Random Rumblings: Time for the Rays to get serious

• Maybe, as SI’s John Heyman suggested on WFAN yesterday, the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t actually believe this would be their year. Maybe the team wasn’t prepared to negotiate deadline deals because it thought a .500 record was the ultimate goal in 2008.
  
  But now, everything has changed and the Rays need to make a move. The team is still in first place, two games ahead of the Red Sox and four in front of the Yankees, but it is in desperate need of a bat. The Rays have scored more than four runs in a game just three times since it completed a sweep of Kansas City on July 6.
  
  Jason Bay, a player I love, might be the guy the team is trying to trade for, but he isn’t the best player available. That honor goes to none other than Barry Bonds, the guy whose OBP last season was almost 100 points higher than anyone in the Rays lineup today.
  
  Even if Bonds has regressed, he is still going to be on base 40 percent of the time and will undoubtedly put butts in seats. And if you’re telling me he isn’t more valuable than any of the players the Rays currently stick at DH, you’re out of your mind.
  
  The Rays considered Bonds an option before the season; now it’s time to make the Home Run King a priority.
  
  
• The Angels had a perfect night in Boston, acquiring Mark Teixeira before its game and then watching John Lackey no-hit the Sox for 8 1/3 innings. Already a World Series favorite, the trade puts the Angels in a league of its own, far ahead of the Red Sox, who they seem to dominate every time they meet.
  
  
• ESPN ranked UConn Men’s Basketball the sixth best program of the last 20 years, which is a testament to how Coach Jim Calhoun transformed a regional program into a national brand. But you have to wonder if he is proud of the current state of the program.
  
  His players have had off the court problems dating back to the laptop incidents, which have resulted in a couple arrests and even more transfers. Most recently, he brought in Nate Miles, a red flag guy who took the spot of the academically ineligible Stanley Robinson.
  
  Calhoun is an old school guy and it seems like he has figured out in a hurry that you have to be willing to compromise integrity in order to remain sustainable as a big time basketball program. It will be interesting to see how much more of this he can take.
  
  
• I’m always amazed by the people who complain about the length of the baseball and basketball seasons. They’re almost always the same ones who get all jazzed up about who is going to report to football camp in July.

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Small Ball
C.C. Sabathia is a pretty classy guy and so are a lot of Indians fans.

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Sox sold soul with Manny

Red Sox Nation deserves no sympathy today. Not John Henry. Not Theo. Not Terry. Not Big Papi. And definitely not the fans. This is a group that collectively sold its soul for two World Championships in four years, allowing and embracing Manny Ramirez’s bi-polar tendencies every step of the way.

But as the Yankees were in the midst of taking two of three in Boston, Manny let it be known that he was tired of the franchise and suddenly, the Nation decided it was finally fed up with the guy they still cheered even after he pushed a traveling secretary to the ground, watched three straight strikes from Mariana Rivera at Yankee Stadium (allegedly in protest of his fine for the previous incident) and laughed it up after an error against the Angels last weekend.

Who ever thought the devil could be so goofy?

Certainly not the Red Sox, who have constantly made excuses for their sensitive slugger during his run with the team. This is a franchise that has let go of much better men while it built and celebrated a brand out of Manny’s absurd antics.

Of course, no one the team ever let go was considered one of the top five right handed hitters in the history of the sport.

And that’s precisely why nobody should feel bad for the Red Sox, a team that is quickly deteriorating while its rivals are only getting stronger. If Manny wasn’t on pace to have the worst season in which he played more than 140 games of his career, would anyone be openly voicing their displeasure with him?

The answer is no. They would continue to be enablers and they would undoubtedly pick up the greediest athlete in sports’ $20 million option for next season. Think that’s strong? Latrell Sprewell made his infamous “I’ve got a family to feed” before the season started. ARod opted out of his contract during the World Series, but his team had long been eliminated by that time. Manny, on the other hand, is moaning about his contract with the Yankees in town in the middle of a playoff race.

