How long will it be before Crockett and Tubbs are assigned to cover Major League Baseball?

As Barry Bonds swings his way closer and closer to No. 756, the specter of performance enhancing substances looms larger over the sport. It isn’t just about the steroids, either. It’s about the greenies, and the cocaine, and even the beer in the clubhouse. Pretty soon, they’ll be taking urine samples between third base and home plate.

With the union’s power in decline and the U.S. Congress putting on the pressure, MLB officials strengthened their anti-drug policy in the 2005 offseason, cracking down on the use of “amphetamines.” That term used to refer specifically to Benzedrine, aka greenies, but now gets thrown around to cover just about every performance enhancer under the sun. The league’s current penalties for using greenies or “amphetamine-like stimulants” start at 25 games for a second positive test, followed by 80 games for a third positive. The commissioner would pass whatever judgment he saw fit after any further violations.

Jason Giambi made the news earlier this month by tacitly admitting he used steroids. The New York Daily News then reported that Giambi had failed an amphetamines test at some point during the past year. The league cannot comment, because the alleged test was Giambi’s first positive and is not supposed to be made public. But Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was reportedly looking at using the reports as just cause to terminate Giambi’s contract.

Leaks happen. Bonds himself was the focus of reports this past January that he had a first positive during the 2006 season, and that he blamed the incident on teammate Mark Sweeney. Bonds, already in the eye of the media storm and not yet under contract for 2007, quickly and firmly denied that he said anything about Sweeney being involved. Bonds and Giambi were the only two MLB players linked to positive tests for amphetamines at press time.

Commissioner Bud Selig’s comments on the Bonds report were typical corporate baseball: “We have a policy, we have a very strong amphetamine policy, and obviously everybody knows what it is.” Except MLB does not have an accessible list of what it considers to be amphetamine-like stimulants. Maybe David Wells had better think twice before his next pre-game six-pack of Coke.

Anyone who watched the 2007 Indianapolis 500 on Sunday will probably remember it for two reasons: First, the rain that poured down in buckets and shortened the race to only 166 laps, instead of the usual 200; and second, Ashley Judd running across the track soaking wet in a sun dress to see her man Dario Franchitti, who won the race.

When a second rainstorm rolled into the Brickyard after a previous storm has caused an almost three-hour rain delay, it was too much for Indy. Only 415 miles had been completed, but only 250 needed to be run to make the race official. Franchitti must have been planning on the upcoming rain because he stayed out on the track and took over the lead while the rest of the race leaders headed to the pits. The race ended on a caution after Franchitti’s Andretti Green teammate Marco Andretti clipped another car with his back tire and ended up on his roof before flipping back over to his messed-up wheels on the infield grass.

Scott Dixon ended up in second place, while pole sitter Helio Castroneves came third after having some trouble in the pits. Last year’s Indy champ Sam Hornish Jr. came fourth and Ryan Brisco rounded out the Top 5. The biggest disappointment on the day belonged to Tony Kanaan, who had one of the fastest cars in the race. Kanaan led half of the 166 laps, but spun out to avoid a crash in front of him on the 156th lap. He ended up finishing the race in 12th place.

This year’s Indy set a new record by having three women entered in the field, but none of them ended up challenging for the checkered flag in the rain-shortened race. Danica Patrick was running in second place at one point, but lost positioning in the pits and finished in eighth place. Sarah Fisher had car and pit trouble and it cost her a ton of time as she ended up finishing two laps back in 18th place. Milka Duno never ran higher than 22nd place in the race before a crash knocked her out of the race after only 65 laps. She ended up finishing 31st.

Bodog’s got all your Indy, Formula 1, and NASCAR odds.

Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell planned on exacting revenge on the last man to defeat him at UFC 71 on Saturday night. But Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had other ideas.

Rampage ended The Iceman’s reign as UFC Light Heavyweight champion with a surprising first-round knockout. The fight everyone had been waiting for started slowly before Liddell caught Jackson with a mean left hook. Rampage took the shot in stride and came back at Liddell with a powerful right hand that sent The Iceman to the canvas. Jackson quickly pounced on the defenseless Liddell and after numerous blows the ref stepped in and stopped the fight at the 1:53 mark of the first round. Jackson is the new UFC Light Heavyweight champ and he may occupy that spot for awhile considering how easily he took apart Liddell.

