Phillips suffers bruised right hand

Baseball Betting Lines

08/25/2010 - San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips left Wednesday's game against the Giants in the sixth inning after getting hit by a pitch in the previous frame.

Santiago Casilla had just entered the game on the hill for the Giants and drilled Phillips, the first batter he faced, on back of his right hand.

Phillips was taken for X-rays after the game that turned out to be negative, but the Reds medical staff wants to re-examine the injury after the swelling subsides.

The veteran second sacker entered the contest batting .290 with 16 home runs and 50 runs batted in over 123 games this season.

Rookie Chris Valaika replaced him defensively in the bottom of the sixth.

Wwwworldgaming Baseball Betting News

<< Guerrero's homer lifts Rangers over Twins
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vladimir Guerrero's 430th career home run leading off the sixth proved to be the difference, as the Texas Rangers beat the Twins for the third straight day, 4-3, at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Guerre

<< Morehead State men's hoops placed on probation
Morehead, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Morehead State University announced on Wednesday its men's basketball program has been placed on probation for two years due to major violations in recruiting. The violation, which is related to

<< Wieters, Matusz lead Orioles past White Sox
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Wieters collected two hits and drove in two runs in support of seven strong innings from Brian Matusz, as Baltimore slowed down Chicago, 4-2, in the middle session of a three-game set. Brian Roberts

<< Wozniacki, Dementieva land in New Haven quarters
New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and former U.S. Open runner-up Elena Dementieva were each second-round winners Wednesday at the $600,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final hardcourt U.S. Open tune-up. Denmark's

<< Langley, An win in first-round match play at U.S. Amateur
University Place, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Byeong-Hun An and current NCAA champion Scott Langley were both winners in first round match play at the U.S. Amateur. Langely, the low amateur at the U.S. Open, defeated Tim J

Report: Nuggets to name Ujiri GM >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets are reportedly ready to name former team scout Masai Ujiri as the new general manager. According to The Denver Post, Ujiri, 39, was working with the team late Wednesday to finalize con

Dodgers hold on to beat Brewers >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Loney drove in two runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 5-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the second of a three-game series. Andre Ethier hit a solo home run while Matt Kemp drove in one fo

Blake exits, Baghdatis advances at Pilot Pen >>
New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time champion James Blake was a second-round loser, while top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis was a third-round winner Wednesday at the $750,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final hardcourt U.S. Open tu

Padres dominate D'Backs at home again >>
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adrian Gonzalez's three-run blast capped an early offensive attack, and the San Diego Padres continued their home dominance over the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 9-3 victory at PETCO Park. Gonzalez

After not taking a snap in'09, Dallas' Kitna fresh >>
OXNARD, Calif. (AP) - Jon Kitna has looked pretty good this preseason, especially for a quarterback pushing 37.Then again, he's well rested.Tony Romo took every snap for the Dallas Cowboys last season, the only NFL quarterback to do so. That made Ki

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.