While researching about the dog days of summer, something came up I probably should have learned in astronomy class.
As it turns out, that name — dog days —has a lot less to do with man’s best friend than many people realize.
In ancient times, stargazers noticed that Sirius — also known as the Dog Star, and the brightest in the Canis Major (Greater Dog) constellation — is most prominent during the summer months, rising and setting around the same time as the sun.
The information available at the time made them believe that the brightness of Sirius contributed to the increased heat actually caused by the tilt of the Earth.
Sirius and the sun are most in sync on July 23. The Farmer’s Almanac considers the window from 20 days prior (Monday) to 20 days after (Aug. 12) as the dog days.
That’s pretty close to how sports fans define them on their calendars, too — between the end of the NBA Finals and the start of college football.
For gamblers, though, there’s still lots of action, especially if you like to bet on hot dog-eating contests — or baseball.
Speaking of which, the dog days are also what I like to call Pete Rose and the Hall of Fame season. Almost as assuredly as there is an episode of “Law & Order” on some TV channel at all times, in July there is always some sports talk host somewhere gabbing about Charlie Hustle and Cooperstown.
That dog will hunt, every year during the dog days. I wonder if Rose realizes that not being in the Hall of Fame makes him more famous than if he’d been in all these years.
He’s banned from baseball and disqualified for Cooperstown consideration since 1989, for gambling on baseball games while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds — his hometown team and where he got most of his MLB career-record hits.
But there’s a difference between being banned and being banished, and “news” about Rose blooms seemingly every year around this time.
This year it’s because somebody came up with a great promotional idea to have Rose place the first bet when sports wagering became legal in Ohio, on New Year’s — a hundred bucks on Cincinnati to win the World Series at +10000.
There’s still a long way to go, and Cincinnati needs pitching, but the Reds — who enjoyed a 12-game winning streak recently — are tied atop the NL Central, and that’s a good start.
It would certainly be hilarious if Rose wins a highly publicized — and legal — bet on the Reds. It might not help him get into the Hall of Fame, but it would shine a brighter light on how pro sports have fully embraced gambling.
Although it’s not just baseball, it is certainly interesting that the sport that always seemed the most leery of gambling — with Rose the primary example — now allows MLB teams to have official sports-betting partners, and sportsbooks at their stadiums.
Maybe they realized it’s going to happen anyway, and with most states now legalizing sports gambling they might as well be in on the action.
That promotion where Rose bet on the Reds to win the Series was at the Hard Rock Casino in Cincinnati. You can also place wagers — for now — at the BetMGM Sportsbook at Great American Ball Park, home of the Reds.
It’s the same sportsbook were an incident led to Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon’s firing May 4.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission is still investigating wagers placed on an April 28 Alabama-LSU baseball game, allegedly by Bert Eugene Neff Jr. based on information provided by Bohannon.
BetMGM announced on June 21 that its sportsbook is moving from the baseball stadium to a downtown location. The move was already being planned and had nothing to do with the college baseball incident, a BetMGM spokesperson told legalsportsreport.com in a June 25 article.
That sounds like quite the coincidence. Either way, I hope the underdog Reds get hot again and make the dog days more interesting.
I’m certain Pete Rose does, too.
