I am not handicapping baseball nor am I betting it this year.  That is very nice!  Capping bases is very time consuming for me as there are more factors in bases that change daily than in any other sport.  I am using the extra time (hours every day) to work on football and even hoops. 

I have gone down a couple of days to the NBA Summer League here in Vegas.  It is a lot of fun as you are sitting in primo seats watching future stars and other players trying to make it into the league.  Two years ago I watched Brandon Roy dominate the summer league.  You knew, as I wrote back then, that this guy was going to be a huge star. 

This year the Brandon Roy appears to be Jerryd Bayless, from Arizona now of the Portland Trailblazers, who is dominating the competition.  This guy can drive and hit from outside.  He is able to use the left hand and has an air of confidence that borders on arrogance.  He appears to be a talker on court, but deservedly so.  I have been impressed.  The Portland front office, run by general manager Kevin Pritchard, starting point guard on the University of Kansas 1988 national championship team, has pulled off some of the best drafts and trades over the past couple of years.  Watch out for the Trailblazers this coming year.  Don't watch out for Dallas, Denver, the Clippers, or the Suns this coming year.  Goldens State will be down, also.  Philly is up, Boston will have troubles repeating.

The player who has surpsrised me more than any other one is Kevin Love.  This is because I did not think he would be a very good pro.  He reminded me of Tyler Hansbrough from North Carolina who was a very good player within a very good system surrounded by very good players.  Love makes the passes, gets the rebounds, and is fouled at a very high rate.  He knows how to play the game.  Nah, he is not that athletic, nor tall, but he seems to get the job done.  Minny might move up a few notches this year.

Oh, a futures bet I made last year and won was betting the UNDER on the number of games that Shaquille O'Neal would play in the regular season.  If it is offered again at anything less than 41 games I will be betting the UNDER again.

There is talk that Portland might try to package some of their young talent in a trade for a veteran.  Also, don't be surprised to see the Pistons trade Chauncey Billups due to the emergence of Rodney Stuckey. 

I love the NBA.  There is more betting opportunities in the NBA than in any other sport.  I hit 65.6% on my NBA totals, 80-42, as documented by the Sports Monitor of Oklahoma.  Nobody was better in NBA totals.  I believe I have found a way to determine NBA totals that will continue to be very lucrative this coming season.  It is a lot of work, but the bottom line is what matters.

I will try and update my blog more frequently.  Sorry for the inactivity.  In May I took a trip to New York to go to a baseball game before they tear down Yankee Stadium.  I am not a Yankees fan, in fact, I still get a pain in my stomach whenever I recall the devastating loss my hometown Kansas City Royals had in the deciding game of the American League Championship Series in 1976 when New York's Chris Chambliss hit a walk-of home run in the bottom of the ninth off of Royals relief ace Mark Littell.    

In an interesting twist, the game I went to in NYC happened to be "Hat Day".  In July, we went back to Kansas City to visit friends and relatives.  We took in a Royals game which happened to be "Visor Day".  My hat collection grows!  My favorite is a Kansas City Monarch's cap from the Negro League Museum in Kansas City.  If you happen to be in KC, it is well worth the visit.  So is the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial overlooking downtown Kansas City.

The Royals park, Kauffman Stadium, named after the first owner of the Royals, Ewing Kauffman, still is a great place to take in a game even though it is 35-years old.  The fountains behind the outfield walls add a unique flavor to the "K" and you can pick up a great barbecue sandwich at the Gates Barbecue concession stand.  Ewing Kauffman was a great owner who spent millions of dollars of his own money to bring winning baseball to his hometown.  Unknown to the younger fans of today, the Royals had some great teams in the 70's and 80's with one of the most exciting players and clutch hitters of all time, George Brett.

Jim