Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
07/04/2009 - Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Emilio Bonifacio went 3-for-4 with two runs scored to help the Florida Marlins take a 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second game of a three-game set.
Hanley Ramirez went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run for the Marlins, who have won four of their last five games. Andrew Miller (3-4) got the win as he gave up three runs on seven hits with a walk and four strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings of work.
Garrett Jones and Andy LaRoche each hit a solo home run for the Pirates, who have dropped three of four. Zach Duke (8-7) was tagged with the loss as he gave up four runs -- three earned -- on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts over six innings of work.
The Marlins got on the board in the first inning as Bonifacio reached base on an error by Adam LaRoche and, after Jeremy Hermida struck out, Ramirez launched a pitch over the left field wall for a 2-0 lead.
Florida plated another run in the fourth as back-to-back singles from Dan Uggla and Cody Ross was followed by a double play groundout by Ronny Paulino that plated Uggla for a 3-0 lead.
The Pirates finally got on the board in the fifth inning as Andy LaRoche led off the frame with a blast past the wall in left, his fourth home run of the season.
In the sixth, Pittsburgh made it a one-run game. Andrew McCutchen led off with a single and moved to second on Jack Wilson's sacrifice bunt. Delwyn Young then singled to center to score McCutchen and make it a 3-2 game.
In the sixth, Florida tacked on another run to make it a 4-2 game. Jorge Cantu led off with a double and walks to Ross and Brett Carroll loaded the bases. A wild pitch then allowed Cantu to score.
Pittsburgh again made it a one-run game in the seventh as Jones led off the frame with a shot over the right field wall, but Florida got the run back in the bottom of the inning on a double play groundout by Ramirez that plated Bonifacio.
The Pirates got a two-out double from Young in the eighth, but Renyel Pinto came on in relief and got Adam LaRoche to strike out.
Dan Meyer retired the Pirates in order in the ninth to pick up his second save of the season.
Game Notes
Ramirez has an RBI in 11 of his last 12 games. He had a 10-game RBI streak stopped on Friday when he went 0-for-4...Miller was 0-2 in his previous four starts...Duke is 0-3 in five career starts against the Marlins...Pittsburgh had won five straight against the Marlins coming into the game, including all four games this season.
<< Padres rally past Dodgers; Ramirez homers
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Everth Cabrera went 2-for-4 with three runs
batted in, as the San Diego Padres used late rallies to down Los Angeles, 7-4,
in the middle installment of a three-game series.
Cabrera, David Eckstein and Adr
<< Punto, Twins edge Tigers
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Punto's RBI single in the eighth
inning helped the Minnesota Twins take a 4-3 win over the Detroit Tigers in
the second of a three-game set at the Metrodome.
Justin Morneau went 4-for-4 wit
<< Williams sisters take doubles title at Wimbledon
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The dominating Williams sisters,
Serena and Venus, won the doubles final on Saturday at Wimbledon, just hours
after the sisters faced each other in the single's final.
Serena and Venus needed
<< Moyer, bullpen help Phils take down Mets
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jamie Moyer pitched into the seventh
inning and the Philadelphia bullpen did the rest, helping the Phillies upend
the Mets 4-1 in the second of a three-game series between the NL East rivals.
Moyer
Blue Jays place P Richmond on DL >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays placed pitcher Scott
Richmond on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to July 1, with a sore
shoulder.
Richmond is 6-5 with a 3.69 earned-run average in 16 games, 13 starts,
Wang leaves game; likely to go on DL >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang left
Saturday's 6-5, 12-inning victory against the Toronto Blue Jays with a
shoulder injury, and an MRI after the game indicated he may be headed to the
disable
D.C., Columbus battle to draw >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United and the Columbus Crew battled to a
1-1 draw in Major League Soccer action on Saturday night at Crew Stadium.
The game was a battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference table,
and afte
Price isn't right for Rays; Rangers score 12 in rout >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andruw Jones' three-run homer in the first
inning set the tone, as Texas went on to dismantle the Rays, 12-4, in the
middle installment of a three-game series.
Jones doubled in another run and Michael
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting