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07/28/2010 - Thunder Bay, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Ellis is like any other player on Canada's junior national baseball team - following his passion by playing the sport he loves.
What's different about him and the rest of Team Canada's 18-and-unders is that they're chasing a dream very few people their age will ever experience.
So when the 18-year-old pitcher from Surrey, B.C. was selected by the San Diego Padres in the 35th round of the 2010 MLB Draft in June, Ellis accomplished something far from the norm of his peers.
He remembers following the draft online before going to school that day and how it sunk in later that night that his dream of making it to the major leagues was very much alive.
"I was sitting down and it hit me that I have an opportunity to still play pro ball and it doesn't really matter what round I get selected, but where I end up," said Ellis at the junior national team's workouts in Toronto earlier this month.
Where he is now is in Thunder Bay, Ont. representing his country and competing for a world title against the best young baseball players on the planet.
"It's special being able to play for your country," said Ellis, after throwing four scoreless innings in a 9-2 win over Panama at the Worlds on Tuesday night. "I've never had a chance to do that in a tournament like this."
Ellis, who has experienced the perils and spoils of being a star pitcher in his hometown of Surrey, said nothing's quite like donning the red and white on an international stage.
"I've played in a few national tournaments but compared to this, it's a whole new level," he said prior to arriving in Thunder Bay.
He's experienced that other level too, joining teammate and Texas Rangers' first round pick Kellin Deglan at the Seattle Mariners' pre-draft training camp prior to being selected by the Padres.
For a pitcher whose strengths lay in his ability to command the strike zone and keep hitters off balance with breaking pitches, Ellis said it was a little overwhelming to be in an environment where six-foot-five, 230-pound college players were a dime a dozen.
"It really was humbling knowing the kind of competition you're getting into, the guys you're competing for spots with," he said. "I know that I don't have the body type to be the 95-98 miles per hour fastball guy that strikes everybody out.
"I try to be efficient and stay within myself."
At six-foot-one and 180 pounds, Ellis said he focuses on fooling hitters with off-speed pitches rather than blowing them away with heat.
The right-hander's arsenal includes a slider he's been working on since spring training in Florida, one he said back-doors on righties and cuts in on lefties.
With a fastball topping out in the 88-90 miles per hour range, Ellis is constantly trying to figure out ways to maximize his strengths on the mound.
"I want to get a little bit better throwing to both sides of the plate with all my pitches," he said, describing the benefit of working with guys such as pitching coach and former major league pitcher Paul Quantrill. "We have really good coaches with a lot of good insight and professional experience."
Ellis knows locating his pitches will be key in a tournament like the Worlds, where Padres' scouts are sure to be in attendance as he tries to pitch his way into a major league contract.
Should the Padres choose not to sign him before the August 15 deadline, Ellis will attend Florida International in Miami, a Division I school where he expects to compete for a spot in the starting rotation.
<< Talbot adds heat to Winter Classic
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thank goodness the NHL still has a few
guys like Max Talbot.
Today's athletes are generally so concerned with image that they are constantly
guarding themselves against saying something controversial. If y
<< Royals demote Marte, call up Bullington
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Royals optioned reliever
Victor Marte to and recalled pitcher Bryan Bullington from Triple-A Omaha
Wednesday.
This will be Bullington's second stint with the big league club this s
<< Raul completes Schalke switch
Gelsenkirchen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Madrid legend Raul has
confirmed the new chapter in his career by joining Bundesliga side Schalke.
The 33-year-old striker has agreed to a two-year contract with Schalke after
officia
<< McGowan joins St Mirren on loan
Paisley, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St Mirren have signed striker Paul
McGowan on a season-long loan deal from SPL side Celtic.
