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08/28/2010 - Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cleveland Browns defensive back Nick Sorensen left Saturday's game with an undisclosed injury.
Sorensen was hurt in the second quarter when he was blocked by a pair of Lions defenders on a kickoff.
Both team's medical staff were called on to evaluate him on the field. Sorensen was loaded onto a backboard and then a stretcher to be taken for evaluation.
<< Blackburn, Fuentes shut out M's; Twins win third straight
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Blackburn hurled 8 2/3 scoreless
innings and Denard Span drove in the lone run as Minnesota clipped Seattle,
1-0, in the middle test of three from Safeco Field.
Blackburn (8-8) yielded two hi
<< Goldberg tied for lead at Canadian Tour Champ
St. Catharines, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Leading money winner Aaron Goldberg shot
a four-under 66 to join Kane Hanson in the lead Saturday after the third round
of the Canadian Tour Championship.
Hanson, the 36-hole leader, managed only an
<< Afleet Express holds off Fly Down to win Travers
Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Afleet Express, ridden by Javier
Castellano, edged a late running Fly Down to capture Saturday's $1 million
Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. The time for the 1 1/4-miles was
2:03.28
<< Dallas, Columbus battle to scoreless draw
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FC Dallas extended its road unbeaten run to
10 Major League Soccer games, and its overall league unbeaten run to 12 games,
by earning a 0-0 draw at Columbus on Saturday afternoon at Crew Stadium.
The game,
Rangers put P Francisco on DL >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers placed closer Frank
Francisco on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with a strained right
latissimus dorsi muscle.
The right-hander suffered the injury in Friday's game aga
Toulouse continues perfect with win over Nancy >>
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Ligue 1 leaders Toulouse continued its
perfect start to the 2010-11 season with a 2-0 win over Nancy on Saturday.
Midfielders Etienne Capoue and Franck Tabanou scored second-half goals to lead
Toulouse
Red Sox activate Okajima from DL >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox activated pitcher Hideki
Okajima from the 15-day disabled list on Saturday.
Okajima had been out since August 6 with a right hamstring strain. Before the
setback, he was 4-3 with a
49ers NT Franklin signs tender >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers announced Saturday nose
tackle Aubrayo Franklin has signed his franchise tender.
A number of sources have placed the tender's value at close to $7 million for
the eighth-year pro.
Fr
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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Barry Bonds Watch: Giants Slugger Says He'll Be Back
With only 21 home runs standing between him and Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds is indeed planning on coming back for more in 2007. At least, that's what his agent told the Los Angeles Times.
"Barry's going to play in 2007," Jeff Borris of Beverly Hills Sports Council told the Times on Tuesday. "I've had many discussions with Barry and he's going to play. My intentions are to see to it he's in a big-league uniform next season. Those are my marching orders."
Contract negotiations could get started as early as next week. Let's see which team has the deeper pockets. Will MLB baseball betting lines despite allegations of steroid use? Bet On It at www.MySportsbook.com .
Get all your baseball betting lines, MLB lines and MLB team props at the My Sportbook.
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