JULY 2025 – A conspicuous blowout in sports writing these days is the outperformance of the WSJ’s relatively small sports staff against the NYT’s 400-member team at The Athletic. The WSJ leads with columnists – primarily Jason Gay, Jared Diamond and Ben Cohen – while The Athletic keeps churning out surprisingly bland content that, well, feels a lot like mid-afternoon ESPN.
A recent standout report by Diamond and Joshua Robinson, a London-based reporter, on the growth of “spot fixing” in baseball and soccer is a good example of important coverage. “Spot fixing” involves a player rigging the outcome of a single event in a sports contest – very hard to detect and police against. An example: Bettors can wager on whether a baseball pitcher will throw a ball or a strike on the first pitch of the game. Apparently a Cleveland Guardians pitcher threw a way-off-the-plate first pitch the other day – setting off speculation that he was “throwing his pitch,” as it were.
In the last eight years pro sports leagues have embraced legalized gambling, a huge shift and one whose consequences are only beginning to be felt.
https://www.wsj.com/sports/baseball/spot-fixing-mlb-cricket-soccer-a573caaa?mod=baseball_news_article_pos1