In the event’s earlier action, welterweight contender Karo Parisyan defeated Josh Burkman in a unanimous decision after their brawl went the distance. Parisyan came out on top with scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 after his speed and quick anticipation allowed him to get in a number of good shots on Burkman, while also holding the advantage when the fight ended up on the ground.

UFC fans looking for more knockouts got their wish from two other fights on the UFC 71 card. Terry Martin and Ivan Salaverry faced off in a middleweight bout, which Martin won after delivering a quick first-round TKO. Martin landed the first big shot of the fight after catching Salaverry with a big right to the jaw early on. The fight was ended shortly afterward when Martin pulled off a huge slam that left Salaverry reeling. A subsequent flurry of punches after the slam brought on the ref, who stopped the fight at 2:04 in the first round.

Another TKO was doled out by Houston Alexander, who took on Keith Jardine in his UFC debut. Jardine started the fight with the upper hand after dropping Alexander to the canvas with a well-timed left hook. Alexander rebounded quickly and sent Jardine to the ground with a right hand uppercut. Another huge right-hand uppercut sent Jardine into the canvas face first, and the fight was over at 48 seconds of the first round.

To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man. So why isn’t Quinton “Rampage” Jackson the man?

Jackson (26-6 lifetime in mixed martial arts) was a +140 underdog at press time for his main event bout with Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell at this Saturday’s UFC 71 pay-per-view. But the last and only time these two men fought in MMA action, Jackson pummeled Liddell in front of over 67,000 people at the Egg Dome in Tokyo.

Things have gone a little differently since that matchup four years ago. Liddell has gone undefeated and is the most recognizable figure in the sport, at least on these shores. Jackson, now 28 years of age and nine years younger than Liddell, stayed in Japan with PRIDE and went 7-3 heading into this weekend’s big show, including a pair of losses to the great Wanderlei Silva.

The Japanese fans know that losing to Silva is no disgrace. Neither was Jackson’s first match in PRIDE, which was also a loss. The Memphis native, who was an All-State wrestler in high school, brought a 10-1 record in various minor MMA organizations into the ring against Kazushi Sakuraba, then at the peak of his fame. This remains one of the great fights of all-time; the stronger Jackson fended off his accomplished opponent and dominated before running out of gas and submitting to a choke.

The punishing style “Rampage” displayed in that bout launched his career as one of the most popular fighters in Japan. Jackson’s nickname was given to him at age 8 by his cousin; however, like his opponent this weekend, Jackson does not show a lot of rage outside the octagon. He’s a born-again Christian, he’s the father of four children, and he and Liddell appear to have nothing but respect for one another. We’ll see how long that lasts this Saturday.

UFC 71 Betting Odds

For the full fight card check out the Bodog Beat.

Baseball purists were calling foul last week when MLB decided to shuffle its postseason schedule and push the start of the playoffs ahead one day. What does one day matter? Well, that one day means that for the first time ever, Game 7 of the World Series (if necessary) will be scheduled to be played on November 1.

Only once has the World Series stretched into November. That happened in 2001 after the 9/11 attack pushed the season back a week. Game 5, Game 6 and Game 7 of that series were all played in November when Arizona topped New York in seven games.

Baseball’s reasoning behind the schedule changes is to give the players a couple more rest days, and to be ready in case Mother Nature throws them a curveball like she did in April. The weather concern is understandable; if you’re a Seattle Mariners fan then you know how weather can mess up the schedule.

However, the “giving the players another rest day” is a pile of thick-slice baloney. If the major leaguers can play six to seven games a week for six months, I think they can keep up the pace for another couple of weeks. The strain of the final months of the season is supposed to separate the greats from the average players, isn’t it? If Hank Aaron was given a few more rest days maybe he would have clubbed 800 homers instead of 755.

The only way this new schedule will even matter is if the World Series goes seven games. That hasn’t happened since 2002 when the Angels squeaked past the Giants in seven games. Prior to that the World Series went to seven games only three times in 10 years.

The baseball purists can huff and haw all they like, but nobody will even care unless and until we get to November 1 and they’re still playing baseball.

Bodog Sportsbook has some of the best MLB odds, MLB player props and MLB team props.

UFC 71: Liddell vs. Jackson expected to set new PPV record (Sat. May 26, 10 PM EST)

He’s dated a Playboy model. He’s been on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He’s played poker with Bodog Entertainment founder Calvin Ayre. And he can snap your neck like a twig.

