May 15, 2025

Willing to Wager

Major League Baseball recently announced that two players banned from the game for gambling—“Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Pete Rose—have been reinstated, making them eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Jackson, involved in the infamous 1919 Black Sox Scandal, was one of the greatest players of his era, and Rose remains the all-time major league hits leader. Their reinstatement reflects changing attitudes toward sports betting. Today is also the 120th anniversary of Las Vegas—a city that, like the act of gambling itself, has undergone an image makeover.
USA, Nevada, Las Vegas, night, aerial view 2001
History of the Las Vegas Strip: From Bugsy Siegel to Corporate Enclave
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American baseball player Pete Rose shown at bat, 1985. Location is unknown.
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Baseball player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (Shoeless Joe Jackson) of the Chicago White Sox, c. 1920
“Shoeless” Joe Jackson and the 1919 Black Sox Scandal
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Earlier this week the world lost a charismatic leader. Meanwhile, the Cannes film festival kicked off.

In Memoriam: José Mujica

José Mujica, the former revolutionary who served as president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 after a long imprisonment, died on Tuesday at the age of 89. Mujica joined the Tupamaro revolutionary group in the early 1960s. In 1971 he was convicted of killing a police officer and went on to serve some 14 years in prison. After the country returned to a democratic government in 1985, Mujica became a popular politician. Under his leadership as president, the Uruguayan economy prospered, while his progressive administration legalized marijuana and same-sex marriage and expanded reproductive rights in the country.

Jose Mujica, presidential candidate of the ruling party Frente Amplio, looks on as he campaigns in Montevideo, October 17, 2009. Cannes opening

The 78th Cannes film festival began this week, and, as always, the agenda features a star-studded lineup of world premieres. Some of the films that will vie for the Palme d’Or include Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, featuring Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera; Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident; Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague; the latest from Belgian filmmakers the Dardenne brothers, The Young Mother’s Home; and Ari Aster’s Eddington, featuring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, and Emma Stone. Also being screened are Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise, and Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, starring Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright.

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