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As I See It, by Jimmy Vaccaro
October 23, 2001
Before I get to the main topics, let me touch on a few wrinkles of everyday life we can all relate to.
After the Monday night game in which I had the Giants, I caught up on some reading, sent a few emails to friends, then hit the sack around 11:30.
A few hours later, I was rudely awoken by a series of explosions. Given today's state of the world, I jumped out of bed to see if I still had the same address, which is just a short jump from the Vegas Strip.
My world appeared to be in order, so I went outside and noticed nothing strange. Then I did what we all do these days, turned on the TV to see what was up. But those special reports that none of us want to see anymore were mercifully absent.
So, it was a false alarm, and I returned to bed.
The next morning, I checked out a local news show to see if they had anything on the noise I had heard. It turned out that my old friend Steve Wynn imploded part of the Desert Inn to make way for his new spectacle, Le Reve, which means the dream en français.
Steve has made an art form of these events in the past, squeezing out enormous P.R. value. But considering the current world climate, he opted to take a low profile and ***w up the old D.I. in the dead of nite.
I rate him the greatest showman since P.T. Barnum. Just punch up www.lasvegassun.com and go to the archives for his recent speech on the future of gaming. It is an interesting read.
I am moving this week, and have one onerous task down and one to go. My line on either being the most aggravating choice is dead even.
1. Getting all the phone numbers and computer switched over to the new location, along with the dreadful thought of just moving.
2. Being audited by the I.R.S.
I have done both and would rather take the latter than the former. My reason being, the IRS might leave you an old bed to sleep on, but the moving company has a good chance of losing it.
These little indignations happen to all of us and I hope I didn't put anyone off by mentioning them.
On another topic, recently I had dinner with two guys who break down the math on sports gambling. We all agreed that with games turning around, sometimes twice in the last four minutes, it might not be possible to win from that point if you had to lay both the closing number and a price.
For instance, in that bummer of a Monday nite game between the Eagles and Giants, the score with a little over four minutes to go was Giants 9, Eagles 3. The Giants had the ball on their own 15 with a first and 10.
Now, for the sake of argument, say you had no action on the game and were given the opportunity of betting, but you would have to lay -160 plus the pointspread. I suppose the logical answer would be to take the Giants, and you would have lost on the favorite as the Eagles won 10-9.
In my discussion with the two number crunchers, we agreed that even from that late point in a game, it would be difficult to pick a winner.
Now the caveat for doing this on a regular basis is that you would have to do every game, not cherry pick the games that are 47-7, laying 6. Just look back at some of the strange endings we have seen this season and you might get the picture.
One game that comes to mind was the Miami-Pitt game of a few weeks ago. As the fourth quarter drew to a close, it looked as if Pitt had the game locked up. Then Miami, instead of running out the clock, kicked a 45-yard field goal to apparently get the cover.
But with time running out on 4th and goal from the 7, on what looked like a game-ending incomplete pass, the Hurricanes were called for interference. With new life, on the last play of the game Pitt scored to get the cover.
If you were on Pitt, you went from winning to losing to finally winning all within a span of 45 seconds.
Of course, it cuts both ways. I just wanted to share this with you and give readers something to think about.
All right, I've given out two losers in a row and it's time to get back on track. Central Florida is a five-point road favorite at Utah State. This is a bad scheduling spot for the warm weather team, and I think Utah State wins outright.
I'm moving this week, but hopefully that will not interfere with my getting your emails. Your comments are always appreciated. Write to me at vaccarosports@lvcm.com.
Stay well and stay loose,
Jimmy V.
October 23, 2001
Before I get to the main topics, let me touch on a few wrinkles of everyday life we can all relate to.
After the Monday night game in which I had the Giants, I caught up on some reading, sent a few emails to friends, then hit the sack around 11:30.
A few hours later, I was rudely awoken by a series of explosions. Given today's state of the world, I jumped out of bed to see if I still had the same address, which is just a short jump from the Vegas Strip.
My world appeared to be in order, so I went outside and noticed nothing strange. Then I did what we all do these days, turned on the TV to see what was up. But those special reports that none of us want to see anymore were mercifully absent.
So, it was a false alarm, and I returned to bed.
The next morning, I checked out a local news show to see if they had anything on the noise I had heard. It turned out that my old friend Steve Wynn imploded part of the Desert Inn to make way for his new spectacle, Le Reve, which means the dream en français.
Steve has made an art form of these events in the past, squeezing out enormous P.R. value. But considering the current world climate, he opted to take a low profile and ***w up the old D.I. in the dead of nite.
I rate him the greatest showman since P.T. Barnum. Just punch up www.lasvegassun.com and go to the archives for his recent speech on the future of gaming. It is an interesting read.
I am moving this week, and have one onerous task down and one to go. My line on either being the most aggravating choice is dead even.
1. Getting all the phone numbers and computer switched over to the new location, along with the dreadful thought of just moving.
2. Being audited by the I.R.S.
I have done both and would rather take the latter than the former. My reason being, the IRS might leave you an old bed to sleep on, but the moving company has a good chance of losing it.
These little indignations happen to all of us and I hope I didn't put anyone off by mentioning them.
On another topic, recently I had dinner with two guys who break down the math on sports gambling. We all agreed that with games turning around, sometimes twice in the last four minutes, it might not be possible to win from that point if you had to lay both the closing number and a price.
For instance, in that bummer of a Monday nite game between the Eagles and Giants, the score with a little over four minutes to go was Giants 9, Eagles 3. The Giants had the ball on their own 15 with a first and 10.
Now, for the sake of argument, say you had no action on the game and were given the opportunity of betting, but you would have to lay -160 plus the pointspread. I suppose the logical answer would be to take the Giants, and you would have lost on the favorite as the Eagles won 10-9.
In my discussion with the two number crunchers, we agreed that even from that late point in a game, it would be difficult to pick a winner.
Now the caveat for doing this on a regular basis is that you would have to do every game, not cherry pick the games that are 47-7, laying 6. Just look back at some of the strange endings we have seen this season and you might get the picture.
One game that comes to mind was the Miami-Pitt game of a few weeks ago. As the fourth quarter drew to a close, it looked as if Pitt had the game locked up. Then Miami, instead of running out the clock, kicked a 45-yard field goal to apparently get the cover.
But with time running out on 4th and goal from the 7, on what looked like a game-ending incomplete pass, the Hurricanes were called for interference. With new life, on the last play of the game Pitt scored to get the cover.
If you were on Pitt, you went from winning to losing to finally winning all within a span of 45 seconds.
Of course, it cuts both ways. I just wanted to share this with you and give readers something to think about.
All right, I've given out two losers in a row and it's time to get back on track. Central Florida is a five-point road favorite at Utah State. This is a bad scheduling spot for the warm weather team, and I think Utah State wins outright.
I'm moving this week, but hopefully that will not interfere with my getting your emails. Your comments are always appreciated. Write to me at vaccarosports@lvcm.com.
Stay well and stay loose,
Jimmy V.