- Food City 500 - Tomorrow Is Today
Tomorrow is now.We've heard all the chirping, all the complaining, all the speculating, and finally the first Car of Tomorrow race arrives on Sunday at Bristol, TN. What's the Car of Tomorrow? C'mon, pull your head out from under that rock there! - Big AL - NCAA
Las Vegas streets and supermarket parking lots unusually were deserted Friday night as Sin Cityites stayed home in droves or attended parties to root for their beloved Sweet 16 Rebels.UNLV's (impossible) dream of an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight berth rudely was interrupted 76-72 by Oregon in the Midwest Regional semis at St. Louis -- an accurate forecast by Las Vegan/Los Angeleno and Professional Handicappers League member Big Al McMordie. - Terrible Times in Vegas
"Terrible's" is, well, a terrible name for a casino, but a great little locals hangout where one still can buy a complete prime rib dinner, with salad, baked potato, veggies and beverage, for seven bucks and change.Tucked away on East Flamingo, a mile or so from palatial Strip resorts such as Bally's, Caesars Palace and Bellagio, Terrible's formerly was known as the Continental, a decrepit, decaying hotel-casino patronized primarily by Las Vegans who turned out in the wee hours to drink in entertainment offerings by hit act Cookie Jarr and the Crumbs. - WGC - CA Championship
Tiger Woods had a bogey, two doubles and a triple on the back nine last Sunday. If this was 2000 and I read that, I would have thought he burst an appendix at the turn. Forty-three after getting himself within two strokes of the lead? A healthy Tiger doesn't play that poorly. - Gab Session - A Dog In The Hunt
Damn you, Villanova.That's right, I had the Wildcats over the um Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Villanova over Kentucky, that is. Not only that, but I also picked Villanova to upset everyone's current chic pick of the moment, Kansas, to get to the Sweet 16. Once the boys from Philly were erased in the first round, the Jayhawks were set loose in my bracket to wreak non-points-gaining devastation. My pick of Southern Illinois to the Elite Eight is suddenly looking pretty shaky, huh? - Sin City Cinderella?
Las Vegas bettors correctly went with their hearts over the pointspreads last week, wagering on hometown UNLV to pull off a pair of NCAA Tournament upsets and gain a coveted Sweet 16 berth.Playing more than 1,500 miles from home in Chicago, the underdog Rebels eliminated 1 1/2-point favorite Georgia Tech and then raced past No. 2 seed and 6-point choice Wisconsin to earn the right to meet Oregon in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis on Friday night. - Kobalt Tools 500 - No Whining In Atlanta
Enough whining, let's get to Atlanta.The Smokeless Set complained before last weekend's Vegas race, and they complained after. The track was too slick, the tires were too hard, it was too dangerous to race side-by-side. Boo. Hoo.Enough. Now we're at Atlanta, a time-honored track that's also dangerous as hell because of its speeds, but which everyone likes because it's got tradition. It's not that races don't get any less strung-out here, or that the speeds aren't just as death-defying, or cars won't get mind-numbingly loose to the point where they'll wreck themselves. It's just that everybody will smile and say what a fun place Atlanta is to race. - Arnold Palmer Invitational
I've always liked Mark Calcavecchia. He looks and talks like a favorite uncle. Someone who has fun even when things aren't going so well.At the Honda Classic a week before he survived a couple shaky putts down the stretch to win last week's PODS Championship, Calcavecchia was having a rough time on the greens. He knew he was going to miss the cut, so on his last hole Friday he broke out this Briny Baird flamingo-like putting stance for kicks. - Morgue Before the Madness
Las Vegas bet shops resembled morgues on Monday as bookmakers braced for huge NCAA Tournament crowds and accompanying March Madness hoopla, while bettors wandered from store to store, searching for the best available numbers."It's like every party I've ever thrown," Mirage book boss Robert Walker joked to the local Review-Journal."Nobody shows up." - Dancing Till the Music Stops
Longtime Las Vegas sports gambler Lem Banker likens the NCAA Tournament to a game of musical chairs."Anything can happen," Banker said."One loss, the music stops and you're out."The field of 64 (or 65) will be annouced on Selection Sunday, after leagues wrap up their own conference tournaments. - UAW Daimler-Chrysler 400: Reconfiguring Vegas
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.No, okay, it was pretty much just the best of times.After getting shut out at the Daytona 500, for me the race in Fontana two weeks ago was a breath of fresh air: Matt Kenseth held on for the outright win, and Greg Biffle did his part by toppling Casey Mears in a head-to-head match-up. Kenseth's win gives us a nice big bankroll heading into a Vegas race that should be crazy. - Gab Session - The Maddest Of Marches
