Random Sports Rants

On big race days I like to pick out the whole field sometimes. It makes you a better handicapper as you make the list from who is going to be last and then up. You can pretty much figure out the also-rans and the Derby is a good example as you can usually throw out 5 horses asap. It is about 5 hours until the derby when I post this and it should be fun to see how close I come in. I see an honest pace in the race and John Velazquez closing on Circular Quay but not enough to fight off Scat Daddy.

14  14 Scat Daddy Prado E S Pletcher Todd A 126   L 10-1
16  16 Circular Quay Velazquez J R Pletcher Todd A 126   L 8-1
7  7 Street Sense Borel C H Nafzger Carl A 126   L 4-1
12  12 Nobiz Like Shobiz Velasquez C Tagg Barclay 126   L 8-1
13  13 Sam P. Dominguez R A Pletcher Todd A 126  Blk-Off L 20-1
18  18 Any Given Saturday Gomez G K Pletcher Todd A 126   L 12-1
3  3 Zanjero Bridgmohan S X Asmussen Steven M 126   L 30-1 
19  19 Dominican Bejarano R Miller Darrin 126   L 20-1
8  8 Hard Spun Pino M G Jones J Larry 126   L 15-1
15  15 Tiago Smith M E Shirreffs John 126   L 15-1
6  6 Cowtown Cat Jara F Pletcher Todd A 126   L 20-1
2  2 Curlin Albarado R J Asmussen Steven M 126   L 7-2
20  20 Great Hunter Nakatani C S O’Neill Doug 126   L 15-1
9  9 Liquidity Flores D R O’Neill Doug 126  Blk-Off L 30-1
17  17 Stormello Desormeaux K J Currin William L 126   L 30-1
4  4 Storm in May Leyva J C Kaplan William A 126   L 30-1
10  10 Teuflesberg Elliott S Sanders Jamie  126   L 30-1
5  5 Imawildandcrazyguy Guidry M Kaplan William A 126   L 50-1 
11  11 Bwana Bull Castellano J J Hollendorfer Jerry 126   L 50-1
1  1 Sedgefield Leparoux J R Miller Darrin 126   L 50-1

G morning all - Its derby day and you know I have to share who I like in the race. After a lot of reading I am going with Scat Daddy.

All of Todd Pletcher horse have a shot at being in the money except Sam P who may surprise a lot of people when he runs and could get 4th or 5th. If you were to tak Todds 5 horses and and Cash Asmusen’s two horses and box all seven you could have a nice paying Superfecta.

The horse Curlin will go off as a favorite but 3 races are not enough and he will be fed to the wolves by the other jockeys in the race as he is the one to shoot for. He may be near the front but I think the distance is too much for him.

There is a lot of ways you can bet the Kentucky Derby but most of them are not the smartest ways to wager. Last year I had the winner and the year before that also. How did I do it. I will tell you!

There are three ways for me. First thing I look at is breeding. The horse has to be bred to run all day. If the horse is a maybe then throw it out. But Vinny how do I know this information? Simple it is in the listings where they show the horses parents, you just have to know if they were bred to run for distance. That you can look up also on the internet.

Next up I get rid of the favorite! Yep thats right, the favorite is no good in the derby and it isn’t a smart wager since people that dont bet normally will play the favorite just to have a winning ticket. The jockeys know that the horse is the favorite and won’t  let the horse have a good trip since eliminating that horse gives them a better shot at winning. The favorite rarely wins hmmmm. Your money is better spent on a horse that is second or even thrid choice.

The next thing I look at is a horse that has a limited amount of starts: This is how I came up with Lemon Drop Kid and Smarty Jones a few years back. A horse that has only 4 starts is a fresh horse that hasn’t been beaten up in prep races leading to the derby. I also like horses that come out of the Florida derby since that provides them with enough rest until derby day. Horses that run up front in the Florida derby usually fire a good race in the derby.

 I am watching my favorite driver on direct tv hot pass and it is pretty cool to watch a race this way. They are giving a free preview this weekend and I get to watch it for free. It is lap 91 now and Jimmie has been in for a couple of pit stops as he has damage but it was cool to watch the pit stops as they are better than watching all the cars pitting at once.

They have a cool idea but I doubt I would pay for it, actually I know I won’t pay for it. Here is why. It is annoying as all hell to have the network commercials. If I am paying for direct tv and I have to pay for this the last thing I want to see is the stupid commercials.

I have been muting the tv and watching the race in the seperate window they have. If we werent away at a commercial the 48 team announcers would have seen that the 48 hit the wall on lap 21 or 22. They have been talking about Jimmie hitting another car but that wasn’t the case.

What I don’t get is why they think people will pay for this as they are not guarenteed to watch their favorite driver as they will be switching drivers up every week. If it wasn’t Jimmie Johnson this week I would be watching the network broadcast as the other drivers are not favorites of mine.

