Pictured above: the sports book at the Monte Carlo Casino in Las Vegas. At some point in the 30-odd hours I’ll be sauntering in there to lay some money down on either Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz (35-3, 17KO) or Juan “Dinamita” Marquez (50-5-1, 37KO). Which Juan should I pick? (Went for it…)
I recently enjoyed the privilege of informing the group of guys who I’m traveling to Vegas with this weekend for a bachelor party (my first time in Vegas in fact) that we’ll be out there for the fight of the year. Depending on how everyone does at craps table, perhaps some of my comrades will join me in laying down some winnings on the fight. I’m definitely betting on this fight, and I’m leaning towards Diaz at the moment – just because I want to root for him.
Boxing trainer and fight writer, Gordon Marino, breaks down Diaz-Marquez II over a Huffington Post. Check out a clip below of the their first meeting back in Feb ’09, ruled in Marquez’s favor in the ninth round.
Not only am I nerd, because I just dropped that information on you, but I’m also a huge jerk because I remembered I love Super Bowl boxes about the time that Jay-Z and his symphony asked you to pledge allegiance to the Roc Nation (approx. 6:03). Alas, I didn’t get to participate.
If you reigned victorious, hit me with a story (How much you won? Which friend you berated first – your pitiful buddy who got stuck with 2-2?). I love a good gambling success story, and the only one I’ve heard out of this Super Bowl so far is from my degenerate coworker Leon* who bet heads on the coin toss.
*Not his real name, changed b/c betting on the coin toss is ultra degenerate.
Leading up to this past weekend’s inception of the 2009-10 NFL season, I polled the sports blogosphere on What’s the Greatest Sports Day of the Year. Thought we’d get a top-10 out of it, but it turns out everybody sort of likes the same days with a few wild cards thrown in. (Actually, just The Indy 500 sort of puzzles me.)
Therefore, here’s my highly arbitrary Top-5 based on the sports blog intelligentsia’s feedback.
Don’t forget to vote at the bottom…
NFL Opening Sunday
Hanging out in a bar or ensconced on a couch with onion dip for 8-12 hours on a Sunday watching pro football is a truly iconic American experience. We wait all Summer for that experience, the whole time left to believe that sort of behavior is inappropriate and lethargic. Then, on a faithful Sunday in September – no matter what level of balmy Indian Summer weather we’re having – all your dreams come true, sloth. And, it’s not just one day, but the start of 5+ months of Sundays like this.
Here is Adam Best’s (Fansided.com) take on NFL opening day…
Not only is the NFL the professional sports league with the best product, it’s the sports league with the best presentation. After waiting for over half a year for the real thing, you get a taste of actual NFL regular season action on opening Thursday. That just wets your appetite for the 13 games on the Sunday slate. From tailgating to fantasy football, there isn’t a sports day that offers this much from start to finish. Christmas in September. Watching the Red Zone Channel for almost 7 hours before you switch over to NBC for the encore, and ESPN and the NFLN for the nightcap recap. From 8 AM until Midnight it’s all NFL. You can’t get non-stop action and highlights like that anywhere else.
The Kentucky Derby
I’ll take the sights at the local OTB on the day of the Kentucky Derby over any exploding fireworks spectacular. If they put an OTB there, even Mayberry would look like public squalor on Derby day. Utterly, fantastic.
But, to quote something The Cincinnati Kid Steve McQueen might have said – it’s not just the gambling, it’s also the drinking. You can muddle fruit everyday of the year, and it’ll never taste as well muddled as in a julep on Derby Day.
Also, you can wear a seersucker suit or a hat shaped like an extra large Triple Meat Italiano from Pizza Hut every day of the year, and people will always look at you with vague condescension, but at least on Derby Day they’ll have formulated an explanation as to why you’re dressed like a doofus.
The NBA Draft
I got more responses that read I know it sounds crazy, but I really enjoy the NBA Draft. Why so ashamed?
Two rounds, five minutes a pick (two minutes in the second round even), and all the wardrobe audacity that you could ask for in under three hours. I don’t think ESPN could get a more efficient display of unintentional comedy if they got Keyshawn, Kruk and Lou Holtz to tri-anchor SportsCenter live from Pamplona at the Running of the Bulls.
Opening Day
Answer: The first day when teams play each other in this sport is commonly referred to as Opening Day.
What is baseball, Alex. This would be a $200 dollar question in Jeopardy round. Under the category: Sports, amateur hour.
There’s a reason it’s Opening Day, and not Opening Sunday in the norms of society. And, the explanation might be that this is actually the greatest sports day of the year.
