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Guthrie ends long winless stretch as O's edge TwinsBaseball Betting Lines07/23/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeremy Guthrie picked up his first victory in nearly two months thanks to a two-run homer by Luke Scott in the sixth inning, as Baltimore edged Minnesota, 3-2, in the second test of a four-game set. Guthrie (4-10), winless in nine starts since beating Oakland on May 25, yielded two runs on six hits in seven effective innings to pick up the win, the Orioles' second in eight games since the All-Star break. Anthony Slama (0-1) gave up the go-ahead home run to take the loss behind Brian Duensing, who went five innings in his first start of the year and allowed just one run on four hits while walking none. Joe Mauer went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run for the Twins, who had won two straight and five of seven coming in. Minnesota shut out its previous two opponents but gave up a run in the first inning Friday, as Adam Jones' two-out, RBI single gave the Orioles an early lead that held up until the sixth. Guthrie faced the minimum from the third through the fifth frame, then retired the first two hitters in the sixth before Alexi Casilla singled to left. Mauer then sent one into the seats in right-center for his fifth home run this season. The reigning AL MVP belted a career-high 28 round-trippers last year. The Twins' lead was short-lived, with Miguel Tejada leading off the bottom frame with a single off Slama, who was making his second career appearance since being called up from Triple-A Rochester. Two batters later, Scott gave the rookie reliever a rude welcome with a no-doubter to right for a 3-2 edge. Denard Span led off the away eighth with a single and was moved into scoring position with a bunt. However, Will Ohman got Mauer to bounce out to short, and David Hernandez got Michael Cuddyer to fly out to the deepest part of the park in center. Alfredo Simon worked around Delmon Young's one-out single in the ninth to close out the victory and notch his 14th save of the season. Game Notes Duensing, who made nine starts last season, had appeared in 39 games out of the bullpen this year and pitched to an impressive 1.67 earned run average. He started in place of an ineffective Nick Blackburn...Twins second baseman Orlando Hudson left in the third inning with a right oblique strain...Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, sidelined since suffering an abdominal strain four games into the season, went 0-for-4 out of the leadoff spot in his return. To make room for Roberts, Baltimore designated infielder Scott Moore for assignment...O's infielder Ty Wigginton was suspended by Major League Baseball for three games for his on-field argument and subsequent volatile reaction with an umpire in the opener of this series. He appealed and went 1- for-4 in the win...Tejada had two hits and two runs scored for Baltimore.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?" A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook. In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small. "Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets." But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?" Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year. This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here. Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions. In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries. No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning. And that's all any bettor can ask for. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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