Last summer, long-time MLB umpire Pat Hoberg was disciplined for unspecified violations of MLB’s gambling policy. Hoberg, 38, has been regarded as among the best umpires – at least on balls and strikes – in the game, so the news was pretty jarring. He appealed the discipline, however, and we hadn’t heard much since.
Now we have. Hoberg, who did not umpire a game last season, has been fired:
Breaking, per MLB: Umpire Pat Hoberg has been fired for sharing betting accounts with a friend who bet on baseball though there is no evidence Hoberg himself bet on games or manipulated any that he worked. He also deleted messages central to MLB’s investigation.— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) February 3, 2025
Although there is no evidence that Hoberg himself bet on MLB games or influenced outcomes, sharing the account was enough.
It appears that Hoberg’s friend was pretty good at betting on baseball, by the way. From the AP report on the firing: “MLB said the friend made 141 baseball bets between April 2, 2021 and Nov. 1, 2023 totaling almost $214,000 with an overall win of nearly $35,000.”
I can’t really speak to the details here, since we don’t know exactly what happened between Hoberg and his friend, and why on earth he would share a betting account with someone betting on baseball. If those were the facts, though, it seems like MLB had no real choice but to let Hoberg go.
It’s a shame from an umpiring perspective, though:
Never forget when Pat Hoberg called a PERFECT GAME in the World Series 🤯 pic.twitter.com/k5OwWMOzMT
— Baseball Lifestyle™ (@BsbLifestyle__) November 26, 2024
UPDATE: Full statements from Rob Manfred and Pat Hoberg, via The Athletic, which notes that Hoberg can apply for reinstatement in a little over one year:
“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules governing sports betting conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” Manfred said in a statement. “An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way. However, his extremely poor judgment in sharing betting accounts with a professional poker player he had reason to believe bet on baseball and who did, in fact, bet on baseball from the shared accounts, combined with his deletion of messages, creates at minimum the appearance of impropriety that warrants imposing the most severe discipline. Therefore, there is just cause to uphold Mr. Hoberg’s termination for failing to conform to high standards of personal conduct and to maintain the integrity of the game of baseball.”
* * *
“I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today’s statement,” Hoberg said in a statement. “Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me. Major League Baseball umpires are held to a high standard of personal conduct, and my own conduct fell short of that standard. That said, to be clear, I have never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form. I have never provided, and would never provide, information to anyone for the purpose of betting on baseball. Upholding the integrity of the game has always been of the utmost importance to me. I apologize to Major League Baseball and the entire baseball community for my mistakes. I vow to learn from them and to be a better version of myself moving forward.”