Let’s be real — the game isn’t what it used to be. The crack of the bat, the tension of a 3-2 count, the roar of the crowd — all of it’s being drowned out by something uglier: gambling.

Baseball used to be sacred. It used to be about pride, loyalty, and the love of the team. Now? It’s about parlays and prop bets. You can’t even watch a game without being slapped in the face with betting odds. The soul of the sport is being auctioned off, one live line at a time.

Live game betting should be banned. Period. It’s sucked the life right out of fandom. People don’t cheer for teams anymore — they cheer for payouts. The same folks calling themselves “diehard fans” are refreshing their apps after every pitch like their rent depends on it.

And don’t get me started on prop bets. Ninety-five percent of them are nothing but traps — designed to keep fans hooked, chasing dopamine hits instead of watching the game they claim to love. Betting on how many strikeouts a guy gets or whether the first pitch is a ball or strike? That’s not fandom. That’s exploitation dressed up as entertainment.

Look at what’s already happened around the league. When gambling scandals even brush players — whether it’s whispers around Shohei Ohtani’s circle or rumors swirling about Emmanuel Clase — the headlines explode. It’s not even about guilt or innocence anymore; the point is that gambling’s shadow now touches everything. The fans, the players, the front offices — nobody’s clean, and nobody’s safe from it.

As Ryne Stanek said recently, [insert Stanek quote here]

— and he’s right. The culture around baseball has shifted from passion to profit. From pride to poison.

And here’s the truth that’ll make some people mad: the ones driving this mess aren’t real fans. They’re not Mets fans, they’re not MLB fans — they’re hustlers in disguise. Sorry, poor thugs with no love for the game, just looking to score off it. This is the same parasitic mentality that’s trickled down from the old mob-run bookie days — only now it’s hiding behind sleek apps and TV ads.

Baseball deserves better than this. The Mets deserve better. The kids growing up watching deserve better. Until someone has the guts to rein this in — to ban live bets, slash the prop garbage, and put the focus back where it belongs — the game we love will keep fading under a cloud of greed.