To show how ridiculous today’s online—and print—media have become, let’s begin with one of the very best-read Met blogs. One of the writers—quoting a poorly researched piece in one of NY’s tabloid garbage sheets—lazily and carelessly repeats the paper’s incorrect info about Mike Piazza, his dad, a Lexus, and Charlie Samuels.
As most Met fans who pay attention remember, Piazza’s father bet Samuels that he could not lose a large amount of weight in a fixed time period. Samuels lost the weight, and Mr. Piazza bought him a Lexus. Of course, they get it wrong, repeating that it was about how much weight Piazza’s father could lose. Which it wasn’t.
Is this illegal gambling? Does this speak poorly to Samuels’ or either Piazza’s character? Or is it a very friendly and ultimately healthy and productive way for a generous, wealthy man to motivate a valued friend?
This blog also repeats a truly comical line—“…there is no evidence at this time which shows Francisco Rodriguez was a part of Samuels’ illegal gambling operation.” Is there also no evidence at this time which shows that Rodriguez is an astronaut? A transvestite? A lion tamer?
Don’t expect research, clarification, or seriousness from these sources.
Another of NY’s papers—one which has a very long, upstanding tradition compared to its brethren—threw out the names Bonanno and Colombo. This paper and its colleagues have been selling copies for 80 years now by alluding to the famous Five Families, of which these named groups certainly are two, and have been since Charlie Luciano anointed them as such in the early 1930s. Almost all illegal sports gambling in the NY area ultimately is tied to one of these groups. Paying a bookie who pays an associate who pays a solider for a family does not make the bettor a crime kingpin.
Francisco Rodriguez stayed with Samuels after his altercation with his girlfriend’s father. What did they discuss?! Was KRod blowing games for Samuels’ benefit?! What inane suppositions can we think of next?!
One can imagine the unsourced information Adam Rubin will come up with while daydreaming up his next “insider” Tweet.
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Yes, it appears that Charlie Samuels gambled on sports; a lot on the NFL and perhaps at least occasionally on baseball. Early reports indicate that he may have “borrowed” money from team accounts. These are crimes, to be sure. Other reports suggest that he gave Met tickets to criminals. Definitely improper.
But is this story as ominous as it appears? Or more media feeding at the Met trough?
Gambling is an integral part of the sports world. Today’s athletes are precisely the types of people who fit the profile of serious gamblers. They are sought after and catered to by casinos, and often will bet each other on cards before the game and golf on off-days.
We all know of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Tiger Woods being huge legal casino gamblers. Baseball has had an intimate relationship with gamblers since its inception. Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis was hired to oversee the game after the debacle of the 1919 World Series. Landis was a terrible racist who worked very hard to keep the game white-only. Would the game have had less integrity with more gambling and less racism?
From the days of Leo Durocher to Denny McLain to Willie Mays to Pete Rose, very prominent figures have faced very serious repercussions from overt associations with gamblers, as since the days of Landis, baseball’s seeming biggest fear has been gambling.
Is gambling worse than racism? Worse than steroids?
These are very debatable points, as the integrity of the game can be compromised by any of them. Are the records of Ruth and Gehrig as relevant as the records of Aaron and Mays, who played against ALL competition, black, white, and Latin?
Are the records of Bonds and McGwire relevant at all?
The point being driven at here is that there seems to be an incredibly oversized Puritanical reaction to gambling in baseball, and sports in general. Gambling exists. Players do it. In the clubhouse, on off days, and in casinos; legally and illegally. They bet on football, and on NCAA basketball. They populate high roller areas in casinos.
This writer will admit a fondness for Las Vegas. During a trip there in the late 90s, this writer shared Caesars Palace with the NBA union during a negotiating meeting. They have lots of meetings there; it’s a really fun place to go. This writer saw retired stars, active coaches, and current players at all hours, in bars and in the casino—and at tables gambling.
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Charlie Samuels has been with the Mets for decades. Through ups and downs, great teams and awful teams, and the one consistent stream of fact regarding him is that he appears to have been universally loved. Piazza and KRod obviously considered him family. Many Mets gave him huge tips at the end of every season. He helped with travel, chores, and who knows what else. He also appears to have had a serious—and potentially problematic—gambling habit.
While this space is in no way suggesting that secret illegal gambling—or theft—are positive or acceptable, it is being suggested here that perspective might come in handy, before reading and believing the drivel and outright untruths which we will be faced with in the coming days and weeks.
