my guaranteed way to win at sports gambling

there was a guy sitting at my bar watching the bruins/flyers game last night who apparently bet $150 on the under, which was set at +/- 5.5 total goals.  with 5 minutes left it was 2-1, and he was looking pretty good.  then boston scored, 3-1.  then philly pulled the goalie, and boston scored again, 4-1.  then i watched this guy completely freak out as philly continued to play without a goalie, even though they were down by 3 with a minute left.  the bruins got another empty net goal, making it 5-1, 6 total goals, he loses.  the whole thing was pretty amusing to watch.

which brings me to my point: i know how to win at sports gambling, but it only works in a limited capacity.  you have to bet just on who wins, and only on games where you care a lot about the outcome.  but the strategy is simple.  you bet against your team, and you bet the amount of money you would be willing to pay for them to win.  for example, i'd be willing to pay $100 to guarantee the celtics beat miami tonight.  so if i bet $100 on the heat, it's win win.  either my team wins and i'm happy, or i win the bet as a nice consolation prize.  unfortunately for me i don't care enough about winning the money to actually bet.

oh yeah, and as a side note, how did philly ever even get this far with such terrible goaltending?

i think it's ok to walk in front of people taking pictures

on my way to work i often walk past the bull and finch pub, the original "cheers."  now that the weather is nice there is almost always somebody standing in front of the sign, and another person standing on the sidewalk taking their picture (or if i go the other way through the common i walk past the "make way for ducklings" statues, and it's the same situation).  rather than wait, i just keep walking right in between them like i don't even notice.  this is definitely NOT what most people do.  the common assumption is that it's rude, but i don't think it is.  first, everybody uses digital cameras now, so if i mess up the picture they can just take another one 10 seconds later.  it's not like it's gonna waste film or prints or anything.  and second, i'm the one walking on the sidewalk with somewhere to go.  they are the ones leisurely standing around taking pictures.  i'm pretty sure i have the right of way.  if they were standing in the street instead of the sidewalk, do you think cars would politely stop and wait?

also, i realize this is the second blog i have written recently about tourists taking pictures on my walk to work, http://lucidsportsfan.blogspot.com/2011/04/are-there-no-squirrels-in-europe.html but i think it's ok cause the main point of each was totally different.

biz markie in extra innings

that was one wacky game at fenway last night.  a no hitter for 6 innings, pre and post rain delay.  a crazy rally in the 9th that should have won the game but for bad base running.  and an almost walkoff in the 12th that confused eck and orsillo to no end.  i don't think too many people were still watching with me till 2:45 am, but i absolutely love the few hundred fans who stayed in the park.  when youk came to bat in the 10th and the 12th you could clearly hear them singing "yooouuuuk, you got what i need, but you say he's just a friend..."

12 pm thursday: barstool sports just wrote about this, but for the record i did 9 hours earlier.

worst case scenario

i've tried not to think about this, but it's time to face reality and admit there is a possibility the heat and lakers will play in the nba finals.  after some heavy deliberation, i've decided that if it comes to that i'll be forced to root for LA.  it sounds crazy, i know.  especially because the lakers winning would be their 17th title, putting them in a tie with boston for most all time.  but i just can't root for lebron under any circumstances.  ever.  i need him to somehow go his whole career without ever winning a championship.

on another note, what happened to the "hanging on the rim" technical foul call?  lebron had two of these last night that seemed pretty blatant to me.

how far ahead do the bruins need to be in this series to feel confident?

they look good.  thomas has been spectacular in net.  but we've been down this road before.  for now i'm gonna stick with my general apathy towards hockey and not really get too invested.  i think i need to see at least a 4 goal lead in a deciding game to really believe they'll beat philly.

and how did the refs/horn and light operator not know right away that this was a goal?  it hit right in the middle of the net and bounced out slowly.  all the players knew.  the crowd knew.  even the people watching on tv in my bar knew.

michael scott vs. fancy wedding in england

ok, so i wrote this on sunday afternoon with the intention of posting it monday morning.  then the bin laden thing happened, and that kinda took the wind out of it.  but i like this blog a lot, and for the first time i've got a poll to go along with a blog entry, so i'm posting it anyway.  so here it is, exactly how i wrote it pre-terrorist assassination day:

depending on who you talk to, there were two MAJOR events that occurred last week within a 12 hour span.  the first was michael gary scott's departure from "the office."  the second was a very expensive english wedding.  both topics dominated my facebook news feed on thursday night/friday morning.  so the question is, which was a bigger deal?  for me it's a no brainer.  "the office" was this decade's "seinfeld," and michael scott was it's leading man.  sometimes i loved him, sometimes i hated him, but i feel like i know him.  the royal family has no actual significance other than being related to people who ruled the country hundreds of years ago.  also, they're in england.  vote for what you think in the poll to the right.

the armageddon of eastern conference semifinals begins today

hopefully this picture sums up how things go.  i'm not sure what else to say.  the entire season since opening night has been leading up to this matchup.  i'm nervous.