How great is this NCAA men's college basketball tournament going to be?I mean, sure, the George Mason thing was awesome last year, and let's not forget that Wichita St. and Bradley made it to the Sweet 16, LSU shocked Duke, Kansas lost in the first round for the second straight year, a #14 seed (Northwestern St.) shocked a #3 (Iowa), and #2 Tennessee needed a buzzer-beater to avoid losing to #15 Winthrop. - Street Sense Eyes Derby Dollars
Handlers of Street Sense hope the luck of the Irish will be with them when their prize colt makes his 3-year-old debut in the Tampa Bay Derby on March 17.The St. Patrick's Day race took on added significance when Churchill Downs made Street Sense an 8/1 Kentucky Derby co-second choice with Ravel and Great Hunter in its second of three pre-Run for the Roses wagering pools.Street Sense is attempting to become the first Breeders' Cup Juvenile champion to go on to win Thoroughbred racing's most prestigious prize. - Moon Over Madness
The month's full moon has come and gone and that peculiar malady known as March Madness almost is upon us.Selection Sunday and spring's annual Big Dance are just around the corner, after America's college basketball conferences wipe up some unfinished business of their own.Most leagues with postseason tourneys begin competition on Thursday. - PODS Championship
Bo Jackson knew baseball, Bo knew basketball, but Bo, you don't know Weekley. Boo Weekley, that is.Maybe Bo does know Boo, or can speak to the shared experience of growing up in the rural south. We've been refreshed by other professional athletes from rural backgrounds who tend to speak their minds and shun the memorized sound bite, people like Charles Barkley and another golfer, John Daly. Never did I see Barkley or Daly plying his trade with dip spittle on his lower lip, though, which is what I'm pretty sure I saw on Weekley during last Sunday's final round of the Honda Classic. - New Look for Chrysler 400
NASCAR fans will find a completely remodeled Las Vegas Motor Speedway when the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400 is contested this weekend."It's a whole different situation (than in past races)," said Wynn Las Vegas bet shop supervisor and auto racing specialist Chris Chavez.The Las Vegas track was completely rebuilt in the offseason, adding increased 20-degree banking to a new surface and moving pit road 275 feet closer to the grandstands. - Gab Session- Randy Moss -- Franchise Killer
I don't have any particular allegiance to the Jacksonville Jaguars.I mean, their colors are kind of nice. I'm not sure how much I buy a blue-tongued jaguar (what, did he just eat a popsicle or something?), but Jacksonville's kind of a sleepy one-horse town whose NFL franchise is mostly just a little bit boring, saddled as it is in a primarily college-mad environment. I mean, they're not the most offensive team in the league, but they're just sort of there. - Daytona 500: The Super Bowl Of Racing
Ah, the Daytona 500, when a young man's thoughts turn to those of pork rinds.There's been more controversy in a week of pre-race mumbo jumbo than in an entire BALCO investigation, it seems. Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne got docked 50 points in the Nextel Cup standings, while Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs got docked 25 points and Michael Waltrip got docked 100 points, all for illegal modifications to cars during last Sunday's qualifying runs. To put things in perspective, Tony Stewart missed last year's Chase for the Championship by 18 points. - Gab Session: The First Vegas All-Star Game
In every sport, All-Star Games have long since outlived their usefulness. Need proof? Do you think the basketball world is abuzz because its constituents are thrilled to be playing the NBA All-Star Game in the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV? Does the drinking water at that venue taste particularly good there? Uh, no. - The Nissan Open 2007
My plan was to wait until Sunday to tune in to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am because by then even the TV people have tired of seeing George Lopez’s act, there are less celebrities on the course, and so we actually get to see some tournament golf played by professionals.I thought I could hack it, though, so I tuned in a little each day. - Boys of Summer spring forward
As the Byrds sang and the Bible preaches, to everything there is a season; in the wide world of sports, football's over and baseball season is almost here again.Spring training is right around the corner and the Boys of Summer soon will dominate sports headlines.Like the planet's seasonal changes, folks feel the transformation as it's taking place. - Sunny in Florida
