PETE ROSE’S CLUBHOUSE LIE

By Kevin O’Neill
www.consumerbet.com

Pete Rose’s contention that he bet on baseball but never from the clubhouse is an obvious lie. In the late 1980’s the round the clock availability of offshore sports betting that we know of today did not exist. Offshore was in it’s infancy, and local bookies opened for an hour at midday to handle the daytime action then re-opened at 6:30 Eastern time to handle the night games. On the many days where there were no night games bookies didn’t open until 6:30PM. How in the world was Rose getting his action in on night games if not from the clubhouse? Maybe he was stepping out to the parking lot, relaying instructions to his flunkies, and having them bet for him without knowing what the lines were. I guess this would make for having “never bet from the clubhouse” in a Clintonesque sense. But while today he could wake up in the morning, bet at a 24-hour sports book, and head to the ballpark, that option simply wasn’t available to him back then. He was making or relaying bets after he arrived in the clubhouse and began his workday as manager of the Reds. There is no way that he wasn’t. And is it possible to see film of Rose today and not immediately feel like you have to take a shower? He just oozes slime in a way that is unmatched in the modern sports world, with the possible exception of Rick Neuheisel.

Times continue to change in the NFL, and the four dogs covering in the conference semi-final round of the playoffs is unparalleled and is more evidence that the "paritization" of the NFL continues unabated. We’re aware of over a dozen systems that went down in flames last week in these games with records of 68% or better, as the combination of rest and teams that have earned the bye week has always been a strong factor. Not so this year, however, and the general trend away from playoff favorites continues unabated.

A couple of interesting things about the NFL playoffs. Both #1 seeds that need only to win a home game for a Super Bowl berth this weekend were shut out in the opening week of the season by teams that proved to be frauds. Distracted by the Lawyer Milloy controversy, New England was sandblasted at Buffalo 31-0. Donovan McNabb was hideous in an Eagles home shutout loss to the Bucs. Shortly thereafter ESPN’s Tom Jackson said that the Pats “hated their coach” and then-ESPN commentator Rush Limbaugh said that Eagles QB Donovan McNabb was overrated for reasons of race. While a Buffalo Bills vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl seemed likely opening week, both of those teams suffered severe internal strife along the way to playoff-free seasons. The teams they vanquished that week are now the favorites to meet in the Super Bowl.

Who knew that November 30th was such an important day in the NFL? We saw a preview of both the AFC and NFL championship games on that day. The Eagles went to Charlotte and beat the Panthers 25-16 while New England shot out to a 31-10 lead and held on to beat the Colts 38-34. The winners were both the road teams and this week are the home teams. Interestingly, the losers both outgained their opposition in that game, Carolina won yardage 336-283 while the Colts enjoyed a 370-282 advantage. But yardage just isn’t all that important to the Eagles and Patriots, is it?

Michelle Wie, a 14-year old girl, is playing with Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and the rest of the men on the PGA Tour, as she has been offered a sponsor’s exemption in the Sony Open. The tournament is in Wie’s hometown of Honolulu on a course that she is familiar with. What’s the upside to this? Assuming difficult pin placement and a layout more rugged than she’s used to, she’ll score considerably higher than she’s used to. Then factor the pressure of playing in front of a large gallery, on TV, with top PGA Tour pros, and her scores are likely to skyrocket. The pressure and visibility may be a bit much for a young teenager who feuded with an adult player on the LPGA Tour due to her lack of knowledge with basic golf etiquette. Some negative publicity could follow, though hopefully it will be directed at her stage dad. Before shoving here into many more of these environments let’s hope that the parents familiarize themselves with the history of the cast of Different Strokes.

At Tennessee Phil Fulmer hired Trooper Taylor to be the Vols new running backs coach. Taylor was most recently an assistant at Tulane. There’s really no news value here, I just like the name “Trooper Taylor”. Dick Vermeil must be the most marvelous person on the face of the planet. Greg Robinson was in tears at the press conference announcing his resignation as defensive coordinator of the Chiefs, lauding the man who had encouraged him to resign. Vermeil had the opportunity to keep Robinson and said “see ya” and Robinson still can’t praise his ex-boss enough. Vermeil, of course, had his standard weepy weep session when he followed Robinson to the podium. Coaching’s a tough business. Everyone knows how to do your job better than you do, people who don’t know 10% of the football you do criticize you in the paper, trash you on talk radio, and set up web sites calling for your dismissal.

