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**Tony Vegas** · 04-16-2004, 09:14 AM

good luck! with you on all of them but the sox, can't go against my boys!

**PhilJr** · 04-16-2004, 09:23 AM

Good luck today John. I play all of your picks in my designated "EZ Offshore Account" which has more than doubled in the last 2 months. It's the only account where I have gambling discipline. This was not a paid endorsement

**ez winners** · 04-16-2004, 09:42 AM

Thanks guys! Lets get them today! Adding one more play.......

2 STAR: Cincinnati (+$145) OVER CHICAGO
(Aaron Harang vs. Sergio Mitre)

**Homer** · 04-16-2004, 10:00 AM

GL today Bud

**Bennojd** · 04-16-2004, 10:42 AM

John (EZ):

Good luck today and thanks for the plays!

Bennojd

**Ripped71** · 04-16-2004, 11:05 AM

Good Luck, EZ!

**chalkeater** · 04-16-2004, 06:30 PM

Bennojd,
you are an idiot. Baseball is by far the greatest of all professional sports.
I'm not going to break it down for you but let me guess...you like watching the 3 1/2 quarters of meaningless NBA before any of the players try and you are nuts for the NFL who changes there rules to make room for more commercials.
What has the game become? is it no longer 3 strikes and yer out? or 3 outs to an inning?
It's also the best to bet on! Study the match up and make your pick. It's a hell of a lot of fun and you don't get some bullshit backdoor cover...
I assume you posted your viewpoint to get some feedback, so that's why i respond. As far as ez is concerned you picked a good guy to follow! keep it up EZ.

**Bennojd** · 04-16-2004, 07:33 PM

chalkeater:

I will respond to your comments in full at a later date since I'm on my way out. However, you didn't need to call me an idiot just because you don't agree with my opinion on something.

Please check back and I will give you several reasons why I feel baseball has really become a joke. And no, you don't have to agree with any of them!

Bennojd
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**I am both a SPORTS FAN and a SPECTATOR of sports. Therefore, my opinions on Major league baseball have been formed from that point of view only!!
I am also a sports bettor but none of my opinions on Major league baseball should be confused with a bettor's point of view.**

I BELIEVE MLB SHOULD NO LONGER BE PATRONIZED AND I THINK THAT MLB HAS LOST TOUCH WITH ITS FANS!!!!!

First of all, these are ONLY my opinions and of course nobody has to agree with them. Secondly, I believe that MLB is nothing without its fans so my reason for calling it a joke (which I really think it is) is to possibly open some eyes to see what MLB has really become.........and if that causes just one person to re-evaluate why he or she patronizes this game, I will be satisfied!!

I used to be a huge Chicago White Sox fan and even to this day I still hope they win. Also to this day I hope the Cubs lose. That will never change!! However, due to the many dreadful mistakes MLB has made in recent years I have essentially "divorced" myself from this game and maybe you should too!!!

A) Have you noticed the influx of foreign-born players to MLB in recent years?........it has gotten way out of control and MLB should have had guidelines in place to limit this. MLB is essentially a LATINO sport now and many of these players speak very poor ENGLISH. I'm not saying there should be no foreign-born players; I'm only saying there should be limits because this is supposedly an "American game."
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B) Have you noticed how many MLB managers "play chess" with their pitchers?..........in the past if a starting pitcher was going good you left him in. Now some managers bring in a relief pitcher just because the starter got to a certain pitch count or pitched a certain amount of innings. Some MLB managers also use too many relievers. Some are brought in to face just one batter. Or they pitch one good inning and then another reliever is brought in. WHY?? I've seen countless games lost due to to this overuse of pitchers.
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C) Many teams have smaller ballparks just so there will be more home runs. I don't agree with that at all.
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D) an interesting article I found:

March 7, 2004

The Juice
By: Antwoine Jackson
Chicago White Sox Columnist
A while ago performance enhancing drugs was known as “juice” in all likelihood the most popular way to bring steroids to the system at that time, through a drink. Athletes perceived to be on steroids were said to be “on the juice.”

We all knew it was coming. Yes we did. All of it. The impending fall out, the end of credibility from the everyday athlete to the home run hitting/power-pitching juggernaut. We got a sniff of it with Mark McGuire, Jose Canseco, Ken Caminiti, corked bats and all. Innuendo was ever apparent with the failing drug tests and the diminishing weights all across the major league board. Yet we still marveled at the results. The numbers: 70 here, 73 there, 500 here 575 there. The drama behind a 9th inning 500 foot home run against the best pitcher on their staff. The cute little two hop and the chest tapping along with a kissss! YET baseball will have to face the tough love reality of it all, OJ just isn’t the same without the JUICE!

