Betting Baseball? Three Must-Have New Books
By Dana Smith (for Howard Schwartz) - Gambler's Book Shop Las Vegas.
With spring training in full swing, what savvy baseball bettor isn’t in there swinging compiling stats in anticipation of the great American pastime’s 2011 season? This review loads the bases with three gotta-have books that will guide you to making the best predictions on winners, losers and chokers.
First up is Betting Baseball 2011 (264 pgs, $24.95), this year’s edition of Henry Myers’ annual offering on the art and science of picking winners. Here’s a compact compendium of calculations, facts, and how-to that even a math moron can easily understand and execute. Starting off with the basics of betting baseball, Myers explains how to read a typical baseball line at a sports book, explaining each figure in the listing before moving on to the types of statistics that are most valuable to baseball bettors—not all statistics are created equal—and the money line, run line and totals.
One of the things that makes Myers’ book unique is his evaluation of MLB parks and umpires. “A homerun hit in Coors Field is not equal to a homer hit in Dodger Stadium,” he says, and then explains the concept of “park effect” and its importance to bettors. In the umpire section, in which he lists “home umpires” and “over/under umpires,” Myers gives his take on how their tendencies affect handicappers. Based on astute observations yet reading like a gossip column, his comments on each umpire are colorful: “Eric Cooper has an inconsistent strike zone and a bad attitude to go along with it.”
Myers emphasizes managing your betting bankroll—don’t they all?—but he uses a commonsense approach that makes it palatable. “Money management is best kept simple,” he says, and follows with down-home advice for folks who like to bet lots of games as well as guys who only bet once in a while. As for the Kelly Criterion, the bible of hardcore handicappers, he describes it as “a complicated, aggressive system designed to maximize profit,” inferring that you don’t have to use it to enjoy and profit from your excursions to the sportsbook.
In a nutshell, using Betting Baseball 2011 to guide you through the season may be the best bet you’ll make all year.
Next at bat is The 2011 KillerSports.com MLB Bible (110 pgs, $19.95), a valuable source of information you can use in implementing Myers’ recommendations. This big-page manual includes twelve sets of trends for each team: five play-on tends, five play-against trends; one play-under trend and one play-over trend. Each trend comes with the Sports Data Query Language (SDQL) that generates it, with a full section devoted to how to read and use the SDQL, and a list of each MLB team and its SDQL text. Probably best suited to intermediate and advanced handicappers, this reference should fill in any gaps in your knowledge base.
Rounding out the lineup is a dandy manual from Gamblers Book Club press, 2011 Major League Basebll Schedule & Record Keeper (152 pgs, $21.95). This has gotta be the ultimate tool for any avid fan. Divided into the American and National League by each division, this handy record-keeping book lists every game each team plays, along with a list of its pitchers, catchers, infielders, outfielders and designated hitters. Its big pages read horizontally to give you plenty of room to fill in each of nine columns. When Tampa Bay plays its opener against Baltimore on Friday, 4/1, you pencil in the Starting Pitcher, Opposing Pitcher, Score, Line, Over/Under, W, L, Bullpen and your notes.
I like this one because it’s all right there in front of me—I don’t have to ask my know-it-all brother-in-law who’s playing where and when, ya know what I mean?
These books are available at Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas. You can order them at www.gamblersbookclub.com or phone the store at 1-800-522-1777 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific time. Opened in 1964, GBC is located at 5473 S. Eastern between Tropicana and Russell, just a short drive from the Strip. View the store's complete line of books, CDs, videos and software at the web site.
