Every caddie has a story: the salty Scot looping for tourists in the birthplace of the game, the congenial old Southerner impart time-earned wisdom on the hallowed fairways of Augusta National, the clean-cut mini-tour player earning quick cash to fund golf dreams of his own, the solitary vagabond, the master of the quick fix, the leveler of hard truths. They travel from port to port, walking and playing the most beautiful golf courses in the world. Nobody gets rich. There is no retirement plan. They only have each other–a brotherhood of crazy, colorful characters. Golf is the language they speak, and in most instances, the only thing they know as well. This is the life of the club caddie.

Loopers: A Caddie’s Twenty-Year Golf Odyssey by longtime caddie, John Dunn, is a stirring, candid and often laugh-out-loud funny narrative that chronicles the decades he spent caddying and playing historic tracks like Augusta, Shinnecock Hills, Olympic Club, Bandon Dunes, and the Old Course at St. Andrews. Dunn never expected that his summer job as a caddie at the local course in Connecticut might turn into something more. The lifers–as in ‘caddies for life’–that plied the link were an ensemble of misfits and degenerates that made the caddie yard look more like an OTB parlor than anything resembling a country club. Dunn’s stories are assuming, honest, and very good!

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Baseball and race relations have a long storied history together in America. Tom Dunkel’s new book, Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball’s Color Line, argues that when we speak of Jackie Robinson, Curt Flood, and other pioneers, we should also include Neil Churchill’s 1935 barnstorming squad from Bismark, North Dakota in the discussion.

During the Great Depression, one of the most improbable teams in baseball history was assembled by one of the sport’s most unlikely champions. A decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues, Churchill signed the best players he could find, regardless of race. Churchill field an integrated squad that took on all comers in spectacular fashion. Church drafted stars from the Negro Leagues, including Quincy Troupe, Hilton Smith, Ted Radcliffe, and the great Satchel Paige. Color Blind enlightens readers on this forgotten team.

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Everyone loves watching his or her favorite athlete shell out outrageous cash for stupidity. Our friends over at SeatCrunch provide this graphic which is very interesting. Enjoy!

Sportsbook Review is an industry leader in the offshore sports betting community and their innovation continues is one of the reasons they are so recognized. An example of that innovation can be seen in their odds tool, which basketball bettors can appreciate as they lay their action on the playoffs.

The tool can be likened to many utilities that a stock market investors on Wall Street might use. SBR’s odds tool provides bettors the live, up-to-the-second NBA odds, while letting them compare them across 32 different sportsbooks. There is a handy color-coding scheme that allows betters to determine which lines have just changed on the fly. The screen shows all of the basketball matchups available, which games have odds and allows the player easily convert the odds from American to decimal. Once the games have commenced, the scores, time and quarter are shown right in the tool.

The importance of this tool can’t be understated. For starters, just the comparison across all of the books is useful as players no longer have to resort to primitive ways. The previous option would be to log into their accounts at different shops and compare. Now this can quickly and efficiently be done from one screen. This helps discern which sportsbook has the best value on an underdog or the cheapest price on the favorite.

Professional bettors will appreciate the history of the line movements, which can uncover trends in the lines. Users can click on the lines at a specific sportsbook and see the details of where the betting line opened and all of the subsequent movements. That’s available for moneylines, spreads and totals. It also shows when the movement occurred, so players can see if the line moved as soon as it opened or if the line moved minutes before game time.

The stats are archived as well, which makes SBR’s odds tool not only state-of-the-art but one of the most important tools for bettors nowadays.

Booze Carriage is an NYC-based, grass roots start-up company modeled after seamless web. Booze Carriage offers free delivery of liquor, wine and beer arriving within 30-60 minutes to your door, with No Markups (competitive prices you would pay in the store). You can also order ice, mixers and condiments like limes and olives to ensure you have everything you need to make the perfect cocktail. We currently service the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens boroughs.

Nailed! is a dramatic biography of Lenny Dykstra—the heroic center fielder for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in the ’80s and ’90s whose gritty play earned him the nickname “Nails.” Dykstra’s unlikely post-baseball rise in the business world is a success story that is only matched by the sordid tale of his ultimate downfall.

From famously receiving financial guru Jim Cramer’s ringing endorsement as “one of the best” stock prognosticators, to hanging out with Charlie Sheen and numerous prostitutes, to holding court in his $15 million California home, Dykstra lived a highflying lifestyle. He was the toast of the business world before his litany of crimes were detected and his empire began to unravel in 2009, leading to a conviction and prison sentence in 2012 with more charges pending.

MV Comment: A must read for baseball fans. A thrilling, emotional journey for one of the game’s most interesting players.

By SBRForum.com

The Boston Celtics are losers of four games in a row, and on Tuesday night, they’re going to have their work cut out for them against the New York Knicks, the leaders of the Atlantic Division.

During this losing streak, all hasn’t been disastrous for the Celtics. They have been playing incredibly shorthanded, as they are without Rajon Rondo, Jared Sullinger, and Kevin Garnett. KG is out of the fold once again on Tuesday night, and that really could create some major matchup problems in the paint with New York coming to town.

However, these losses for Boston haven’t been brutal. The defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks on Friday came by 10 points, but the other three losses were only by a combined seven points, and they all were games that could have gone the other way.

