Posada's RBI single in 12th helps Yanks down Jays

Baseball Betting Lines

07/04/2009 - Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jorge Posada's single in the bottom of the 12th inning lifted the New York Yankees to a 6-5 win over Toronto in the second of a four-game set from Yankee Stadium.

Posada also hit a homer and finished with two RBI, Johnny Damon hit a two-run homer, Hideki Matsui added a solo blast and Alex Rodriguez also drove in a run for the Yankees, who have taken the first two games of the series and have won nine of their last 10 contests.

Brett Tomko (1-2) pitched a scoreless inning for the win. Starter Chien-Ming Wang was charged with six hits and four runs over 5 1/3 innings before leaving due to injury.

Alex Rios collected two hits and drove in three runs for the Blue Jays, losers in six of their last seven. Adam Lind homered and knocked in a pair while Marco Scutaro hit safely twice and scored once in defeat.

Shawn Camp (0-4) took the loss, charged with the deciding run on two hits despite four strikeouts over 2 1/3 innings. Roy Halladay was tagged for nine hits, including three homers, and five runs in his seven-inning start.

Camp issued a leadoff double to Mark Teixeira, then intentionally walked Rodriguez. Robinson Cano attempted to sacrifice both runners, but Raul Chavez threw to third for the first out before Posada plated Rodriguez with a base hit to center.

The Yanks picked up a run in the first as Damon walked with one out, moved to second on a groundout and scored on a single from Rodriguez.

Toronto struck with a pair in the second when a Rios single brought in Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay, but Matsui evened the score in the home half with his 12th home run of the season.

Posada led off the fourth with a homer which gave New York a 3-2 edge, but Wang gave that right back in the sixth, allowing a leadoff double to Scutaro and a two-run homer to Lind. David Robertson was summoned but walked both Scott Rolen and Overbay before striking out Wells. Rios then singled home Rolen and the Jays led 5-3.

Jeter singled with one out in the seventh and Damon tied the game with a two- run shot.

Jesse Carlson retired Cano on a grounder with two on and two out in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.

Game Notes

New York has won four of five meetings in 2009...Today marked the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's legendary speech, made at the original Yankee Stadium between games of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators...Wang left the game with a right shoulder strain and will undergo an MRI later Saturday...A total of 12 pitchers recorded at least one out in the game, with the Yankees using seven hurlers.

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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.

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