@SInow @SI_ChrisStone @serenawilliams American Pharoah is the winner-hands down. You people are ridiculous.

— Looise (@Looise1) December 14, 2015

Very disappointed to see Sport’s Illustrated editors ignored the fans vote, and chose Serena Williams over American Pharoah – Article coming

— Brian Zipse (@Zipseatthetrack) December 14, 2015

Total BS @SInow @SITimLayden Why have a poll if you totally ignore it? Serena FAILED at winning the Grand Slam. AP once in a lifetime horse

— Justin Zayat (@JustinZayat) December 14, 2015

Serena Williams or American Pharoah: Who’s the real sportsperson of 2015? Vote in our poll https://t.co/l4A51SPUlP pic.twitter.com/dssxaGFbAn

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 14, 2015

This reminds me of when Jesse Owens was made to race a horse to earn living expenses: https://t.co/XypyJCPyom. https://t.co/1L2fV9dAYR

— stacia l. brown (@slb79) December 14, 2015

#JesseOwens, w/4 gold medals still had to race vs a #horse to entertain & justify his talent. “What was I supposed to do?” @Semhar @latimes

— Maaza Mengiste (@MaazaMengiste) December 14, 2015

3:50

It’s the offseason for Major League Baseball, but big news is coming soon. Commissioner Rob Manfred says he will decide by the end of the month whether to reinstate Pete Rose.

The former perennial All-Star for the Cincinnati Reds is one of the greatest players ever; many consider his record for most hits in a career — 4,256 — untouchable.

Rose, of course, has also been baseball’s most celebrated pariah. He was banned in 1989 for betting on the game. Rose has campaigned for reinstatement in the past, and lost. He’s hoping a new commissioner — Manfred’s been in office since January — means a different outcome.

Legislative Help

Rose has many supporters, certainly in Ohio. Among them, Democratic state Sen. Cecil Thomas turned his support into legislation. In April, Thomas introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 4.

It asks Manfred to “remove Peter Edward ‘Pete’ Rose from Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list as soon as possible, and to urge the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and the National Baseball Hall of Fame to include Rose on the Hall of Fame ballot.”

The bill, which had bipartisan support, stalled in committee after a June revelation by ESPN’s Outside the Lines that Rose bet on baseball when he was a player. Rose’s admission up until then was that he had bet only when he managed the Reds in the late 1980s. The report, and the bill’s holdup in the Ohio Legislature, haven’t dimmed Thomas’ support, which the 63-year-old state senator traces back to his baseball-playing days as a little leaguer in Cincinnati.

“I didn’t get to be a senator just by kind of dragging along,” he says. “I put in 110 percent of my effort to get to where I am today. And it goes back to the foundation that my baseball coach instilled in me. He’d always say, ‘Watch how Pete Rose does it — head-first slides and runnin’ and all of that.’ “

Like many of Rose’s supporters, Thomas points to the fact that Rose’s baseball betting was always on his own team — to win. Rose always maintained he never bet against the Reds.

“I guess that’s the difference in this whole scenario,” Thomas says, adding, “If he had gambled against his team then, yes, that should be banned — period — since you’ve done something to impact the outcome in a very negative way. However, his efforts were that his team would win. We want [players and managers] to be winners and to have enthusiasm to win.”

Impact Of Not Betting

It’s the same rationale Ryan Rodenberg has heard for years from his college students, and it’s a rationale with which he’s never agreed.

Rodenberg is an assistant professor of sport management at Florida State University. Every semester, Rodenberg holds lectures on sports gambling in his graduate sports law classes. Pete Rose always comes up, and so does the argument that Rose is innocent, or at least less guilty, because he bet on his own team to win.

Rodenberg cites several problems with the argument, all outlined, he says, by John Dowd, the lawyer whose investigation and subsequent report led to Rose’s lifetime ban.

One problem, says Rodenberg, is that while Rose admitted to betting on Reds games, there’s fairly substantial evidence he didn’t bet on every game. “If someone who normally bets on games for differing amounts suddenly decides not to wager, that’s a signal,” says Rodenberg, “to the bookies, to other insiders who may be privy to that information, that someone who normally bets on the team to win just doesn’t have that much confidence in that night’s game.”