If you’re at all familiar with mixed martial arts, you know we’re talking about Chuck Liddell. He is the consensus top fighter in the sport today. Liddell is the current UFC Light Heavyweight champion, and his title defense this Saturday against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is expected to draw the largest ever pay-per-view audience for an MMA event. It could easily be the watershed moment for both Liddell and the sport itself. (For a review of UFC 71: Liddell vs. Jackson, read “Wombat’s Fight Forecast: UFC 71″ in Bodog Nation.)

“The Iceman” was born Charles David Liddell on Dec. 17, 1969 in Santa Barbara, Calif. His martial arts career began at age 12 when he took up Koei-Kan, a form of karate that includes many of the techniques used in MMA – strikes, joint locks and grappling among them. Liddell became good enough to be captain of the wrestling team (and the football team) at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, then spent four years as a starter for Cal Poly SLO’s wrestling squad before earning a degree in accounting in 1995.

Liddell moved from there to kickboxing, racking up a pair of national titles with his striking skills. But he had bigger things on his mind. Inspired by the inaugural UFC event, Liddell made his MMA debut in 1998 at UFC 17, earning a unanimous decision over Noe Hernandez. His interest and proficiency in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu propelled Liddell to the top of the sport; in 2001, he shared Black Belt magazine’s “No Holds Barred Competitor of the Year” honors with Tito Ortiz, whom Liddell went on to beat in 2004 and again in 2006.

The Iceman continues to hone his craft, adding a purple belt in jiu-jitsu to his black belt in karate. But his MMA profile has grown even larger thanks to his personality. Liddell has worked the talk show circuits, appeared as himself in movies like Cradle 2 the Grave, and dated Willa Ford. That’s one heck of a resume. Expect those accolades to keep rolling in with a victory over Jackson this Saturday; Liddell is pegged at –175 to retain his title.

Bet on UFC 71 at the Bodog Sportsbook, where you can get all your UFC betting odds. And check out the Bodog Fight Web site for more mixed martial arts news, features, interviews and exclusive fight videos.

Harry Nilsson was wrong: 756 is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know.

Barry Bonds is well on pace to overtake Hank Aaron on the MLB career home run list. It won’t be much of a celebration; Bonds, in addition to being suspected of using performance enhancers, is just not an easy guy to feel happy for. You can almost picture him at the ballpark, stealing ice cream from children and threatening to beat up the handicapped.

Brusque as he may be, Bonds will still get some love for hitting No. 756 – especially from the bettors who picked the right plays on the MLB player props list. There’s a boatload of Bonds offerings: Will it happen at home or away? Will the unlucky pitcher who gives up the gopher ball be a righty or lefty? Will his uniform number be odd or even? How about the over/under on how old the fan who retrieves the home run ball will be? The total is 37.5, which says a lot about baseball’s demographic these days.

There are two props on the list that really turn my crank. One is the over/under on how long Bonds will take to complete his home-run trot (the total is 27.5 seconds after contact with the ball). I can just picture half the bettors across the nation screaming at Bonds to stop admiring the flightpath of the ball and get a move on. “Run, Barry, run!” The other half would be yelling for Bud Selig to come out of the stands and clothesline Bonds, WWE-style, before he can cross home plate.

The other prop is the one I think makes the most sense from a handicapping standpoint: Will the home run be to right (–160), center (+115), or left field (+150)? A look at Bonds’ spray chart shows 41.6 percent of his flyballs going to right, 37.5 to center and 20.8 to left. Checking the locations of his home runs rather than all his flyballs would be a good idea, but it looks like right field might be overvalued for this prop because we’re so used to seeing Bonds go deep into McCovey Cove.

Now all we need is a prop for whether Alex Rodriguez will break Bonds’ record. At the rate A-Rod is going (18 dingers after 44 games), you might not have to wait too long to cash in.

Curlin’s win puts an end to Kentucky Derby winner’s career

It wasn’t exactly the Heidi Game, but it was close enough for hockey fans.

The Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres were about to go into overtime when NBC cut away to show their regularly scheduled program: the Preakness Stakes. Those with access to Versus (or to the Canadian feed) saw the Sens move on to the Stanley Cup finals. Those without? Well, it was just another day in the life of a hockey fan in America.

At least they got to see a tremendous horse race. Curlin beat Street Sense by a nose to cash in on some of the hype he brought to the Triple Crown trail. The first two jewels in the Crown have been excellent to value bettors. At the Derby, Curlin was the pre-race favorite until Street Sense put in a beautiful workout and starting drawing all the attention – and action. Those who got in early were able to nab Street Sense at 6-1 instead of 9-2. The shoe was on the other hoof at the Preakness; although Street Sense remained the favorite at 7-5, the somewhat forgotten Curlin was generating plenty of horseplay at 7-2.

