Major League Baseball (MLB) has fired an umpire for violating sports gambling rules and deleting messages pertinent to the league’s investigation of his conduct.
The MLB launched an investigation into umpire Pat Hobert in February of last year after discovering he had been sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games.
“The league said that while the probe didn’t uncover evidence he personally bet on baseball or manipulated games, MLB senior vice president Michael Hill recommended on May 24 that Hoberg be fired. Hoberg didn’t umpire last season. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred upheld Hill’s decision,” noted Fox News.
Manfred said in a statement that Hoberg exercised “extremely poor judgement” by sharing his betting accounts with friends. He further stressed that Hoberg’s deletion of past messages during the investigation granted the “appearance of impropriety.”
“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules governing sports betting conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” Manfred said. “An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way.”
“However, his extremely poor judgment in sharing betting accounts with a professional poker player he had reason to believe bet on baseball and who did, in fact, bet on baseball from the shared accounts, combined with his deletion of messages, creates at minimum the appearance of impropriety that warrants imposing the most severe discipline,” he continued. Therefore, there is just cause to uphold Mr. Hoberg’s termination for failing to conform to high standards of personal conduct and to maintain the integrity of the game of baseball.”
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