Rodenberg says there’s also evidence that Rose didn’t always bet the same amount of money. “Certainly if someone were to bet 100 bucks on a team to win versus $5,000, that’s a pretty strong signal on differing levels of confidence in terms of how the team would do.”

Changing Times

While Rodenberg contends there’s plenty of evidence to implicate Rose, he also acknowledges that Manfred is mulling over his decision in a different climate.

The traditionally hard attitudes by sports leagues toward sports gambling seem to be softening. In what Rodenberg calls “a game changer,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wrote a New York Times op-ed piece last year in support of expanded legalized sports gambling. Leagues, including Major League Baseball, are partnering with Daily Fantasy sports companies — companies that are currently fighting allegations that they constitute illegal sports gambling.

And then Manfred is also dealing with the human element: Rose is 74, and his supporters say he’s been punished long enough.

All of these factors, says Rodenberg, could prompt a possible split decision by the commissioner, who has promised to take a “fresh look” at the Rose case.

“If Rob Manfred is inclined to be sympathetic and offer an olive branch,” Rodenberg says, “he certainly could confirm the fact that Rose is banned for life in terms of being a manager, coach or instructor during spring training.”

“But you could allow for a vote to take place about whether Rose should be in the Hall of Fame,” adds Rodenberg. “That would be a bronze bust in a museum — far different than being on a coaching staff for a team. It’s a possibility, but the baseball writers [who vote for Hall members], working in conjunction with Major League Baseball, would have to revise the voting rules.”

In 1991, in response to the Rose case, the Hall of Fame voted to ban players on the permanently ineligible list.

Certainly Thomas would endorse such a compromise. “We tell our children all the time — you walk with integrity, you be honest and tell the truth,” says Thomas. “The moment you don’t, you’re sanctioned for that. But do you give them a life sentence for that? I’d say no.”

Asked whether he’ll keep pushing his bill if Manfred decides not to reinstate Rose, Thomas says, “Absolutely.”

0:28

Connor Barwin tells CBS in Philadelphia that when he came onto the field in New England, some Patriots fans taunted him. Barwin told them to have a beer ready for him when the Eagle won.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I’m David Green. We now know why Connor Barwin had a beer in his hand as he left the field Sunday. Barwin plays linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles. He tells CBS in Philly that when he came onto the field in New England, some patriots fans taunted him, saying you won’t win. Barwin said, have a beer ready for me when we do. The Eagles won. The fans were waiting to hand him a Bud Light. I wonder what it would take to have a beverage waiting for me when I walk out of this studio – maybe coffee instead of beer. It’s MORNING EDITION.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

One of the reasons @ussoccer canceled today’s game in Hawaii. #USWNT pic.twitter.com/uKJUMmOCA5

— Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy) December 6, 2015

That field should have been vetted months ago. And now players have to act to protect their careers and livelihood. Shaking my head. #uswnt

— Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy) December 6, 2015

Being told @ussoccer is working w the team & coaches to get a protocol in place similar to men’s. How not already in place is beyond me.

— Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy) December 6, 2015

4:43

Rachel Martin talks to Mike Pesca, host of Slate’s The Gist podcast, about football’s Carolina Panthers. They’ve had an eventful year on and off the field.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Time now for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: The Carolina Panthers are on fire. They take on the New Orleans Saints this afternoon. And the Panthers are the favorite with a perfect record in this season, 11 and 0. Now, my question is how did this team that is only as old as the Backstreet Boys get to this place? Mike Pesca is the host of The Gist. He’s here to explain. Hey, Mike.

MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: The Backstreet Boys are older than 20.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

PESCA: Maybe they’re as old as when the Backstreet Boys got popular, you know?

MARTIN: OK, fine. What are you with the facts? I mean, come on.

PESCA: They’re five years older than Adele, OK?

MARTIN: Oh, that would have been good.

PESCA: They’re as old as Google, at least.

MARTIN: OK, fine. Point taken. How are we here? How are we here?

PESCA: I will tell you.