The 22-year-old has made just a handful of starts for the Bhoys to date and
has previously been loaned
CFL East: Blue Bombers dominant with Jyles at the helm >>
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The East division took full advantage of
home cooking last week, as Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg all won within their
friendly confines. Hamilton was the lone East team to fall, as touchdowns in
their match
PGA Championship Hole-By-Hole Preview >>
Haven, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) -
HOLE ONE - Par 4 - 408 yards: Bending from right to left, the opening hole on
the Straits Course gives the player his first glimpse of mighty Lake Michigan,
not to mention the myriad bunkers strewn across the cours
Sochaux adds Maiga from Le Mans >>
Montbeliard, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sochaux completed the signing of Mali
international striker Modibo Maiga from Le Mans on Wednesday.
Maiga scored seven goals in 32 appearances for Le Mans last season, but after
the club was relega
Pironkova knocked out in Istanbul >>
Istanbul, Turkey (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon semifinalist Tsvetana
Pironkova was a second-round upset victim Wednesday at the $220,000 Istanbul
Cup hardcourt tennis event.
Russian-born Aussie Anastasia Rodionova upended the fi
2007 Academy Award Betting : Oscars odds
The 79th Annual Academy Awards odds , which will air February 25th, is sparking an interest throughout the nation with the announcement of its nominees. As the public chooses their favorites, sportsbooks are creating odds for one of the biggest entertainment betting nights of the year.
Whether its at a “Oscar Party” or in an on line sportsbook, entertainment gambling on award shows represent a huge increase in betting. As the public speculation mounts, MySportsbook.com, the largest and most respected sportsbook on the web, posted odds on who is going home with a “Golden Best Friend.”
“ We see a majority of our entertainment wagers come from the Academy Awards,” said MySportsbook.com spokesperson, Tim Dalton. “This is a competition that applies to everyone. These are the people that entertain us on a daily basis and you want to see them win.”
MySportsbook.com posted the following odds for Academy Awards:
Odds to win the Achievement in Directing:
Alejandro González Iñárritu "Babel": 8/1
Martin Scorsese "The Departed": 2/17
Clint Eastwood "Letters From Iwo Jima: 4/1
Stephen Frears "The Queen": 12/1
Paul Greengrass "United 93": 15/1
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Leonardo DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond": 11/1
Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson": 20/1
Peter O’Toole in "Venus": 16/5
Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness": 16/1
Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland": 1/11
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Penélope Cruz in "Volver": 18/1
Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal": 15/1
Helen Mirren in "The Queen": 1/50
Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada": 10/1
Kate Winslet in "Little Children": 20/1
Best Animated Feature Film:
"Cars": 1/3
"Happy Feet": 2/1
"Monster House": 20/1
Best Foreign-Language Film of the Year:
"Water" – Canada: 22/1
"The Lives of Others" – Germany: 7/2
"After the Wedding" - Denmark: 24/1
"Days of Glory (Indigenes)" – Algeria: 23/1
"Pan's Labyrinth" - Mexico: 1/10
Odds to win the Best Live-Action Short Film:
"Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)": 6/5
"Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)": 7/2
"Helmer & Son": 5/2
"The Saviour": 6/1
"West Bank Story": 7/2
Odds to win the Best Original Screenplay:
"Babel": 7/4
"Letters From Iwo Jima": 3/1
"Little Miss Sunshine": 21/20
"Pan's Labyrinth": 11/4
"The Queen": 5/4
Best Motion Picture of the Year:
"Babel": 11/4
"The Departed": 1/2
"Letters from Iwo Jima": 15/2
"Little Miss Sunshine": 17/10
"The Queen": 20/1
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine": 11/10
Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children": 10/1
Djimon Hounsou in "Blood Diamond": 9/1
Eddie Murphy in "Dreamgirls": 2/5
Mark Wahlberg in "The Departed": 5/1
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Adriana Barraza in "Babel": 14/1
Cate Blanchett in "Notes on a Scandal": 11/1
Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine": 2/1
Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls": 1/8
Rinko Kikuchi in "Babel": 11/1
Film To Win Most Oscars:
Dreamgirls: 2/3
Pans Labyrinth: 6/5
The Departed: 6/1
The Queen: 11/1
Babel: 15/1
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: 11/1
Little Miss Sunshine: 15/1
Additional sports and entertainment odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
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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