I'd Know That Voice Anywhere: My Favorite NPR Commentaries - Hardcover

In addition to his work at National Public Radio, Sports Illustrated, and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Frank Deford is the author of numerous works of nonfiction, including The Old Ball Game and Over Time, as well as ten novels and two screenplays. He is a recipient of the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing and the National Humanities Medal.

Please, let’s face it, where there are games, people will bet. It’s idiotic to run away from that fact. Indeed, in many countries, national lotteries are based on soccer results. In a grown-up place like England, you can walk into any neighborhood betting shop and get a wager down on just about any event, including even, say, the British Open and Wimbledon. And, you know, I haven’t heard a single suggestion that Phil Mickelson or Anna Kournikova haven’t won the championships because gamblers have gotten to them.

But the American sports leagues love to maintain this fiction that gamblers are a threat to their games. By making a big fuss about this, the leagues can then shout about what a wonderful job they’re doing in saving their games from fixes. It’s like the guy sitting on the street corner waving his arms. What are you doing? I’m keeping the elephants away.” I don’t’ see any elephants.” See, I’m keeping them away.”

The NFL, the NHL, the NBA and baseball are doing a great job of keeping the elephants away. The players in our professional leagues simply make too much money, which is why what few attempted fixes there are invariably involve poor college kids with no pro future. Yet, the leagues have a whipping boy. It would be as if President Bush regularly talked about the threat to America of the Bolsheviks or the Barbary pirates.