Cardinals could get Mulder back after one more rehab start
Baseball Betting Lines
08/16/2006 - ST. LOUIS (AP) -At the trade deadline, the St. Louis Cardinals reconciled their inability to make a big move by reasoning that Mark Mulder's return would serve the same purpose. The left-hander could be back next week from a shoulder injury. But Mulder, who had a 6.09 ERA when he went on the disabled list in mid-June, doesn't want to hear that kind of talk. Even though he entered the year as the winningest pitcher in the majors from 2001-05 (he's now third-best from '01-'06), he doesn't like to be viewed as a savior. ``I'm not looking at it any way like that,'' Mulder said. ``That's how the media makes it out to be, that's what people say or look at it that way. ``I just want to come back healthy and help this team.'' Mulder, whose last appearance was an awful stint of 2 1-3 innings against the White Sox on June 20 in which he allowed nine runs, pitches for Triple-A Memphis on Thursday in his third rehabilitation start. Because he reverted to old mechanical mistakes in the last one, walking four and allowing four earned runs in four innings, the Cardinals are waiting to see how Mulder fares before committing themselves. Manager Tony La Russa noted also that, given the team's recent slide, he has other things to worry about. The Cardinals' lead in the NL Central slipped to 1 1/2 games before a 5-0 victory over the second-place Reds on Tuesday. ``It depends on how he feels after he pitches,'' La Russa said. ``One thing at a time. Before he gets back, there's a lot to concentrate on.'' Mulder knows he has to prove he's ready, too, to return from rotator cuff inflammation and a shoulder impingement. Instead of throwing over the top, he was at three-quarters in the last few starts before he went on the disabled list, and in the last rehab outing he slid back into that arm slot at times. The result: a loss of control and pitches that flattened out. ``It's a process of trying to get my arm in the right spot, and when I don't it's inconsistent,'' Mulder said. ``It's more just a matter of getting that right feeling, and then I'm fine.'' Mulder's slide is ill-timed for a pitcher headed for free agency, although there's time to rectify the damage. Mulder, who won 21 games in 2001 for Oakland and at least 15 in each of the next four seasons, never thought correcting his bad habit would be easy. ``It's part of the muscle memory of how long I did it incorrectly,'' Mulder said. ``When maybe you get, say, a little tired or whatever, then you start to go back to what you used to do.'' Chris Carpenter, the NL Cy Young Award winner last year, has his locker next door to Mulder's and the two discuss their ups and downs. Carpenter just doesn't want Mulder to rush back. ``We talk about what's going on and what he's doing,'' Carpenter said. ``Obviously, I'd love to see it because he's an important part of this club, but he needs to get himself right first.'' The Cardinals acquired Mulder to be a top-of-the-rotation pitcher before the 2005 season and he rewarded them with 16 wins. He's hoping to be that guy again, and right away. ``I would hope so,'' he said. ``I would hope so.'' Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.
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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Bonds nearly hits HR 751, SF wins
4 and drove in
a pair of runs, and Barry Bonds nearly hit homer No. 751 as San Francisco beat
1, in the middle contest of three at AT&T Park.
6) allowed five hits and one run over 6 2/3 innings, fanning
eight and walking three.
game slide.
Bonds, who came within five homers of Hank Aaron's record on Friday, went
1 with three walks, an RBI double and scored twice. The double ...
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