ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Major League Baseball may alter its regulations on team owners and casino gambling in a manner that could impact the Ilitch family.
Marian Ilitch, the wife of late Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, owns Detroit’s MotorCity Casino. Her youngest son, Christopher, is controlling owner of the Tigers.
“The general rule will remain that if the club has an interest in a sportsbook, it can’t take bets on that club,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said after an owners meeting Thursday. “The rule does contemplate that there could be an exception provided that there are certain safeguards built in. The safeguards would essentially ensure that there is no controlled input whatever from the club to the betting operator, has to be a completely independent betting operator.”
Manfred said the rule changed have not been finalized.
Marian Ilitch invested in the casino in 1999, became sole owner in 2005 and presided over an expansion to the MotorCity Casino Hotel.
Resolve Trade
BOSTON (AP) — The holdup in the trade that would send 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers is unfair to the players involved, the head of their union said on Friday.
The Boston Red Sox had a pending trade that would send Betts and lefty David Price to the Dodgers for outfielder Alex Verdugo and Twins prospect Brusdar Graterol. The deal was agreed to on Tuesday night pending the exchange of medical information, two people with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal was not final.
But Boston is said to have balked when it saw Graterol’s medical records, and the deal still has not been finalized. That is holding up a side deal that would send outfielder Joc Pederson from the Dodgers to the Angels.
“The proposed trades between the Dodgers, Red Sox, Twins, and Angels need to be resolved without further delay,” Major League Baseball Players Association boss Tony Clark said in a statement. “The events of this last week have unfairly put several Players’ lives in a state of limbo.”
Separately, Pederson lost his salary arbitration case against the Dodgers on Friday. He will be paid $7.75 million instead of his request for $9.5 million.
“The unethical leaking of medical information as well as the perversion of the salary arbitration process serve as continued reminders that too often Players are treated as commodities by those running the game,” Clark said.