What's Worse: Cheating or Betting?

Pete Rose was accused of betting on baseball and banned from the game--including its Hall of Fame--as a result.

Mark McGwire has been accused--and has now admitted--to using steroids. His penalty? None. In fact, it appears that he will continue to be the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.

As regular readers know, I wasn't born and raised in Cincinnati, though it is my adopted home-town. I now consider myself a Reds fan. But I'm no Pete Rose groupie. As far as I'm concerned, Rose got the penalty he deserved, first for betting on baseball and then for lying about it for years. I don't buy the argument that it's OK since he never bet "against the Reds." Once he started betting for the Reds, he bet against his team every time he didn't bet for it. Everyone--including Rose--knew that getting caught gambling on baseball would get you baseball's version of the death penalty.

I don't know, though, how McGwire's transgression is less onerous than Rose's. Rose didn't cheat. Even under my theory of betting "against" his team, Rose has never been accused of intentionally altering game outcomes. But that's not so for McGwire. McGwire cheated. He gained an advantage through his conduct. And in doing so, he sullied one of baseball's most hallowed records.

Let's be clear about what McGwire did. This isn't a pitcher doctoring a ball on the mound, an act that can be detected by a smart umpire. This isn't even about HGH, which wasn't banned by the MLB until 2005. This was steroids--the rage-inducing, testicle-shrinking grandaddy of performance enhancers--which were banned in 1991. He knew he was breaking the rules. He knew he was gaining an edge. And he did it anyhow. He admits that he used during 1998, when he broke Roger Maris's single season home-run mark.

Mark McGwire should have the courtesy and grace to remain in the obscurity to which he had retired after his infamous testimony before Congress five years ago. The Cardinals' decision to retain his services as a hitting coach--to prop him up as a role model for how young players should approach the game--is vile. McGwire's presence on a major league coaching staff is an insult to every player who played or plays the game within the bounds of the rules, and an affront to every fan, unaware that McGwire's success was the result of illegal intravenous drugs, who cheered his hitting prowess in 1998.

If McGwire doesn't have the decency to stay away from the game and the Cardinals lack the wisdom to keep him away, then baseball and Bud Selig must step in to impose a penalty on McGwire. Given that McGwire's actions changed game outcomes and stole a coveted record, how can his sanction be any less severe than Rose's? Bud Selig must make the tough decision faced by Bart Giamatti in 1989 and force McGwire to accept banishment from the game.

The Reds open the 2010 season this April against the Cardinals. I don't normally boo much at ballgames or encourage others to do so, but if McGwire is present, he should be booed. And he should be ashamed.

Will Ghiz End Toys For Leis Program?

BossSexy makes a good point about Leslie Ghiz: if elected to the Hamilton County Commission will she put an end to the useless toy purchases made by th Sheriff's department? Could they maybe sell off some of the toys and maybe put the money to actually investigating more crimes throughout the county? I mean with Si Leis, the local Sheriff, as her campaign chair, she stands a good chance of talking with him about his problem of having too many toys he doesn't need. He will surely listen to her....

Using his toys in parades doesn't actually save money, like a Kindle will. Ghiz hasn't done much saving money as a council member. She's saved lots of raises for the FOP, but that would be about it.

The Phony Coney Probes Who is Funding COAST

I would have thought there would be more in lines of local right wing nuts funding COAST, but it turns out there's more of a special interest motive at play. I wouldn't be surprised to see COAST start a petition drive to try and force the State of Ohio to issue gold coin currency, right after the check from the Gold Miner's Association cleared.

Extra-Territorial Warrants and the Fourth Amendment

For those to whom the title of this post is gobblety-gook, I apologize. But I wanted to take a moment to mention that during the last week of 2009, the Second District Court of Appeals (which includes Montgomery, Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, and Miami counties) issued an extremely interesting decision on a legal question that is quite murky. So please bear with me while I go all law-geeky.