MARTIN: How are the Panthers at this place?

PESCA: Yeah, I will tell you. But first I want to note, if you represent NPR’s youth movement, we are really in trouble.

MARTIN: Can you lay off?

(LAUGHTER)

PESCA: So the Panthers have a great defense. They have a really great pass defense. The NFL these days is all about passing. And they have a good run defense. Other than the truly excellent Denver Broncos in the other conference, best defense in football. And then on offense, they don’t have much. But the one thing they have is Cam Newton. Maybe you’ve heard of him. Maybe you’ve seen him in yogurt commercials.

MARTIN: I dig him.

PESCA: And I kind of love Cam Newton.

MARTIN: Me too.

PESCA: Statistically, I don’t know that he rises above a lot of NFL quarterbacks. But I think he’s particularly suited to do what the Panthers need him to do.

MARTIN: He also just looks like he’s having so much fun every time he’s on – that’s what I pay attention to. I mean, yeah, throw passes…

PESCA: Yes, no, I think – well, listen…

MARTIN: There’s joy, Mike, there’s joy.

PESCA: There is a joie de Cam.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

PESCA: And I think that maybe we could look at that as a something like leadership or something like confidence because, you know, he’s a great running quarterback. And the trend in the NFL was to – for years and years – just passing. And then a bunch of quarterbacks who could hurt the other team with their legs came in. But guess what? Those guys also tended to get hurt more often ’cause they put themselves in harm’s way. And so you have quarterbacks like Robert Griffin III not even playing this year and Colin Kaepernick also cut. So that trend of these hybrid quarterbacks sort of went away, except for Cam Newton. He’s so big. He’s so strong. Also, by necessity, he has to do it. His running is great. And the thing I want to point out is Cam – with Cam is that even though his passing statistically isn’t good, I watch a lot of his games. He throws the ball extremely accurately. And his receivers – I don’t know if they’re listening to Snoop Dogg or what, but they drop it like it’s hot. They have guys like Ted Ginn Jr., who almost lead the league in drops. And he has almost no one to throw to. So how do you – he has a good tight end, Greg Olsen – but among his receivers, they’re bad. His two offensive tackles are bad, so Cam’s always having to run around, getting away from coverage. That guy is more important to his team than any player, and I include Tom Brady in that assessment.

MARTIN: Whoa.

PESCA: Cam Newton – without Cam Newton, they would not be close to 11 and 0. They might not even be a winning team.

MARTIN: OK, can we see a Panthers-Pats Super Bowl?

PESCA: You know what’s interesting? Both of those two teams – Carolina and New England – are not named after cities or states. Interesting. That would be a cool Super Bowl. I think that the – actually the Patriots have a better chance to get there. They’re just a better team. The thing that the Panthers have going for them is their conference is sort of weak, especially related to the AFC. So I would say right now, the Panthers are the most likely in their conference to make the Super Bowl. But I still don’t know if I would say, quote, unquote, “likely.” I wouldn’t say they’re the odds-on favorite.

MARTIN: OK, you got a curveball?

PESCA: Sure. Let’s go to the world of luge.

MARTIN: Let’s.

PESCA: Now, I don’t have to tell you this is the – this is a sport that we only pay attention to once a quadrennial. And let’s face it, do we really pay attention? Well, we pay attention, in the United States, if our players – if our athletes do well. And in the World Championship of luge, the American women swept the podium. I will read you the three names of the medalists – Erin Hamlin, Emily Sweeney and Summer Britcher, which I think is a kind of odd but funny name for a luge/winter athlete. But way to go, USA.

MARTIN: Go ladies.

PESCA: Exactly.

MARTIN: Go USA. Mike Pesca, the host of The Gist on slate.com. Thanks, Mike.

PESCA: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

4:40

NPR’s Scott Simon and Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN the magazine talk about college football championships, how Tiger Wood parents in the public eye, and Kobe Bryant’s retirement.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And now it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: And we have news this week from coin toss to the finish. Two teams face off for the Big Ten title, one of basketball’s biggest stars announces his long goodbye and a former champion says, this is 40 and have I got a challenge. Howard Bryant of espn.com and ESPN the magazine joins us. Howard, thanks so much for being with us.

