Gambling Cost Alabama’s Coach His Job. What Might it Cost Baseball?

Michael Baumann, Fangraphs

On Thursday, the University of Alabama abruptly fired head baseball coach Brad Bohannon for his involvement in a pair of suspicious bets involving the Crimson Tide’s game against LSU last Friday. That night, a bettor at the sportsbook at Great American Ball Park — home of the Reds — placed two suspiciously large bets on LSU to win, large enough to draw the attention of U.S. Integrity, the company retained by the Ohio Casino Control Commission and the Southeastern Conference to monitor sports wagering in the state’s casinos.

On Monday, the OCCC instructed Ohio bookmakers to take Crimson Tide games off the board. Regulators in other states followed suit, as have several major online sportsbooks. And in the wake of Bohannon’s firing three days later, ESPN reporter David Purdum revealed that surveillance cameras within the sportsbook had recorded the suspicious bettor communicating with Bohannon at the time he was placing the bets in question.

The substance of the conversation between the bettor and Bohannon has not yet been made public, but it’s reasonable to assume it concerned Alabama’s starting pitcher that night. An hour before the start of last Friday’s game, Bohannon scratched starter Luke Holman, who suffered a minor back injury, and replaced him with Hagan Banks. Presumably the bettor got this information before the public and wagered accordingly.

This constitutes the first major gambling scandal in American baseball since the Supreme Court struck down the ban on single-game betting in 2018. Even what little we know now about the situation leaves plenty to unpack.

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