Rangers catcher Treanor leaves game

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers catcher Matt Treanor left Friday's game 1-0 win against the Angels after seven innings due to a sprained right knee. He'll have an MRI on Saturday.

In the bottom of the seventh, Treanor hit a bouncer off pitcher Joe Saunders. The ball caromed to second base where Howie Kendrick made a bare-hand stop and threw to first base for the out. Treanor stepped on the front of the base before tripping over the ankle of Kevin Frandsen.

Treanor remained on the ground in pain for a minute or two while he was looked at by the team trainer. He walked off the field and was replaced by Bengie Molina behind the plate for the eighth inning.

In 64 games this season, Treanor is hitting .225 with five homers and 23 RBI.

Wwwteamtalk Baseball Betting News

<< Padres use early burst of offense to down Bucs
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adrian Gonzalez capped a four-run second inning with a sacrifice fly, and San Diego continued to thrive in the Steel City, posting a 5-3 victory over the Pirates in the opener of a three-game series

<< Halladay, Phillies shut out Rockies
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roy Halladay turned in eight scoreless innings and Raul Ibanez drove in three runs as Philadelphia awoke from its batting funk and downed Colorado, 6-0, in the opener of a four-game set from Citizen

<< Guthrie ends long winless stretch as O's edge Twins
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeremy Guthrie picked up his first victory in nearly two months thanks to a two-run homer by Luke Scott in the sixth inning, as Baltimore edged Minnesota, 3-2, in the second test of a four-game set. Guthrie

<< N.C. State football legend Byrd dies
Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - North Carolina State football legend Dennis Byrd, who was recently selected to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December, has died at the age of 63. Byrd suffered a heart attack las

<< Clark, Wilson share Canadian Open lead
Etobicoke, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Clark fired a six-under 64 Friday to grab a share of the lead after 36 holes of the Canadian Open. Clark was joined in the lead by Dean Wilson, who carded a 65 in round two. They are tied at 10-under-

Roddick, Isner advance to semis in Atlanta >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Americans Andy Roddick and John Isner were a pair of quarterfinal winners in Friday's action at the Atlanta Tennis Championships. Roddick, the top seed, recovered after dropping the first set to b

Wilson, Young lead Rangers past Angels >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - C.J. Wilson threw eight shutout innings and Michael Young homered in the opening frame as Texas edged the Angels, 1-0, in the second installment of a four-game series. Young and Nelson Cruz each had two

Parker's INT return for TD lifts Argos over Lions >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Byron Parker's 41-yard interception return for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter proved to be the difference as the Toronto Argonauts came back to defeat the British Columbia Lions, 24-20, at the Rog

Murphy the hero, Wagner falters in ninth as Fish nip Braves >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Donnie Murphy had the game-winning pinch-hit single in the ninth to cap a wild back-and-forth 7-6 Marlins win to open a three-game series with the Braves. Billy Wagner (5-1) was called on to protect a

Hornaday Jr. picks up first win of the season at ORP >>
Clermont, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ron Hornaday Jr. snapped a 22-race winless streak in the Camping World Truck Series with an impressive performance in Friday's AAA Insurance 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Hornaday Jr.,

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.