Senate Panel Launches Probe of Gambling in Major League Baseball

The Senate Commerce Committee has opened an investigation of alleged corruption in Major League Baseball as the sport confronts a gambling scandal.

Professional baseball and American sports “are facing a new integrity crisis,” senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, the panel’s Republican chairman and top-ranking Democrat, wrote in a joint letter released Monday by the committee.

The probe follows a federal indictment earlier this month of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz accusing them of a scheme to rig sports bets based on pitches they threw during games. Both Clase and Ortiz have pleaded not guilty.

The ...