AL Central hopefuls collide in Motown

Baseball Betting Lines

07/10/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams hot in pursuit of the American League's Central Division title -- the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers -- face off today in the opening game of a four-game weekend series at Comerica Park.

The Twins enter play on Thursday 3 1/2 games behind the front-running Chicago White Sox, while the Tigers sit a full seven games off the pace.

Veteran southpaw Kenny Rogers gets the start for the Tigers in Thursday's opener and looks for his third win in five starts. The 43-year-old has alternated wins and losses in four starts since a four- start no-decision string ended on June 17.

He beat San Francisco, 5-1, after scattering five hits and allowing a run in seven innings against the Giants. That was followed by an 8-4 loss to St. Louis, then by a 4-3 victory over Colorado and a 4-1 loss at Seattle.

Rogers is 3-2 in eight home starts in 2008 with a 4.40 earned run average over 47 innings.

For the Twins, young right-hander Kevin Slowey seeks a fifth straight win since a 2-6 start.

The 24-year-old last lost June 6 at Chicago, when he allowed 10 hits and eight runs in three innings of a 12-2 rout by the White Sox.

He's 4-0 in five starts since, in which he's allowed 24 hits and eight runs over 35 innings.

Slowey has won both career starts against Detroit, including a 9-4 verdict on May 23 at Comerica, in which he gave up four hits in six scoreless innings.

On Wednesday in Boston, Kevin Youkilis went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBI, and Boston took advantage of a wiped-out triple play call in the seventh inning to rout Minnesota, 18-5, en route to sweeping the three-game set at Fenway Park.

Justin Morneau hit a two-run homer for the Twins, who have lost three in a row after a five-game win streak.

Livan Hernandez (9-6) suffered the loss after being tagged for six runs in only 4 1/3 innings. The veteran righty did not allow any walks, but surrendered 11 hits, while striking out two.

In Detroit, Miguel Cabrera's game-ending two-run homer in the ninth inning gave the Tigers a come-from-behind, 8-6 win over Cleveland, completing a two- game sweep of the Indians.

The Tigers came back from six runs down and tied the game in the seventh; though in the top half of the ninth, Detroit's Todd Jones took the mound and almost gave up the go-ahead run.

Jensen Lewis (0-3) took the loss while Jones (4-0) got the win.

Matt Joyce finished 3-for-4 with a two-run home run, while Cabrera ended with two hits and three total RBI for Detroit, which has won three in a row. Guillen also drove in a pair for the Tigers. Shortstop Edgar Renteria left the game before the top of the eighth with a mild left hamstring strain.

Detroit starter Eddie Bonine struggled in 3 2/3 innings, as he gave up five runs on nine hits. Casey Fossum threw 3 1/3 solid frames of relief, allowing one run on three hits.

The Twins have won seven of their 11 contests with the Tigers this season.

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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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