HOWARD BRYANT, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott. How are you?

SIMON: I’m fine, thank you. Iowa Hawkeyes, Michigan State Spartans, tonight, Big Ten championship. Iowa was 12 and 0 this year, so why are they underdogs?

BRYANT: Well, because I think there’s something magical also about Michigan State having beaten Ohio State. They’ve played – Iowa – I’m not going to take anything away from any of them – but the unbeaten against the magic – you know, against the magical team. But I think that Michigan State’s played tougher games. But it wouldn’t surprise me if either team won. Totally great even matchup, winner goes to the playoff and the loser – don’t lose at the wrong time, Iowa, because they’re unbeaten right now. Not the time you want to lose a game.

SIMON: I want to ask you about Tiger Woods, and it’s not ’cause he’s in the hunt for a tournament, obviously. He turns 40 this month. He’s had lots of injuries. I don’t know what number he is in the list now, but he’s way down there. Obviously a lot of attention to his personal life – the scandal in 2009. He gave an interview to Time Magazine this week where he talked about his struggles as an athlete. But I was touched by what he said about his family life and his children especially.

BRYANT: No question. It’s a really candid interview where he talks about having to explain to his 6- and his 8-year-old children about the scandal with his – in his personal life about why his marriage collapsed and answering the question, in his words, to answer the question why are mommy and daddy not together before they get on the Internet, before they become Internet children who are flipping through all kinds of different stuff and reading about their families. He says, I want my kids to hear it from me. And I think that was a very powerful interview. And it’s very hard. I think one of the things that we don’t do enough is to talk about how public the public life is. I mean, half of the country gets divorced. But very few people have to talk about everything that took place between parents in the public eye. Imagine…

SIMON: And this is a lot to talk about, too. This isn’t just two people falling out of love.

BRYANT: Exactly. This is a lot to talk about, exactly right. However, I thought that as the twilight of the athlete is always very poignant, I thought the other thing is that Tiger Woods is just a young man. He’s going to be 40 years old. He’s got lots of life left and a lot of relationships to happen with this kids. And so this is going to be a very interesting challenge to also have to do it in the public eye for all those millions of dollars and billions of dollars that he’s generated, not necessarily something that you would wish on anyone.

SIMON: Kobe Bryant has announced he’ll retire at the end of this season. First round Hall of Famer, I should think, for sure.

BRYANT: No question.

SIMON: How will people, though, weigh the rape accusation against him in 2003, which was dismissed with an out-of-court settlement?

BRYANT: Well, I think that’s going to be there for him always, the same way – and I think it should be, in some ways, simply because this is part of the – this is part of his journey as a public figure. I think that, to me, obviously these are very, very difficult conversations to have. I think that you always have to take a life if you’re going to do criticism, as we do, to these public people. And the price of their fame is to look at their lives and careers in totality. And I think that that’s the challenge. If you are a basketball fan, obviously you have probably forgotten everything that happened 11 years ago. If you’re a less casual fan, you remember this because this was where he sort of came to public notoriety, unfortunately. I think, for me, I take it more as him – I look more of it as the public, as to how the public reacted then and now. Let’s not forget the death threats and all the different allegations against the accuser. I would like to think that today, knowing what we know a little bit more now, that accusers wouldn’t have to go through what she went through. I’m not sure that’s the case, but I’d like to think so.

SIMON: Howard Bryant of ESPN. Thanks so much for being with us.

BRYANT: Thank you, Scott.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

2:59

Sports gets bigger all the time, everywhere. But even with a superabundance of sport, that’s not enough to satisfy our appetites, and so now we have to have make-believe sport, too. Who would’ve ever thought we would bet real money on our sports fantasies?

Maybe H.L. Mencken was right when he said: “I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.” And Mencken didn’t even know about Ultimate Fighting or the halfpipe of snowboarding.

However, even in the biggest bull markets, there are always a few stocks that fail, so I began to contemplate what in sports is bucking the trend and losing out.

Click the audio to hear Frank Deford’s commentary.