A's edge Twins to avoid sweep

Baseball Betting Lines

06/06/2010 - Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Kouzmanoff had three hits, scored a run and drove in a run to support a solid seven innings from Gio Gonzalez, as Oakland beat Minnesota, 5-4, to salvage the last of a three-game set at the Coliseum.

Gonzalez (6-3) yielded two runs on six hits, while walking one and fanning four, as the A's won for just the second time in their last six games.

Jack Cust collected three hits, scored and drove in a run, while Ryan Sweeney added two hits, including an RBI double, for Oakland, which improved to a major league-best 11-4 in games decided by one run. Michael Wuertz worked a perfect ninth to record his first save of the season.

Nick Blackburn (6-3) suffered the loss after being charged with five runs on 10 hits over just 2 2/3 innings in his shortest outing of the season for the Twins, who finished their seven-game road trip with three wins.

Delmon Young belted a two-run homer and scored twice for Minnesota.

Macimonline Baseball Betting News

<< Marlins to call up top prospect Stanton
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Marlins announced Sunday that they will select the contract of top prospect Mike Stanton in time for the 20-year- old to make his major league debut on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Stanton, a second-ro

<< Price earns 2nd Champions Tour win of season
West Des Moines, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Price captured his second victory of the season with a four-under 67 Sunday to win the Principal Charity Classic. Price finished with a 14-under 199 on the Glen Oaks course to beat Champions Tour

<< Baltimore tops Boston in 11th; Samuel gets first win
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Markakis' run-scoring single in the 11th inning lifted Baltimore to a 4-3 win over Boston, snapping the Orioles' 10- game losing streak and giving Juan Samuel his first victory as the team's manager

<< Quentin's hit lifts White Sox over Tribe
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Quentin broke a tie game with a two-run single in the seventh, and the White Sox held on for an 8-7 comeback victory over the Indians to salvage the three-game series. Quentin finished 2-for-4 with t

<< Rose captures 1st PGA Tour win at Memorial
Dublin, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Rose captured his first PGA Tour win on Sunday, closing with a flawless six-under 66 in the final round of the Memorial Tournament to overcome a four-shot deficit. The 29-year-old Englishman finished with

Jimenez's scoreless streak ends, but still wins 11th >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ubaldo Jimenez extended his scoreless streak to 33 consecutive innings before it was broken in the eighth, helping Colorado pull out a 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks. Jimenez (11-1) shut down the D'Bac

Hamlin wins at Pocono again >>
Long Pond, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denny Hamlin held off Tony Stewart and teammate Kyle Busch in a pair of late-race restarts to win Sunday's Gillett Fusion ProGlide 500 at Pocono Raceway. Just before Hamlin crossed the line to take

Jaso, Upton pace Rays over Rangers >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Jaso had three hits, including a home run, and drove in five runs, and B.J. Upton collected three hits, scored three times, stole a base and knocked in a run to power Tampa Bay past Texas, 9-5, to salv

Ellis helps Dodgers earn split with Braves >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Ellis hit a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning, as the Los Angeles Dodgers edged the Atlanta Braves, 5-4, to split a four-game series. James Loney went 2-for-5 with two runs

Napoli helps Angels complete sweep of Mariners >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Napoli's two-run homer in the seventh broke a tie, and the Los Angeles Angels swept the Seattle Mariners in three games with a 9-4 win at Safeco Field. Napoli matched career-highs with four hits

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.