Jeter still leads AL All-Star balloting
Baseball Betting Lines
06/30/2009 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter remained the overall leader among American League players in fan balloting for the 2009 All-Star Game.
Jeter, who surpassed Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria for the top spot last week, has received 3,046,813 votes. Longoria remains a close second with 2,988,363 votes and both are comfortably ahead at their respective positions.
A likely lock for his fourth straight All-Star start, Jeter has a lead of 1,627,314 votes over Tampa Bay's Jason Bartlett with just three days remaining in the balloting.
Longoria, a reserve All-Star as a rookie last year, is almost a certainty to make his first start in the Mid-Summer Classic. He has a lead of 1,634,044 votes over perennial All-Star Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees at the hot corner.
The tightest races remain on the right side of the infield at first base and second base.
Boston's Kevin Youkilis has again moved in front of New York's Mark Teixeira at first. Teixeira had vaulted Youkilis last week, but the Red Sox slugger, who is now playing third base in Mike Lowell's absence, has 1,915,303 votes and leads Teixeira by just 40,047.
Texas' Ian Kinsler has a narrow lead over reigning AL MVP Dustin Pedroia of Boston at second. Kinsler's margin has been trimmed to a slim 6,830 votes after it was fewer than 59,000 last week.
Minnesota's Joe Mauer is still well ahead of Boston's Jason Varitek at catcher. Mauer has 2,851,819 votes to Varitek's 1,399,946.
The three starting outfield slots are held by Boston's Jason Bay, Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki and Texas' Josh Hamilton. The Angels' Torii Hunter is fourth and trails Hamilton by 144,981 votes for the final starting spot.
All-Star squads for both leagues will be announced on Sunday, July 5.
The 80th All-Star Game will be played July 14 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
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Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
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