Marlins recall Leroux, Cousins
Baseball Betting Lines
09/03/2010 - Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Marlins announced Friday the recall of pitcher Chris Leroux and outfielder Scott Cousins from Triple-A New Orleans.
Leroux has spent parts of 2010 and 2009 with the Marlins, pitching in 19 total games. This season, he has no decisions with a 6.60 ERA in 14 contests, allowing 11 earned runs in 15 innings.
Cousins has yet to appear in a major league game and was batting .285 with 14 homers and 49 RBI in 118 games for New Orleans this season.
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The playoff hopes of the Houston Dynamo continue to slip away as the club gets set to host the San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday at Robertson Stadium. Houston snapped a 10-game winless skid with a 4-3 wi
<< DeWitt, Soriano both homer as Cubs top Mets
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blake DeWitt's three-run homer in the sixth
provided the difference, and the Cubs began a weekend series against the Mets
with a 7-6 victory at Wrigley Field.
DeWitt hit his fourth home run in just 30 game
<< Columbus signs Peru forward Mendoza
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Crew signed Peru forward Andres
Mendoza on Friday.
Mendoza, 32, made his debut for Peru in 1999 and still plays for his country.
He has seven goals in 44 games. At the club level, Mendoza has p
<< Diamondbacks bring up veteran P Hampton
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks purchased the contract
of 15-season veteran Mike Hampton on Friday from Triple-A Reno.
Hampton was signed by the club on August 21 after making 21 starts for Houston
last season, going
<< NCAA reverses decision; Masoli to play for Ole Miss in 2010
Oxford, MS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli will
be able to play for the Ole Miss Rebels this season after the NCAA overturned
a previous decision that stated the signal-caller must sit out a year.
Masoli enro
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago White Sox have activated reliever Matt Thornton from the 15-day disabled list. Thornton had been on the DL since August 18 with left elbow inflammation. He is 3-4 with a 2.66 earned run average
Steelers start cuts, drop 10 players >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Steelers released 10 players on Friday,
getting an early start on personnel moves in advance of the NFL's 6 p.m. (et)
Saturday deadline to reduce rosters to 53 players.
The players released were tight
Boston's Pedroia has surgery >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia
has undergone successful surgery on the navicular bone of his left foot.
Pedroia had a screw inserted on Friday to promote healing of the fracture,
which occu
NHL approves new Kovalchuk contract >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ilya Kovalchuk will finally join the New Jersey
Devils after his re-submitted contract was reportedly approved by the National
Hockey League.
Additionally, according to TSN of Canada, the league and the NH
Dillon takes pole for Kentucky truck race >>
Sparta, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie Austin Dillon will start on the pole for
Friday's Built Ford Tough 225 Camping World Truck Series race after edging
Johnny Sauter by the slimmest of margins in qualifying at Kentucky Speedway.
Dillon
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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