Black, Huber reach U.S. Open doubles final
Tennis Betting Lines
09/05/2008 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top-seeded tandem of Cara Black and Liezel Huber posted a semifinal victory Friday at the 2008 U.S. Open.
Zimbabwe's Black and the American Huber will face the 10th-seeded team of American Lisa Raymond and Aussie Samantha Stosur in Sunday's finale.
Black-Huber handled a fifth-seeded Spanish duo of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-1, 6-4 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Raymond-Stosur stopped a fourth-seeded pairing of Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik and Japan's Ai Sugiyama in straight sets here on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Black and 32-year-old Huber also played in Thursday's mixed doubles final here, as a pairing of Black and Indian Leander Paes topped a tandem of Huber and Brit Jamie Murray in the that championship tilt.
Black and Huber are three-time major champions together, with victories coming in 2007 at Wimbledon and the Australian Open and in 2005 at the All England Club.
The 2008 Wimbledon runners-up Raymond and Stosur were the U.S. Open champs in 2005 and captured the French Open in 2006.
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ruud van Nistelrooy has rubbished claims that a lack of fellow strikers will lead to problems for Real Madrid this season. The Spanish champions have allowed Julio Baptista and Robinho to leave the Bern
<< White Sox OF Quentin out two-to-three weeks, possibly longer
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin
will undergo surgery on his fractured right wrist on Monday that will sideline
him for at least two-to-three weeks.
The surgery will take place at Rush Unive
<< 'Quakes aim to continue surge vs. shorthanded United
Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The expansion San Jose Earthquakes continue
their quest for a playoff spot in their return season to Major League Soccer
when they host D.C. United at Buck Shaw Stadium on Saturday night.
The 'Quakes
<< Precious points on line as Fire host Red Bulls
Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Red Bulls and the Chicago Fire
renew their Eastern Conference rivalry in Major League Soccer action on
Saturday at Toyota Park.
A lot has changed for both teams since the Fire went to
<< Top-of-the-table clash as Crew host Revs
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Crew host the New England
Revolution in a top-of-the-table Major League Soccer clash at Crew Stadium on
Saturday. The Crew have taken over the top spot in the Eastern Conference
afte
Kansas City, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Wizards acquired forward Abe Thompson from FC Dallas on Friday for allocation money. In four seasons with Dallas, Thompson started 32 of the 69 regular season games in which he appeared and
Ravens sign veteran OT Anderson >>
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Ravens signed veteran
tackle Willie Anderson on Friday.
Anderson played in 175 of 177 possible games with the Cincinnati Bengals
between 1996 and 2006 before being limited due to
Bremen's Frings returns to training >>
Bremen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Werder Bremen midfielder Torsten Frings has
returned to training following the nose injury which forced his withdrawal from
the Germany squad.
The defensive midfielder has been forced to undergo correct
Hammers swoop for Lopez >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - West Ham United has announced the capture of
Uruguay international defender Walter Lopez on a one-year contract.
The Hammers snapped up the 22-year-old left-back on a free transfer following
his decision
Galaxy lacking stars ahead of RLS contest >>
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Galaxy will be hoping to snap a
10-game winless skid on Saturday when the team welcomes Real Salt Lake to the
Home Depot Center, however they will have to do so without a number of star
players
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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