Picks, News and Analysis

On one side, the leader Portuguesa, with 67 points already guaranteed a spot in next year's Serie A and tries to secures the second division Championship. On the other, the vice leader Ponte Preta, totals 57 points and is very close to return to the elite competition of the country. With these features they face each other in a title fight atmosphere, Lusa and Macaca as they are both called, at 6:30pm EST in the Caninde Stadium.

Even though they have already secured a spot in next year's Serie A, there's no celebration climate on Portuguesa's side. During the week, the red and green team were quoted giving respect to their rivals from Campinas. Besides that, a victory against one of the direct adversaries in the title race can leave Lusa very close to the Championship. ...

I kept expecting the Rangers to break it open last night and they never seemed to break through. I have a small Rangers future but with the idiotic all star game advantage of home field for the Cardinals, the Rangers need to win this one. I read a stat this morning, the last 10 teams to win game 1 of the world series went on to win the title.

I really thought the Rangers were going to break out last night in the seventh and I am still confused with Ron Washington putting in Esteban Germán to pinch hit with runners on first and third and two out in the seventh. Every stat I look at in my spreadsheets tells me to take Texas tonight, but I just dont put alot of faith in these numbers when you are talking about the pressure of pitching in the world series. ...

Lasith Malinga who has made a late surge on the wickets tally will face Chris Gayle's power hitting when the Mumbai Indians face the Royal Challengers Bangalore in an All Indian T20 Champions League Final.

Bangalore's success has revolved around the top order players in Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli along with Gayle the trio has provided the main push to make the team go past 200-plus totals in two back-to-back games.
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That’s right it’s time for the Red River Rivalry.

This game almost slipped past me due to the line. I saw the Oklahoma -9.5 and thought, yeah, that’s about right. Then I looked deeper and thought, hey, not so fast there partner.

I remembered so vividly the game between Oklahoma and FSU earlier this season and what a fantastically brutal affair that was. I also remembered how Texas struggled at home earlier this season against BYU and how unimpressed my memory of Texas was.
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This is Utah’s maiden voyage in the Pac 12 and they will eventually fare well in this conference I believe. I don’t think it will be so much this year but we’ll see.

Arizona St will never be confused with a national contender but for that conference at this time they are not a bad team.
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Race #5 G1 Flower Bowl Invitational

We are HUGH on the #1 Deluxe. We like the change from Castro to Johnny V. and you can always expect a Euro shipper to improve on their 2nd start in N.A. while on Lasix. This filly is 3/1 ML and should be a decent price when the race goes off as the #8 will be bet heavily.
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Playoff time! This early game is a strange one to call, irregardless of the texas stats in december and wilsons numbers lately, I know the popular opinion on the boards for texas but the Rays are putting up some incredible numbers in September as well. Tampa Bay is off one of the most remarkable runs to the wild card in recent memory. They were actually trailing Boston by 10 games at the start of September and in the final game of the regular season they were down 7-0 in the eighth inning vs. the Yankees, and all Boston had to do was close out the ninth. It was an incredible comeback for the Rays in the final game of the season and for the whole month of September.
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Rice at Southern Miss

There are a few teams I never win with. I can bet on them or against them and it makes no difference. Southern Miss happens to be one of those teams. I never seem to be on the right side of their games. I guess I should just give up even trying but I have this stubborn streak.
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Rutgers at Syracuse

Syracuse benefitted from a bad call and an even worse replay that upheld the bad call in order to get the win last Saturday against Toledo. Take that out of the equation though and I would have to admit that I was impressed that the Orangemen were able to be in that game enough to even have it come down to something that close. I honestly though Toledo’s offense would be too much for them.
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