The race itself was a beauty. As expected with three frontrunners (including Hard Spun) in the field of nine, the first half-mile was a sprinter’s dream, completed in just 45.75 seconds. Street Sense, as he did at the Derby, charged from far behind to take the lead from Hard Spun down the stretch; Curlin, however, was the stalker du jour. After stumbling out of the gate, Robby Albarado put in a masterful ride, getting maximum results from Curlin down the last quarter-mile to eke out the victory.

Both Street Sense and Curlin got some help from Mother Nature. In the hour leading up to the Preakness, the track at Pimlico saw enough rainfall to harden the surface, but not enough to make it sloppy. That gave both horses the purchase they needed to make their patented closes before running out of distance.

The Preakness, exciting as it was, may prove to be even more disappointing to horseplayers than it was to hockey fans. Curlin’s victory likely brings an end to Street Sense’s career. Without a Triple Crown to race for, the Derby winner is expected to miss the Belmont Stakes and go straight to stud for something in the neighborhood of $30 million. Now that’s a golden handshake.

Last chance to bet on the Triple Crown! Bet on the Belmont Stakes odds!

Has the Tiger Woods Express already come off the rails?

After lining the pockets of golf bettors over the past 10 months with nine wins in 12 PGA Tour events, Woods finished tied for 37th at last week’s Players Championship at Sawgrass. That’s his worst finish since missing the cut at last year’s U.S. Open. Tiger’s hot streak started with that failure; will he respond in a similar fashion in 2007, or are the good times over?

The futures market is pointing at the latter. Having already missed out on his fifth green jacket, Woods is listed at 5-4 odds to win zero major tournaments this year. “One” is priced at 3-2, followed by “Two” at 4-1 and “Three” at 20-1. Who would have thunk it?

I can understand some amount of trepidation among Woods supporters. He hasn’t won the U.S. Open since 2002, and the British Open is returning to Carnoustie Golf Links, a brutally unforgiving course in eastern Scotland that ate up Woods and a host of top golfers back in 1999. That leaves the PGA Championship in August, the last major on the calendar.

I believe Woods will have his mojo working once he gets to Tulsa, the site of this year’s event. Southern Hills Country Club did give Woods some trouble the last time he was there – the 2001 U.S. Open, where he finished in 12th place to end his streak of four consecutive majors. The course only has two par-5 holes, which puts a damper on Tiger’s outstanding long game.

However, Woods is a different golfer than he was in 2001. He’s proved he can keep the driver in the bag and still win, as he did at the 2006 British Open. That kind of intelligent course management should keep Woods squarely in the hunt to defend his PGA Championship title.

Usually, I give Bill Walton the benefit of the doubt. But his defense of Bruce Bowen mystified me.

During Game 3 of the series between the San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns, Walton chided Amare Stoudemire for calling Bowen and the Spurs “dirty.” It wasn’t just the bulletin-board material that Stoudemire unwisely provided the Spurs – Walton claimed the statement itself was false.

Then Bowen kneed Steve Nash in the groin.

I hate to say it, but the bad blood between the Spurs and Suns has been the highlight of the second round. Sure, the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors have provided plenty of drama (and questionable behavior) on the Left Coast, but they don’t have the same talent level. And the two series in the East are about as fun as getting punched in the kidney.

Or are they? Forget about the awful Cavs-Nets debacle; the Detroit Pistons have dominated the Chicago Bulls so badly, I think it’s made people change the channel rather than enjoy the carnage. Hard to imagine overlooking the Pistons with Chris Webber in the middle. It’s a travesty to all concerned to call this series a referendum on Ben Wallace, but the way things are going right now, Joe Dumars is yet again smelling like a rose. If you had the Pistons a couple of weeks ago at 5-1 to win the NBA title, you must be feeling pretty good, too. Those odds had shrunk to 9-5 by press time.

Let’s say, hypothetically of course, that the Spurs beat the Suns and advance to the Western final against Utah. That will make it three very physical series in a row for San Antonio, with Denver’s interior defense doing a number on Tim Duncan in Round 1. Theoretically, the Pistons would come out of the East like vultures, picking away at whatever is left of the Spurs. Three titles in a row for the East? That would blow even Bill Walton’s mind.

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