Alex Rodriguez is currently in some hot water with the MLB commissioner’s office. It seems Bud Selig doesn't like his superstars appearing in headlines next to words like "cocaine" and "illegal poker". The trade-deadline is over, instead of potential trades and wheelings-and-dealings this week we get rumours of movie stars, drugged up party guests, and Alex Rodriguez being caught somewhere in the middle.
Before we jump into the meat and potatoes, I need to make a point: This isn't Pete Rose we're talking about, Alex wasn't betting on sports. He played poker with his buddies like millions of North Americans do every week. I understand the league needs to make an example out of A-Rod otherwise they're setting a precedent in the opposite direction, but gambling alone seems like a weak excuse to suspend a man from his profession. Gambling between teammates is incredibly common; for instance, Lebron James had a casino built into his own home and nobody batted an eyelash.
I remember an athlete telling me stories of a former all-star he'd been teammates with. The guy was caught cheating during a high-stakes, informal poker game among the gambling set on his team. Their reaction? Nobody flipped over any tables or drew six-shooters, instead they went to team management and had the player traded out of town. Poker games can build bonds between buddies, but if you mess around they can also strip the trust you've worked years to develop. It's an important social tool among players, playing cards in a pressured environment gives them a better idea of whom they're teaming with. Besides, most poker games are just a fun and potentially profitable way to kill downtime. But every indulgence has it's threshold.
This brings us to A-Rod and the allegations currently against him, and the point where things get a little different, and a little out of the ordinary -- at least for a poker game being run by a professional athlete.
The drug allegations themselves aren't shocking. Alex hangs out in celebrity circles, and finding cocaine in Hollywood is as easy as asking a doorman. No one's accusing Alex of snorting lines himself -- that would likely come up during league-mandated testing -- but would he allow people to let loose and enjoy themselves at his party? I believe he would. According to Joe Torre's tell-all book, Alex is a man constantly in search of acceptance, I'd be shocked to see him run around telling A-list acquaintances how to behave. That doesn't make it right, or necessarily wrong, nor does it make it fact. Really, it's just a few small pieces of the puzzle finally coming together.
However, the rumours that have been corroborated by at least one witness are as follows:
--The alleged guestlist (which is staggering) includes rumours of Leonardo Di Caprio, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Tobey Maguire. Multiple poker pros, Hollywood directors, record label executives. And those are just the names that have leaked.
--The game was organized through Hollywood promoter Molly Bloom and held at the $16.5M mansion of Cody Liebel. Liebel, the owner of C-Note Records and son of Canadian developer Lorne Leibel, allegedly lost a half-million dollars, which is where the trouble began.
--In a game involving 2008 World Series of Poker winner Kenny Tran, Leibel allegedly ran up his debts and refused to pay. This caused heated exchanges between players, and according to Poker Pro Dan Bilzerian "Everyone had to chase Cody down for the money, and he later paid me a sum and gave me a watch but stiffed me for $100,000.”
--Bloom, who was on the hook for paying any remaining sum, was unable to cover Leibel's losses and left Los Angeles to try and re-coup her career in New York.
--This was not A-Rod's only encounter with Bloom, she allegedly helped him setup a game in Miami during November of 2009. It's rumoured that game also ended in controversy, as one card shark lost thousands of dollars and called in a group of thugs to intimidate his debtors.
If not for these story leaking to Star Magazine, and eventually Radaronline.com, the fiasco probably would have slipped by without incident to Major League Baseball. Rumours of elite Hollywood poker clubs have circled for years and the existence of such clubs have even been proved through multiple court cases. But never before has the sanctity of a league been drawn in with them.
The fact is A-Rod put the reputation of the league at risk, and so, if deemed guilty, he will face the consequences and a likely suspension. But don't see this scandal as the commissioner’s office ridding the league of underground poker matches, those games will exist as long as there are cards to play with. Anytime a professional sport, especially baseball, gets caught up in gambling allegations the league must protect itself from perceived threats that come in tow; the perceived loss of credibility, etc. But if and when Alex Rodriguez gets suspended over a star-studded game of Texas Hold 'Em with his Hollywood buddies, it will be a simple case of the commissioner's office saving face in the public eye, and nothing more than a league slapping the wrist of a player whom put them at risk.
We now take a brief moment away from car-burning and hockey anger to present a sports film trailer. The movie adaptation of Michael Lewis' best-selling book Moneyball, based on the exploits of Oakland A's manager Billy Beane and the rise of sabermetrics, is FINALLY starting to see some light. People have been talking about this flick for years, but now it looks like we might just get to see it someday. and by someday I mean September 23rd. And! It actually doesn't look too bad. Which is nice.
In just a few days, the world's eyes will be on South Africa to watch soccer teams from 32 nations compete for the title of World's Best. But this new doc, Soka Afrika takes a close look at the sport in that continent, for better or worse. Better being how young players can reach their dreams at the very heights of the sport. Worse being how young players can be exploited and turned into pawns of human trafficking.
For more info, visit the film's official blog here.
Sweet tears of Reggie Dunlop, is there nothing sacred? Today, the Associated Press reports that the Johnstown Chiefs -- the team founded in 1988 to honour the film "Slap Shot" -- are leaving town and moving from the Pennsylvania town to the hockey hotbed of Greenville, South Carolina.
In the movie, the fictional Charlestown Chiefs are threatened with folding. The real Chiefs current owner and head coach, former New York Rangers GM Neil Smith, says, "'Slap Shot' was a big factor in me, personally, having the team here,
owning the team. I
was fascinated by that: the original building, the small town, the
whole thing." Smith has tried to find a local owner to take the team off his hands, to no avail.
In a world that would allow a "Slap Shot" sequel starring Stephen Baldwin to happen, it's no surprise something like this would happen. Perhaps everyone should've just let the Chiefs exist in its original 1977 perfection and left it at that. Wait, what? Oh.
Former Olympian shot to death - David Laut, who won a bronze medal for the United States in the shot put at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, was shot to death after confronting intruders outside his California home, authorities said Saturday. He was 52.Very sad.
Vick fitting in just fine - Eagles offensive co-ordinator Marty Mornhinweg doesn't think the addition of Michael Vick will disrupt the rhythm of Philadelphia's offence. Lets see how long the honeymoon lasts.
Paul Kelly fired - Paul Kelly is out as executive director of the National Hockey League Players' Association. Big surprise. Not really.
Lecavalier is excited to play with Tanguay - Vincent Lecavalier is excited at the prospect of having free agent left winger Alex Tanguay with the Tampa Bay Lightning this season. Vinny may be the only one excited about hockey in Tampa.
Heath Slocum wins first PGA playoff event of the year - Heath Slocum might have been the one player no one expected to win The Barclays.One of the last players to make it into the playoffs - and he wins - very good story.
