New Start

I haven't blogged for a while. Probably because it's hard to get things in my mind organized into a blog post. It might be because of my increasingly long list of interests. I envy those who know exactly what they want and have a focus in their lives. I lack that. My interests as of now not including the obvious (my family and friends):

• Sports
• Writing
  
• The World of Warcraft
• Starcraft II
• Probably Diablo III in the near future
  
• Healthcare (most recently relating to my torn ACL)
• China
• Social Media
• Comic Books
  
• Zombies

I will try to get to these things in more detail in the future. I love to write but don't do it enough. Hopefully this can be a sanctuary for me to grow and discover myself. No homo.

Atheletes Behaving Badly #1

So Elijah Dukes threatened his wife in this story on ESPN.com. Here is an excerpt:

Tampa Bay rookie Elijah Dukes was held out of the lineup Wednesday night against Seattle following a published report that his estranged wife sought a restraining order after being threatened by the 22-year-old outfielder.

The St. Petersburg Times reported NiShea Gilbert filed for court protection after receiving a threatening message on her cell phone on May 2, as well as a text message that included a picture of a handgun.

That's a great use of mobile technology Elijah... Really cool... I don't think your soon to be a bit richer ex-wife was impressed. The Rae Carruth story should pop to mind for most sports fans and Dukes really should be trying to avoid being mentioned in the same breath. (Too late. I did it.... but he made me do it.)

Gilbert played a voice mail allegedly from Dukes for the newspaper. "Hey, dawg. It's on, dawg. You dead, dawg. I ain't even bulls-------. Your kids too, dawg. It don't even matter to me who is in the car with you. N-----, all I know is, n-----, when I see your m-----f------- a-- riding, dawg, it's on. As a matter of fact, I'm coming to your m-----f------ house."

Nice use of "dawg" here. Dukes gets major style points. (Blogger's Note: How do you categorize usage of "Dawg" as compared to "Dog"? ) Did you forget that they are your kids too? It's good to know that the allegations are not bothering Dukes too much. When asked about it, Dukes had this to say:

"I'm just going to play ball, that's it... I've got to go. I've got a video game to finish."

Brilliant... I'm beginning to wonder about his maturity level...

Here is more background on Dukes from this St. Petersberg Times story by Gary Shelton. When you read this it's hard to fathom that's he's only 22... Here are some excerpts in case you are lazy like me.

In 2003, Gilbert accused Dukes of throwing a remote control at her. In April 2004, she accused him of harassing phone calls. Later that year, she said he hit her with a soda can, threw a glass candy bowl and ripped a phone cord out of the wall when she tried to call 911. In August 2006, deputies arrested Gilbert, accusing her of scratching her husband's back during an argument. The charge was dropped in September.

Four women have gone to court seeking child support from Dukes. In all four cases, the court found Dukes was the father, meaning he has at least five children by four women. Two of those women were pregnant at the same time, giving birth in 2003 within eight days of each other.

At this rate he'll have Shawn Kemp beat by a mile in the race to father more children by more different women. He's about halfway there unless my figures on Kemp are out of date.

The Devil Rays really should cut ties with him. But they shouldn't just drop him as Rob Neyer suggests. Although it makes a statement dropping the supremely talented yet obviously troubled Dukes, there is always someone willing to pay for great talent even if it is damaged goods.

I'm just angry that he has sullied all the great 'Dukes' that came before him like this guy. Spelling differences be damned.

Gambling News

Here's some more great gambling tidbits from Darren Rovell's sports Business Blog on the eve of what should be a Great Tournament. I love this stuff.

Careers publisher Vault Inc. says that 67 percent of employees admit to taking part in office betting pools for March Madness. That number, the company says, is up 6 percent from last year. According to its survey, which included 328 employees from organizations across the country, 80.5 percent of people aren't bothered by the fact that office pools are technically illegal, while 86 percent of offices did not specifically have a company policy against betting pools.

Workplace productivity: Every year, workplace consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. predicts how much will be lost in workplace productivity because of the tournament. This year's number is $3.8 billion, and chief executive John Challenger says that could be a conservative estimate now that CBS will show the games online for free this year. I think people might be less productive at work, but I'm not sure it's this bad. Why? Because this assumes that people are productive in their 9-5 jobs anyway, which is not even close to true. For those people at Challenger, Gray & Christmas who don't believe me, come to Bristol and I'll show you when people are hitting up our site. In Vault Inc.'s survey, 73.5 percent of people said they spent only 5-10 minutes at the office making their picks and saved further research for when they're at home. Then factor in this: Tournament games are only being played over four work days.



