Handicapper Kris Barr Was a Childhood Friend of Locke’s, But Felt Snubbed on Facebook
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jeff Locke was suspected of involvement in a game-fixing scheme, according to a report in Sports Illustrated. The SI story quotes a report from the Center for Investigative Reporting which states that the Jeff Locke investigation was launched back in 2012. Locke eventually was exonerated.
The details about why Jeff Locke became a suspect are as bizarre as they are cautionary. According to Sports Illustrated, Jeff Locke’s involvement in the investigation stemmed from rude comments he made on a social media website.
2012 MLB Investigation into Jeff Locke
The 2012 investigation began when a small-time sports handicapper, Kris Barr, starting posting online that his best friend, Jeff Locke, was intentionally throwing Major League Baseball games. Soon enough, MLB gamblers who spent time on gambling forums began hearing rumors that Jeff Locke and a mysterious handicapper were fixing Pittsburgh Pirates games.
The rumors brought a chill over Major League Baseball, which is still dealing with controversy over the Pete Rose betting scandal back in the 1980’s. No other American sports’ history is so intertwined with game-fixing. Almost a century after the White Sox World Series fixing scandal back in 1919, Shoeless Joe Jackson is a notable figure in baseball lore. Generations later, movies like “A Field of Dreams” reference baseball’s game-fixing scandals of the past.
“Probe of Unusual Scope and Intensity”
With that in mind, Major League Baseball launched an investigated said to be “of unusal scope and intensity”. The probe includes MLB’s hired investigators and NYPD organized-crime detectives. These people had to learn who the handicapper was and what his connection to Jeff Locke was.
No Evidence Found of Point-Fixing
Eventually, the investigation found the gambler (Kris Barr), and began to learn what manner of contact he has with the Pirates’ pitcher. Investigators found little or no evidence that Kris Barr had regular contact with Jeff Locke. Nothing suggested Barr and Locke had a go-between, in lieu of direct contact between them.
Furthermore, no suspicious betting activity was found surrounding Pittsburgh Pirates games. In the sports betting world, any match-fixing is going to be paired with a significant amount of betting on one side. The cost and risk of fixing matches must be offset with significant profits, or else the risk/reward ratio is bad.
Kris Barr and Jeff Locke
It turns out that Kris Barr and Jeff Locke spent part of their childhood together. They played against each other in Little League, while becoming teammates on their high school baseball squad. Both are remembered as skilled players, even the one who went on to become a handicapper. People in their hometown of Conway, New Hampshire say they were friends, enjoying sleepovers together.
Their lifepaths diverged at a point, as Barr’s mother won the lottery and moved out of town, while Locke went on to the minor leagues. In his late-20’s now, Kris Barr often uses the name “James Hunter”, who calls himself “the best sports handicapper on the planet”. He stopped playing baseball after he left Conway at age 16, but he helps run a sports memorabilia shop on the west coast these days. He lives with a girlfriend and the couple’s baby.
Facebook Enemies
Throughout Jeff Locke’s minor league career, Kris Barr kept track of his old friend’s rise. By 2011, Jeff Locke was in the major leagues. Kris Barr found his childhood buddy on Facebook and sent him a friend request. Locke never replied.
Kris’s brother, Don Barr, also sent a friend request, which Jeff Locke accepted. At first, Don and Jeff had friendly exchanges. One message wasn’t so friendly, though. Don Barr says, “He said, ‘All you want is to be my friend because I play for the Pirates.’ I said, ‘No — we were childhood friends.’ He never wrote me back.”
Handicapping Locke’s Games
When Don told this story to his brother, it didn’t sit well with Kris Barr. It reminded Kris that the Pirates’ pitcher never wrote or replied to his friend request, which he now took as a personal insult. From that time forward, Kris Barr carried a grudge. He told investigators, “I said, if he ever makes it to the big leagues, I’m betting against him every time.”
When Jeff Locke was called up to the majors in September of 2011, Barr said, “I was hoping he would do horrible, and he did.”
Locke spent most of 2012 in the Pirates farm system. When he was called up in August, what followed were three losses. Barr started handicapping his games, and he correctly predicted a loss against the historically light-hitting Houston Astros team. He began picking against his former friend each game, and it continued to work. Despite not handicapping the games formally, Kris Barr thought he was on to something.
No gambler was much interested in Pirates games in late-September of 2012, when the team was playing out the string on another mediocre season. Kris Barr decided to drum up interest by making up a rumor he and Jeff Locke were fixing games. Thus, a rude Facebook comment led to a major probe by Major League Baseball.
