Pettitte has strong outing as Yanks top Royals

Baseball Betting Lines

04/10/2009 - Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andy Pettitte scattered three hits and one run through seven innings, as the New York Yankees topped Kansas City, 4-1, in the opener of a three-game set.

Pettitte (1-0) held his foes in check with six strikeouts and one walk, en route to his 216th career victory.

Jorge Posada knocked in a pair of runs for the Yankees, who evened their record after losing two-of-three at Baltimore to start the season. Nick Swisher and Derek Jeter also added RBI.

Mike Jacobs knocked in the lone run for the Royals, who opened their season by winning two-of-three in Chicago against the White Sox.

Sidney Ponson (0-1), who was called up from Triple-A to start the game and fill the roster spot vacated by the injured Jose Guillen, was charged with six hits and four runs over six innings, fanning five with three walks.

The Yanks got to Ponson early, putting up two runs in the first on a sizzling two-RBI base hit from Posada. The Royals countered in the home second, on a two-out walk to Billy Butler followed by a double from Jacobs.

In the fourth, New York picked up two more runs courtesy of a Swisher double to plate Robinson Cano and a fielder's choice grounder by Jeter to plate Swisher.

Kansas City's best chance to cut into its deficit came in the fifth, as Butler led off with a double. However, the next three batters were retired in succession without advancing the runner.

Pettitte closed out his start by retiring nine of the final 10 batters he faced from the fifth through the seventh.

Brian Bruney fanned a pair while blanking the Royals in the eighth, then Mariano Rivera closed out the game with a scoreless ninth to earn his first save of the season.

Game Notes

Cano collected two hits for the Yankees, the only player on either side to have a multi-hit game...Right-fielder Guillen was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a grade 2 tear of a right groin muscle suffered Thursday in Chicago...Royals relievers Kyle Farnsworth and Jamey Wright combined to allow one hit with six strikeouts over three scoreless frames...Both clubs won five games apiece in the 2008 season series.

Macauslots Baseball Betting News

<< Driver charged with murder in Adenhart's death
Fullerton, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andrew Thomas Gallo is facing three felony murder counts in the drunken driving accident that killed Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, The Orange County District Attorney announced the 22-yea

<< Norman misses cut after a 77
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The crowd surrounding Augusta National's familiar 18th green applauded Greg Norman. He applauded them right back. If the tournament hasn't always been kind to The Shark, at least the gallery has. No

<< Serena Williams withdraws from Family Circle Cup
Charleston, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Serena Williams has pulled out of the Family Circle Cup due to a left leg injury. The top-ranked player in the world hurt her leg at the Sony Ericsson Open, which she lost in the final to Victoria

<< Hall out as Cincy women's coach
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - J. Kelley Hall, who had served as the head coach of Cincinnati's women's basketball team for the last two seasons, will not return next year, the school revealed on Friday. Hall put together a 26-33 m

<< Perry joins Campbell in Masters lead
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kenny Perry fired a five-under 67 on Friday to join overnight-leader Chad Campbell, who had a 70, atop the leaderboard after the second round of the Masters. Perry and Campbell finished 36 holes at nine-under 1

Colorado rocks Hamels, Phils in home opener >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Garrett Atkins' first hit of the season -- a two-run homer -- highlighted a five-run third inning, as the Colorado Rockies defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-3, in the home opener at Coors Field. Ryan

Pirates/Reds postponed >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Friday's game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park was postponed because of rain. A makeup date has not been announced. Pittsburgh's Jeff Karstens and Cincinnati

Weeks leads Brewers' ninth-inning comeback over Cubs >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rickie Weeks doubled home the tying run in the ninth, took third on a ball in the dirt and scored the winning run on an infield hit with a head-first slide just ahead of the tag to give Milwaukee a thrilling 4-3

Gilroy wins 2009 Hobey Baker Award >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Executive Committee announced Friday that Boston University senior defenseman Matt Gilroy was named the 29th winner of college hockey's most prestigious individ

Mickelson bounces back with a 68 >>
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After struggling to a one-over 73 on Thursday, Phil Mickelson bounced back with a four-under 68 Friday to move into share of 11th at three-under-par 141 after two rounds of the Masters. Mickelson was well o

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.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.