Rain!!

It's raining at Target Field and people are cheering, weird but kind of cool I guess. I went on Monday - it was amazing. Our seats were not great, but we didn't sit there long. There are 2 public bars in the middle deck right behind home plate - $7.50 beers and an open window to the field...i think it's the perfect spot to sit for any future guy's Target Field outings. Buy a nosebleed and save your money for the bar...it's a beautiful thing. Also I would highly recommend the Murry's Steak Sandwich...good stuff. Beats the hell out of the Dome Dogs!!

What else is happening right now...well, here you go:

1. The golf/cards outing is likely going to be in June. May is stupid busy, so I'll probably be pushing it out so we can be guaranteed some warm weather for the day. I'll keep exploring and get something out there soon.

2. Hockey Playoffs
Who knew the playoffs started today? Not I. I feel like I have to pick a few of these to keep it interesting and because Baseball betting is just getting too easy (more on that below). But instead of taking a side, I think I'll go back to the JG route and bet some totals (O/U) on some of these games. Then I'm not sweating out double and triple OT's in the middle of the night. Now keep in mind I follow hockey about as close as I followed the Women's NCAA Tourney, so these might be way off base but I'm going to at least give it a try. I hate betting against PITT, but I think OTT at +210 might be a nice choice for a few bucks. How about PHOE at +100 as a home dog against DET? I hate betting on the first game of a series, I'd prefer to actually see how these teams come out and bet future games...but I'll probably try these 2 tonight. Any hockey experts out there? Let me know what you think.

3. MLB Bets
So I started the season losing 3 of 4 on opening day....then rattled off 16 of 17 including a 5-1 performance on Monday before going 0-2 last night. I've got 3 more plays today...some of these are just so obvious you have to pick them. David Price and a good Rays team at a horrible BAL team and Bergesen? Are you kidding? It is baseball and anything can happen, but bet on good pitchers all year and bet against bad teams and you can come out ahead...I promise. Today: RAYS, CARDS, MARLINS, DET, PHILLY.

4. GOPHERS
First, some hoops news, we've signed Maurice Walker a 6'11" 290 lbs C, ranked 12th in the incoming class among all C's...not bad. More bulk in the middle is a great thing. We're still holding out hope for Cory Joseph, should hear something this week.

Now on to the good stuff...Brew Ball 2010-11.
So first the bad news, Bryant Allen tore up his ankle in the scrimmage last Saturday but sounds like he could be ready for Summer camp. Kim Royston broke his leg in multiple places and there are conflicting reports about when he could be back. Some are speculating he can start working out again in late Summer, but I have a hard time believing we'll see him again this year...which leaves 1 and possibly 2 gaping holes at S and would give us 11 new starters on D...in case you're wondering that's everyone. Theret is still indefinitely suspended, but will likely be back for Summer camp and the season. So who fills in? JUCO Christyn Lewis is a likely candidate, which would leave us with Collado probably starting at CB. James Manuel, a true Frosh, might get a chance. He's a pretty highly touted prospect so he might get the chance to step up this summer. Watkins is already taking Theret's place, but when Kyle returns he could stay in the lineup if he impresses. Bottom line - we have a lot to work through in the secondary.

Maresh is another story from camp, and not a good one. Apparently he's had 4 minors and/or run-in's with the law in the last few weeks...4! The guy has such a nice story, but I've heard some speculation about how he's a jack-ass and doesn't seem to be taking this thing seriously. He has no guarantees for PT this season, so I'd suggest he take his second chance at life and football and go with it. I really couldn't care less about the boozing, just be smart enough to not get caught and in trouble with the po-po...like all the rest of us were in college. Seriously, you have to really be a dope to get all of this attention from the cops and be caught 4 different times. At least we have a ton of LB depth so we aren't counting on this guy for much. Hopefully he cleans it up and contributes...but I'm not holding my breath.

Offensively, I think I'm convinced that AWEB will be our QB this season...at least for the opener on Thursday 9/2. I very much disagree with the "move Gray to WR" thinking...you still have to give the guy a chance to be the QB. Either he or Alipate will take over next year and then we can discuss a change. Heard Horton on PA the other day, and I have to say I'm very happy by the way this guy talks. Very simple scheme, running the ball and play-action throwing over the top...my kind of offense and a very nice B10 plan. Let's hope they can figure out the whole "run the ball" thing this season, if they do I think we'll be over .500 this season. I really don't think the starting RB(s) are on campus yet - the 3 freshman will be the best talent we have considering Bennett and Eskridge are average at best. I think any of the 3 freshman could be the man this season, probably using multiple backs depending on the situation. Bennett and Eskridge can be the passing down backs while one or more of the freshman will take over the every down role and goal line roles.

I could ramble for days about my Gopher football thoughts on 2010, but I'll spare you...for now. It's only APR folks...Spring Game is 10 days away...be there!

Masters Pool - Final Standings

Kind of an anti-climactic finish to an otherwise very interesting tourney. Anyone else think the scores were a little ridiculous and Augusta needs to be tougher?

