Berkman clubs two homers to help Astros crown Royals
Baseball Betting Lines
06/25/2009 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lance Berkman hit a pair of two-run homers and reached the 1,000 RBI plateau as the Houston Astros edged the Kansas City Royals, 5-4, in the finale of a three-game interleague set at Minute Maid Park.
Kaz Matsui had a sacrifice fly, while Carlos Lee doubled, walked twice and scored three times for the Astros, who managed to avoid being swept in the series. Houston has split its last six games overall.
Brian Moehler worked five innings, but earned a no-decision. The veteran right-hander allowed four runs -- one earned -- on five hits, struck out three and walked a pair. Wesley Wright (2-1) was credited with the win after tossing 1 1/3 innings of shutout baseball and recording four strike outs. Jose Valverde picked up his sixth save of the season with a perfect ninth inning.
Mark Teahen finished 2-for-4 with two RBI for Kansas City, which has dropped six of eight.
Brian Bannister (5-5) was tagged with the loss after allowing five runs on six hits in six innings of work. He fanned three and walked two.
With Kansas City leading 4-3, the Astros went ahead in the sixth when Lee drew a leadoff walk and Berkman cracked his second homer of the game, a shot that just cleared the left-field wall to push Houston in front 5-4.
The Astros bullpen shut down the Royals in the seventh and eighth innings and Valverde came on for the ninth and retired the side in order.
Teahen's RBI single in the top of the second scored Jose Guillen, who led off with a double and took third on a fly ball to give the Royals the early lead. Then in the home half, Lee got the inning started with a two-bagger and crossed the plate on Berkman's blast into the left-field seats.
The Royals plated a pair of runs in the top of the fourth to grab a brief 3-2 lead. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Mike Jacobs grounded to first. Berkman attempted to get the lead runner at second, but Miguel Tejada was unable to handle the throw and Alberto Callaspo came in to score. Teahen's RBI double brought in another. Matsui's sac fly in the bottom of the frame tied things at 3-3.
A throwing error on Astros catcher Humberto Quintero in the fifth allowed David DeJesus to come in, putting KC back on top.
Game Notes
Kansas City will continue its six-game interleague road trip against Pittsburgh on Friday, while the Astros welcome Detroit to Minute Maid Park for the start of a three-game set...Berkman became the third Astros player to reach the 1,000 RBI mark, joining Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell.
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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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