He does this because he can. Because, like an overly-spoiled child, he doesn’t know any other way to act. And now, like the parent who suddenly decided it was time to be a disciplinarian instead of their child’s best friend, it’s hard for anyone to take the Red Sox seriously.

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Small Ball
LeBron may have picked a bad time to drift away from his safe, robotic, cliché-driven interview style when he made his Olympic Gold guarantee.

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Random Rumblings

• Even as the Yankees were knocking around Nick Blackburn last night, I couldn’t but think about the great position the Minnesota Twins are in to make the playoffs. In August, the team will play just seven games against teams with winning records and they still have 34 games against the likes of Cleveland, Kansas City, Oakland and Seattle. Meanwhile, the White Sox, who currently lead the Twins by a half game in the AL Central, will play 16 of their next 19 against above .500 teams and still have seven games apiece to play with Yankees and Red Sox as well as a three-game sets with Tampa Bay and the Angels.
  
  Match that with the fact that while most American League teams are either going to sit still or make subtle moves at the trade deadline, the Twins will be recalling Francisco Liriano from AAA, where he has been borderline dominant over his last ten starts.
  
  If Liriano can provide even a fraction of the impact he had a few seasons ago, the Twins, who some people (me) thought would be a 100 loss candidate, will have a chance to trump even the Rays as baseball’s best story and play in October.
  
  
• The big stat everyone keeps talking about when referring to Derek Jeter is his poor line drive rate, and I have to ask, how long have statheads been calculating this number? Because I’m pretty sure Jeter’s is far better known for his inside-out bleeders to right field than he is for hitting the ball hard. How much worse is his line drive rate now than it was five seasons ago?
  
  No matter what, it won’t be Jeter’s fault if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs this season. The blame can go to the injuries first, but then it’s on Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez, two guys whose line drive rates with runners in scoring position must be dreadfully low.
  
  
• Isn’t about time to be fed up with Manny?
  
  
• When we were told Danilo Gallinari might not be physically ready for the NBA season, I thought it meant he needed more time in the weight room, not that he was going to be bother by chronic hamstring problems.
  
  
• I don’t claim to know anything about the NFL, so I let ESPN and Sports Illustrated tell me exactly what to think. For that reason, I’m going say Jeremy Shockey is going to have a huge impact on the Saints this year.
  
  That was a team everyone liked to get to the Super Bowl last year and then everything just went wrong. Shockey will bring a lot to that offense.
  
  
• And hopefully, for West Haven’s Rob Jackson’s sake, Jason Taylor has much less of an impact on his new team.
  
  
• The British Open with Tiger Woods probably would have been like the Super Bowl with only one team, but without Tiger, it was like Super Bowl without a ball, and the ratings reflected that.

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The history of sports betting

The practice of betting on sporting events dates back thousands of years. Sports betting in the United States grew in popularity during the 19th Century, primarily because of horse racing. Eventually, sports bettors would turn their focus to more popular sports like baseball, basketball and football. Today, the sports betting industry rakes in profits in the hundreds of billions. It is estimated that one in four Americans have placed a wager on sports in their lifetime. The advent of the Internet has made sports betting a quick and easy process. There are a slew of online sports books for potential bettors to utilize. Here is a brief overview of the history of sports betting in the U.S.

Betting on Horse Racing
Horse racing was the most popular sport during the 19th century. Originally, sports betting was dominated by the more well to do. Hundreds of racetracks were built after the Civil War, allowing average citizens an opportunity to partake in the thrill of betting. Popularity for horse racing began to decline in the early 20th Century, due to the rise of baseball as the national pastime.

The Black Sox Scandal
The sports betting industry was dealt a serious blow in 1919 after eight members of the Chicago White Sox were found to have been paid off by gamblers, led by Arnold Rothstein, to throw the World Series. It became known as the Black Sox Scandal. The players were banned from baseball for life to deter potential future offenders. The integrity of the sports betting industry requires a certain confidence that the games are not fixed.