One couldn’t have been staggered by the recent indictments of baseball superstars by a federal court. The media circus fallout was certainly expected, but what about the failure to yield less than a 5% clip of athletes currently “on the juice”. (Olympic athletes weigh in with less than one percent) Given a heads up that they were going to be tested as well as when these tests were going to take place, baseball still failed to fall below the acceptable standard of MLB. Steroids had become A FIRE-BREATHING-SNARLING-HORN-BOASTING-BEAST with so much momentum it couldn’t be stopped at a moment’s instance.

The warning signs were becoming more and more obvious. Despite all out admissions of foul play by former players. Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti suggesting as much as half of the sport is on some form of performance enhancing drug. A baseball heart to the core told us fans wanting to believe to ignore common sense and one of our most valuable senses, the sense of sight. People just tend to get bigger as they get older, don’t they? We all just knew that MLB were wounding the strings underneath the covering of the baseballs too tight when they switched from a hand-woven baseball to a machine-woven baseball, right? Andro is legal for goodness sakes, and we have no idea why Mark McGuire’s body keeps breaking down to little injuries. Jose Canseco is starving for the attention he won’t receive because he fell a couple big flies short of Holy Grail of power hitting, 500 home runs. Sure Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have the capability to jump 30 plus home runs from one year to the next! Yet when Sammy Sosa’s corked rod broke into pieces so did our assurance that baseball is clean. If a superstar, future Hall-of-Fame, international ambassador to the game of baseball has to cheat, is there anyone immune from this dark cloud of baseball.

I almost feel sorry for baseball. They have yet to realize the truth. Steroids are to baseball in every way what the halftime show was to the Superbowl; a very necessary evil to keep the casual fan tuned in, tickle the interest bone of those that are not fans, and wow the diehard fans. Just like the NFL did by condemning everything that happened at halftime of Superbowl XXXVIII baseball may just be biting the hand that has fed them the last six or seven years.

I love baseball. Tried to leave it once, and the divorce didn’t last. I love a 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 win just as much as the next diehard fan: IN THE PLAYOFFS! Fans are lying to themselves thinking it wants to see baseball demonstrate warning track power on a regular basis. When was the last time you seen an extra inning walk off suicide squeeze lead off a sports show? Take a second to imagine with me the Postgame:
Interviewer: How did you feel going into that last bat

Bunter: Well I knew I’d see a good pitch to bunt; it was all about pinching the bat in the right way and putting some wood on the ball.

Interviewer: Were you at all nervous when you got the sign to bunt?

Bunter: No I wasn’t nervous; I was just hoping the runner didn’t eagerly come down the line to soon so I wouldn’t get a high, hard one!

Interviewer: This is your record breaking fourth suicide squeeze bunt this year, with your contract being up were you intentionally going for the record to possibly substantiate a big raise?

Bunter: So many people think it’s about the record; it’s not about the record at all. I just come here and try to win games like everyone else on this ball club. If records fall on the way to us winning so be it. Winning is first and foremost, hopefully the other stuff will take care of itself after the season.

Parity in baseball is dead. Not really a big deal considering it has been on life support the past few years. With the number of teams with a chance to win the World Series dwindling every year, the long ball courtesy of the juice has provided baseball with the distraction it needed to take the focus off why teams are counted out closer to Memorial Day than Labor Day. The long ball is leading off the sport shows, has fans scrambling on Waveland Avenue in Chicago and swimming through McCovey Cove in San Francisco. The long ball is infectious, not just in San Francisco, New York, or Chicago it’s all over the league and we as fans are hooked on it. It hurt me as a kid to watch a meaningless August/September game in the bleachers without a ball cracking even the front row. In the last several years baseball has used the attention given to them by various sluggers chasing home run records and held it throughout October with wonderful post-season play and results. (Sorry Steinbrenner, the playoffs are so much better when the Yankees aren’t champions). The fans have come out in record numbers recently because of the long ball summers. Eradicate the long ball out of summer and baseball may have just eliminated fans interest level, and generated longer summers. Nobody wants to watch a Superbowl halftime show of just marching bands!
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E) Biggest Problems with Major League Baseball:
Despite a great post season in 2003, it seems to me that baseball is in big trouble. Rampant steroid use, pathetic steroid regulation, exploding salaries, revenue / cap guidelines that discourage a level playing field... the list goes on and on.