I am enjoying Hermie Sadler in the pits he is good at explaining things. It is better than listening to Darrel Waltrip and his whole ego trip.

I am just glad that Nascar is back!

I was just sitting here thinking (yes it hurts) and I was wondering if you were to start a baseball team and you could pick anyone from any genration on your team who would your starters be. Obviously we are all infulenced on our favorite team or even generation.

I am watching Ron Guidry’s 18 strikeouit game on MSG network right now and I am sitting here thinking how good Thurman Munson was. Not only for his playing but his leadership.

1b Keith Hernandez
2b Ryan Sandberg
ss Ozzie
3b G Nettles
C Thurman Munson
Rf Babe Ruth
Cf Bernie Williams
LF K Mcreynolds

Pitchers would be Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Ron Guidry, Nolan Ryan,

Relief would be Goose Gossage 

If you plan on taking a vacation around a race weekend here is your chance to see the Racing schedule for Nascar all times are EST

Feb 10, 2007: Budweiser Shootout, Daytona Int’l Speedway, 8:00 PM

Feb 18, 2007: Daytona 500 Daytona Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

Feb 25, 2007: Auto Club 500 California Speedway 12:00 AM

Mar 11, 2007: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Mar 18, 2007: Atlanta 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Mar 25, 2007: Bristol 500 Bristol Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Apr 1, 2007: Goody’s 500 Martinsville Speedway 12:00 AM

Apr 15, 2007: Radio-Shack 500 Texas Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Apr 21, 2007: SUBWAY Fresh 500 Phoenix Int’l Raceway 12:00 AM

Apr 29, 2007: Aaron’s 499 Talladega Superspeedway 12:00 AM

May 5, 2007: Crown Royal Presents the “Your Name Here 400″ Richmond Int’l Raceway 12:00 AM

May 12, 2007: Dodge Avenger 500 Darlington Raceway 12:00 AM

May 19, 2007: NEXTEL All-Star Challenge Lowe’s Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

May 27, 2007: Charlotte 600 Lowe’s Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

June 3, 2007: Dover 400 Dover Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

June 10, 2007: Pocono 500 Pocono Raceway 12:00 AM

June 17, 2007: Michigan 400 Michigan Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

June 24, 2007: Infineon 350 Infineon Raceway 12:00 AM

July 1, 2007: LENOX Industrial Tools 300 New Hampshire Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

July 7, 2007: Pepsi 400 Daytona Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

July 15, 2007: USG Sheetrock 400 Chicagoland Speedway 12:00 AM

July 29, 2007: Allstate 400 at The Brickyard Indianapolis Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Aug 5, 2007: Pennsylvania 500 Pocono Raceway 12:00 AM

Aug 12, 2007: Watkins Glen Int’l Watkins Glen International 12:00 AM

Aug 19, 2007: 3M Performance 400 Michigan Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

Aug 25, 2007: Bristol 500 Bristol Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Sept 2, 2007: California 500 California Speedway 12:00 AM

Sept 8, 2007: Richmond 400 Richmond Int’l Raceway 12:00 AM

Sept 16, 2007: Sylvania 300 New Hampshire Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

Sept 23, 2007: Dover 400 Dover Int’l Speedway 12:00 AM

Sept 30, 2007: Kansas 400 Kansas Speedway 12:00 AM

Oct 7, 2007: UAW-Ford 500 Talladega Superspeedway 12:00 AM

Oct 13, 2007: Bank of America 500 Lowe’s Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Oct 21, 2007: Martinsville 500 Martinsville Speedway 12:00 AM

Oct 28, 2007: Atlanta 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Nov 4, 2007: Dickies 500 Texas Motor Speedway 12:00 AM

Nov 11, 2007: Checker Auto Parts 500 Phoenix Int’l Raceway 12:00 AM

Nov 18, 2007: Ford 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway 12:00 AM

Once again a major league baseball team over spends on a player that they probably could have signed for almost nothing. Giving Barry Bonds 16 million dollars is the stupidest thing I have ever seen a pro team do. Remember I have witnessed the New York Knicks blunders as well.

Lets take a look here from the outside looking in and see if we can figure out what they are thinking. Lets say I am the Giants GM am I thinking that we need a old outfielder that only hit 20 something homeruns last year. Ok he was hurt but he was absolutely horrible swinging at pitches last year. You could see the bat speed slowing down. At this price he will average a little under 1 million dollars per homerun. That is just sick.

Did the GM think he was going to sign with another team? I didn’t see any teams asking for Barry’s agents phone number. Not one team outside the bay area was thinking about Barry Bonds as they all have scouts that know he is done. He may be a gate attraction for one week IF he gets close to Hank’s homerun record.

I just don’t understand why a team would give this guy 1 million to play baseball for a year never mind 16 million. How much is a beer and hot dog in the stadium $100 each.

Hello fellow sports fans. My name is Vinny and welcome to my sports blog where I will be commenting on everything in the world of sports.