Gambling Is Legalized in Las Vegas
Gambling in Las Vegas was legalized in 1931. Sports betting in Vegas became legal in 1951 after Congress passed legislation that imposed a 10 percent tax. The high tax made it difficult for sports books to turn lucrative profits. Eventually, Congress would lower the tax to two percent, leading to a rapid rise in sportsbooks at Las Vegas casinos. As more sporting events became televised, the demand for sports betting grew. For over 30 years, sports betting in Vegas raked in massive profits.

Rise of Online Sportsbooks
The rapid rise of online sportsbooks has provided fierce competition to the Vegas sportsbooks, in much the same was the many online casinos have done for their Vegas bricks and mortar counterparts. Potential bettors can now place bets from their computer and almost always are offered promotions by online sports betting sites that want to keep their business. You can gamble on anything these days, from the amount of points scored in a game to who will score the first touchdown. The more choices for gamblers, the more bets they will make. There is no doubt that the sports betting industry will continue to grow in size and complexity in the years to come.

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Random Rumblings (Wifflegate happens everywhere)

(NOTE: The Random Rumblings column appears every Monday, featuring quick thoughts on various issues in the world of sports.)

• You want to believe that stories like last week’s wiffleball field controversy only come from places like Greenwich, CT, a town you’d love to drive through, but one you have no chance of ever living in. You want to believe that only the most pretentious snobs would fight to stop teenagers from playing with a plastic ball and bat.
  
  But the truth is, this happens every day, in your community and in mine. Adults argue that young people are lazier than ever, that computers and video games have trumped going outside and being active – and they’re right. But as soon as kids start acting like kids, everyone watches with concern. You’ve seen it before – the neighbor staring out his window, waiting to call the police as soon as a ball even grazes a blade of his grass.
  
  This happens everywhere. And it’s sad. Young people are considered the nation’s most precious assets, until their presence becomes inconvenient.
  
  Then Wifflegate happens.
  
  
• No matter what happens with Brett Favre, this whole retirement/comeback ordeal is going to tarnish a little bit of legacy. The media might try to push him as a national hero, but I think speak for a lot of people on both coasts when I say that Favre never really meant all that much to us.
  
  A great player, sure, but he’s no Michael Jordan, who is remembered for the duration of his career, not just the end.
  
  The opposite will be true for Favre.
  
  
• I remember when Deadspin was entertaining. No homo.
  
  
• At some point, the rest of baseball should realize that anyone Billy Beane is trading or letting go probably has baggage. Rich Harden, who is almost as sure a thing to break down as Mark Prior, is no exception.
  
  
• How much is Brandon Jennings going to learn from the men he’s playing with in Europe when he is taking one of their jobs?

Get sports tickets from Vivid Seats today!

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The year of the second basemen

Nobody grows up wanting to be the school janitor; they want to be the teacher. The dream isn’t to be the copy editor; it’s to be the writer. Children aspire to be doctors, not secretaries in doctor’s offices. Similarly, in baseball, you won’t find many little leaguers who wish to play second base in the bigs. They want to play shortstop and pitch.

On most youth teams, the second baseman is only slightly more valuable than the right fielder or the first base coach. Even little league stat heads will agree that most second basemen have very little VORP. Usually the player with the weakest arm gets put there for three innings, bats last and is replaced by someone very similar, like a twin brother.

But considering the amount of second basemen that are blossoming into stars in Major League Baseball this season, the times might be changing. In Philadelphia, Chase Utley leads baseball in homeruns (25) and appears to be the favorite to become just the third second basemen to win the MVP in 32 years. Right behind him is Dan Uggla, from Florida, who is tied for second in all of baseball with 23 homers.

Eat that, Jeter.

Eddie Collins might be considered the best second baseman of all time, but Utley and Uggla each have the chance to hit more homeruns this season than old “Cocky Collins” hit in his entire career. Even Nappy Lajoie (is it racist to call him Nappy?) would be impressed with these guys.

The story is the same in the American League. While the AL’s All Star starter, Dustin Pedroia, fits the stereotype of a scrappy second baseman, Texas’ Ian Kinsler has a chance to hit 30 homeruns, drive in 100 runs and become the first second basemen since Rod Carew in 1975 to win the batting title.