ESPN Deportes, a Spanish language sports channel, has launched with the usual Disney fanfare. We’re certainly conversant with the size and scope of the audience in Latin America but it will be interesting to see what the distribution level is in Northern North America. When Italians, Germans, Poles, French (blecch), Irish, etc. came emigrated to our country they were expected to learn English as part of the assimilation process. While everyone seems to enjoy the customs (and food!!!) that people hold on to from the old country, the threat of a form of language separatism seems to loom large. Lenny Wilkens as head coach of the Knicks? Nice man, class act, but has he motivated a young athlete since about 1983? Maybe he has agreed to be just a stopgap measure, as this certainly isn’t a verdant time of the year to look for your long-term solution.

The two most classless acts of the bowl season were committed about a minute apart by the Texas Red Raiders in the closing minutes of their 38-14 bowl win over Navy. While most teams take pains not to run the score up against the service academies, Texas Tech’s coach Mike Leach called a first down flea flicker in Navy territory with less than five minutes to go and the Red Raiders firmly in control. This is not a case of “oh, we’re running our offense”. It was a flea flicker.

When Tech scored shortly afterward, things got worse. Much worse. After Mickey Peters caught a TD pass from BJ Simons the Tech offensive players gathered in a circle, tossed the ball in the air, and all fell as though a bomb had gone off when the ball hit. In a few short months many of the the guys they had just run the score up against will be serving in battle and dodging bombs overseas. Granted, the Texas Tech football team doesn’t consist of a bunch of Rhodes scholars, but at some point don’t you think someone would have said, “you know, this might be funnier against Baylor than it would be here.”

Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss may not have landed a head job becayse skittish owners don’t trust him to remain healthy. He nearly died after gastric bypass (stomach stapling) surgery last year and despite his qualifications that will keep him from getting the job. Despite his brilliance, Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, who clearly hasn’t had gastic bypass surgery, will stay with the Terps, as his weight frightens off owners. Friedgen may be concerned for his own health as well, as his good friend George O’Leary recently suffered a heart attack during the transition from his Vikings job to his new position as Central Florida head man. It just wouldn’t be smart for Friedgen to put himself in a high-stress position and he knows it. Now an NFL coaching prediction/question. When heady Cowboys LB Dat Nguyan retires, he’ll enter coaching. After years of being a well-regarded assistant he will be interviewed as a head coaching candidate. Will this fulfill the requirement of a “minority” candidate or is Vietnamese not the minority they’re looking for?

If you’re looking for a safe place to play, check out there recommended sports book page at www.consumerbet.com, where you can also check out a series of articles devoted to issues surrounding offshore wagering. Have you heard about the AP sports personalities telephone list that was mistakenly distributed to all of their subscribers? Hundreds of names along with cell phone numbers, home phone numbers, etc. Everyone from Hank Aaron to Don Zimmer. Of course the fact that in leafing through it for about 20 seconds I came across about a dozen people who are deceased means that it isn’t the most up to date contact information in all the world. AP put out a bulletin stating “BULLETIN KILL| EDITORS: KILL the file PHONES that moved inadvertently as t0271. Please make sure that the file is killed out of your system and is not published or distributed.” Of course it had hit the email world hard by then.

While NFL pointspreads are the most accurate numbers in sports, the Colts have been far away from the spread on a regular basis over the last seven games. Last week they had the Chiefs down to the spread by 17 a couple of times. In their first playoff game they covered the spread against Denver by 35 points. The previous week at Houston they were failing to cover by 22½ points at one point. Against Denver on Sunday night football the previous week they failed to cover the spread by 20. They covered by 23½ points against Atlanta. They were covering at the Titans by 19½ points at one point. The previous week they were down to the spread by 24½ points before coming back in a tight loss to New England. The previous week they were down by 14 to the number at Buffalo before coming back.

Looking at these extremes give us a couple of uses for this unconventional information. First of all, I wouldn’t even consider playing their game this weekend against the Pats in a teaser, as a few extra points just haven’t mattered in Colts games. Secondly, if either team is down double digits at the half, I would strongly consider a second half bet on the team that’s behind. With the offensive pep that both of these clubs have along with the desperation of a substantial halftime deficit, it is likely that a comeback would be in order if one team seems on their way to a blowout win.

We’re on a nice run in hoops right now. You can follow along with us on our free hotline at 1-770-618-8700. We’ll have a new game for you there every day. As always, thanks for taking the time to read us this week. Good luck in the playoff games this weekend, and be careful.

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Kevin O’Neill is the director of content for www.consumerbet.com. His 24-hour free telephone selection hotline can be accessed by calling 1-770-618-8700.