MLB Fires Umpire for Violating Gambling Rules

Umpire Pat Hoberg was fired by Major League Baseball on Monday for sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and for intentionally deleting electronic messages pertinent to the league's investigation, per the AP. MLB opened the investigation last February when it was brought to its attention, and Hoberg did not umpire last season. While MLB said the investigation did not uncover evidence Hoberg personally bet on baseball or manipulated games, MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill recommended on May 24 that Hoberg be fired. Commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday he upheld Hill's decision.

MLB said the friend made 141 baseball bets between April 2, 2021, and Nov. 1, 2023, totaling almost $214,000 with an overall win of nearly $35,000. Nineteen of those bets were made from Hoberg's home and eight involved five games that Hoberg umpired or was a replay umpire. "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 in a statement. "[Hoberg's] 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."

Now 38, Hoberg made his big league debut as a call-up on March 31, 2014, and joined the major league staff ahead of the 2017 season. Among the highest-rated umpires at judging the strike zone, Hoberg can apply for reinstatement no earlier than 2026 spring training. He stressed that "I have never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form. I have never provided, and would never provide, information to anyone for the purpose of betting on baseball." He added, "I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today's statement. Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me. Major League Baseball umpires are held to a high standard of personal conduct, and my own conduct fell short of that standard." (More Major League Baseball stories.)