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Pick to Win -- Tuna's Boys Are In A Sandwich
A look at Week 10 brings us to Big D
Courtesy of: I.M. Bettor
BOSTON HERALD
I.M. BETTOR
BY THE NUMBERS
WEEK 10
Friday, Nov. 7, 2003
Dreary as it was last Wednesday, I found myself upstairs at the recently reopened Rattlesnake on Boylston Street nursing a Dos Equis watching the Louisville- TCU game. Sitting with a ticket on Louisville taking 2.5 (2½), Big G spotted me and unannounced took the empty seat to my right. Dubbed “Big” for his generosity, appetite and the size of his bets, as most gamblers do, it wasn’t the usual, “Hi, how are you?” from Big G, but rather, “Who do have?”
“Louisville taking the points,” I said.
“I’m not involved,” he said. “It’s been a tough year. A few weeks I ago, I had Alabama and under against Tennessee and had both of them won until Tennessee tied the game in the last 15 seconds.” Shaking his head, “Five overtimes later, I lost both bets.”
Ten minutes and three missed Louisville field goals later, including one that hit the crossbar on the game’s final play, I was now camped in Big G’s corner. “Tough beat,” was all he said before picking up my bar tab and walking out the door.
The gambling life isn’t easy. If it were, we’d all be on computers in Bali or some such exotic locale hooked up to Sports Offshore in Antigua sending in play after play and waiting for the Federal Express truck to deliver us big checks. Yet to talk with local bookmakers, life on their end isn’t all caviar and Champagne. To quote one, “The NFL lines stink. How could they make the Eagles only 4.5 ( 4 ½) last week over the Falcons? Before it moved, I was hammered. Who’s going to bet against these soft numbers?”
Without waiting for my answer, he rhetorically answered, “Nobody, that’s who.”
Entering the fray in Week 10, the anxious and angry acolytes are stuck $370 from a 6-5 mark by the numbers. Looking to extricate them from a hole, I see numbers that appear to easy to beat, but the problem is that each easy one is a road favorite- Minnesota; Seattle; Tampa Bay and Indianapolis. And while road favorites have fared better than home ‘dogs in 2003, after losing with Oakland laying points at Detroit last Sunday, let’s just say, that’s not a road I want to travel.
For our play on Sunday, let’s go to Dallas where the Cowboys are stuck in a Redskins-Patriots sandwich. Pounding a divisional rival last week, next week it’s onto to Foxboro for a Sunday nighter in the ad nauseam bowl. In between, the Bills fly into Big D. Let’s face it, the Bills of 2003 stink on the road and their head coach is in over his head against Billy Idol Parcells. But the situation for the Bills is riper than a 10-day old peach. I love the Bills in this spot and will risk $440 on them taking 4-points.
A look at Week 10 brings us to Big D
Courtesy of: I.M. Bettor
BOSTON HERALD
I.M. BETTOR
BY THE NUMBERS
WEEK 10
Friday, Nov. 7, 2003
Dreary as it was last Wednesday, I found myself upstairs at the recently reopened Rattlesnake on Boylston Street nursing a Dos Equis watching the Louisville- TCU game. Sitting with a ticket on Louisville taking 2.5 (2½), Big G spotted me and unannounced took the empty seat to my right. Dubbed “Big” for his generosity, appetite and the size of his bets, as most gamblers do, it wasn’t the usual, “Hi, how are you?” from Big G, but rather, “Who do have?”
“Louisville taking the points,” I said.
“I’m not involved,” he said. “It’s been a tough year. A few weeks I ago, I had Alabama and under against Tennessee and had both of them won until Tennessee tied the game in the last 15 seconds.” Shaking his head, “Five overtimes later, I lost both bets.”
Ten minutes and three missed Louisville field goals later, including one that hit the crossbar on the game’s final play, I was now camped in Big G’s corner. “Tough beat,” was all he said before picking up my bar tab and walking out the door.
The gambling life isn’t easy. If it were, we’d all be on computers in Bali or some such exotic locale hooked up to Sports Offshore in Antigua sending in play after play and waiting for the Federal Express truck to deliver us big checks. Yet to talk with local bookmakers, life on their end isn’t all caviar and Champagne. To quote one, “The NFL lines stink. How could they make the Eagles only 4.5 ( 4 ½) last week over the Falcons? Before it moved, I was hammered. Who’s going to bet against these soft numbers?”
Without waiting for my answer, he rhetorically answered, “Nobody, that’s who.”
Entering the fray in Week 10, the anxious and angry acolytes are stuck $370 from a 6-5 mark by the numbers. Looking to extricate them from a hole, I see numbers that appear to easy to beat, but the problem is that each easy one is a road favorite- Minnesota; Seattle; Tampa Bay and Indianapolis. And while road favorites have fared better than home ‘dogs in 2003, after losing with Oakland laying points at Detroit last Sunday, let’s just say, that’s not a road I want to travel.
For our play on Sunday, let’s go to Dallas where the Cowboys are stuck in a Redskins-Patriots sandwich. Pounding a divisional rival last week, next week it’s onto to Foxboro for a Sunday nighter in the ad nauseam bowl. In between, the Bills fly into Big D. Let’s face it, the Bills of 2003 stink on the road and their head coach is in over his head against Billy Idol Parcells. But the situation for the Bills is riper than a 10-day old peach. I love the Bills in this spot and will risk $440 on them taking 4-points.