Baseball’s bad side prevailing

Do you get the feeling that everything in the news, from the stock market to world peace to Major League Baseball, is horrifically bad? Well, hang on, because like the rest of the news, the bears aren’t done scavenging through MLB yet either.

Now we have a gangster, a higher up, from the Colombo family, Michael Franzese, saying on Tuesday night’s edition of HBO’s “Real Sports” that some MLB players in the late 1970s and early 1980s fixed games and provided inside information to gamblers.

Franzese was convicted in 1986 of racketeering, conspiracy and tax fraud. Since then he has worked as a freelance speaker for the NBA, NCAA and MLB to advise those groups and players regarding organized crime and gambling.

He did such work this year in the spring for MLB, speaking to young players. MLB security officials say the FBI recommended Franzese.

HBO says the team Franzese is talking about is the Yankees. Franzese’s attorney says his client never named a team. The Yankees say his statements are “beyond belief.”

Now think about this.

MLB has hired Franzese to speak to young players about gambling. Franzese apparently never mentioned these fixes before to anyone.

Now the Yankees, just to split themselves from the rest of MLB even further, said yesterday: “He’s a discredited hoodlum and it’s an outrage that any credence would be given to him with his bad reputation.”

There’s a nice shot by the Yanks at MLB and its security division. The Yanks had no reaction before they were fingered, and now they intend to point a finger at everyone else. Hiring Franzese may not have been a great idea in hindsight, but the Yankees might try and support MLB’s security folks.

Of course, as in all matters in George’s kingdom, the Yankees come first no matter what the havoc created for everyone else.

Looking on the Google search engine website, there were 269,000 entries under baseball gambling. If baseball is big business in the good old USA, gambling is even bigger.

All sports have forever fought against legalized gambling on games. That has not stopped the betting, legal or otherwise. Fixing games ends any credibility leagues have. In the midst of vital negotiations to keep MLB on the field, MLB has a new headache.

Even worse is the story out of Kearny, N.J., that a Little League team was asked by its coaches to throw a game. The players on an All-Star team with a 1-5 record say their coaches asked them about losing to another town team that had a 6-0 record.

The kids say the coaches told them the 1-5 team had no chance to advance in the district playoffs, but the 6-0 team did, so maybe they should lose to them.

The coaches have denied the allegations. Little League and the town are investigating.

We have seen in recent times the intentional use of older players in Little League in order to win. The abuse by Little League parents of players, coaches and officials has caused some localities to prohibit parents from attending games. Or, they have to sit in a special section where their yelling can not be heard by the players.

Now comes a story where adults may have asked kids to throw a game so the town could have one of its All-Star teams advance in the playoffs.

Michael Franzese is now probably available to speak at Little League banquets.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.