1. Steroid usage among players
2. Greedy owners
3. No salary cap
4. Price of tickets
5. Dilution of talent / Too many teams
6. Lack of effective steroid regulation
7. Greedy players
8. Length of games
9. Public taxes funding new baseball stadiums.......these stadiums in most cases benefit the private enterprise (MLB team) far more than the municipality that funds them
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F) Things I have no problem with:
--The designated hitter rule.........this helps avoid the "pinch-hitter syndrome" that happens when managers need someone that can hit the ball better than their pitcher; a pinch-hitter forces a pitching change and pitching changes happen way too often as it is!
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G) Positive changes that have been made to the game:
--Inter league play.........however, it's certainly better for some teams more than others; (a.k.a.) white sox vs. cubs; mets vs. yankees, etc.
--Wild card / expansion of playoffs
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H) another interesting article:

Caminiti comes clean
Ex-MVP says he won award while using steroids
Posted: Tuesday May 28, 2002 4:16 PM

James Porto
• SI Report: Caminiti comes clean
• Sidebar: The injury toll
• Verducci: The worst-kept secret
• Reactions: Players | Fans
• Special Report Video Archive

ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- Former major leaguer Ken Caminiti says he was on steroids when he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1996, according to an exclusive report in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated.

But even though it left him with health problems that continue to this day, Caminiti defended his use of steroids and told SI's Tom Verducci the practice is now so rampant in baseball that he would not discourage others from doing the same. Caminiti told Verducci that he continued to use steroids for the rest of his career, which ended last season when he hit .228 with 15 home runs and 41 RBIs for the Texas Rangers and the Atlanta Braves.

"Look at all the money in the game," Caminiti said. "A kid got $252 million. So I can't say, 'Don't do it,' not when the guy next to you is as big as a house and he's going to take your job and make the money."

Eight days after his release by the Braves last November, Caminiti was arrested in a Houston crack house. In March, he was placed on three years probation and fined $2,000 after pleading guilty to cocaine possession.

"I've made a ton of mistakes," admitted Caminiti, who is also a recovering alcoholic. "I don't think using steroids is one of them."

Although he is the first major leaguer to publicly admit using steroids, Caminiti told Verducci that, "It's no secret what's going on in baseball. At least half the guys are using [steroids]. They talk about it. They joke about it with each other. ... I don't want to hurt fellow teammates or fellow friends. But I've got nothing to hide."

Steroids are illegal in the United States unless prescribed by a doctor for a known medical condition. But they are easily obtained, most commonly over the counter at pharmacies in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Former major leaguer Chad Curtis, who retired after last season, estimated that 40 to 50 percent of major league ballplayers use steroids -- sometimes supplemented with joint-strengthening human growth hormone -- to suddenly become stronger and faster.

"You see guys whose facial features, jaw bones and cheek bones change past [age] 30. Do they think that happens naturally?" Curtis told SI. "You go, 'What happened to that guy?' Then you'll hear him say he worked out over the winter and put on 15 pounds of muscle. I'm sorry, working out is not going to change your facial features."

Steroids improve muscle mass, especially when combined with proper nutrition and strength training. But they also have several side effects, such as heart and liver damage, endocrine-system problems, elevated cholesterol levels, strokes, aggressive behavior, and the shrinkage and dysfunction of genitalia.

The NFL, NBA and International Olympic Committee all test their athletes for steroids. Major League Baseball has no testing program, but in February owners presented the players' association with a comprehensive drug-testing plan that ****** 17 commonly known steroids, as well as amphetamines, cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy.

"We need to test," commissioner Bud Selig told SI. "I believe it's in the best interest of the players long term. I feel very strongly about that."

But the players' association has refused to include steroid testing in past collective bargaining agreements, arguing that it is an invasion of privacy. Gene Orza, the union's associate general counsel, was noncommittal about the latest proposal.

"We're going to do what the interest of our membership requires us to do," he said. "There will be a consensus from the players' association."

One reason for baseball's slow response, players suggested to SI, is that by making players bigger -- the average All-Star weighed 211 pounds last year, compared to 199 in 1991 -- steroids have contributed to one of the greatest slugging booms in the game's history. The single-season home run record has been broken twice in four years, while the 60-homer plateau has been surpassed six times. Even leadoff hitters and utility infielders are hitting home runs in record numbers.

"We're playing in an environment in the last decade that's tailored to produce offensive numbers anyway, with the smaller ballparks, the smaller strike zone, and so forth," said Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling. "When you add in steroids and strength training, you're seeing records not just being broken, but completely shattered."

And that's what fans want, said Curtis. "If you polled the fans, I think they'd tell you, 'I don't care about illegal steroids. I'd rather see the guy hit the ball a mile or throw it 105 miles an hour.' "

Caminiti told SI that he began using steroids midway through the 1996 season after injuring his shoulder while playing third base for the San Diego Padres. Then 33, Caminiti had never hit more than 26 home runs in a season. But he hit 28 alone after the All-Star break that year, finishing with 40 homers, 130 runs batted in and a .326 batting average. All were career highs, and he was a unanimous choice for the MVP.

"I think it was more of an attitude," Caminiti said of the steroids' effect. "There is a mental edge that comes with the injections. And it's definitely something that gets you more intense. The thing is, I didn't do it to make me a better player. I did it because my body was broke down."