How much is bet? So many people want to know these days exactly how much is gambled on the NCAA Tournament. It's impossible to know because online gambling and office pools are obviously not reported in the way Las Vegas is. The latest estimates I've seen from industry pundits is that about $3.5 billion to $4 billion is bet on the tournament, with a nice chunk of that coming from online. The 180 or so sports books in Las Vegas only take in about $90 million in bets, while estimates have online bookmakers taking in more than $1.2 billion, which would about double the money taken in online on this year's Super Bowl. One of the reasons why the money online continues to go up is because, on some sites, bettors can risk a tremendous amount on one game. Sites like PinnacleSports.com will take up to $30,000 on one game.



Best bet? Around this time of year I always have people asking me if there's anything new and different on the betting scene around tournament time. One of the coolest things I've seen this year is PicksPal.com. The site allows players to wager points on over/unders and props. Once you register (registration is free and not cumbersome), you go to the bracket. Say you click on the first-round matchup of Memphis vs. Oral Roberts. You can pick the game, but you will also see props such as:



Will R. Carney be the game's leading scorer?


Which team's starters will score more points?


In which half will Memphis score more points?



The site also promises to have live in-game picks for fans to make. The fan with the highest point total at the end of each round will win an iPod, while the overall winner will win a 42-inch flat plasma HDTV.



Did the players really know the spread? Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks his data shows they do. The New York Times recently profiled Wolfers, who has collected the results of almost every college basketball game over the past 16 years. Wolfers' data shows that smaller favorites -- teams favored by 12 or fewer points -- beat the spread about 50 percent of the time, while heavy favorites cover in only 47 percent of their games. According to the New York Times, given the volume of data that Wolfers has collected, he surmises that the difference is significant and that players on top teams might be shaving points. Wolfers contends that the players are aware of the spreads based on the fact that there are too many games where favorites either barely cover by one or two points or don't cover by the same margin. It's hard to tell how much the players know, but I don't think a majority of them have the spread in mind when they are on the court.

Stealers

I'm too late. These guys stole my idea to make a movie about this kid, as seen in Darren Rovell's Sports Business Blog. Are they going to work into the movie the fact that no one was guarding him because the other team couldn't give a care? How about the fact that he is a narcissistic ball-hog. You guys can have the feel good story of the year. Give me "Jason McElwain: True Rochester Story." I'm not jealous, I just consider it my job to take people down a peg.

Too good to be true?
Most of you have seen the story of senior Jason McElwain, an autistic high school senior who was put into a basketball game for a feel-good moment.

Well, unlike most of these stories, McElwain -- who is the manager who had never played in a game -- went off. He scored 20 points in a little more than four minutes and was carried off the court as the game's the leading scorer.

If you expected Hollywood companies to be calling, they are. McElwain's father told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle that he has received about 25 inquiries from movie production companies interested in buying the rights to his son's story. Congratulations Jason, you already have 24,600 hits on Google!

Madden Odds

This comes from Darren Rovell's Sports Business Blog on ESPN.com. Seriously, it's not as boring as it sounds. I promise. Maybe I should have hedged my bets by putting some money down on something like this:

Madden Odds

The people at Pinnacle Sports apparently know what they are talking about. On the second play of Seattle's second drive, ABC announcer John Madden said this: "Kimo Von Oelhoffen has a heck of a club." Why did the people at the sports gambling outfit care? Because they predicted that, out of a list of Maddenisms, he would use that one first. Here were the odds on a proposition bet Pinnacle put out before the game that asked fans to wager on what Madden would say first after kickoff: "Heck of a" (6/5), "Big time," (7/2), "Horsecollar" (7/1), "Boom!" (7/1), "Manhandled" (9/1), "Wham!" (15/1). PinnacleSports.com reported that about 150 people won $6 for every $5 they bet by predicting that "Heck of a" would come first. John Madden did not place a bet himself.

What Was He Thinking?!?!

The Following is from Darren Rovel's Sports business blog on ESPN.com.

On Monday, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones was scheduled to hold a news conference in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton Hotel to announce that he's the first NBA player to endorse Chinese shoe brand Li-Ning. There is supposedly going to be an advertising campaign in China featuring Jones, though I'm not sure the Chinese are as familiar with Jones as they are with his teammate LeBron James. "I'm an icon. I'm global," Jones told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "If I was on the All-Star ballot, I'd have a million votes in China. And none here, because everybody thinks I'm arrogant." You've also only started three of 31 games this year and you're shooting 5-for-32 (15.6 percent) in your last seven games played.