Perhaps the position was tainted in the ‘90s by guys who were surrounded by steroid allegations or spitting on umpires. Who knows? But one fact is clear: 2008 has quickly become the year of the second basemen and with the Little League World Series coming, you have to wonder how many kids are going to call the Utley’s, Uggla’s and Kinsler’s of the world their favorite player.

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Random Rumblings (The problem with MMA)

(NOTE: The Random Rumblings column appears every Monday, featuring quick thoughts on various issues in the world of sports.)

• It’s the epic individual matches in sports like the Federer/Nadal Wimbledon Final that really makes you miss what boxing used to be, or if you’re under 30, what you’ve heard boxing used to be. Now, Mixed Martial Arts is all the craze, but even that sport lacks a truly great rivalry, or for that matter, a truly dominate figure.
  
  Every time I start to hear about a great MMA fighter, he ends up getting beat shortly after. That goes back to Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbott and has continued through Chuck Liddell and most recently, Quinton (Rampage) Jackson.
  
  The hardcore fans will point to parity as the driving force in the sport and some use the “anyone can be knocked out at any time” excuse that has become cliché. But the truth is, we don’t want just anyone to win. We want a top guy that can knock everyone out and we want one, maybe two guys right that there trying to take him out.
  
  Until that happens, count me out.
  
  
• Jerry Manuel couldn’t have been more on the money when he said his Mets were second to the Yankees in New York during the Subway Series. And his point couldn’t have been more valid when the All Star teams were announced and his biggest star, Jose Reyes, was not voted in as a starter.
  
  Look, Derek Jeter has done more in the sport, but there is no question that Reyes is the best shortstop in New York. But Jeter is going to be the All Star starter for the rest of his career and Reyes is going to consistently lose out to a Florida Marlin.
  
  
• That said, the Florida Marlin in question, Hanley Ramirez, is probably one of the top three players in baseball, so it will be nice to see at least one deserving starter from a small market.
  
  
• In almost any clutch situation, I’d take Manny Ramirez over almost any other hitter in the history of baseball, but in the ninth inning last night with the scored tied, Terry Francona might as well have let Craig Hansen hit against Mariano Rivera instead.
  
  Considering the week he had, there was no chance of Manny just being Manny in that spot.
  
  
• Smart move by the Brewers in trading for C.C. Sabathia. They had an ace in Ben Sheets carry them through half a season, and once the inevitable happens and he breaks down, they’ll have ace to carry them to the playoffs.
  
  
• You would Cynthia Rodriguez would have timed it better and waited for the playoffs to file for divorce, but then again, that would mean the Yankees would actually have to make it to October.

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In Federer and Nadal, tennis has no equal

John McEnroe called it the greatest match he had ever seen, which means a lot coming from a guy who lives for tennis. But what made Sunday’s Wimbledon Men’s Final so special is that it was one of the first matches the casual sports fan had ever actually paid attention to, and that is what truly drives a sport.

We won’t know the actual television ratings until later today, and they might even be as high as say, Tiger going for the win on a Sunday or Yankees/Red Sox in primetime, but on its biggest stage, tennis showed the world it has something no other sport currently has: a true rivalry between the top two figures in the sport.

You don’t have to love tennis to understand the unique drama a Federer/Nadal final brings. The NBA forced an ancient Celtics/Lakers rivalry on us, one that was irrelevant for my entire life, and ended up with a bust of a finals. Baseball pushes two teams that haven’t played a series with real meaning in four years. And football’s greatest rivalry is between you and your best friend’s fantasy teams. But tennis has hit the jackpot with two guys who always seem to be there at the end, providing us with that No. 1 versus No. 2 craving we all seem to have.

People fear that American tennis is faltering and the evidence was there in London, but interest in the sport won’t fade the way it did with the NHL because of Federer and Nadal. In fact, judging by the reactions from Sunday, the opposite might be true.

We don’t need one of our own to play well to appreciate greatness.

We just need greatness.

And because of these two aces, tennis has one up on every other sport.

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