LITTLE ROCK — Bettor smelling like a rose
The St. Louis Cardinals weren’t the only big winners after Friday night’s Game 7 of the World Series.
One lucky bettor hit the jackpot, walking away with a total of $375,000 after taking a chance on long odds at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas.
On Sept. 12, St. Louis was struggling and seemed likely to fall out of wild-card contention, prompting the MGM Grand to offer 500-1 odds for a National League pennant and 999-1 for a World Series title. One bettor took those odds, wagering $250 on each.
MGM International said last week that the bets were legitimate.
Jay Rood, an MGM vice president who sets odds at 12 Nevada-based sports books, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that long-shot bets are not that uncommon. The difference in this case was the amount of money bet on each ticket. Bettors generally put down $10 or $20 on bets at 500-1.
Rood told the Post-Dispatch that the bettor, who wishes to remain anonymous, wanted to bet even more, but “we scaled it back” to limit potential losses, and that the bettor’s timing was perfect. If the person had waited one more day, the odds would have been drastically lower.
Rood said when making the odds on the Cardinals he probably had too much faith in the Bravesnot collapsing and too much faith in the Phillies playing well in the playoffs.
“Looking back, I would’ve been a little more cautious about it,” he told the Post-Dispatch.
This time, the first bet brought in $125,000 and the second brought in $250,000.
Wait ... baseball ... unnamed bettor ... Has anyone seen Pete Rose lately?
Trading rings
World champion heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko, 40, has announced plans to step away from the ring and pursue a career in politics, intending to run for the presidency in his native Ukraine.
Klitschko, who served as chairman of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms party in 2010, said in a TV interview that his fans should not be upset with his decision, reminding Korrespondent.net that his brother, Wladimir was five years younger than him, “so he will continue fighting for a long time.”
Klitschko, 43-2 in the ring, holds the WBC belt, while Wladimir holds the IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO belts.
This won’t be the elder Klitschko’s first foray into the political arena. In 2006, he ran for mayor in Kiev, Ukraine, but came in second, even after hiring former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani as a campaign consultant.
Which begs the question, just how tough are Ukrainian politics?
Webheads
From Fark.com: “NBA sees own shadow, guaranteeing four more weeks of lockout, canceled games, general apathy”
At SportsPickle.com: “David Stern: “We may have to cancel the Arbor Day games.”
At TheOnion.com: “Lions fans excited to be booing again.” They said it ...
Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times, on the Baltimore Orioles new statue of Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson of Little Rock: “Pigeons are perplexed: Everything they drop hits his glove.”
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, on former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi being buried at a remote, isolated location: “Where is that - Tropicana Field ?”Quote of the day “Last year I’d be in
practice sometimes and be like ‘Why are we doing this?’ But this
year when we practice, everything we do is for a purpose.” Arkansas forward Marvell Waithe on practices with first-year Coach Mike Anderson
Sports, Pages 14 on 10/31/2011