2011 April at LinesMaker

Inevitability Theater: Philly Fans Booed the Robot

Actu­ally, the robot totally deserved the booing. According to those who saw the first pitch from that first-pitch-throwing robot a few min­utes ago, he bounced it to the plate.  Brain as big as a planet and he can’t fling a sphere 60 feet on the fly. I’m far less impressed with this “machines become self-aware” business. Your move, zombies.  

Chen Moves to 3–0 As Royals Top Indians

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The bullpen phone quit work­ing at just the wrong time. The bat boy unwit­tingly caused a power hit­ter to lay down a bunt in an RBI situation. Then in a shaky ninth inning they had an error, a hit bats­man and a bases-loaded walk. “And still we won a ball­game,” Kansas City man­ager Ned Yost exclaimed Tues­day night after the Roy­als held on for a wild 5–4 vic­tory over Cleveland. The long-woeful and per­haps lucky Roy­als crept to within one game of the sur­pris­ing Indi­ans in the AL Cen­tral with the help of Bruce Chen’s strong pitch­ing and Alex... 

SDSU’s Long Says Boise Needs to Get Rid Smurf Turf

Just four months into his tenure as San Diego State’s head coach, Rocky Long has decided to take aim at the newest — and arguably biggest — fish in the Moun­tain West Conference’s pond. Specif­i­cally, Long, not one to ever really put teeth to tongue, is call­ing out the Smurf Turf. Speak­ing on the conference’s spring coaches tele­con­fer­ence, Long lauded the addi­tion of Boise State to the league this year.  And then, of course, decided to fire a shot across their famed — or infa­mous in Long’s case — blue turf bow. “I think they ought to get rid of that blue turf.... 

Kansas City Chiefs 2011 Draft Preview

2010 Record: 10–6 Top Needs: WR, OT, NT First Three Picks: No. 21, No. 55, No. 86 Num­ber of Selec­tions: 8 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7) RECENT FIRST ROUND HISTORY: 2010 – Eric Berry (S, Ten­nessee); 2009 – Tyson Jack­son (DE, LSU); 2008 – Glenn Dorsey (DT, LSU), Bran­den Albert (T, Vir­ginia); 2007 – Dwayne Bowe (WR, LSU); 2006 – Tamba Hali (DE, Penn State); 2005 – Der­rick John­son (LB, Texas); 2004 – none; 2003 – Larry John­son (RB, Penn State); 2002 – Ryan Sims (DT, North Carolina).  

Northwestern F Shurna Declares for Draft

EVANSTON, Ill. —North­west­ern junior for­ward John Shurna has declared for the NBA draft. He has not hired an agent, mean­ing he could still return to school. The 6-foot-8 Shurna can go back to North­west­ern for one more sea­son if he with­draws his name by May 8. Shurna led the Wild­cats in scor­ing at 16.6 points a game and pulled down nearly five rebounds a game, despite being slowed by an ankle injury and a con­cus­sion. He has helped North­west­ern to back-to-back 20-win sea­sons and three straight NIT appearances.  

Toronto Rallies Over MLB Betting Favorite New York

The Toronto Blue Jays rolled past the New York Yan­kees 6–5 Tues­day, cour­tesy of Travis Snider who socked a dou­ble in the 10th inning. Attract­ing almost 65% of the MLB bet­ting action, the New York Yan­kees were the clear favorites against Toronto among Lines­Maker bet­tors. With –110 MLB odds, New York failed to live up to the expec­ta­tions of the major­ity of bet­tors as they lost to the Blue Jays (+104). The Blue Jays were trail­ing 5–3 in the begin­ning of ninth inning, before they scored twice off Mar­i­ano Rivera of New York to enter a tie. Jose Bautista home­red... 

Orlando Downs NBA Betting Favorite Atlanta

Dwight Howard poured in 33 points and 19 rebounds to help the Orlando Magic rally over the Atlanta Hawks, 88–82, on Tuesday. Attract­ing nearly 75% of the NBA bet­ting action, the Atlanta Hawks, with NBA lines at +9, were the favorites against Orlando among Lines­Maker bet­tors, if not the odd­mak­ers. How­ever, Atlanta failed to live up to the expec­ta­tions of the major­ity of bet­tors as they lost to the points-favorite Magic. Jameer Nel­son chipped in 13 points and eight boards for the Magic, who tied 1–1 in first round of play­off series. Hedo Turkoglu scored 10 points, includ­ing... 

Alex Rodriguez Aims to Return to Starting Lineup Wednesday

Alex Rodriguez was held out of the start­ing lineup tonight for the sec­ond straight day with con­tin­ued sore­ness in his oblique/lower back, but told Wal­lace Matthews of ESPN New York that he expects to return for Wednesday’s finale against the Blue Jays. “We decided to take one more day and play tomor­row,” Rodriguez said. “I think if it was dif­fer­ent cir­cum­stances, in Sep­tem­ber in the mid­dle of a pen­nant race, per­haps we could strap it on today. But I think we’re try­ing to be smart about it. We’re in the mid­dle of April. Gun to the head, there’s... 

Shields 4-hits ChiSox As Rays Stay Hot

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —Tampa Bay man­ager Joe Mad­don could sense early on that James Shields was head­ing for a big game. Shields struck out nine in a four-hitter and the surg­ing Rays beat the Chicago White Sox 2–1 on Tues­day night for their sev­enth win in eight games. “It was really fun to watch,” Mad­don said. “He kept his tempo. He kept his pace. The qual­ity of the loca­tions was severe. On the money all night long. I could tell he was on right from jump street.” Shields (1–1) out­pitched John Danks and walked one in his sixth career com­plete game, and first since... 

Suns’ Hill Elected to Spot on Hall of Fame Board

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Grant Hill has been elected to the Nai­smith Memo­r­ial Bas­ket­ball Hall of Fame’s board of gov­er­nors, the first active player to earn a position. The Phoenix Suns’ for­ward was elected to a three-year term, the Hall of Fame announced Tues­day. Hill will serve as one of 22 mem­bers of the board, chaired by Jerry Colangelo. Hill is a seven-time All-Star and the NBA’s co-rookie of the Year in 1995. Among the respon­si­bil­i­ties of the board of gov­er­nors are the man­age­ment of the Hall of Fame and the elec­tion process.