Pitcher Bard Name Salvage For Pitches

Baseball Betting Lines

Zack Greinke (7-3) was pounded for the second time in three starts. The right- hander allowed five hits and seven runs over two innings for the Brewers, who were coming off a three-game sweep at home against Minnesota.

 

Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun extended his career-high hitting streak to 18 games with a double leading off the eighth inning.

 

"He struggled with his command tonight," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "He seemed to really find it near the end more than any other point and seemed to get back on track, but he just couldn't really locate his fastball tonight. He was struggling with that."

 

Gimenez played in 16 games (13 starts) for the Mariners this season. He was hitting .171 with five RBI before suffering the injury in Tuesday's game against the Braves.

 

The 33-year-old Bard appeared in 58 games for the Rainiers, batting .301 with two home runs and 41 RBI.

 

Edinson Volquez (5-3) gave up three runs on four hits over 6 1/3 innings to pick up his first victory since June 7. He also struck out seven and walked three.

 

Tampa Bay starter James Shields (8-5) saw an impressive streak of three straight complete games come to an end. The 29-year-old lasted just seven innings on Wednesday, allowing four runs on seven hits. He also struck out 10 and walked two.

 

New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dale Scott has been selected as the crew chief and home plate umpire for the 2011 All-Star Game at Chase Field in Phoenix. Scott, in his 26th year of big league service, will work an All-Star Game for the third time in his career. He was also a part of the crew for the 1993 and 2001 games.

 

This will be the third All-Star Game for Layne, but it will be the first Midsummer Classic for the rest of the crew.

 

The official scorers will be the chairperson of the Arizona chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the BBWAA president, Ken Davidoff of Newsday, and veteran Arizona Diamondbacks official scorer, Gary Rausch.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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