NL West-leading D'backs host upstart Cardinals
Baseball Betting Lines
09/07/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks have reclaimed the top spot in the National League West. Now they will try to stay there, as the club begins a three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals tonight at Chase Field.
The Diamondbacks took two of three over the Padres to move a game in front of San Diego in the NL West standings. They won the finale of the set, 9-6, on Wednesday.
Miguel Montero hit a pair of home runs and Conor Jackson added a two-run blast in the victory, which was helped along by Chris Young's three-run double in the fifth inning.
Livan Hernandez (10-9) yielded five runs over five frames, but the bullpen came to his rescue, allowing just one run over the remaining four innings.
Brandon Webb will try to halt a personal two-start losing streak tonight for Arizona that has seen him allow 10 runs over 12 1/3 innings. He lost to the Padres on August 28 and then yielded four runs over seven innings on Sunday against the Rockies.
Webb is now 14-10 on the year with a 2.91 earned run average. He had won six straight outings before his recent skid. The right-hander is 1-4 with a 4.67 ERA in six career starts against St. Louis.
Second baseman Orlando Hudson is questionable for tonight's game against St. Louis because of a sprained left thumb.
The Cardinals come into this series on a winning note after pounding the Pirates, 16-4, on Thursday in a rain-interrupted finale of a four-game series at Busch Stadium.
Rick Ankiel led the charge with two homers and a career-high seven runs batted in, as the Cardinals crawled to within a game of both Milwaukee and Chicago for the top spot in the NL Central.
However, Ankiel stayed in the headlines for the wrong reasons, as he reportedly received shipments of human growth hormone from a Florida pharmacy in 2004.
According to the New York Daily News, Ankiel received eight shipments of HGH from Signature Pharmacy in Orlando from January to December 2004. The Orlando pharmacy is the center of the investigation of illegal internet prescription drug sales by the Albany, New York district attorney's office.
Adam Wainwright will try to win his fourth straight decision when he takes the hill for the Cardinals tonight. Wainwright, who is 6-2 with a 2.43 ERA in his last 10 starts, has won two straight outings, including Saturday against the Reds when he allowed just two runs (one earned) and six hits over 5 2/3 innings.
The victory lifted the right-hander's record to 13-9 this year with a 3.78 ERA. He has won his last four road decisions while pitching to a 1.59 ERA in that span.
Wainwright recorded a win over Arizona on July 5 and is 1-1 in four games (one start) in his career against them with a 3.86 ERA.
The Cardinals won three of four against the Diamondbacks when the clubs met in St. Louis in early July. Arizona won four of seven versus the club last year.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers are coming off their best offensive performance of the season. They will try to keep swinging their big bats tonight in the first of three straight games against the Cincinnati Reds at Great A
<< Padres, Rockies to get wild at Coors
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies will try to make up ground in the wild
card race this evening when they play the first of three straight games versus
the San Diego Padres at Coors Field.
The Rockies had a three-game winning strea
<< Braves try to carry momentum into series vs. Nats
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After rallying for a big win two days ago, the Atlanta
Braves will hope for an easier time tonight when they begin a three-game
series with the Washington Nationals at Turner Field.
The Braves trailed 8-2 on W
<< Angels, Indians resume series
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Garret Anderson ties to extend his club record of games
with at least one RBI this evening when the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
resume their four-game series with the Cleveland Indians at Angel Stadium.
Anderson finished
<< Twins try to halt skid against White Sox
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins try to put the brakes on a four-game
losing streak this evening when they open a three-game series with the Chicago
White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.
The Twins enter this series on the heels of getting
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers are sticking around in the playoff picture. The club will try to stay on the winning track and in the hunt tonight when they open a three-game set with the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.
France and Italy square off in World Cup rematch >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top two teams in Group B get together at
the San Siro on Saturday as France visits Italy in a rematch of the 2006 World
Cup final.
Zinedine Zidane, the most famous figure from last summer's encounter, wi
Pirates fire GM Littlefield >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Pirates fired general manager
Dave Littlefield, the club announced Friday.
Littlefield, 47, took over the Pirates' general manager position in
July of 2001, but has been unable
Vikings, Williams agree to contract extension >>
St. Paul, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Vikings signed Pro Bowl
nose tackle Pat Williams to a three-year contract extension on Friday.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the space-eater's deal is
worth up
Sixers' Dalembert suffers stress fracture >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia 76ers announced on
Friday that center Samuel Dalembert recently suffered a stress fracture in his
left foot.
The injury was discovered during a recent MRI and Dalembert will b
SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting
NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.
That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.
A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."
It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.
The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.
So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."
Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.
Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Seriously.
The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.
The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.
Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."
The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.
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