Hope springs eternal. Dads with their sons playing hookie from school and work, your first smells of the fresh cut infield and outfield grass, grilled ballpark franks, batting practice and ice cold beer…and then you go home that night to watch march madness…perfection.
The first or second day of the NCAA Tournament:
I used to work with a guy who took Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament off every year, and went to Vegas with his buddies for the first round of the tournament. In a world where most of us lose vacation time do to sinister company policies, he’s an inspiration.
Interchangeably known as the least productive day of the corporate year, sports fans might actually be at their best and brightest these two days. There are 13 games on NFL Opening Sunday, and due to mitigating circumstances (spreads, fantasy players, food comas) you’re bound to let the outcome of one or two slip until Sport Center, Monday morning. Also, due to occurrences like Opening Day: Kansas City at Baltimore, you’re likely to not care about the full MLB slate on April 1. 32 teams play on each of the first two days of the tournament, and you will know the fate of every single one (and you won’t need to reference a fistful of sports book tickets to conjure up this knowledge).
Hit the poll to vote for the greatest sports day out of these five, and check out some other bloggers’ takes below…
1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. Opening Day Baseball
3. Game 7 ( MLB or NBA )
4. NFL Championship Sunday NFC AFC
5. The Big Dance Day 1
6. The Big Dance Final 4
7. The Big Dance Sweet 16
8. First Saturday of NCAA Football
The best sports day of the year for me is New Year’s day. I love college football and having it to watch from 11:00 in the morning until after midnight engrooses me every single year. The first two days of the NCAA Basketball Tourney run a close second, and baseball opening day is third.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but one of my favorite days has always been the NBA All-Star game day/weekend. My birthday always happens to fall on that same weekend so I get to celebrate my bday along with my favorite sport’s all-star festivities.
Each Wednesday, I post a weekly update to the digest “If You Had Money”, which shows the sporting goods and memorabilia you could purchase if disposable income was no longer a thing of the past. Each week, it will inevitably leave you wanting…
Some say this doesn’t qualify as getting back together, since technically we were never together. Others simply tell me: give up, it’s never gonna happen. Haters. (via Pop Candy)
He doesn’t sound all in, but a recent blog post by Doyle Brunson, poker’s most legendary maverick , on Doyle’s Room makes him seem to be leaning towards McCain:
“It’s hard to believe, but McCain has taken the lead in the Presidential race. They rolled the dice when they chose Governor Palin to run for Vice-President and they threw a seven, because she really turned things around for the Republicans.”
Brunson then continued: “It’s hard not to be in McCain’s camp after listening to his life story. He really is an American hero. I’m not sure either Presidential candidate is the right person to lead our country over the next few years.” (via 911gambling.com)
Brunson had initially said he’d be voting Democrat for the first time in his life this election.
In a survey of 1639 American Poker players, Yahoo! Sports UK reports that 64% support Obama over McCain, who both are apparently proficient poker players in their own right. Sarah Palin has also been known to play a few hands. However, the trump card (not to mix bad gambling puns, or nothing) goes to Joe Biden, whose son, according to 911Gambling, was a lobbyist for online gambling site PartyGaming.
If the most recently proposed $700 billion bailout goes through, if and when Obama gets elected it sounds like he might be playing short stacked, concerning his spending programs.
I’m sure that true degenerates will find this completely reasonable. But you’d have to be a real rube to try to win money on this…
Eggycam, a live video feed showing ten eggs in an incubator, is a new internet craze aimed at raising money for charity.
The point of this…to gamble on which egg is going to hatch first. For crying out loud, there’s even odds set up!
After they check the PH levels of each egg, they set the odds.
According to Metro UK, the site is receiving 100 bets per hour! Ken Robertson, of online gambling site PaddyPower.com and the man behind this little venture, should be running the sports book at the Taj.
Hopefully punters will have a cracking win! says Robertson. Kind of sounds like he knows that he’s got his clientele duped.
This is like taking the over in a soccer game. But it is for a good cause, which I hope is the main reason people seem to be wagering on this. All profits go to Down Syndrome Ireland, so if you’re feeling philanthropic today, go drop a G on egg 8 at 13-2 odds.
That one drink was a large iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, which I have a crippling addiction for. They charge you the $3.25 for that here in New York (highway robbery). Yet, I can’t say no.
“I was at a recent event with Charles in Palm Springs and we were at a casino. While he could have been tempted by the surroundings, he did not participate. I think once he makes up his mind not to do something, he sticks with it and will be alright.”