Maybe it's something in the orange juice.Rarely does a single school simultaneously rule America in the major sports of college basketball and football, but Florida pulled off this mini-miracle when it claimed the NCAA Tournament title last spring and then added the 2007 BCS Championship in January. - Ryder Cup: U.S. has Weaker Links
Hilton oddsmaker Jeff Sherman, Las Vegas' leading golf handicapper, laughs when he recalls playing the 18th hole at Dublin's K Club, site of this weekend's Ryder Cup, during a 1999 trip to Ireland."I've been hearing how tough it is and how it'll affect the outcome, but it was my best hole," Sherman said."It's a par 5 and I bogeyed it, but I could've gotten a par." - Handicapping 101: High Winds
Tulane Stadium set the stage for Superbowl 4 on January 11, 1970, as the 12-2 Minnesota Vikings looked to "Kapp" their season with a rout of the Chiefs. But high winds and a game time tornado watch would play its hand in the outcome. Perhaps an omen of things to come, a pre-game balloon race ended in disaster, as high winds forced the Vikings balloon on a collision course with the stadium. - Handicapping 101: Cold Weather
Ever wonder why your fingers, toes, ears and other extremities get especially cold in frigid weather?The body adjusts to extremely cold weather by adjusting the flow of blood. Crucial organs, such as the heart and liver, get more blood which is diverted away from the extremities, such as the fingers, toes and ears. Blood vessels in the extremities constrict, nearly shutting off, leaving the skin at increased risk of frostbite. - Handicapping 101: Hot Weather
In the 1995 City to Surf fun run, Australia's premiere foot race, a 14 kilometer trek through Hyde Park in Central Sydney to the Pacific Ocean, a 19-year-old man suffered a cardiac arrest on the finishing line and later died. 600 people were treated for minor problems and 200 were treated by physiotherapists. Medical centers treated 55 participants, of whom 38 suffered heat exhaustion. - California Triple Crown
The world has a Triple Crown and so does Southern California.Lava Man, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap and Hollywood Gold Cup, will attempt on Sunday to complete a sweep of LaLa Land's Big Three by winning the $1 million Grade I Pacific Classic, Del Mar's richest race. - Las Vegas Odds & Ends
The Las Vegas Hilton, home of the prestigious SuperContest football handicapping competition, will give away $10,000 in weekly drawings throughout the upcoming season as the resort turns its legenday theater into "Football Central" on NFL Sundays.Food and drink specials, including $1 hot dogs and draft beer, .will be served beginning with 10 a.m. (Pacific time) kickoffs. - Biggest Purse Ever at Breeders Cup
Caesars Palace has added more than two dozen Thoroughbreds to its future book for the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.Purse for the 1 1/4th mile affair has been boosted seven figures to $5 million, making it the richest horse race in American history. - 3 Year 71% NFLX Resumes!
Brian Gabrielle's 3 Year August NFL Pre-Season Football record stands at 46-19 71% and he's a perfect 4-0 100% with his NFLX games of the Year!This season promises to be his best yet, with no fewer than 36 exhibition games circled in Brian's War Room! - Stardust Line goes Global
The Sunday night Stardust Line has been a staple for Las Vegas bettors for a quarter of a century as sports gamblers were able to hear experts rehash the weekend college and pro games.The 'Dust earlier this summer pulled the plug on the popular show in anticipation of the resort's implosion later this year. - WSOP: Then There Were 9
All that glitters certainly looks to be Gold in the 2006 World Series of Poker's $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event at Harrah's off-Strip Rio Hotel and Casino.Jamie Gold, a California TV producer and talent agent, kept a tight grip on first Tuesday as the record field was sliced from 27 to Thursday's Final Table of nine, more than doubling the chip count of his closest competitor, well-known pro and two-two-time gold bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, at one point. - Fox Foundation in Money at WSOP
What would you do with $12 million, the amount the new World Series of Poker's $10,000 buy-in Texas No-Limit Hold'em champion will collect?Build a mansion?Buy a yacht?Take a trip around the world? - Online Pros Dominate WSOP
The axe continued to fall at the 37th World Series of Poker Sunday as the field for the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold'em championship was slashed to the last 45 players.The original field was 8,773, including thousands - the vast majority - who qualified online.They will return at noon Monday, with the remaining players again facing the chopping block at Harrah's Rio Hotel and Casino.
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