Cards, Nats to play double dip in rain-soaked D.C.

Baseball Betting Lines

06/05/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie right-hander Mike Parisi makes the second start of his major-league career tonight, when the St. Louis Cardinals close out a weather-impacted three-game series against the host Washington Nationals with a day-night doubleheader .

Wednesday's game was postponed after rain started just before the scheduled 7:10 p.m. first pitch, though the official decision came after a more than 2 1/2-hour delay.

It was the second straight night the teams had to wait because of the weather. Tuesday's 6-1 Cardinals victory over Washington was delayed 2 hours, 40 minutes due to rain.

Both of Wednesday's scheduled starting pitchers - Todd Wellemeyer for St. Louis and John Lannan for Washington - will start today's opening game.

Wellemeyer, a 29-year-old native of Louisville, was 2-1 through six starts this season before downing the Chicago Cubs, 5-3, on May 4.

Overall, in his last six starts, he's 4-0 with two no-decisions and has allowed 28 hits and nine earned runs in 37 innings, earning recognition as the National League's pitcher of the month for May.

He's making his first career start against Washington after seven straight relief appearances, in which he's 0-1 with a save and a 5.40 earned run average in 10 innings of work.

Lannan looks to reverse the result of his initial meeting of the season with the Cardinals on April 6. Lannan took a 3-0 loss in that game, allowing seven hits and two runs in 6 2/3 innings of his season debut. He's 4-4 with a pair of no-decisions in 10 starts since.

His last win came May 18 at Baltimore, when he gave up four hits and a run over 7 1/3 innings of the Nationals' 2-1 victory.

The scheduled starter for the Cardinals in the nightcap, Parisi came out of the bullpen for his first eight appearances of 2008 before getting a start on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He struggled in the new role, however, getting touched for eight hits, three walks and eight runs in 2 2/3 innings of a 14-4 Pirates' triumph.

Parisi is getting a second chance thanks to an injury to starter Joel Pineiro, who remained in St. Louis to nurse a strained right groin.

A 6-foot-3, 215-pounder, Parisi was the opening day starter for the Cardinals' farm team at Triple-A Memphis.

Veteran right-hander Tim Redding tries to regain his successful form for the Nationals when he opposes Parisi in game two.

Redding, a 30-year-old now toiling for his fourth major-league team, had won three of four starts between May 4 and May 19 before consecutive no-decisions against Milwaukee and Arizona.

In those two games, both eventually won by the Nationals, Redding allowed 14 hits and eight runs in 11 innings, walking six and striking out eight.

He is 3-5 in 12 lifetime appearances against the Cardinals, while posting a 5.28 earned run average in 58 innings.

St. Louis swept a three-game series from the Nats earlier in the 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.

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

MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect

LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.

Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.

Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.