then using aluminum bats in certain leagues does not appear to be a bad idea. It should be the decision of the individual league’s governing body to decide what is most appropriate for its players.

New York City Councilman James S. Oddo, chief sponsor of the legislation banning the aluminum bat, was quoted as saying, “‘I understand they want one single piece of overwhelming scholarship to prove my case, but I don't need that….’” The councilman, while having the best of intentions, seems to be jumping to a conclusion that is lacking concrete evidence. Relying on anecdotal evidence to guide legislation is not always an effective method of governing, especially in this situation where the anecdotal evidence is at times contradictory.

The issue is becoming increasingly political; for example, aluminum bat companies are hiring lawyers and lobbying the government. The number one priority needs to be the children. While both sides claim to have the participants’ safety as their number one priority, our government appears to be acting like overprotective parents who do not trust their children to make decisions. The New York City Council made a definite mistake in eliminating the use of aluminum bats in high schools, the aftereffects of which will be felt by baseball players in those schools for years…that is if the programs can survive the financial bind which they have been placed in by the government.