Ready For Football

Good morning everyone.  After waiting and waiting and waiting to move back here to the desert where I have the ability to wager on sports (specifically football, and we'll get there in a minute) and play poker, the football season (real games) is now less than TWO weeks away...  I have an LVH (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton, don't get me started) college football betting sheet on the table behind me for games starting on Thursday, August 30th (the sheet doesn't have overs/unders yet for the college games, but you know, when I did so well predicting them last year, I was just calling the winners against the spread, so maybe, just maybe...).  Who am I kidding - I will look for the overs/unders before the season kicks off.  One thing to keep in mind right off the bat though - look closely at the Washington State over/under numbers this season. Mike Leach is now the head coach there, and when at Texas Tech, his teams scored a ton of points while making the Red Raider defense play a lot of minutes.  His offense has tons of passing, which includes clock-stopping incomplete passes - I will look to bet overs in Cougar games if I like the numbers...

So, baseball season is over for me...  :)  I say this, and we'll see if I stick to it.  Today I spent eight dollars on a couple of parlay tickets at the Riviera (not yesterday, because it's still actually Thursday night here)...  Anyway, although being in all the games, I hit 1 out of 3 bets on each ticket, and I just feel that I know football better (which is the same reasoning that I'm using for not wanting to sit in any more limit games now that I have access to the whole Strip, but that's for next Wednesday's entry).  Okay, it's for next Wednesday's entry other than saying that I would rather, even when trying to protect my bankroll, sit in a no-limit game short-stacked with 50, or 60, or 100 (whatever is allowed), and play my game....  See, so much to write about now that I live here, I can't keep one post separated from another...

Basketball.  Congratulations to the USA Men's team on winning the gold medal.  I had stated here previously that I wouldn't be surprised if they lost, and they had two close calls.  They were played very toughly to a 5-point game in the qualifying round (Lithuania I believe, and I hate that I didn't get to see that game).  I think it was a 99-94 game.  And then Spain played us close in the gold medal game, but chalk one up for the Stars and Stripes.  I'll restate what I believe I said here before (I know I said it on facebook for sure).  This group up against the Dream Team of 92 - PLEASE...

Also in the world of basketball - it seems that the media and Laker Nation are going CRAZY over this Dwight Howard trade...  The media just LIVES to overhype things...  Heck, even Las Vegas made the Lakers 8 to 5 favorites to win the title next year...  The Lakers lost Bynum in the trade, Howard is currently recovering from a season-ending injury, both Kobe and Nash are past their prime, and ESPN is posing the question as to whether or not the Lakers will win 65 games next year, IN THE WEST...  Again, PLEASE...  And they better have EVERYTHING fall their way next season and stay healthy if they do expect to win the NBA title...

Revisiting my golf prediction - Tiger goes 0 for 4 in the majors this year, and is no closer to catching up with Mr. Nicklaus...  I'm telling you, it's not going to be easy, and I don't think he's going to do it...  Tiger has 4 to tie, 5 to break the record if my just-now fact-check is correct...

Getting back to football, I do have some fantasy football advice for you if you are inclined to play it.  Despite not having won a championship in a draft league since my very first year of playing in one (injuries just plagued me, like my fantasy baseball team this season), I did always manage to get off to quick starts, and there is a reason for this.  When drafting between two players who are very comparable, I'd always take the player who faced the easier schedule to start the season.  I don't even know if most players who compete in fantasy bother to look at strength of schedule...  I think it's always best to get off to a good start (at whatever you're doing in life).  It's hard to play catch-up, and if you can win games early on, it gives you some wiggle room later.  I almost think that while ignoring this, people tend to pay too much attention to bye weeks, because you're almost certain to experience some injuries (definite for my teams), and transactions allow you to replace players and manipulate your way around the bye weeks, on the off-chance that almost every single player you decided to draft shares a common off-week.

Okay, I think that's all the damage that I'm prepared to do tonight...  I hope that you have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!