Major League Baseball reportedly upheld the firing of umpire Pat Hoberg on Monday due to a shared sports betting account with a friend who bet on baseball and for intentionally deleting messages in an alleged attempt to impede the investigation.
The league previously fired Hoberg in May 2024 and conducted an appeals process to confirm the decision, which included guidelines from the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the MLB Umpires Association, according to MLB.com.
Hoberg was widely regarded as the best umpire in the league and had the chance to work multiple high-level games during his career.
Although MLB umpires are allowed to place bets on non-baseball sports, sharing an account with someone who places bets on baseball is a violation of the league rules.
An investigation into the allegations discovered that Hoberg met his friend during a poker tournament in 2014, and the two became very close due to their enjoyment of sports, according to ESPN.
Sports betting was later legalized in some parts of the country in 2019, and the friend opened a legal sports betting account in Iowa, prompting Hoberg to request that his friend place non-baseball bets.
The two eventually shared login information and discussed these bets using the messaging application Telegram. As reported by ESPN, both Hoberg and his friend deleted their accounts and threads following notice of the investigation.
Hoberg maintains that he was unaware of the investigation when he deleted his Telegram account, claiming he was embarrassed about the number of bets he placed on other sports.
However, the deletion of messages and accounts meant that this information could not be retrieved, and officials could not recover those details.
Further investigation into the allegations determined that there were 141 bets placed on baseball games by the account, with eight of these bets taking place during five games that Hoberg worked as an umpire, per ESPN.
Despite the profitable bets, an evaluation of Hoberg’s performance in these games found that he did not contribute to the outcome to benefit his friend or the bets placed.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred released 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,” Manfred continued, per MLB.com.
“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.”
Hoberg also released a statement to reaffirm that he has “never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form,” adding that he will grow from the experience and wants to “apologize to Major League Baseball and the entire baseball community.”
“I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today’s 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,” he said, per MLB.com.
“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.”
Hoberg is eligible to apply for reinstatement following the start of 2026 Spring Training, though it remains unclear if he will pursue reinstatement when available.