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08/28/2010 - Joliet, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Busch won his fourth consecutive NASCAR national touring series race by taking Friday night's EnjoyIllinois.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Busch, who won the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series races at Bristol last week, put on a dominating performance, but had to hold off a furious charge from pole sitter Todd Bodine in the closing laps to claim his fourth victory of the season and the 20th of his truck career.
"Todd ran me down and probably was going to pass me there, but I got a run on the outside, and I think he slipped a little bit," said Busch, who also won this race at Chicagoland last year.
Busch led a total of 121 laps, but had to charge from sixth to first after a late-race round of pit stops under caution. He passed Bodine with 24 laps remaining. Bodine chased him down shortly after and made several attempts to reclaim the lead.
The fifth caution for Timothy Peters' blown engine set up a green-white- checkered finish. Busch easily pulled away from Bodine after the final restart and then beat him at the finish by 0.19 seconds.
"Second stinks," Bodine jokingly said. "Right there at the end with Kyle, I had him on the outside, and he pinched me up into the wall, and then I had him on the inside, and I got loose going into [turn] three. It was good racing with him."
Busch is now tied with Bodine for fourth on the series' all-time race winners list.
Ron Hornaday Jr. finished third, followed by Johnny Sauter and Justin Lofton.
Aric Almirola, Matt Crafton, Rick Crawford, Austin Dillon and David Starr completed the top-10.
Bodine increased his lead to 236 points over Almirola with eight races remaining in the season.
Busch will attempt to win his fifth straight national touring race next Friday when the Truck Series competes at Kentucky Speedway.
<< Late TD helps Eagles nip Chiefs
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Kafka threw the game-winning 18-yard
touchdown pass to Riley Cooper with 23 seconds left to lift Philadelphia to a
20-17 come from behind win over Kansas City in preseason action at Arrowhead
Stadium
<< Young, Murphy help Texas down Oakland
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Young and David Murphy each knocked
in two runs as Texas topped Oakland, 7-3, in the opener of a three-game
series.
Josh Hamilton added three hits and an RBI while Elvis Andrus and Vladi
<< Brees lifts Saints over Chargers
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Drew Brees completed 18-of-27 passes for
240 yards and two touchdowns, as the New Orleans Saints defeated the San Diego
Chargers, 36-21, in the third preseason outing for each team from the
Louisia
<< Jays top Tigers in 11 on Hill's base hit
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Hill drove in the game-winning run with
a single in the 11th inning, as the Toronto Blue Jays snuck past the Detroit
Tigers, 3-2, in the second test of a four-game series at Rogers Centre.
Adam Lind
Blake's grand slam propels Dodgers past Rockies >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Casey Blake's grand slam off Matt Belisle in the
eighth inning gave the Dodgers a 6-2 victory over the Rockies in the opener of
a three-game series between the National League West foes.
The grand slam was part
Bergesen, Orioles silence Angels >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Bergesen tossed eight solid innings,
helping the Baltimore Orioles beat the Angels, 3-1, in the opener of a three-
game set.
Bergesen (6-9) gave up one run on four hits to win his third str
Enright solid as Diamondbacks shut down Giants >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adam LaRoche belted a three-run home run
in support of Barry Enright's seven shutout frames as Arizona opened a three-
game series with a 6-0 blanking of San Francisco.
Enright (5-2) cooled off a red-
Mauer, Baker lead Twins over Mariners >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joe Mauer had three hits with two RBI and
Scott Baker pitched into the seventh inning, as the American League Central-
leading Minnesota Twins beat Seattle, 6-3, in the opener of a three-game
series
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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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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