New York meanwhile, is a team that you want to make your NBA picks on at the moment. A win on the road at the Utah Jazz to wrap up a West Coast swing really was what turned the tide in the other direction for the Knicks. Once they got back to Madison Square Garden, they were on their way to winning once again. Since that win over Utah, New York has rolled off three more victories in a row. Its winning streak is now at four games, and its cover streak is at five.

Getting Carmelo Anthony back in the lineup really has helped, as he is one of the top scorers in the whole league. He scored 65 points in two games against the Toronto Raptors last weekend, showing that he is clearly over the knee injury that cost him the mass majority of the road trip in the weeks prior.

Last year, the NCAA basketball betting world was shaken up when the #2 seed Duke Blue Devils lost to the #15 Lehigh Mountain Hawks as 11-point favorites. Now, the Dookies are back as a No. 2 seed once again, and they are going to try to go on a run here in the dance, starting with a clash against the Albany Great Danes.

The Great Danes only went 9-7 in the regular season in America East. Their conference was a lot better than it has been in previous seasons, but the fact that they were able to survive that conference tournament, winning the last game on the road at the Vermont Catamounts was impressive.

This is your prototypical tourney team that scares the wits out of some of the big boys. The talent isn’t there to stack up with the big guns, but Albany hits a high percentage of its three-point shots (36.4%) and plays stingy defense in the full-court press. The Great Danes only allow 60.3 points per game.

Duke is obviously playing with a bit of a chip on its shoulder. G Seth Curry, F Mason Plumlee, F Ryan Kelly, and G Quinn Cook, the top four scorers on this year’s team, all remember what it was like to lose to Lehigh in the first round last year, and they are going to try to avoid that embarrassment again in this one. Plumlee is a significantly better player now than he was at this time last year though, as the big man is averaging a double-double per game at 17.2 points and 10.2 boards per night.

Duke is 6-1 ATS in its last seven neutral site games, but it is just 1-4 ATS in its last five games played here in the dance.

Still, the Blue Devils are lined as 17 ½-point favorites in this Friday afternoon game played at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Golf fans everywhere are excited to witness this year’s Masters Golf Tournament that begins in April.  The Masters Golf Tournament is one of the longest running sports tournaments that’s been around for fans to enjoy since the early 1930s.  The tournament will take place this year in Augusta, Georgia at the Augusta National Golf Club and as always will bring with it many of the top golfers in the sport.  There’s one thing everyone is talking about with this upcoming tournament, however, and that’s Tiger Woods.

Experts everywhere are betting on Tiger Woods this year at the tournament after he’s proven that he’s more than willing and capable of getting back into the game.  Woods has been able to put ten wins under his belt since November of 2009 and he’s only got one more tournament left in his schedule at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before he’s ready to put all he’s got into the tournament in April.  He’s won the Arnold Palmer Invitational several times in the past and now he’s ready to kick it into gear at the Masters.

While some people speculate that his good fortunate at the Invitational and the Cadillac Championship has left him with nowhere to go but spiraling downward, the fact of the matter is that Tiger Woods is looking much better than he has in years.  It’s not completely out of the question that he might take the Masters by storm with his two earlier successes only just being a small taste of what’s to come from him.

The only thing that Tiger Woods needs to work on to be completely back on par with what he used to be is to get his weekend play times under control.  He hasn’t been doing so well in that department lately, but it looks like he’s en route to fix those issues as well.  It’s safe to say that it won’t be very surprising if Tiger Woods ends up winning the Masters – everyone’s already expecting it.

There are many great names appearing at the tournament this April, but no one has created as much buzz as Tiger Woods.  With two big wins already on his sleeve this year, there’s no reason why anyone should believe that he won’t be able to take the Masters as well.  He’s got not only his skills back, but he’s also been able to retain his confidence, which will go a very long way to helping him win this April.

Ever since the end of the football season, Sunday has been a day for a lot of the top teams in the league to face off in some marquee matchups. The big ones this Sunday are all games that we think the road team is going to be the right side to back.

The Boston Celtics have played well of late, picking up four straight wins and covers going against teams from all over the league. They’ve got the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road on Sunday, and that’s a game that probably won’t be won. Still, these gritty teams that play stellar defense have given the Thunder fits all year long, and Boston is probably going to be another one of those that sticks around until the final gun sounds.

Later in the afternoon, the Chicago Bulls are traveling to the Staples Center to face off with the always-overrated Los Angeles Lakers. Again, we have a team at home that is likely to be favored on the NBA odds against a team that is a pain defensively. C Joakim Noah can neutralize C Dwight Howard, and if that turns out to be the case, the rest of the game could be wide open. Can G Kobe Bryant do it all against a great defense? If the answer is no, Chicago can win this one outright.

And finally, the Miami Heat figure to have a 17-game winning streak headed into Sunday’s soiree with the Indiana Pacers. Miami has the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night, a game that shouldn’t be problematic, but coming home to face Indiana might be a different story. The Pacers have already picked up a win this year against the boys from South Beach, and they are looking to send a real message to what could be their foe in the Eastern Conference Finals. Could this be the day that the Heat finally fall? Perhaps it will, and perhaps it won’t, but either way, we want the points on our side.