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03/10/2010 -
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -On his first day as Dodgers interim manager, hitting coach Don Mattingly said Wednesday the team has made overtures about him eventually becoming Joe Torre's permanent replacement.
With Torre en route to Taiwan to manage a Dodgers split squad for three exhibition games, Mattingly is in charge of the team in Arizona and will work at least five games as manager.
Mattingly interviewed with the Cleveland Indians for their manager opening this offseason. He then turned down an interview request from the Washington Nationals.
In a meeting this winter with Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, owner Frank McCourt and team president Dennis Manion, Mattingly said the word manager was brought up but nothing definitive was said or done.
Torre's contract expires after this season but both he and McCourt said they are working on a one-year extension. Mattingly would then take over the Dodgers in 2012.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 The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
<< Tulsa Shock
Signed Marion Jones.
<< Bengals re-sign TE Coats
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals re-signed tight end
Daniel Coats on Wednesday.
Coats has spent all three of his NFL seasons with the Bengals. Last year, he
posted 16 catches for 150 yards in 16 games.
Primaril
<< Clark named director of player relations for MLBPA
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former MLB veteran Tony Clark has been hired
by the MLBPA as director of player relations.
A 15-year-veteran who retired during the 2009 season, Clark was a club player
representative for the Red Sox and
<< Syracuse, Michigan headline 2010 Legends Classic lineup
Princeton, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Syracuse, Michigan, Georgia Tech and UTEP
have been announced as participants for the 2010 Legends Classic next
November.
The early season tournament will maintain the same format, with 12
Chiefs sign DT Shaun Smith >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Chiefs announced Wednesday
the signing of defensive tackle Shaun Smith.
Terms of the deal were not released.
Smith appeared in only three games for the Bengals last season and recorded
Redskins sign T Kemoeatu >>
Ashburn, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Redskins have signed nose
tackle Maake Kemoeatu, the team announced Wednesday.
Kemoeatu, 31, spent the entire 2009 season on the Carolina Panthers' injured
reserve after suffering a torn
Eagles ink Marlin Jackson to two-year deal >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Eagles announced
Wednesday the signing of cornerback Marlin Jackson to a two-year contract.
Financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed.
Jackson, a five-year veteran who
Roughriders sign Cates >>
Regina, SK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Saskatchewan Roughriders signed running back
Wes Cates on Wednesday.
Last season with Saskatchewan, he started 16 games and had 195 carries for 932
yards and five scores to go with 33 catches for 336 yards a
“You play to win the game!”
Those are the words of notoriously intense head coach Herman Edwards. Unfortunately, from a bettors’ perspective, most coaches don’t feel that way about the NFL preseason. August is a time to evaluate young players, finalize the depth chart and pray your star players stay healthy.
The trick to making money during the exhibition schedule is identifying coaches – like Edwards – who can’t stand losing even when there's nothing on the line.
The New York Jets betting won 15 of 21 preseason games and went 14-7 against the spread (ATS) during Edwards’s five-year tenure with the club. In his first season as the Kansas City Chiefs field boss, the team improved from 0-4 to 2-2.
Identifying win-a-holics like Edwards is a good start if you plan betting the preseason – even though most say you shouldn’t ... but what the hell do they know anyway?
Here’s a brief rundown of two teams that have a habit of winning during the second-stringers’ season, and another club that has a good chance of exceeding this year.
Playing in the media hub of North America can be stressful but the press can’t write anything negative about the way Tom Coughlin’s boys play in the preseason. The Giants won and covered all four games last summer, improving their record to 7-1 both straight up (SU) and against the spread over the last two years.
Coughlin has shown he’s not afraid to give his starters more time in the second preseason game than most of his colleagues, no doubt one of the reasons his team has been so dominant.
Bettors can count on America’s team early on. The Cowboys are 14-6 both SU and ATS since 2002 in warm-up contests. Former coach Bill Parcells, the coach of the team the last four years, has an intimidating, in-your-face presence – surely a reason Dallas has had so much early success.
The Big Tuna won’t be strolling the sidelines with looks of disgust, but new coach Wade Phillips will be anxious to make a good first impression for owner Jerry Jones.
Dallas plays the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos before things get serious. They then face the Houston Texans in their third contest (the game starters see most game time) and finish off with the Minnesota Vikings.
Expect a Dallas team able to walk away with another 3-1 preseason record.
This team scored a league-worst 12 offensive touchdowns last season, so the rookies and veterans each have something to prove. There’s a bounty of first-unit jobs up for grabs and plenty of bodies competing for those slots.
First-time head coach Lane Kiffin will be eager to impress an owner who employs the philosophy, “Just win, baby!”
The 32-year-old Kiffin has to command respect from a locker room full of players older than him. All of these factors should lead to purpose in preseason.
Don’t forget: before playing like a team that belonged in NFL Europe, Oakland went 4-1 (both SU and ATS) in exhibition games.
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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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