The Tucupita Situation

Edition #91

INTRO:

A lifetime ban for Jontay Porter in the NBA. 5 players in the NFL were subject to ban for gambling. Shohei Ohtani got accused of gambling.

Now, we see another lifetime ban. This time, in the MLB. The last time it happened in the MLB? Pete Rose. Oh and don’t forget about the Black Sox scandal.

Tucupita Marcano, who is a infielder for the San Diego Padres has gotten a lifetime ban from the MLB. While he wasn’t the only one in this scandal, he was the only one to get a lifetime ban.

It’s been an eventful year for gambling problems in the MLB. Let’s talk about the Tucupita situation and other things too.

The Tucupita Situation

The MLB has been in this boat many times. They’ve had 10 problems like this in the past. The NBA, has not had many gambling problems, but, in April, Jontay Porter got handed the lifetime ban. The NFL has had many gambling problems recently, Kayshon Boutte getting arrested and stuff, but not as much as the MLB.

Players betting on baseball hardly is a surprise when virtually every major sports league and sports media company is bombarding the general public with advertisements urging them to gamble. The leagues are willing to make the tradeoff for the payoff, particularly if they only need to punish a few relatively anonymous players along the way.

-Ken Rosenthal (The Athletic)

That was the first paragraph Ken wrote in his amazing article and he’s entirely correct. Peer pressure is what you call it, but in this case, it isn’t 1 or 2 or 25 or even 50 people. It’s a company.

A chapter about gambling will find it’s way into my book, How Celebrities Impact Sports, because the truth is, the amount of lives gambling has impacted, makes it a celebrity.

Besides Tucupita, there were 4 other MLB players who were handed 1-year suspensions. A’s reliever Michael Kelly, Padres minor league pitcher Jay Groome, Phillies minor-league infielder José Rodríguez and Diamondbacks minor-league pitcher Andrew Saalfrak. All of them bet on baseball, but not their own clubs, which is why they got 1-year suspensions.

The thing is, why jeopardize your career? There are 100’s of other people, who want & dream to be in the same spot you are. Plus, if you’ve worked your way up with an oh my gosh type of story, why do you want to damage it. He was part of the San Diego Padres international free agent class and a Venezuelan native. He never flashed big power in the minor leagues, but some great defensive play and his hitting got him up to the big leagues.

Not one player had anything bad to say about Marcano. Andrew McCutchen used the word, quiet… Jack Suwinski said he loved spending time with him. Mike Shildt, the Padres manager, never shared a dugout with Marcano, but met him in Spring Training, saying he was a good kid. Pirates manager Derek Shelton, said that everyone knew he was a good kid.

Here are the details of the situation. He placed 231 MLB-related bets and 25 of them were on the team he was playing on, the Pittsburgh Pirates. He did not appear in any of those games. In total, Marcano placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 in October 2022 and from last July through November with a legal sportsbook. He only won 4.3% of the bets, which were mostly parlays.

If you want to know the rule behind this… well… here it is.

Let’s get to quotes, shall we?

"The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball's rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans. The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century. We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for other people."

Rob Manfred. Commissioner of Major League Baseball

"We are extremely disappointed of Tucupita's actions and are fully supportive of Major League Baseball's ruling. The Pirates, along with MLB, Players Association, and every Club, work to ensure all involved within our game are aware of the rules and policies around gambling. While the thorough investigation revealed no evidence of any games being compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way in this case, protecting the integrity of our game is paramount."

Pittsburgh Pirates. Team in Major League Baseball.

The amount of money Tucupita missed out on, is pretty big. According to Forbes, Marcano would’ve been eligible for Super Two which basically grants him an early swing at arbitration as he would’ve had 2 years and 141 days of MLB service. He would’ve earned about 1 million dollars. In 2026, Forbes estimates that Marcano would’ve earned 2.25 million dollars! In 2027, it becomes 4.25 million dollars!

Even if Tucupita won all his bets, he still wouldn’t have matched what he would’ve earned if he didn’t gamble. He gambled away his life and even a chance at staying in the United States of America. If he came here on a work visa, his legal status of being in this country is… at risk…

While Tucupita is in this situation, the MLB has cleared Shohei Ohtani of all charges. It looks like Ippei Mizuhara is going to be spending 33 years in prison.

Back to Ken Rosenthal’s article, “No one will miss Marcano, who becomes a footnote in baseball history.” Once again, completely true.

Sports Gambling Timeline

So, I wrote the article and then found out that ESPN published a timeline of sports gambling. Here it is.

CONCLUSION

Here, we only talked about Tucupita and the sports gambling timeline. But, there are many other impactful gambling situations. In the NBA, there was the Jontay Porter thing. In the NFL, Calvin Ridley got suspended. Heck, a player even got arrested.

All of this will be in my book, How Celebrities Impact Sports.

For now, if you’re dreaming of becoming a sports player, don’t gamble.

We’ll end this edition with a poll.