Rays hope the Price is right in Arlington

Baseball Betting Lines

07/04/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Still trying to work out some kinks, the Tampa Bay's phenom lefty David Price will take the hill this evening against the hard- hitting Texas Rangers in the second contest of a three-game stint.

Price, a playoff hero for the Rays last season, has been inconsistent since being called into the rotation, and is currently 2-2 and has a 3.93 earned run average.

However, the last time the hard-throwing southpaw took the hill, he limited Florida to just one run on two hits in 6 1/3 innings of duty. Price did have some control issues (five walks), but also struck out four batters.

This will be the first career start for Price against the Rangers.

As for Texas, they will send one of their own young prospects to the mound in Derek Holland. Holland is not as touted as Mr. Price, and his numbers should indicate why, as the southpaw has racked up a pathetic 1-5 ledger with an equally poor 6.20 earned run average.

Holland, who has worked as a reliever and as a starter, has been surprisingly bad at home, and in seven appearances in Arlington he has posted a weak 1-4 mark with a 9.00 earned run average.

This will be Holland's first-ever start against Tampa Bay.

On Friday, Hank Blalock belted a two-run homer and Tommy Hunter pitched 5 1/3 strong innings to collect his first win in the majors on his 23rd birthday, as the Rangers downed the Rays, 3-1.

Hunter (1-1) gave up one run on three hits with five strikeouts and three walks to collect his first win in his sixth start in the big leagues. The University of Alabama product is taking the place of Matt Harrison, who was put on the disabled list last week with biceps inflammation, in the Texas rotation. Frank Francisco retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his 13th save.

"Tommy was real good tonight. He kept them off balance and he had all of his pitches working. He did a great job," Rangers manager Ron Washington said about Hunter.

Marlon Byrd had an RBI double for the Rangers, who has won three in a row after a three-game skid. Texas had just five hits in the contest.

Scott Kazmir (4-5) allowed three runs -- one earned -- on five hits with six strikeouts in a five-inning start for Tampa Bay, which has lost two straight after a seven-game winning streak.

B. J. Upton stroked an RBI single for the Rays, who had just three hits in the game.

"I think were on the right course. We have been winning lately, playing well, and hitting well. We have lost the last two, but before that we were fine. We feel that we are on our way right now," Rays outfielder Carl Crawford said.

This weekend's series is the first meeting of the season between these teams. The Rays won six of nine matchups with Texas a year ago, including four of six tilts held in Arlington.

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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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