Anyway, here we go with the final results:

WINNER - Brian Kraft - 2383.5
2nd - James Rollins - 2265
3rd - Greg Rollins - 1428.75

The difference maker was Brian's pick of Lee Westwood who finished 2nd and $300K richer than my 3rd place finisher Anthony Kim.

If we got nothing else out of it, how fun was it to watch the mighty Tigger struggle all day on Sunday!??! I loved it. I'll bet Phil wins another major before Tigger does, but at least he's controlled his emotional outbursts...well, for maybe 2 holes at least. What a joke.

Thanks to all for playing. I'll throw out another pool for the next major when it comes around...maybe a little more timely so we can get some $$$ involved next time!

Here's how everyone else finished:
MC: 760.875
MK: 732.75
RO: 681
SS: 609.75
MH: 449.625
JG: 389.25

Masters Update

Here's a quick summary of who has lost any of their players and will finish with less than all 5 guys in the money:

JR - lost Cink, best bets = KIM, MICKELSON
MC - lost none, best bets = WOODS
RO - lost Furyk and Cink, best bets = WOODS, COUPLES
MH - lost Harrington and Stenson, best bets = WOODS
GR - lost Harrington and Furyk, best bets = MICKELSON
JG - lost Furyk and McIlroy and Sabbatini, best bets = WOODS
MK - lost none, best bets = WOODS
SS - lost Furyk, best bets = WOODS
BK - lost none, best bets = WESTWOOD, MICKELSON

Looks like an exciting finish for the weekend. Enjoy!

Picks

Alright - I can't wait any longer. No communicado from either of the holdouts, so here we go:

JR - Mickelson, Kim, Mahan, Cink, Angel-Jimenez
MC - Woods, Stricker, Ogilvy, Watney, Glover
RO - Woods, Furyk, O'Hair, Cink, Couples
MH - Woods, Harrington, Stricker, Stenson, Glover
GR - Mickelson, Harrington, Furyk, O'Hair, Karlsson
JG - Woods, Furyk, McIlroy, Z.Johnson, Sabbatini
MK - Woods, Els, Goosen, Cabrera, Scott
SS - Woods, Els, Furyk, Garcia, Scott
BK - Mickelson, Els, Westwood, O'Hair, Perry

There you have it. Lots of Tigger love, 3 on Ernie, 4 on Furyk, 3 O'Hair...no one else has more than 2 guys picking them. MC is the only one on Ogilvy...hope you haven't checked the leader board today!

I'll send out and update after the cut on Friday and see who's looking good.

Good Luck!!

Masters Pool - Pick Summary

We've got 9 entries so far with a couple hours to spare before the deadline. Bomb and Roe don't have any picks entered yet...so we'll see if they come through.

I'll wait until after 12:00 to send out all of the picks, but here are my sneaky $1 Masters bets for the weekend:

Miguel Angel Jimenez- 125:1
Lucas Glover - 80:1
Stewart Cink - 80:1
Chad Campbell - 66:1
Hunter Mahan - 40:1
Anthony Kim - 40:1
Rory McIlroy - 33:1
Lee Westwood - 20:1
Retief Goosen - 25:1
Paddy Harrington - 16:1

$10 - 10 bets on 10 golfers. I'm a big MAJ fan this weekend, but liking the chances of some of my lesser odds guys a little better. How about Cink at 80:1...sneaky.

Just heard a guy offer 10:1 odds on Tiger vs. Field. I'll take that bet from anyone and take the field. It's not happening this week for Tigger...mark it down.

Get those picks in if you haven't, and enjoy the weekend!

NCAA Winner and Masters Clarifications

I forgot to mention our NCAA Bragging Rights Pool winner...our newest member Rob Olson. I had thought all along that this was someone else's entry, but I should have known better than to think Mr. Hawkeye could have had picks this good.

Congrats Rob - it's bragging rights only, but take notice Football Challenge World...Rob Olson, 1 contest entered, 1 Championship.

The other thing I wanted to note is around the Masters Pool:

1) No cost, once again with only 1 day notice collecting cash is nearly impossible.
2) 4 Guys have submitted picks already - don't be the guy who misses out!

Lots of variety so far so should be exciting.

Here's the payout by place in case you're interested. Top 3 dominate, but if you can at least get all 5 to make the cut you should be in the running.

1..$ 1,350,000 11..$ 187,500 21..$ 90,000 31..$ 48,750 41..$ 30,750
2..$ 810,000 12..$ 172,500 22..$ 84,000 32..$ 46,500 42..$ 29,250
3..$ 510,000 13..$ 157,500 23..$ 78,000 33..$ 44,250 43..$ 27,750
4..$ 360,000 14..$ 142,500 24..$ 72,000 34..$ 42,375 44..$ 26,250
5..$ 300,000 15..$ 135,000 25..$ 66,000 35..$ 40,500 45..$ 24,750
6..$ 270,000 16..$ 127,500 26..$ 60,000 36..$ 38,625 46..$ 23,250
7..$ 251,250 17..$ 120,000 27..$ 57,750 37..$ 36,750 47..$ 21,750
8..$ 232,500 18..$ 112,500 28..$ 55,500 38..$ 35,250 48..$ 20,550
9..$ 217,500 19..$ 105,000 29..$ 53,250 39..$ 33,750 49..$ 19,500
10..$ 202,500 20..$ 97,500 30..$ 51,000 40..$ 32,250 50..$ 18,900

Masters Pool

So my buddy at work who always does one of these apparently isn't this year. I know it's already WED and this is short notice...but to keep it interesting this weekend here's a Masters Pool for you. If you're interested send me your picks and I'll track it, if not...well, you suck.

