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07/03/2010 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Cunningham scored on Gustavo Chacin's throwing error in the bottom of the eighth inning in San Diego's 1-0 win over the Houston Astros.
Kevin Correia threw seven innings for the Padres, who won for the third time in four games. It was also their major league-best 12th shutout of the season.
Bud Norris also went seven strong innings for Houston, giving up three hits, walking three and fanning five, but the Astros were blanked for a second straight night. Chris Johnson had three hits, including a pair of doubles, in defeat.
Cunningham, recalled from Triple-A Portland earlier in the day when outfielder Will Venable went on the 15-day disabled list, stroked a pinch-hit double leading off the eighth against Chacin (1-1). Tony Gwynn Jr. then bunted to the left of the mound. Chacin ranged over, but his throw to first base bounced past a covering Jeff Keppinger, allowing the only run of the game.
Mike Adams (2-1) retired the side in order in the eighth to get the win and Heath Bell notched his 23rd save in the third installment of this four-game series.
Bell struck out Lance Berkman on a borderline 3-2 pitch at the knees for the first out of the ninth inning. Berkman briefly questioned the call by home plate umpire Ed Rapuano. Carlos Lee struck out before Jason Michaels singled up the middle, but Jason Castro popped up to shortstop to end the game.
Houston had runners on first and second in the fourth, but Lee grounded into a double play and then Hunter Pence grounded out, leaving Keppinger stranded at third.
Game Notes
Venable is out with lower back stiffness...Pence was ejected from the game by Rapuano in the seventh inning for arguing a called third strike...The last Padres team to have 12 shutouts was the 1990 club...The Padres (48-33) tied the 1984 club for the second best 81-game record in franchise history...The Padres have clinched a winning series against Houston, the first time that's happened since 2004...Astros starters have now posted a 0.67 ERA over their last four games...Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez didn't play due to a sore neck.
<< Report: Nowitzki staying with Mavs
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nine-time All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki is
reportedly staying with the Dallas Mavericks after coming to terms on a new
four-year contract.
Nowitzki's adviser, Holger Geschwindner, told the Dallas Mornin
<< Giants pound Jimenez, beat Rockies late
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andres Torres and Pablo Sandoval brought in runs
during a go-ahead two-run seventh, capping a wild back-and-forth affair at
Coors Field as the Giants held on for a 11-8 win over Colorado to snap a
season-
<< Hunter remains unbeaten as Rangers shut down ChiSox
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tommy Hunter worked into the eighth inning
and Nelson Cruz had two hits and scored a run as Texas topped the Chicago
White Sox, 3-1, in the middle contest of a three-game set.
Hunter (5-0) allowed a
<< LaPorta's 10th-inning heroics get Tribe past A's
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt LaPorta bounced a base hit back through
the middle to chase home the winning run in the 10th, as Cleveland captured a
5-4 win against Oakland.
Travis Hafner lined a double into the right-center gap
Union, Goats battle to draw >>
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Union and Chivas USA battled to
a 1-1 draw at The Home Depot Center in Major League Soccer action on Saturday
night.
Rookies Danny Mwanga and Blair Gavin scored for their respective clubs in t
Dodgers hammer sloppy D'Backs >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rafael Furcal continued hit hot hitting,
homering and driving in three runs, and the Dodgers took advantage of an
Arizona-record six errors, five in the first three innings, as Los Angeles
crushed
Harvick prevails in Daytona wreck-fest >>
Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Harvick won his second consecutive
restrictor-plate race by taking Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona
International Speedway.
Harvick, the current points leader, survived a rash of l
Ikeda cruises to three-shot win in Japan >>
Mie, Japan (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Yuta Ikeda managed just a one-over 73 Sunday,
but it was more than enough to win the Toshin Golf Tournament at Toshin Lake
Wood Golf Club.
Ikeda finished the tournament at 17-under-par 271 for his fifth
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."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
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.
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In terms of sports wagering, the NFL is "the most popular game in town." The explanation behind that is easy.
It is called the "pointspread."
Many years ago, NFL games, as well as the more popular college games, used straight odds as a vehicle for betting. For example, if the Bears were playing the Giants, and it shaped up as a competitive contest, the Bears might be, say, a 7/5 favorite. If they were playing an also-ran, it might be 10/1. Well, there is a point where a line becomes prohibitive, as far as betting the favorite. And who would waste money betting an underdog that has virtually no chance? Such a setup did not contribute to promoting betting action.
But in modern sports betting, a "pointspread" is used.
A NFL pointspreads are exactly that, a pre-established point difference between the two sides that will, for all intents and purposes, create a handicap that evens things out, and in doing so, produces comparable wagering activity on both sides of that proposition. So in lieu of a odds figure in which to bet the team to win outright, the Bears might be a three-point favorite over the New York Giants, and a 17-point favorite over the also-ran. Now that the team that is the underdog can "get" points, there can be equal action on both sides.
In sportsbooks, this is usually done with efficiency by charging the losing bettors 10% extra - in effect, bettors are laying 11/10 on those games. So they are actually betting $110 to win $100. If they lose, they pay the "vig." If they win, they simply collect.
The establishment of the pointspread as the corner stone around which team sports like football can be wagered upon was truly what brought gridiron betting into the stratosphere for online football betting .
Don't believe it? Just take a look at what happens around the Super Bowl.
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