Author: Jack Harris (Page 2 of 3)

Mage wins Kentucky Derby; Is the Triple Crown realistic?

Screenshot Mage

Mage won the Kentucky Derby yesterday as a 15-1 underdog. The horse had only run in three races, so these odds were understandable. That said, Dan Wolken points out that Mage’s performance in the Florida Derby should have put betters on notice. And that’s what successful gambling on horse racing is all about!

Now we’ll see just how good Mage can be. Dan calls Mage an “excellent horse.” Can Mage win the Triple Crown? That’s a huge challenge of course, and we’ll learn a lot more in the Preakness:

“If Forte runs, you may see Mage in the 3-1 to 4-1 range,” Avello noted, “and if he doesn’t, you might see him in the neighborhood of 5-2. I mean, who else is out there for him to go against now?

It’s not just about Mage. It’s also about the competition.

The cool thing is we may have a rivalry on our hands, which is always great for horse racing and the Triple Crown.

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Betting probe leads to firing of Alabama baseball coach

With legalized sports betting, we’re going to see more of this. Just a few days ago the NFL suspended five players for improper gambling activity.

The good news is that legal sportsbooks can implements tools to uncover inappropriate betting activity. AS this story unfolds, it will be interesting to see how sports teams and leagues can use these tools to ensure that players and coaches aren’t impacting the integrity of the game.

This simple fact remains. The increased prevalence of sports betting raises concerns about the potential for match-fixing, point-shaving, and other forms of corruption that could compromise the integrity of the game. Leagues and teams must establish and enforce stringent regulations to prevent such occurrences and maintain public trust in the fairness of competition. Hopefully, the technology that enables easy betting can also find violations of league and team rules.

2023 NFL Draft – The Texans squander draft capital

Screenshot 2023 NFL Draft

Nobody knows how tonight’s picks will work out. But naturally everyone will have opinions.

I’m more interested in overall strategy as opposed to making definitive statements about specific players. Good drafting is about more than player valuation. It’s mostly about probability analysis. The teams that forget that and fall in love with players usually end up making mistakes.

Let’s start with the Texans. This team has a horrible roster, and they have an owner that likes to meddle. They’re also on their third head coach in three years. Basically, the organization is a dumpster fire.

Despite that, the Texans were sitting on a ton of draft capital as a result of last year’s Deshaun Watson trade with the Browns. If they sat back and let the draft come to them, they could load up on talent this year and next.

But these are the Texans, so chaos rules. The owner wanted a quarterback, so they draft C.J. Stroud with the second pick of the draft. Solid pick. Now they could wait till pick #12 and get another very good player.

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Messi leads Argentina to epic World Cup championship over France

Lionel Messi 2022 World Cup Final

One of the greatest soccer players of all time capped his amazing career with a World Cup championship. Lionel Messi led Argentina to victory in an epic final match over France that will be talked about as long as people care about soccer.

You can follow the twists and turns of the match in this rundown from Fox Sports which includes video highlights that were shared by the network on Twitter.

Messi scored twice in the match, while French superstar Kylian Mbappé in France’s amazing comebacks. The match was a story of leads and comebacks. Argentina built a 2-0 lead by halftime, and had plenty of chances to extend the lead. But France stormed back led by Mbappé to send the match to overtime. His second goal was simply spectacular. Argentina took another lead, only to have Mbappé tie it again on a penalty kick in the 118th minute.

The match then went to penalty kicks, which always adds even more drama. It almost didn’t seem fair to have a match this good be decided in this way. Both Messi and Mbappé hit the opening penalty kicks for their respective sides, but then Emi Martinez made his first save in the penalty kick round, and then Gonzalo Montiel ultimately hit the winner for Argentina.

What a game!

Messi deserves this, and we have to consider that Mbappé is only 26. He’ll have more opportunities, but this one has to sting for him and for all of France.

Meanwhile, it’s party time in Argentina!!

Sports Movies: “61*” (2001)

Screenshot Barry Pepper as Roger Maris in 61 movie

There was a time when baseball’s home run record really meant something. It was mythical. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927, hitting more home runs than 12 teams that year!

Ruth’s home run record stood for 34 years, until Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, though Major League Baseball shamefully put an asterisk next to Maris’s record. The Babe had set the record during a 154-game season, while Maris broke the record during a 162-game season. Maris also broke the record in a season following expansion, further angering baseball purists who felt he didn’t deserve to be labeled the Home Run King.

The steroid era made discussions of the record even more controversial. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa shattered the record in the memorable 1998 season when McGwire hit 70 home runs and Sosa hit 66. Barry Bonds followed that with an amazing 73 in the 2001 season. But the steroid scandal exposed McGuire, Sosa and Bonds, making a mockery of the home run record. This context helps explain why so many wanted to crown Aaron Judge as the “true” holder of the record with his 62 home runs in the 2022 season.

“61*” is a historical drama that tells the story of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle as they chased the Babe’s record in the 1961 season. Mantle was already a legend in the minds of most baseball fans, while Maris was the new kid on the block on New York even though he won the MVP in 1960 in his first season as a Yankee.

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