Many sources will spin this as “more of the same” for the cursed Mets; some will indeed throw out LoDuca’s gambling, Franco’s association with Pete Rose in Cincinnati, and the old favorites Bonanno and Colombo—as if Samuels was fixing games with KRod for Godfathers. Dire warnings will be thrown out about how the game’s best—starting with the degenerate racist Landis—have worked so very hard to “protect” America’s pastime from these evil types.
This investigation will very possibly show that Charlie Samuels was a beloved member of the Met family for literally decades. That players have looked up to and confided in him behind closed doors for ages. That he has been given countless tips that most of us could only dream of, for being a high-level gofer and confidant to Met stars from many eras.
It may also show that he was a man with a gambling problem, who, similar to many with gambling problems, eventually had to commit crimes to cover his debts. Is it possible that he lasted this long in his job while others knew this was going on because he was so well-liked and trusted? Maybe. Should he face penalties if he did indeed steal from team accounts? Most definitely.
However, at the end of the day, barring major unforeseen facts which have yet to emerge, before heaping ridicule on this very obviously well-liked and hard-working man, we all need to remember that sources ranging from our less-responsible sister blogs to major NY papers to national media outlets will attempt to play this story for all it is worth—to demonize a very ordinary man who got in over his head, as often happens with gamblers. They will try to paint a picture of a team falling apart at the seams, gripped by criminality, and in the thrall of major crime families (who incidentally, much like the major print and TV media, saw their heyday begin to fade decades ago).
It says here that while Samuels must be punished if he did indeed steal from the team, that gambling is an American pastime as beloved as baseball; perhaps more so.
Let us not excessively condemn Charlie Samuels at the behest of a media which has become a pale shadow of what it used to be, and today mostly exists to titillate and excite and to sell more of itself—not to inform, enlighten or raise any of us in any manner.
11 comments
rustyjr
11/7/2010-9:52am at 9:52 am (UTC -4)
Excellent column kong and I agree this shouldn’t be a inditement on the mets but samuels himsel
fongy2
11/7/2010-9:57am at 9:57 am (UTC -4)
Amen Brock!….Compared to the story I just saw on HBO’s “Real Sports” about the funding of The Marlins new Stadium, this is
very minor. This also speaks to our agreement on the Wally Backman issues. If baseball and those who cover and report about it want to be pure….Be pure, but lets not be phonies about it
and pick and choose what rules who can break AND to what extent.
kingman 26
11/7/2010-10:04am at 10:04 am (UTC -4)
Thank you both—now that I have approval from you two, I can relax and get back to my Dolphins’ prayer shrine, as today is going to be a tough one!
rustyjr
11/7/2010-10:12am at 10:12 am (UTC -4)
Just give me your opinion on my column – I think we might have the same ipinion
Ceetar
11/7/2010-11:08am at 11:08 am (UTC -4)
All accounts seem to point to Samuels being good at his job, and the players liking him. Sounds like he had a gambling problem that got the better of him, and who knows for how long, but that’s likely the entire story right there.
Nothing else to see here, expect hiring a new clubhouse guy, which probably won’t even get reported to us.
metsfan4decades
11/7/2010-11:14am at 11:14 am (UTC -4)
In a world where a departing player who was traded – namely Francoeur – who was only with the team for a year, gives Samuels a $50 grand ‘tip’, well, I just can’t relate.
That’s a little out of my league….
If betting on baseball buy players, employees, etc. is against some law, then so be it. If you’re caught, you pay the penalty, whatever it is. If he took it one step further and actually ‘borrowed’ funds to subsidize a gambling habit that maybe got out of hand in recent years, then that’s really taking it a step too far. I think they call it ‘embezzling’ and the Mets aren’t the first to have an employee accused of that – and certainly won’t be the last.
But gambling as a whole – outside of the sport you might be affiliated with? I really don’t see any problem with that.
Mr North Jersey
11/7/2010-11:39am at 11:39 am (UTC -4)
I have to say that other than misinterpreting who was the person that had to lose the weight between Samuels and Mike’s dad (something I can’t recall from memory so I will take your word for it0 the article was accurate in everything else it said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2010/11/05/2010-11-05_gambling_probe_reveals_charlie_samuels_relationship_to_francisco_rodriguez_jeff_.html
The seriousness of this I will not even attempt to explain because anyone that follows baseball knows that Gambling and baseball is a no-no no matter how you slice it.
So I will highlight the alleged ares of concern if they are true.
“Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels is under investigation by the NYPD and the Queens District Attorney’s office for allegedly betting on baseball and other sports as part of an organized gambling ring, providing inside information and tips for friends who also placed bets on games and for using his Mets accounts to cover gambling debts.”
