Houston Money Suddenly Looks Better...

Wow. Just when I was losing interest on my NL Pennant bet, Houston signs Roger Clemens for the next year. Now Houston looks like a contender again. Meanwhile, Clemens signing with the Yankees or Red Sox could have put my bets on the White Sox and Tigers into that much more jeoprody (sp?). Meanwhile, if Clemens comes back out of shape he could be a non-factor; I half-expected Roger to go to the Yankees , because I saw them as the only team that was

A) desperate enough,

and

B) rich enough

to be willing to not only give Clemens an astronomical sum, but to guarantee his contract, even if he pitches five games and injures a hamstring, hangs around for a couple of months, and retires.

Hovering at .500, Houston was becoming desperate enough, and Boston probably can afford it, but the Yankees starting pitching is shakier, and Steinbrenner has time and time again shown his willingness to possibly cripple his team in the future fior a chance to win NOW.

Since I remain convinced that the senior circuit remains inferior to the American league, part of me feels like Roger is copping out by staying in the National league. If Green Bay was a little more competitive, a parallel would be Brett Favre returning to the Packers at about week seven, except he would have to first offer his services to the Steelers and Bengals, or perhaps the Chargers and Chiefs.

(Of course, the truth is the Packers would have to me MUCH more competitive than they were last year--at this point I would probably be more intrigued by Favre signing with the Toronto Argonauts so he could play in the same backfield as Ricky Williams, after demanding that they both be allowed to smoke as much dope as they please. He could demand that the Argonauts [whose name already means "Sky Pilots" a' la Eric Burden and the Animals] be outfitted with psychedelic pot-leaf helmets, and he and Ricky could have a Barry Bonds style reality TV show. If Favre did come to his senses and go to the Bears, or one of the aforementioned AFC teams, I would love to see Doug Flutie smoking down the Toronto backfield instead. What says "fun" better than a drop kicked extra point? Flutie going deep with a lung fulla reefer!)

Baseball Futures Update

I've been trying for a while to sort of essay my way into explaining my wagers to this point on the AL and NL pennant races, and on the World Series, but so far have only succeeded in asserting that money wagered on the New York Mets would be better spent on a flogging from a transvestite, and insinuating that the Mets are likely to dissapoint, much like a transvestite mistaken for the real thing. At this point, I can tell you who I've bet how much on, but I can't remember exactly when. This is unfortunate, since many wagers are easier to justify in context. Anyway, here they are:

bet $40 on the Chicago White Sox to win AL pennant at 9-2.
bet $20 on the White Sox to win World Series at 9-1.
bet $10 on the Houston Astros to win NL pennant at 14-1(?) (maybe--can't remember)
bet $10 on the Astros to win World Series at 40-1.
bet $5 on the Detroit Tigers to win the AL pennant at 25-1.
bet $5 on the Tigers to win the World Series at 30-1.

All these bets were made at www.bet365.com. Currently I am unable to log on to their site, but to compare, at www.bodog.com the odds on these teams are:

AL Pennant
Chicago 2-1
Detroit 2-1

NL Pennant
Houston 7-1

World Series
Chicago 3-1
Detroit 7-1
Houston 20-1

As usual, you can still get better odds at bet365.com (I believe the Tigers are an 8-1 shot for the AL pennant there, for instance), but from what I can tell the odds have shortened on all these teams. The odds may be lengthening back out on the Astros, as they have drifted back to being a .500 team, but the White Sox are now the money favorite to win it all, while the Yankees are a 5-1 shot,as are the Mets, the Cardinals are an 11-2 shot, and the Red Sox are even with the Tigers at 7-1.

So, leaving commentary aside, we are up to date. Other than I took Phoenix in game 2 vs Dallas (+8), and Dallas won by 7, so I won that one. I don't usually bet on hoops, but after I was right on game one of both the opening games (miami+5.5), (phoenix+6) but didn't pull the trigger, I figured what the heck. Can't bring myself to go against the Pistons tho' so that might do it for now.