By Reinaldo Oliveros
Jun 15, 2024, 12:45 PM EDT
Major League Baseball announced this Friday that it will sanction umpire Pat Hoberg after being linked to betting cases.
According to the statement issued by the MLB, Hoberg was investigated since the beginning of the season For this reason, he was removed from being a referee in regular season matches. Hoberg was an umpire in the 2022 World Series.
“During spring training this year, Major League Baseball launched an investigation into a possible violation of MLB sports betting policies by referee Pat Hoberg. Mr. Hoberg was removed from the camps during the processing of that investigation,” the statement explains.
Hoberg, 37, is an experienced umpire who began working as a full-time MLB umpire in 2017.
“While the MLB investigation found no evidence that the games worked by Mr. Hoberg were compromised or manipulated in any way, the MLB determined that the disciplinary measure was justified,” the statement said.
Given this situation, the MLB indicated that Hoberg appealed the suspension and has not revealed what the sanction imposed on him consists of.
Betting, a recurring problem in the Major Leagues
The MLB has been dealing with these types of scandals for the last year.
The most striking case was that of Ippei Mizuhara, interpreter and close confidant of the star Dodger’s Japanese Shohei Ohtani, who admitted to having committed fraud of more than $17 million dollars against a Los Angeles Dodgers player, money that was used to pay for sports bets.
MLB also imposed a lifetime suspension to the Venezuelan player Tucupita Marcano, who will not have the option of being hired by a team in the American league, for violating the betting rules for professional baseball players in the Major Leagues.
Marcano became the second player suspended for life in the MLB along with former player Pete Rose.
According to the MLB report, Marcano placed 387 baseball bets during October 2022 and between July and November 2023, including 231 related bets on Major League Games, which translated into more than $150,000 bet, even though he never did it on a game in which he performed for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team he belonged to in those years.
Keep reading:
– Dodgers revoke access to two Japanese networks for harassment of Shohei Ohtani
– Mookie Betts will have the opportunity to achieve a unique record if he reaches the MLB All-Star Game