07/04/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the return of Manny Ramirez now behind them, the Los Angeles Dodgers can get back to business, as they continue their three-game series with the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
Ramirez returned from a 50-game suspension on Friday 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.
The 12-time All- Star, who was greeted with a a mixture of jeers and applause in his first at-bat, was suspended on May 7 after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.
"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 there's 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."
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.
Going for the Dodgers today will be former Padre Randy Wolf, who is winless in his last six starts. Wolf did not get a decision on Monday against Colorado, as he allowed two runs and four hits in six innings of his team's 4-2 win.
Wolf, who is 3-3 with a 3.61 ERA, is 5-4 lifetime against the Padres with a 5.65 ERA. He was 6-10 in 21 starts for San Diego a year ago.
San Diego will counter with righty Josh Geer, who is 1-3 with a 5.68 ERA. Geer was saddled with the loss on Monday against Houston, surrendering three runs and seven hits in seven innings.
Geer did not get a decision the last time he faced the Dodgers but is 1-1 in eight games (six starts) against them with a 4.98 ERA.
The Dodgers have won eight of 11 matchups with the Padres this season and 12 of the last 16 contests between the clubs.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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