Friday Four-Pack 3.31.23
Friday Four-Pack 3.31.23
Baseball! Radio business is weird. No horse betting on your sports app.
“The is baseball!”
I miss that old Mad Dog drop.
Opening Day at Fenway Park Thursday. If you didn’t go it wasn’t because of the exorbitant get-in price.
Under $40 for a pair of tickets for Sox/Orioles Opening Day. Heard you could get about the same from the scalpers around the ballpark. Maybe even a little less closer to first pitch.
Sounds like a Gerry Callahan line but it’s true - Baseball has never been less important in Boston than it is right now. The Red Sox have never felt less relevant.
As a baseball fan it’s too bad, but the team did this to themselves. Unlikeable ownership, multiple young stars out of the organization over money, losing over and over and over…they have not given fans a real reason to LOVE this team.
Even Thursday during the first player introductions of the season. How about PA guy Henry Mahegan almost bragging that Rafael Devers "would be here for the next 10 seasons,” when he was introduced. Like it was some big coup for the team.
A franchise worth BILLIONS is bragging about signing a young star to a long-term deal. Sad.
Sure if they win it will get better. That’s every team in Boston.
But boy is the buzz gone.
Things seemed so much simpler when the Sox were on TV38.
And let me get ahead of the headlines for next week - when the Pirates come in Monday you’re going to see tickets for under $10. It’s going to be bad. Huge sections of empty seats around Fenway. Social media will be abuzz. Sox will be sending out multiple marketing emails to try and sell some tickets.
But this is what you get when continually push away your fans.
All of that being said….
On why I bet the Red Sox Team Total OVER 78.5 wins…
Didn’t make a lot of MLB futures, but yeah Red Sox over 78.5 wins.
And I’m not really even rooting for it other than the bet cashing. I don’t like the way Chaim Bloom has gone about the teardown the rebuild of a team that won a championship. Ownership and front office not all that likeable. BUT..I like money. And it felt like the narrative of how bad this team was going to be got baked into the win total - so we bet over. As for a few of the baseball reasons I made the bet -
They actually spent some money on the bullpen. You wouldn’t know it from Opening Day where Ryan Brasier (HOW IS HE STILL ON THIS TEAM????) and Kaleb Ort got into the game. Jansen-Martin-Schreiber late is a monster upgrade over what Alex Cora had at his disposal last year at the back end. Their 4.58 bullpen era was fifth worst last year - in all of baseball. It has to be better.
Speaking of Cora- he’s motivated to win a million games this season. I can tell you he has been annoyed (to put it mildly) over some of the moves the front office has made (and not made) over the past few seasons. He’s not been shy about telling people. Add in the Evan Drellich book dropping on the first day of spring training with some not very flattering things about the Sox skipper …
Yeah he’s motivated. He seemed to be walking around Ft. Myers all spring in a mood. I also think he’s smart enough - based on all that great “work” with the Astros - to take advantage of the new rules. He’s a plus for this group.
Then there is the schedule. Have talked about this on BetQL and Draftkings - but the new balanced schedule plays in the Sox favor. Twenty-four fewer games against the loaded AL East. Twenty-four more games against the NL - where the Sox have dominated to the tune of a .600 winning percentage lifetime in Interleague Play. Best in baseball. Last year this schedule would have meant 80+ wins. They get a softer schedule this year and it will help.
This VIBES stuff that Carrabis has been peddling for two months…yeah not part of why I made the bet. But I made it.
On the Celtics/Bucks…
How about that for an answer?
We know the Celtics are good. Didn’t need to see the beatdown the Bucks to prove that. But after their worst loss of the season the Thursday night drubbing in Milwaukee did provide a reminder that when the Celtics are locked in - they’re better than any team in the NBA.
Unlike the Red Sox this team is built to actually win.
Had the pleasure of hanging out at The Brook in Seabrook, NH Thursday to celebrate three years of legal sports betting in New Hampshire. A great event highlighted by Robert Parish telling the crowd stories for an hour. He was awesome.
His take on this Celtics team - the talent is there. That’s not the question.
He’s right. If the Celtics don’t get back the Finals or win the championship it won’t be because they’re not talented enough. Might be the coaching or injuries or mental toughness. But it won’t be talent.
Thursday’s blowout of the Bucks was a reminder of that.
Hopefully the loss to the Warriors last spring is enough to get this team locked in for their “real” season in a few weeks.
On this tweet from Mazz…
I’d link directly to it, but the Mazz half of “Felger and Mazz” has protected his tweets.
I’ve thought about this tweet and the post it links to far too much this week.
Here’s where it links to
https://985thesportshub.com/listicle/how-to-watch-this-week/
It’s just a list of the Boston games this week and where to watch and or listen to them. That’s it.
Which is no big deal. I loved that section of the Boston Globe as a kid. You’d turn to it to find out which three NFL games you’d be getting on a Sunday. Same with college basketball on a Saturday.
Even now in 2023 I get it to some extent. People Google “where to watch games” and you - as a media company - well you want the clicks.
It’s just…so I did some digging on this and the consensus is some shows and personalities have a digital piece to their deals with 98.5 and Beasley Media.
I guess that makes sense.
But half of the highest-rated sports show in the Country is posting schedules on where to catch the Bruins and Celtics?
It speaks of where radio is right now. Nothing about Mazz - he’s fulfilling his obligations - good for him. Guy is hosting four hours a day, another hour now that the baseball season started. He writes columns and does videos.
“Hey Tony, um, we need that third post for the week. Just a reminder.”
It happened at WEEI too. Some of the deals had website pieces. This one just struck me as bizarre. Tony Mazz is posting “Where to watch the game” posts???
Radio, man. Radio.
On betting the Kentucky Derby in Massachusetts…
If you’re new to sports betting with the legalization in Massachusetts and plan on betting on The Kentucky Derby or any other race on the app you just downloaded for sports…well you can’t.
Draftkings got into the horse betting business this week with their own ADW platform “DK Horse.” There are a bunch out there - all legal in Massachusetts - all offering wagers on every race being run in North America. Just don’t expect to find those bets on the same apps you’re firing off on sports.
I’m biased as I’ll be here hosting the best Kentucky Derby Party on the East Coast…but the best place to watch and bet on the Derby is Mohegan Sun. See you there the First Saturday in May.
If you’re not there - well you won’t be betting race on a sports-only app in Massachusetts.
Two big Derby prep races tomorrow - we’ll post around noon handicapping them both with Bomber Brad - who pointed us to a $94 exacta last week.
Big Saturday. Forte in the Florida Derby. UConn in the Final Four.
Get youself in the mood by watching UConn rip the hearts from the chests of Duke fans with their miraculous comeback in 2004 Final Four in San Antonio. Probably the best game I’ve attended live.
How the hell did they win that game?
Thanks for reading. Good weekend. Go Huskies.