NCAA Opener--2-2
Boston College beat Central Michican 24-17, and Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech 14-10, but neither of the big Catholic schools covered their respective 11.5 and 7 point spreads. Meanwhile, Ohio State beat Northern Illinois 35-12, and Southern Cal beat Arkansas 50-14. Ohio State was a 17 point favorite, while SC was favored by a mere 8.5, so I have started the season off 2-2. Meanwhile, I have bet on five NFL games for next week, so let me mention these while I am thinking of it.
On second thought, bet365's site is down, so I may have to wait. Or check bodog.com....
Ick. On bodog we see miami(-1.5) at PITTSBURGH. I have
PITTSBURGH(-4) miami. As I immediately suspected, Roethlisberger is not playing. I am hoping the line hasn't changed so I can minimize the damage, but I am not optimistic. Meanwhile, here are my other picks. As with the NCAA, I have taken all favorites, hoping that these lines may be relative bargains.
NEWENGLAND(-8.5)over buffalo--the bodog line is -9.
seattle(-3.5) over DETROIT --Apparently somebody agreed with me--the bodog line is -6.5.
phily(-3.5) over HOUSTON.--the bodog line is -4.5. I'm starting to wonder if the bet365 spread is being produced by amateurs. Watch--I and all the $$ moving these lines will be wrong.
indy(-3) over NYGIANTS --bodog has the "battle of the Mannings line at -3.5. Go ahead and root for Eli, just don't bet on him....
At this rate I may just put some $$ on bodog to take advantage of future line variance. This time I'm getting a better deal at bet365 every time, with the possible exception of the Pittsburgh line. Of course, the line may have moved on both sites when it was announced that Big Ben will be sitting out.
Meanwhile, Bill Simmons' two part column on his adopting of an English Premiere League team has inspired me to try to follow some soccer. But, while Bill picked a team to root for based on sifting through fan emails, I read through these same emails (or the ones he selected to print) then checked the odds and bet on one of them (so far).
Since what little I know of English soccer can be summed up very briefly, I will do so here.
In '93, the second time I was in London, the two popular teams, according to what shirts were available, were Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. I think I knew Arsenal was local, but when I played the War of the Roses era strategic game Kingmaker I saw that Northumberland was the region that bordered on Scotland, and since "Hotspur" was the nickname of the Duke of Northumberland in Henry IV Part I, I may have believed that Tottenham was in the north, around Newcasle perhaps. I'm not sure when I figured out that the Spurs were a North London team, but it was probably in the context of their rivalry with Arsenal.
Back in '96 I was in London again when I read Trainspotting. From this, along with Irvine Welsh's other novels, I gathered that Hibs was the big Catholic team in Edinburgh, Hearts was the big Protestant team, and that neither of them were any good. The good Scot teams are both in Glasgow. Celtic is the good Catholic team, and arguably has the sharpest jerseys, provided you like green and white hoop stripes, that is. Rangers are the good Protestant team, and at an Irish Night Mets game I almost got jumped by some crazy Mick because the intertwined BFC on my Barbarians Foootball Club T-shirt was mistaken for an RFC for Rangers Football Club as I left Shea and headed for the 7 train. Once he realized his mistake he was pretty friendly, and on the subway a legion of Irish alternately sang IRA songs, and quieted down when the police would pass by and tell them to. Once the cops left, the singing resumed. I figured this was where the party was at, and I rode all the way down to the 30's on Manhattan's East Side, where we proceeded to a bar with anti-orange posters on the walls. I'm not sure if I was in some sort of IRA lair or what.
I have known for a while that Manchester United has been a powerhouse...for a while. I'm not sure how long. Like Simmons, I wouldn't feel right about rooting for these guys because they remind me too much of the Yankees, and also because I have seen various Americans gush too enthusiastically over them, more than likely because they don't know any other teams.
I don't recall how I found out, but I also knew Liverpool has alot of past glory. On the rare occasions when I checked the standings I would pull for anyone who was up at the top with ManU, which tended to be the above teams, or perhaps Newcastle United.
At some point within the last year or so, I read somewhere that soccer jerseys were fashionable, perhaps because they have a slimming effect, and probably because they make you look more like Eurotrash. After all, it is a scientific fact that homosexuals and Eurotrash are snappier dressers than all others, or at least more so than straight American males. (I suspect that the football hooligan is not quite the same demigraphc as your standard Eurotrash, but I suspect that there is some overlap at least in Italy and Spain, not to mention France, if not so much in England.
I hadn't really thought this through. If I had, I may have gone searching for an InterMilan or Barcelona shirt, but I doubt it. Like I'm gonna pass for Italian, or would want to. Anyway, my favorite jersey from my little Kitbag search was Newcastle's recent road uniforms, with the Black and Blue vertical stripes. Looks way better than their standard ref shirts with the black and white stripes (also vertical, of course, or I would compare them to inmates instead.) So, I was in the market for a road Newcastle shirt. Within the last few weeks the old road shirts ceased to be available, and the new red and blue ones aren't as cool in my opinion.
Last December I read the book The Football Factory, which centers around hooligan supporters of Chelsea FC, and climaxes in their street battle with Millwall. So I gathered that these were two of the hardest firms. All three times I've been to London I stayed in Chelsea, at the Chelsea hotel, in fact (there are at least 3 or 4 of them). So, while I didn't know they existed (probably because they weren't any good) Chelsea was essentially my home team. So I was rooting for Bill to adopt them, little knowing that they had been bought by a Russian billionaire, and are turning into the new Yankees. Perhaps when they slip in the future I will become a fervant supporter. I may anyway, but right now it doesn't feel right.
