Cubs try for another Rocking in Mile High City

Baseball Betting Lines

08/11/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs hope to continue their recent dominance of the Colorado Rockies when the two postseason contenders resume a four-game series this evening at Coors Field.

The Cubs entered this set on a stretch of six losses in seven games, including four in a row, but appear to have rediscovered their winning form in the Rocky Mountains. After cruising to a 10-2 win in Thursday's series opener, Chicago received strong pitching and timely hitting to post a 6-2 triumph over Colorado last night.

Jacque Jones, Matt Murton and Jason Kendall each had three hits and Jason Marquis pitched into the seventh inning to allow the Cubs to keep pace in the National League Central race. Chicago remains a half-game behind first-place Milwaukee in the division standings.

Jones and Murton each had solo homers while Kendall delivered a key two-run single in the win. Jones also drove in another run with a double on the evening.

Marquis (9-7) yielded just one unearned run and five hits while walking none in his 6 2/3 innings of work. The right-hander also went 1-for-3 with a run scored at the plate.

Rockies starter Aaron Cook (8-7) took the loss after allowing five runs, only two of which were earned, over the first six innings. Troy Tulowitzki knocked in both runs for Colorado, which recorded a three-game home sweep of Milwaukee prior to this series.

Colorado lost a bit of ground in the NL West and wild-card races with Friday's setback. The club is now six games behind division-leading Arizona and three back of San Diego, which currently holds the top spot in the wild card standings.

Chicago has now won all five meetings with Colorado this season and six consecutive matchups dating back to last year. The Cubs swept a three-game set from the Rockies at Wrigley Field in late June.

The Rockies look to reverse that trend tonight behind Josh Fogg as the serviceable veteran takes aim at a fourth consecutive win at home.

Fogg is 3-0 with a 3.15 earned run average over his three most recent Coors Field outings and is coming off Monday's defeat of Milwaukee on home turf. The right-hander held the Brewers to two runs, both of which came on solo homers, on six hits over the first seven innings.

The 30-year-old has won five of his last seven overall decisions after posting a 1-5 record over the season's first two months.

Fogg has faced Chicago 19 times previously and owns a 6-7 record with a 5.85 ERA against this evening's opponent. He did not pitch against the Cubs in the Rockies' visit to Wrigley Field earlier this season.

Chicago will give the ball tonight to Rich Hill, who hopes to post a win after a string of frustrating no decisions in each of his last four starts. The left-hander has recorded a 2.78 ERA over that stretch and yielded two runs or less in three of those contests.

Hill was especially good Monday in Houston, where he gave up only one run and three hits while fanning six over seven innings in a game the Cubs wound up losing in extra frames.

The young left-hander will be attempting to improve off his only career Coors Field start, which came on August 11, 2006. Hill was tagged for six runs in 4 2/3 innings to take the loss in Chicago's 10-2 setback.

In injury news, the Rockies hope to have first baseman Todd Helton back in the lineup for tonight's game. The veteran slugger has sat out the team's last two contests with back spasms.

Chicago third baseman Aramis Ramirez missed his third straight game with a sore right wrist and is doubtful to start for the remainder of this series.

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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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