Bradley, Steele lead Franklin Templeton Shootout
Golf Betting Lines
12/10/2011 - Naples, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA Champion Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele teamed for a 10-under 62 on Saturday to take the second-round lead of the Franklin Templeton Shootout.
Bradley and Steele, first-round co-leaders, finished at 19-under 125 and are shot clear at the Gold Course at Tiburon Golf Club.
Bradley and Steele shared Friday's lead with the Champions Tour pair of Mark Calcavecchia and Nick Price. Those two teams will be in Sunday's final group again. Calcavecchia and Price overcame a bad start with a nine-under 63 and are second at minus-18.
Bradley and Steele, both rookies, combined for three wins on the PGA Tour this year. Bradley's biggest victory came at the PGA Championship, where Steele was the third-round leader.
Calcavecchia and Price both won on the Champions Tour this season. They've combined for two British Open titles and had fun playing with their much younger peers on Saturday.
"It's enjoyable playing with those two kids," Calcavecchia said in a televised interview. "I've always enjoyed coming to play. This is fun. We're in the last group tomorrow."
Rory Sabbatini and Jhonattan Vegas fired Saturday's lowest round, a 12-under 60, and are third at minus-17.
Saturday's format was better ball. Sunday's scramble is a format that always yields low scores.
"We'll have Steeley (Steele) hit his drive down the middle and I'll swing as hard as I can," Bradley said on TV.
Bradley and Steele caught fire right before the turn with three straight birdies from the eighth. Bradley birdied 13 and 14 to get the team to 17-under par.
Steele made a nice par save at the 15th, then Bradley drained an eight-footer for birdie at 16. Steele two-putted the par-five 17th for his side's final birdie.
"It was a lot of fun," Bradley said.
Jerry Kelly and Steve Stricker paired for a seven-under 65 and are tied for fifth with Kenny Perry and Scott Stallings (62) at 15-under 129.
Charles Howell III and Justin Leonard (62), Anthony Kim and Webb Simpson (63) and Sean O'Hair and Jason Dufner (64) are tied for seventh at 14-under par.
Tournament host Greg Norman and his partner Scott McCarron shot a 10-under 62 and share 10th with Chad Campbell and Chris DiMarco, who managed a nine-under 63. The two teams came in at minus-13.
Stewart Cink and Bo Van Pelt carded a 10-under 62 and are last at 12-under par.
NOTES: Ian Poulter and Dustin Johnson won last year, but neither are in the field this week...Stricker and Kelly captured the title in 2009.
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Foster will continue his playing days with the Indiana Pacers, who also signed free agent forward/center Jeff Pendergraph. Foster, listed at 6-foot-11, 250-pounds, has spent his entire 12-yea
<< Dost scores five for Heerenveen
Rotterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bas Dost scored all five of
Heerenveen's goals in a 5-0 win at Excelsior on Saturday.
The 22-year-old scored a first-half hat trick with goals in the 13th, 18th and
43rd minutes before netti
<< Knicks acquire Chandler, waive Billups
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tyson Chandler is the newest member of the New
York Knicks via a three-team sign-and-trade on Saturday.
In order to complete the deal, the Knicks had to waive point guard Chauncey
Billups, designating him a
<< Brust's seven 3s boost Wisconsin over UNLV
Madison, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ben Brust scored a game-high 25 points and was
a perfect 7-for-7 from downtown, leading No. 14 Wisconsin to a 62-51 win over
UNLV on Saturday.
Jared Berggren finished with nine points, while Mike Bruesewitz h
<< Xavier beats Cincy, but game ends in brawl
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - No. 8 Xavier pulled away to beat crosstown
rival Cincinnati, 76-53, on Saturday in a game that was marred by an on-court
brawl in the final seconds.
The benches-clearing melee erupted with under 10 sec
Birmingham, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Grambling State rallied from a 15-point deficit to edge Alabama A&M, 16-15, in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game before 23,476 at Legion Field on Saturday. Sophomore linebacker Jacar
No. 15 Pitt holds off Oklahoma State >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ashton Gibbs scored 17 points and Nasir
Robinson added 15 to lead No. 15 Pittsburgh to a wire-to-wire, 74-68, victory
over Oklahoma State at Madison Square Garden.
Lamar Patterson filled the stat sh
Inter downs Fiorentina to climb standings >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Giampaolo Pazzini and Yuto Nagatomo scored on
each side of halftime as Inter Milan won for the third time in its last four
Serie A matches, 2-0 over Fiorentina on Saturday at San Siro.
Inter won for just t
Former Harvard coach Restic, 85, dies >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Harvard head football coach Joe Restic
died Thursday at Brigham & Women's Hospital, the Ivy League university
announced Saturday. He was 85.
Restic was Harvard's head coach for 23 seasons from 1971-93
Montreal forward Eller fined >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montreal Canadiens forward Lars Eller has been
fined $2,500 by the NHL on Saturday.
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The
El Duque expected to throw Tuesday
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- New York Mets pitcher Orlando Hernandez, sidelined at spring training because of arthritis in his neck, is expected to resume throwing on Tuesday.
Hernandez received a cortisone shot Thursday after leaving camp and returning to New York to have his neck examined. The 41-year-old right-hander is penciled in as the team's No. 2 starter behind Tom Glavine.
El Duque's health is a major issue for the Mets, who won the NL East in 2007 and came within one victory of the World Series. Their aging and unsettled rotation is a big question mark this year.
MySportsbook.com has the Mets as -110 favorites to repeat as NL East champions odds.
Hernandez went 11-11 with a 4.66 ERA last season, including 9-7 with a 4.09 ERA in 20 starts after the Mets acquired him from Arizona in late May. But he missed the playoffs because of a torn calf muscle.
New York already is without Pedro Martinez, out until at least midseason following rotator cuff surgery. Among those competing for starting jobs are prospects Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber and Jason Vargas, plus veterans Chan Ho Park, Jorge Sosa and Aaron Sele.
Notes: Mets manager Willie Randolph is excited about two new utility players he could have on his bench: Damion Easley and David Newhan. ''Their value is really all over the place,'' Randolph said. Easley can play anywhere in the infield and could be used as an emergency outfielder, though Randolph said he would prefer to keep the veteran in the infield. Newhan, meanwhile, can play second base, third or any outfield position for the Mets. ''I love versatility,'' Randolph said. ''I love guys that can give me options when I need them to step in.''
Additional baseball lines and World Series odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
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Horse Betting
(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).
The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.
"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."
Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.
"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."
When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:
CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.
DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.
PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.
You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.
"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."
Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.
(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)
Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."
But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."
Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."
Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."
All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.
In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.
"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."
To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.