Ohio gaming regulators on Wednesday banned a bettor who allegedly called Major League Baseball and made violent threats against Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider during the 2025 World Series, the latest example in what sports leagues say is an increase in gambling-related threats directed at athletes and coaches.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission placed Blake Morgan of Thornville, Ohio, on the state’s Sports Gaming Involuntary Exclusion List for the alleged threats during a public meeting Wednesday. People on the list are banned from all state gaming facilities and prohibited from participating in the state’s legal betting market.
When reached by phone, Morgan denied making the threats. He said he filed an appeal after being notified of the allegations by the commission in March. Records obtained by ESPN show that he did not appear at a gaming commission hearing about his case in June.
Morgan allegedly called Major League Baseball’s customer service line around Oct. 28, the night of Game 4 of the World Series between the Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and made multiple threats directed at Schneider, according to gaming commission records ESPN obtained via a public records request. The conversation lasted nearly 14 minutes.
In an audio recording included in the records, the caller, who asked to be identified as “B,” accused Schneider of “lying” in a news conference about his intention to walk Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani in Game 4.
“That was a gambling grab. This game is not legit,” the caller said. “There’s shady, fake and disturbing behavior going on.”
The caller told the MLB customer service representative: “...do I need to go to the game and on live TV and you know knock the dude’s f---in’ head off right now on live TV so everyone can see that.
“We’ve got his address, we’ve got all of his information ... if you don’t do something about it then we’re going to deal with your manager.”
MLB investigators traced the call to Morgan, according to the records. An MLB security representative then spoke to Morgan, who acknowledged gambling and making the call and said he was “pissed off” about Schneider’s comments but had no plans to travel to Toronto or Los Angeles, according to testimony included in the records.
Major League Baseball banned Morgan indefinitely from its venues and events two days after the game, according to the records. The local sheriff’s department also spoke with Morgan, the records show. It is unclear if any criminal charges have been filed against him.
During the June hearing, the commission also played audio of calls they said Morgan made to MLB in November 2025 and March 2026 claiming that he had not made the initial call with the threats, according to the records. “The whole issue here is somebody that was visiting me made a phone call and it wasn’t me,” the caller said in the records.
“We commend the final order by the Ohio Casino Control Commission,” an MLB spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. “We will continue to work with regulators across the country to protect those who work in our industry from unacceptable threats.”
The Blue Jays declined comment. A source familiar with the matter said the team was aware of the threats.
Sports leagues say gambling-related threats to athletes, coaches, officials and their families have increased as legal betting has expanded in the U.S. In September, Major League Baseball, along with the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and WNBA, wrote to state gambling regulators urging action to combat the rise in threats.
David Thomas, head of security for MLB, told the Ohio gaming commission during the June hearing that threats toward players and their families have spiked since states began launching legal betting markets in 2018.
“We receive just an innumerable number of cases, you know, in which people are threatening to, bettors are threatening to harm or kill or behead or rape players, their spouses, their girlfriends and their children,” Thomas said. “It’s awful.”
In May 2025, pitcher Lance McCullers, then with the Houston Astros, said he received threats on social media to “find my kids and murder them” after a rough performance against the Cincinnati Reds. An investigation by Houston police determined an intoxicated bettor overseas was behind the threats. No charges were filed.
Matthew Wein, a national security expert, said the steps sports leagues are taking are an indication that they are seeing a continued presence or rise of such threats, but quantifying the scope of the issue is difficult, as is catching and prosecuting culprits.
“This can be challenging for law enforcement because of the veil of anonymity that social media can provide, along with how forthcoming teams, leagues, and athletes want to be about threats,” Wein said. “I think Step 1 is to start an independent organization to share information on harassers across leagues and sports.”
Ohio is among a handful of states that have laws allowing regulators to take action against gamblers who harass or threaten athletes or participants in sports. Morgan is the third person placed on the state’s involuntary exclusion list, joining former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon and an Ohio man who allegedly bet using inside information from Bohannon.