The facts are quite simple: Miami Township police came to believe that Kevin Jacob had committed a theft offense. (Believe it or not, he allegedly stole several Hummel figurines. Note to would-be thieves: people get very, very possessive about their Hummels.) Eventually, the police decided that Jacob had taken the figurines with him to California, and convinced a Miamisburg judge to issue a warrant to search Jacob (then in California), as well as a residence and two cars also in California. The warrant was sent to and executed by the San Francisco police.

The question before the Second District was this: can an Ohio judge authorize a search in California? In an opinion written by Judge Froelich, the court concludes that it does not. The court's decision relies heavily on the statutes and rules enabling Ohio judges and magistrates to issue warrants, all of which limit the judge's power to his territorial jurisdiction. "Crossing state lines," writes Judge Froelich, "by allowing an Ohio court to determine when California citizens and property are subject to search and seizure crosses [a] constitutional line."

As is my policy, I'll not comment on the merits of the court's decision. I did want to note, though, that one of our local courts of appeals recently wrestled with a particularly thorny constitutional question. For more analysis--including some discussion of how this applies to internet crime issues--read this blog post by Professor Orin Kerr of George Washington Law School.

By the way, because the appellate court determined that the issuance of the warrant was outside of the trial court's authority, Mr. Jacob's conviction was set aside; should the State seek to retry him, it will not be permitted to use the evidence obtained from the California search during a new trial. Given the novelty and importance of the issues raised, I'd be surprised if the Montgomery County prosecutor doesn't seek review before the Ohio Supreme Court (and perhaps ultimately the US Supreme Court).

Mr. Jacob was represented on appeal by Jennifer Getty of the Getty Law Office in Dayton.

UrbanUp Ponders Exclusivity

Sherman Cahal at UrbanUp ponders the viability of exclusivity in the booming downtown club scene. At last count there are at least five high-end clubs (with one more on the way) in the Downtown area. This doesn't include the high end restaurants. Can the market take this level of supply? I could use another Arnold's in Downtown. Can we clone it?

Let's Go Bengals!

In all likelihood, today is the Bengals' final home game of the 2009-2010 season (theoretically, the AFC Championship could be played here, but only if the Bengals beat the Jets and the Chargers and the Ravens beat the Patriots and the Colts).

Those of us who live in the southwestern corner of downtown have a unique experience when we watch Bengals' home games on television. (And since I don't have tickets, that's how I'll be watching.) To make sure we don't hear any bad words, games are, of course, broadcast with a delay of several seconds. For some reason, digital cable (to which I subscribe) is often a second or two behind its broadcast or analog cable counterparts. So people see plays on their TV about 7 to 12 seconds after they happen in real time.

Why does that matter? I live close enough to Paul Brown Stadium that I can hear the crowd. I can hear the crowd's intensity rise during and after a particularly positive play for the Bengals. And I can hear it, usually, a couple seconds before the ball is snapped on my TV. So as the team is at the line, if I hear the volume of the crowd suddenly pick up, I know the Bengals are about to have a big gain or a score.

I don't really have any game analysis for you (for that, check out one of the sports bloggers, like Lance McAlister). But I wanted to offer some sort of game-day post wishing the Bengals well.

And wouldn't it be cool if the AFC Championship game were here?

Velvet Opens on Fourth Street

I'm not really cool enough to be in the know about things like this (I was hoping perhaps 5chw4r7z had the scoop, but there's nothing on his blog), but by virtue of proximity, I can report that a new nightclub has opened on West 4th between Plum and Central, in the space previously occupied by Bang. The new club is called "Velvet," and was open this past weekend.

I can't seem to figure out the new club's hours or who, exactly, is running the show (though I think it's the guys behind Bang/FB's/Club Clau/etc.). Some of the club's residential neighbors have complained about noise during the club's opening, so one hopes that the club will work to be a good neighbor. Velvet's owners should remember that a busy nightclub in that block is a relatively new phenomenon, and many of the street's residents pre-date Bang and thus weren't looking for the residential experience of an entertainment district.

If anyone has some info on the new club, feel free to post in the comments.