Pick 1 Golfer from each group - this will be your 5 man team.
The winner will be the guy who's team earns the most cumulative prize $$$.

Group 1
Woods
Mickelson

Group 2
Els
Harrington
Stricker
Casey
Goosen
Westwood
Furyk
Kaymer
McIlroy
Ogilvy
Poulter
Villegas
D.Johnson
Kim
Mahan

Group 3
Singh
Stenson
Watney
Allenby
Cabrera
Choi
Fisher
Garcia
O'Hair
Schwartzel
Campbell
Donald
Z.Johnson
McDowell
Quiros
Weir
Cink

Group 4
T.Clark
Couples
Glover
Kuchar
Karlsson
Perry
Sabbatini
Scott
Leonard
Yang
Ishikawa
Angel Jimenez
Crane
Duval
Immelman
J.Rollins
Verplank
Watson

Then you get 1 Wildacrd Pick from Groups 2-4 (not Tiger or Phil).

I encourage you to be courageous and think outside the box on these picks because we don't all want to be cheering for the same guys. Tomorrow I'll share some of my sneaky wagers, but if you want in the pool send me your 5 players by Noon THUR.


Just a little FYI, I went 41-20-2 in picks NCAA Games this season for 67%....I made some cash. My only regret is not betting enough money or enough of these games!! Not doing too well in baseball thus far, but hoping Matt Cain and the Giants can turn that around for me this afternoon!!

Hope to hear from most/all of you soon - let's keep the Masters interesting this weekend. Roe - you can't pick Tiger 5 times, although I'm sure you'll try.

Busiest Sports Day of the Year

Some random thoughts about what's happening today and the past week or so...

1. Baseball season!
Finally. We have to wait until late tonight to watch the Twinkies, but it's a nice all day marathon of baseball today starting early. JG and I had our fantasy draft last week, it went okay. I may feel differently in about 2-3 weeks, but I like my team enough to expect a playoff run. The day after that one I had another auction draft on line and it was chaos. 1/2 the people didn't show, so the robot bidder was going nuts betting crazy high numbers on every player out there. And you had only a few seconds to nominate a guy or bid on a guy - once the clock ran out on you it turned the draft robot on automatically...so I got Matt Holliday for a small fortune and Scott Kazmir for another large sum. We'll see what happens with this league, it's free so nothing to lose but I might lose interest fast.

2. NCAA Title Game
Duke -7.5 is the line I'm seeing. If Howard doesn't play at all or sparingly Butler will probably get killed. If MSU shoots the ball well at all they crush on Saturday. The officiating in that game was horrible - looked like Sparty football much more than Basketball. I'm making no pick in this one until I hear the report on Howard. If he plays they should be able to cover the large spread, if not they might get smoked. Either way...very unlikely I watch much of this tonight.

3. Masters!!
Tiger presser today, tourney starts on Thursday...Spring is officially here. I've heard so many mixed opinions on Tigger, but I can't see him doing extremely well. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I'd be delighted with a +10 82 on Thursday out of him! Anyway, I put down huge $1 bets on about 10 guys to win, almost all with odds of 40:1 or worse. I'll list them all here on Thursday, but I'm not giving my secrets away too early in the week. If you're looking for some fun bets there are about 100 Tigger Prop bets you can jump on - check out Bodog and make it happen.

4. GOLF!
Played Deer Run on WED and fired an 85 to start the year w/4 Birdies...not a bad start to the year. 4 penalty shots knocked me down even more, but I was very happy with the opening day performance. Trying to map out my next round already, we'll see...hopefully the weather stays nice and the game does too! I'm starting to look at May dates for the all day Golf/Cards festival at my place...I'll let you all know when that will be. I'm thinking a Saturday is most likely...18 or 27 holes in the morning afternoon and cards all night.

5. Gophers
Not a ton of news still from Spring camp. Sounds like the LB's have been impressing and all 3 QB's are playing okay. Duane Bennett apparently suffered a concussion, I'm not counting on him for anything this season. I think he'll be outplayed by the freshman and be too much of an injury liability going forward. Not much conversation around the OL play - it's the area that needs the most improvement to have a better season. Kyle Theret DWI...nice. Let's hope that's the last bit of news like that to come out of camp. 19 days until the Spring Game!!

Did you know D.McNabb got traded!?? I figured MLB Opening Day would get glossed over, but DMc trade is even dominating over the Tigger presser conversation this morning. Who would have thunk it? Not sure I'm a huge believer in Kevin Kolb to lead the Eagles, but I'm not ready to put the Skins in the Super Bowl either. These 2 teams still should finish out of the playoffs in my opinion (keep in mind it's APR and the season is only 5 months away!).