I have a knack for meeting interesting people.
My general curiosity and inquisitive personality are handy traits, but it's the gambling environment which serves as the leading contributor to finding rich characters.
Last Saturday was no exception.
At a Costa Rican bar in the capital city of San Jose, I was watching the second game of a doubleheader between the Cubs and Cardinals, silently rooting for under 8.5 runs when I noticed a fellow gambler outwardly cheering for runs to be scored.
Most serious gamblers don't cheer though I quickly recognized my new acquaintance was not your typical low-IQ sports fan either.
(Sidenote: Because gamblers are portrayed poorly in American culture, I love to exact revenge at the expense of simple-minded, hero-worshipping sports fans. Dumb, dumb, dumb.)
A handsome man in his late 50's or thereabouts, he had the look of a tennis pro straight from Central Casting: lean, clean, classy, thinning blonde hair, bronze tan and wearing a matching sweat suit and expensive tennis shoes from adidas.
Sure enough, he announced himself as Campbell Booth, a former tennis player who competed 12 years (mostly in doubles) on the ATP tour.
Back in the day, Booth earned a scholarship to the University of Texas and today finds himself in Costa Rica tutoring high school kids for a chance to earn Division I scholarships in the States.
With a home in San Antonio, Booth is enjoying the good life after completing a 15-year run as Director of Tennis at Hyatt Regency Acapulco.
We discussed a theory on why former professional athletes gravitate to the gambling arena once their playing days are over.
Booth agreed with my claim that former pro athletes view sports betting as an opportunity to extend their competitive life.
It also helps that many retired athletes have both time and money at their disposal.
Booth said the average sports fan has little or no idea about the sacrifices made to become a world-class athlete.
He then remembered the best player he ever faced: the one and only John McEnroe.
"I played Johnny at least 30 times as a junior starting at age 10. I played him at 10, 12, 14...all the way up. And would you believe, I never beat him, not once."
As for McEnroe's fiery personality, Booth recalled McEnroe was the same "SuperBrat" at age 10 as he was so famously in the 1980's.
Booth repeated a well-known refrain about McEnroe in blunt terms, "JohnnyMac was a prick on the court but a great guy away from it."
And, oh yes, the Cubs-Cards game produced nine runs after visiting St. Louis scored three runs in the ninth to unlock a 3-3 tie.
Ninth-inning agony for yours truly and a lucky break, if you will, for the tennis pro.
My general curiosity and inquisitive personality are handy traits, but it's the gambling environment which serves as the leading contributor to finding rich characters.
Last Saturday was no exception.
At a Costa Rican bar in the capital city of San Jose, I was watching the second game of a doubleheader between the Cubs and Cardinals, silently rooting for under 8.5 runs when I noticed a fellow gambler outwardly cheering for runs to be scored.
Most serious gamblers don't cheer though I quickly recognized my new acquaintance was not your typical low-IQ sports fan either.
(Sidenote: Because gamblers are portrayed poorly in American culture, I love to exact revenge at the expense of simple-minded, hero-worshipping sports fans. Dumb, dumb, dumb.)
A handsome man in his late 50's or thereabouts, he had the look of a tennis pro straight from Central Casting: lean, clean, classy, thinning blonde hair, bronze tan and wearing a matching sweat suit and expensive tennis shoes from adidas.
Sure enough, he announced himself as Campbell Booth, a former tennis player who competed 12 years (mostly in doubles) on the ATP tour.
Back in the day, Booth earned a scholarship to the University of Texas and today finds himself in Costa Rica tutoring high school kids for a chance to earn Division I scholarships in the States.
With a home in San Antonio, Booth is enjoying the good life after completing a 15-year run as Director of Tennis at Hyatt Regency Acapulco.
We discussed a theory on why former professional athletes gravitate to the gambling arena once their playing days are over.
Booth agreed with my claim that former pro athletes view sports betting as an opportunity to extend their competitive life.
It also helps that many retired athletes have both time and money at their disposal.
Booth said the average sports fan has little or no idea about the sacrifices made to become a world-class athlete.
He then remembered the best player he ever faced: the one and only John McEnroe.
"I played Johnny at least 30 times as a junior starting at age 10. I played him at 10, 12, 14...all the way up. And would you believe, I never beat him, not once."
As for McEnroe's fiery personality, Booth recalled McEnroe was the same "SuperBrat" at age 10 as he was so famously in the 1980's.
Booth repeated a well-known refrain about McEnroe in blunt terms, "JohnnyMac was a prick on the court but a great guy away from it."
And, oh yes, the Cubs-Cards game produced nine runs after visiting St. Louis scored three runs in the ninth to unlock a 3-3 tie.
Ninth-inning agony for yours truly and a lucky break, if you will, for the tennis pro.
MLB TOTALS...Like my fellow EOG contributor Zzyzx Road, I focus my attention on betting under before over.
My three greatest fears as a dedicated under bettor are the first, fifth and ninth innings.
More runs are scored in the first inning than any other inning in baseball.
Starting pitchers are vulnerable in the opening frame which is the only inning the offensive team is guaranteed to have its ideal hitters coming to the plate.
The fifth inning is the "action inning" where pitch counts are rising, lineups are turning over for a third time and managers face important decisions regarding bullpen use.
For handicappers who bet the first five innings, they realize the critical dynamics of baseball's middle inning.
And then there's the ninth inning where under bettors hope to survive only three outs, not six.
Gambling newbies mistakenly curse their "bad luck" when under bets lose in the eighth or ninth innings.
Astute gamblers realize that's usually the time when the game produces enough runs to clear the total.
FIVE OUTFIELDERS...Baseball is a thinking man's sport.
So here's an angle the Ivy League-trained analytical minds who focus on defensive shifts have yet to employ.
We've all seen five infielders in the bottom of the ninth inning when the bases are loaded with no out and a force at home plate is in order.
Then what about five outfielders?
Hear me out.
Situation: Man on second, two outs in the late innings of a tie game.
Infielders implore one another to not allow a ground ball to sneak through the infield.
If that's the case, why not play five outfielders so a hard-hit single or bloop single, for that matter, will not score the run.
A short-centerfielder would hold the runner at second base while four other players would be positioned in shallow outfield spots to deny the baserunner from scoring on a single.
The unconventional strategy makes even more sense when considering the increased strikeout rate in the big leagues.
AND FINALLY...What's the bigger indignity: Being ignored in the States by American women or paying for a stress-relieving massage in Costa Rica where the masseuse uses one hand to rub the client while the other hand scrolls her Facebook feed?
Not that it has happened to me, of course.
Nooooo!
