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06/11/2007 - Long Pond, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steve Letarte made the right calls and got Jeff Gordon out front when the rains came to capture Sunday's rain-delayed Pocono 500 at the Pocono Raceway. The No.24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line ahead of Ryan Newman.
The victory was Gordon's fourth of the season and 79th of his Nextel Cup career.
"You need to be talking to Steve Letarte, he won this race," said Gordon. "We had a great race car, but without track position and without a great call like that...I can't believe we won this race."
Newman brought the field to the green flag after more than a three-hour rain delay, but it was Denny Hamlin that led the first lap. The winner of both races at Pocono in 2006, took up right where he left off.
Hamlin opened up a half-a-second lead over Kyle Busch as Newman faded to fourth. Then Stewart took up chase, passing Busch for second. Busch couldn't keep pace and fell more than two seconds behind the two leaders through the first dozen laps.
Martin Truex Jr., last week's winner at Dover, displayed his new-found confidence by slipping past Busch for third place, but he was more than four seconds behind Hamlin's torrid pace.
Hamlin maintained his one-second lead on Stewart through the first 25 laps. Truex Jr. was four seconds and the remainder of the field was six or more seconds back.
Hamlin brought the FedEx Chevrolet down pit lane on lap 27 for his scheduled first stop. When he came out, he wasn't as dominant. He and Stewart exchanged the lead a couple of times. And Truex Jr. was the fastest of the three, chopping a couple of seconds of the lead.
Robby Gordon blew a left-front tire on lap 49 to bring out the first caution of the afternoon. Hamlin didn't want, or need, any changes and the team got him off pit lane first.
After the pit stops, Newman's No.12 Penske Dodge seemed to awaken. On lap 55 he got around Hamlin for the lead. He was still in the lead when Dave Blaney slammed the outside wall.
There was a report of rain in the area and during the next round of stops there were a multitude of strategies. Jeff Gordon found himself out front by not pitting. But the faster cars weren't that far away. Newman was fifth, Stewart started eighth and Truex 11th. Hamlin had a slower stop, after taking four tires and restarted in 21st.
Hamlin was flying and in the first four laps he passed nine cars. With the rain in the distance, did he have enough time to get back into the lead?
The No.11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy cracked the top-10 on lap 78. Gordon was still leading, but Newman was chopping into the lead and Stewart was fourth. Truex Jr. was right there too, in fifth.
At the 80-lap mark, Gordon's lead over teammate Casey Mears was 1.238 seconds. On the next lap Newman got underneath Mears for second and took off after Gordon.
Gordon pitted on lap 83 and Newman inherited the lead. Stewart was in second and Truex Jr. was right on his rear bumper. Hamlin, the fastest car on the track, was up to eighth. He moved into the top-five on lap 85.
Newman held more than one second on Truex Jr. and Stewart was about two seconds back. Hamlin got around Matt Kenseth on lap 87 for fourth, but he was 7.941 seconds behind Newman.
Jimmie Johnson blew a left-front tire on lap 91 and a lot of cars ducked down pit lane. Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stewart and Truex Jr stopped.
Hamlin stayed out and took over the top spot. Then he too pitted on lap 93 and returned in 12th.
When would the rains come?
Now Edwards was in the lead...and yelling that he saw rain drops. Gordon was in second and Mears in third. Edwards held a 12-second lead over Gordon, but he pitted for fuel two laps from the halfway point.
Gordon had the lead and he could stay out until lap 114. Newman was faster than Mears and got around him for second place. He was two seconds behind Gordon. Truex was third and Hamlin was still flying and up to sixth.
Then the rains came and the caution flag flew on lap 105. They made one more lap under yellow and then the red flag ended the day.
Truex Jr., Mears and Stewart completed the top-five.
Gordon will leave the track with a 242-point lead over Matt Kenseth. Hamlin is third, 247 points back.
Next week the series travels to Brooklyn, MI for a race at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, June 24th.
<< Dynamo win 3rd straight as Crew remain winless in six
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A little over a week ago, Major League
Soccer's defending cup holder, Houston, looked like it was heading for a rough
stretch. The Dynamo were preparing for a three-games-in-eight-days stretch
after
<< DiNardo, A's blank Giants, complete sweep
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lenny DiNardo tossed six scoreless
innings and the bullpen did the rest, as the Oakland Athletics completed the
sweep of the San Francisco Giants with a 2-0 win at AT&T Park.
Santiago Casilla (2
<< Pettersen wins LPGA Championship
Havre de Grace, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Suzann Pettersen waited two months for
another chance. This time, she wouldn't let it get away.
The intense, long-hitting Norwegian won her first major Sunday by edging out
Karrie Webb at the McDonald's
<< Bloomquist, Mariners edge Padres
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Willie Bloomquist scored the go-ahead run on
a Jose Lopez ground out in the ninth inning, as the Seattle Mariners won 4-3
and completed a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park.
Ichiro Suz
Fouch wins again on Duramed Futures Tour >>
Hammond, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Allison Fouch fired a six-under 66 Sunday to
win the United States Steel Golf Classic, her second victory on the Duramed
Futures Tour this season.
Fouch finished three rounds at Lost Marsh Golf Course at
Big Unit outpitches Dice-K >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eric Byrnes went 3-for-5 with a double as
Arizona avoided a three-game sweep with a 5-1 victory over Boston at Chase
Field.
Veteran left-hander Randy Johnson started on the mound for Arizona and gave
LeBron's late surge not enough, as Spurs hold off Cavs for 2-0 lead >>
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Parker poured in 30 points on 13-of-20
shooting from the field as the San Antonio Spurs held off the Cleveland
Cavaliers, 103-92, in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Tim Duncan added 23 points, eight
Braves top Cubs; Lilly ejected in first inning >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ted Lilly was tossed in the first inning for
plunking Edgar Renteria and, though the Chicago bullpen pitched well for the
first seven innings, everything fell apart for Ryan Dempster in the eighth, as
the At
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.
Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.
MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .
''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''
Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.
He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.
''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''
Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.
Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.
With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.
Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
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