07/04/2009 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manny Ramirez returned from a 50-game suspension and played only 5 1/2 innings, going 0-for-3 with a walk, two groundouts and a pop out, but the rest of his Dodger teammates picked up the slack and used a five-run first inning to defeat the Padres, 6-3, in front of a partisan crowd at Petco Park.
Ramirez came to bat as the third hitter in the first inning, and the 42,217 partisan fans erupted into a mixture of jeers and applause and stood for the entire plate appearance, which ended in a seven-pitch walk. The 12-time All- Star was suspended on May 7 after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance and was subsequently banished from Major League Baseball until Friday.
"It was great, it was the best," Ramirez said after the game. "The fans in LA drove (to San Diego) to watch me, it was unbelievable."
Ramirez was lifted in the middle of the sixth for the speedy Juan Pierre, who made sure the Dodgers didn't miss a beat in the absence of their star outfielder. Pierre started all 50 games during the suspension, batting .318 with 14 doubles, 21 runs batted in, 31 runs scored, 15 walks and 20 steals.
"I don't think theres any question he's rusty," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said of Ramirez. "He really hasn't had a lot of practice, but I thought that first at-bat was pretty amazing. It shows how good of a hitter he is and how he knows the strike zone.
"I thought it would help the defense with (Pierre) out there (in the field) because he's been playing, and that's how I made the decision (to take Ramirez out)," Torre added.
During the suspension, LA went a respectable 29-21, maintaining their healthy lead atop the NL West standings. Although the record without him was solid in a weak National League, the team moved to 21-7 this season with him in the starting lineup.
"Everyone in the clubhouse is a professional hitter, and they can do a lot of great things without me," Ramirez said. "I'm there just to follow and bring my presence and make everyone feel comfortable."
Prior to the game, Ramirez offered a public apology for his actions, although he didn't delve into the details of his drug usage. He was suspended for reportedly taking the banned substance human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), a female fertility drug that can also be used as an antidote to reduce testosterone levels at the end of a cycle of steroid treatments.
Following the 0-for-3 outing, Ramirez's average dropped to .337 to go along with six homers and 20 RBI so far in 2009.
As far as his other teammates were concerned, Russell Martin and Matt Kemp each drove in a pair of runs, as LA won for the third time in its last four games. Rafael Furcal went 4-for-5 with a run scored out of the leadoff spot, and Hiroki Kuroda (3-4) earned his second win this season against San Diego after yielding three runs on four hits with two walks and two strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.
Jonathan Broxton earned his 20th save of the season in the win.
Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run double, while Scott Hairston blasted a solo homer for San Diego, which has lost seven of 10. Chad Gaudin (4-7), who hurled eight one-hit, scoreless innings in Texas his last time out, was touched for six runs on seven hits, with four walks and four strikeouts, in five frames.
The Dodgers took a huge lead in the first thanks to a couple bad throws by the Padres. Furcal singled to start and moved to second on a groundout by Orlando Hudson. Ramirez, in his first plate appearance, drew a seven-pitch walk, and Ethier followed with a grounder to first.
Gonzalez was able to make the throw for the force out at second, but the throw back to first for the double play sailed wide and off the Padres' dugout. Gaudin quickly grabbed it and fired home, except that the throw was wide of the plate, allowing Furcal to score for an early lead.
Casey Blake followed with a walk, and James Loney hit an RBI single to make it 2-0. A bloop RBI single to shallow right-center by Martin gave the Dodgers a three-run edge.
LA didn't stop the offense there, as Kemp drilled a two-run double to the gap in right-center to cap the opening frame.
Martin added an RBI groundout in the third to give the Dodgers a 6-0 lead.
Hairston put the Padres on the board in the fourth on a one-out solo homer.
San Diego cut into its deficit with two runs in the sixth, knocking Kuroda out of the game. Tony Gwynn Jr. worked a leadoff walk and moved to second on David Eckstein's single. Two batters later, Gonzalez ripped a double past Kemp in center field to score both runners and make it a 6-3 game.
Guillermo Mota came in to replace Kuroda and got out of the inning without any further damage. Mota stayed in to also pitch a scoreless seventh.
Ramon Troncoso retired two of the three hitters he faced in the eighth, and Brent Leach came in to face Gonzalez, who hit a long fly ball to deep left that Juan Pierre was able to track down to maintain the 6-3 lead.
Broxton came in and set down the Padres in order to polish off the win.
Game Notes
Gwynn has hit safely in 21 of his last 25 games and is batting .301 on the season...LA began a nine-game road trip Friday against San Diego, New York and Milwaukee...Kuroda moved to 4-1 in six career starts against the Padres...LA leads the season series, 8-3.
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anonymo
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.
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