“Samuels, who has not been arrested, is believed to have told Major League Baseball that he bet on baseball games, a strict violation of baseball rules. Samuels, the Mets’ clubhouse manager for 27 seasons, was described by a source as a “spider who sat in the middle of a money web,” a man who earned about $80,000 a year from the Mets but whose tax returns showed about $600,000 to $700,000 in income.”
“The investigation resurfaced midway through this season after the Mets contacted the NYPD and the Queens DA’s office because they suspected Samuels was “misappropriating funds in a number of ways,” .according to a top police official.
According to another source, the team became suspicious when the Mets’ online store asked Samuels for players’ jerseys and Samuels said he had none, although he had ordered several hundreds for the team. Bats and balls had gone missing, too, and there were unusual dealings around the bookings of hotel rooms for the players and staff. Investigators then began looking at the Mets’ accounts Samuels had access to and followed the money trail to the betting ring and Samuels’ associations with those running it, the sources said.
When Samuels was asked about the betting allegations, he allegedly told baseball officials that he had bet on baseball games. MLB would not confirm or deny an investigation into Samuels, but according to one source, investigators from the commissioner’s office have contacted friends and associates of Samuels.”
“Samuels is alleged to have been taped by authorities making bets on college and pro football games over his home and personal lines and his cell phone, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified due to the ongoing investigation. Organized crime associates are themselves caught on wiretaps crowing about the value of baseball information that Samuels was providing to them, although it is not believed that he was taped making baseball bets.
The associates were caught in photographs in $400 comped seats to Mets games provided by Samuels, according to the sources.”
“The genesis of the probe was in 2005 when the Mets were involved in another gambling scandal that included head groundskeeper Dominic Valila, one of 36 people charged by the Queens DA with participating in a $360 million gambling ring that had ties to the Bonanno crime family.
Valila allegedly accepted bets on Mets games and operated .inside Shea Stadium. He pleaded guilty to promoting gambling and was fired by the Mets, along with Samuels’ assistant equipment manager, Nick Priore. Samuels’ name emerged in that probe, although he was not prosecuted.”
This is very serious allegations if proven to be accurate. Enough so to draw concern that Samuels cause of how close he was to so many players may have involved a player in his gambling scenario something that could and I emphasize could be the start of a very ugly time for the Mets.
The idea this is an over reaction is one I do not share.
kingman 26
11/7/2010-11:51am at 11:51 am (UTC -4)
Is there a shred of evidence anywhere that any player was even remotely involved in betting?
Rubin and Heyman’s unsourced tweets don’t mean anything.
The probes/previous cases/wiretaps show a man with a serious gambling problem.
They don’t show–as of yet–even the remotest suggestion that any Met player was ever involved in gambling relating to their jobs as players, on or off the field.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
And if Samuels gave mob gamblers info about players’ injuries or other inside info, that might help crooks win bets—but it does not even remotely affect the team’s play on the field in any way, shape, fashion or form.
And if the Daily News got the Piazza story wrong, maybe they got the rest of their story wrong too.
Mr North Jersey
11/7/2010-12:00pm at 12:00 pm (UTC -4)
I didn’t realize that I was suggesting that there was evidence of players being involved in betting.
I reread my comment just to be sure but my point was not to say that there was evidence I said the concern is it could involve players only because of how close he was with the players.
My hope is it doesn’t involve anyone else other than Samuels but that doesn’t remove my concern that it may not.
Also I reread my comment to see if I was suggesting that Samuels providing info on players meant that it affected the mets play on the field whatsoever and again I don’t see where i suggest such a thing.
You may be reading more into my comment then need be.
GravediggerHebner
11/7/2010-12:05pm at 12:05 pm (UTC -4)
With the coming-to-light of this Samuels gambling story I’m so relieved to learn that the Mets haven’t actually sucked the last few years, they’ve simply been deliberately losing games for the financial benefit of their good friend, clubhouse man and traveling secretary.
Just kidding.
I’m not at all concerned with any actual facts that have been reported in this story so far. I am a bit worried about what may potentially come out as the story unfolds, but I’m also worried that a giant wave is going to pour across the country killing me and millions of others. However until it actually happens I’m not letting each day be ruined by thoughts of it possibly happening and with each day that passes without it happening I become less worried about it.
Mr North Jersey
11/7/2010-12:10pm at 12:10 pm (UTC -4)
Shyt now I feel stupid for being the only one taking “How to survive an end of the world wave swimming lessons”