Who stayed up through the night to watch the Kwoom Heroes face the Samsung Lions in the Korean Baseball Organization?
And how many checked in on the progress of the live-streamed Andrey Kirilenko vs. Aleksandr Volkov match in Moscow Liga Pro table tennis?
With sports shut down for nearly three months, there hasn’t been a lot to bet on these days.
Especially live on a Monday night.
So table tennis and the KBO have been among the “alternative” choices for those who want sports action.
Make no mistake: Considered against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and a nation in turmoil, this is unimportant.
Nothing.
Zero.
Incredibly, massively trivial.
Yet this comes at a time when the reach of legalized sports wagering in the U.S. is expanding.
It has been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the federal law banning sports wagering, giving states the right to individually approve it.
As of now, at least 16 states have legalized sports wagering in place.
A few others have approved it and are in the process of implementing it.
Most of the remaining states are expected to join the crowd by the end of 2021.
In Colorado, for example, sports wagering became legal on May 1 — roughly six weeks after the sports world shut down.
The feeling is the same in other states, even as some sports events tentatively restart, usually minus fans.
For the states that implemented legalized sports wagering this year, it has seemed like opening a bar … without a liquor license.
Now, slowly and with great caution, sports are starting to come back.
In front of empty seats at the tracks, NASCAR is jamming two races a week into its resumed schedule. It’s taking tentative steps to gradually bring back spectators, starting with allowing 1,000 members of the military to attend Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and up to 5,000 spectators at Talladega on June 21.
Who had Kevin Harvick in the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 last Sunday at Atlanta?
UFC had four major events in May and another last weekend, UFC 250 at the APEX in Las Vegas.
The smart money was on Cody Garbrandt, who knocked out Raphael Assuncao with one second left in the second round.
Elsewhere, Bundesliga is back on the pitch in Germany, and there were nervous moments before Borussia Dortmund held on to beat Hertha 1-0 last weekend.
As noted, Russian table tennis is drawing unprecedented interest, and the KBO is in its opening weeks.
The PGA Tour returns (without fans) with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth this week. Marshals won’t have to hold up signs, mandating silence.
So there are more events to bet on than a few weeks ago.
There will be more soon.
But until the four North American major leagues restart or start, period, this still will seem strange.
Of course, “futures” bets can be made now, and they’ll be individually refunded if any of the leagues involved don’t crown champions.
Futures are for what-the-hell fun, too, and my choices below reflect more that kind of thinking than breaking down the fields, searching for clues and crunching numbers amid analytics, and painstakingly calculating the best “buys.” They’re a mix of what I think might happen, and what is worth a shot.
(Odds are from DraftKings Sportsbook)
NBA:
- Eastern Conference: Celtics +700
- Western Conference: Clippers +180
- Larry O’Brien Trophy: Clippers +333
The cynic in me says that the the NBA is often about storylines, and the sought-after storyline here will be that LeBron James gets back to the NBA Finals … this time with the Lakers.
But I’m going to take the Clippers to pull this off.
NHL:
- Eastern Conference: Rangers +1700
- Western Conference: Avalanche +350
- Stanley Cup: Avalanche +750
The Avalanche was my preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup, and despite a roller-coaster ride of a regular season, I’ve seen nothing to dissuade me from that. In fact, the hiataus likely will allow the Avalanche to get healthy again after a siege of regular-season injuries, including to Nathan MacKinnon.
The Rangers? See “storyline” above. Under these conditions, backing King Henrik Lundqvist to win back the No. 1 goaltending job during camp and then lead the East’s No. 11 seed through to the finals is worth a shot.
MLB:
- National League: Reds +1800
- American League: Twins +800
- Commissioner’s Trophy: Twins +1600
Amid everything else going on, with the fight continuing over how many games to play and how to divide the pie, it’s far from certain MLB will play at all.
But if it does, it will be under a temporary 2020 regional realignment, using home parks.
The shorter the season, the more likely it is for something goofy to happen.
NFL:
- AFC: Ravens +325
- NFC: Seahawks +1100
- Lombardi Trophy: Seahawks +2200
Hoping to plow on and play the full schedule as it has been laid out, the NFL’s guidelines for team activities at facilities and then beyond seems wildly impractical. But however it gets going and however the schedule plays out, I’ll take Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. I admit part of it is not quite buying into the Chiefs and 49ers as conference dynasties … yet.
And if the leagues get off the ground as currently outlined?
Single game lines can’ t be set until the schedules are firmed up, of course.
But in general, here are my first bets in each of the major leagues, whether made only in my head, online, through an app, or at a Colorado sports book.
(I should note the wisdom once passed along from Pat Caudill of the Daily Racing Form after a young sportwriter assigned to cover the thoroughbreds at Centennial Race Track said he had made picks only in his head: “Kid, don’t ever bet in your mind. You can only lose it once.”)
— NHL: In line with the King Henrik narrative, I’ll take the Rangers on the money line to beat the Huricanes in Game 1 of their qualifying series. (On the “road,” minus the last change and short change.) If he hasn’t won his way back into the net and the Rangers are going with Igor Shesterkin and Alexandar Georgiev instead, I’ll stick with this.
— NBA: The Lakers to win and cover in their first game of the return-to-play. The opposing coach, whoever it is, will muse that the officials have thought Jack Nicholson was in the front row.
— MLB: The Yankees on the money line in their first game against the Mets.
— NFL: Amid all the quarterback changes and side dramas to track, I’ll go with Philip Rivers and the Colts, currently favored by 7, to cover in the Sept. 13 opener at Jacksonville. And for the heck of it, I’ll put together a 10-game parlay ticket, plan what I’ll spend the winnings on, and be out of it by the middle of the first quarter in the first games.
May the games begin.
About Terry: Terry Frei is the author of seven books. His novels are Olympic Affair and The Witch’s Season, and among his five non-fiction works are Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming; Third Down and a War to Go; and ’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age. Information is available on his web site, terryfrei.com. His woodypaige.com archive can be found here.
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