On second thought, bet365's site is down, so I may have to wait. Or check bodog.com....
Ick. On bodog we see miami(-1.5) at PITTSBURGH. I have
PITTSBURGH(-4) miami. As I immediately suspected, Roethlisberger is not playing. I am hoping the line hasn't changed so I can minimize the damage, but I am not optimistic. Meanwhile, here are my other picks. As with the NCAA, I have taken all favorites, hoping that these lines may be relative bargains.
NEWENGLAND(-8.5)over buffalo--the bodog line is -9.
seattle(-3.5) over DETROIT --Apparently somebody agreed with me--the bodog line is -6.5.
phily(-3.5) over HOUSTON.--the bodog line is -4.5. I'm starting to wonder if the bet365 spread is being produced by amateurs. Watch--I and all the $$ moving these lines will be wrong.
indy(-3) over NYGIANTS --bodog has the "battle of the Mannings line at -3.5. Go ahead and root for Eli, just don't bet on him....
At this rate I may just put some $$ on bodog to take advantage of future line variance. This time I'm getting a better deal at bet365 every time, with the possible exception of the Pittsburgh line. Of course, the line may have moved on both sites when it was announced that Big Ben will be sitting out.
Meanwhile, Bill Simmons' two part column on his adopting of an English Premiere League team has inspired me to try to follow some soccer. But, while Bill picked a team to root for based on sifting through fan emails, I read through these same emails (or the ones he selected to print) then checked the odds and bet on one of them (so far).
Since what little I know of English soccer can be summed up very briefly, I will do so here.
In '93, the second time I was in London, the two popular teams, according to what shirts were available, were Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. I think I knew Arsenal was local, but when I played the War of the Roses era strategic game Kingmaker I saw that Northumberland was the region that bordered on Scotland, and since "Hotspur" was the nickname of the Duke of Northumberland in Henry IV Part I, I may have believed that Tottenham was in the north, around Newcasle perhaps. I'm not sure when I figured out that the Spurs were a North London team, but it was probably in the context of their rivalry with Arsenal.
Back in '96 I was in London again when I read Trainspotting. From this, along with Irvine Welsh's other novels, I gathered that Hibs was the big Catholic team in Edinburgh, Hearts was the big Protestant team, and that neither of them were any good. The good Scot teams are both in Glasgow. Celtic is the good Catholic team, and arguably has the sharpest jerseys, provided you like green and white hoop stripes, that is. Rangers are the good Protestant team, and at an Irish Night Mets game I almost got jumped by some crazy Mick because the intertwined BFC on my Barbarians Foootball Club T-shirt was mistaken for an RFC for Rangers Football Club as I left Shea and headed for the 7 train. Once he realized his mistake he was pretty friendly, and on the subway a legion of Irish alternately sang IRA songs, and quieted down when the police would pass by and tell them to. Once the cops left, the singing resumed. I figured this was where the party was at, and I rode all the way down to the 30's on Manhattan's East Side, where we proceeded to a bar with anti-orange posters on the walls. I'm not sure if I was in some sort of IRA lair or what.
I have known for a while that Manchester United has been a powerhouse...for a while. I'm not sure how long. Like Simmons, I wouldn't feel right about rooting for these guys because they remind me too much of the Yankees, and also because I have seen various Americans gush too enthusiastically over them, more than likely because they don't know any other teams.
I don't recall how I found out, but I also knew Liverpool has alot of past glory. On the rare occasions when I checked the standings I would pull for anyone who was up at the top with ManU, which tended to be the above teams, or perhaps Newcastle United.
At some point within the last year or so, I read somewhere that soccer jerseys were fashionable, perhaps because they have a slimming effect, and probably because they make you look more like Eurotrash. After all, it is a scientific fact that homosexuals and Eurotrash are snappier dressers than all others, or at least more so than straight American males. (I suspect that the football hooligan is not quite the same demigraphc as your standard Eurotrash, but I suspect that there is some overlap at least in Italy and Spain, not to mention France, if not so much in England.
I hadn't really thought this through. If I had, I may have gone searching for an InterMilan or Barcelona shirt, but I doubt it. Like I'm gonna pass for Italian, or would want to. Anyway, my favorite jersey from my little Kitbag search was Newcastle's recent road uniforms, with the Black and Blue vertical stripes. Looks way better than their standard ref shirts with the black and white stripes (also vertical, of course, or I would compare them to inmates instead.) So, I was in the market for a road Newcastle shirt. Within the last few weeks the old road shirts ceased to be available, and the new red and blue ones aren't as cool in my opinion.
Last December I read the book The Football Factory, which centers around hooligan supporters of Chelsea FC, and climaxes in their street battle with Millwall. So I gathered that these were two of the hardest firms. All three times I've been to London I stayed in Chelsea, at the Chelsea hotel, in fact (there are at least 3 or 4 of them). So, while I didn't know they existed (probably because they weren't any good) Chelsea was essentially my home team. So I was rooting for Bill to adopt them, little knowing that they had been bought by a Russian billionaire, and are turning into the new Yankees. Perhaps when they slip in the future I will become a fervant supporter. I may anyway, but right now it doesn't feel right.
posted by roQQ | 10:40 PM
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