While his performance improved, Caminiti encountered new health problems, primarily because he initially used steroids nonstop instead of in recommended cycles. As a result, his testosterone level dropped 80 percent below normal. Still, he continued to use steroids for the rest of his career, albeit in proper doses. But he never again approached his '96 performance, in part because he spent portions of each of his final five seasons on the disabled list.

"I got really strong, really quick. I pulled a lot of muscles. I broke down a lot," he said. "I'm still paying for it. My tendons and ligaments got all torn up. My muscles got too strong for my tendons and ligaments. And now my body's not producing testosterone. You know what that's like? You get lethargic. You get depressed. It's terrible."

Caminiti's injury history is not unusual, according to the SI report. Major league players made 467 trips to the DL last season, staying there an average of 59 days -- 20 percent longer than in 1997. And major league teams paid $317 million last year to players physically unable to play -- a 130 percent increase from four years earlier.

"It [baseball] was always the sport for the agile athlete with the small frame," said noted sports orthopedist James Andrews of Birmingham, Ala. "Over these last 10 years, that's all changed. Now we're getting a bunch of these muscle-related injuries in baseball. You'd have to attribute that -- both the bulking up and the increased injuries -- to steroids and supplements."
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I) another interesting article:

Quiz the Coach - Baseball Sucks
Hey Coach,
What has happend to the beloved game of baseball? I never thought I would say this - but it's messed up now.
Yub

Hey Yub,
You said it. Major League Baseball is seriously messed up right now. Players are getting paid millions of dollars to play baseball and they're still talking about going on strike. Ticket prices keep going up. The league wants to get rid of teams in Montreal, Minnesota and Florida. Many of the players are pounding steroids so they can hit more home runs. The list of problems in baseball is longer and uglier than Randy Johnson's mullet.

If a fat, slobby pitcher isn't happy making millions of bucks to pitch once a week and a kid needs to save a year's worth of allowance so he can go to a game, then something is seriously wrong. But just because pro baseball has its problems, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the game of baseball. It's still a great game to play. Instead of watching cry-baby pros on TV, go outside and play the game with your friends. The problems with pro baseball shouldn't make you lose interest in America's past time.
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The problems go on and on and on!!!!
In my opinion (Bennojd), MLB has taken a kid's game and flat-out ruined it.
And MLB will continue to face problems in the future because of the many stupid things they've done!

Bennojd

**chalkeater** · 04-16-2004, 08:19 PM

don't worry about it unless you feel you need to explain.

sorry for calling you a dumb ass.

j.k.

**THE HAMMER** · 04-16-2004, 09:45 PM

Yo Chalk, good to see your still alive and kickin. I hope you fixed that bad slice you had and the occasional shank in your golf game!!

Hope your doing well!!

The Ham mer

**ezpickin** · 04-16-2004, 10:39 PM

Chalkeater,

Are you out of your mind? You don't get a bs backdoor cover in bases??? Any one that bet on the Reds the last 2 days would vehemently disagree...

**Tony Vegas** · 04-16-2004, 11:13 PM

Originally posted by ezpickin
Chalkeater,

Are you out of your mind? You don't get a bs backdoor cover in bases??? Any one that bet on the Reds the last 2 days would vehemently disagree...

That's not a backdoor cover in my book. A backdoor cover is when the team you backed wins on the field but doesn't cover b/c of some meaningless play. I.E. Duhon banking in a three in the Final Four. That is my take on it anyways.

**frankb03** · 04-16-2004, 11:30 PM

chalkeater, my vote is with Bennojd. I'm another ex-fan who thinks baseball is a joke. I've stated over the past week my reasons for feeling that way. If that makes me an idiot then so be it!

**GoldVike** · 04-17-2004, 01:18 AM

FWIW!

I really have to look at it just a tad differently but do not really agree or disagree on either.....however:

Baseball is a much easier game to cap than any football games....too many fixed variables in the NFL with the players and coaches "taking". One has to know which team the Vegas boys need for that day.....the rest of the schedule can play out and they are happy. Used to be just take all plus point teams and hit the bank every week with the winners regardless of how rediculous the underdog looked......Spread makers have got smarter over the last couple of years as the pub has started doing just that and now losing.

College foots much better than NFL. At least now only the coaching staffs and select players are paid off to get the boys the game they need for the week. More variables to win with...aka...over totals.

Love baseball as no time outs for TV and other fake commercial uses that steal momentum from teams aka the NFL....plus.. continous play dictates action and forces play.

NBA.......Forget it......Fixed to the NTH but tons of money to be made on half bets and obvious overmatched dogs.

College hoops are good as well as most kids try although select teams will be on the take with alumni driving the dollars aka Michigan and the Fake Five with Webber. It should become a little better yet as many stellar high school players now opt for the NBA PLUS college one year wonders doing the same!

NORWEGIAN SOCCER IS THE BIG MONEY MAKER!

JMHO and FWIW!! Goldv

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