Good morning!
Sports betting ads are ubiquitous on media platforms from radio to television to podcasts. Online betting companies pay good money for the airtime and nobody wants to kill the golden goose. Consequently it took a British periodical to criticize the industry’s dishonest business model.

“Good players are quickly identified and their stakes limited to a few dollars or even pennies,” reported The Economist, a London-based weekly. “Being more open about that practice, or even relying on it less, would do a lot to dispel fears that the odds are stacked against the player.”

Indeed, odds that are stacked like sandbags in a hurricane. On FanDuel, a $10 moneyline wager on the Bills to beat the Patriots this weekend will net 91 cents. Put down a sawbuck, watch the Bills romp and get back $10.91. Such a paltry return would make even a banker snicker.

Patient players willing to take the meager return would lose in the long run because favorites like Buffalo or the Packers on Monday lose often enough to keep the house in the black.

Sad to say, I remain a member in good standing on FanDuel.

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Navy conquered Army on the gridiron last week, 31-13, in the 125th meeting of the two service academies. Amherst’s Terry Kennedy was enrolled at West Point the year Army turned down an invitation to the Sugar Bowl.

The next morning, said Kennedy, cadets arrived at Grant Hall to find every sugar bowl from every table in the 4,000-seat dining area stacked into a pyramid. “I don’t think they ever caught the cadets who did it,” said Kennedy. “It had to take a while.”

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UMass, the prodigal son of the Mid-American Conference, doesn’t yet know the who, when and where of next season’s conference football schedule. “We usually post those around March,” said a MAC spokesperson.

According to FBSchedules.com, UMass will open with back-to-back home games against Temple and Bryant on Aug. 30 and Sept. 6, followed by road games at Iowa on Sept. 13 and Missouri on Sept. 27. Games with UConn and Boston College were supposed to be on the schedule but now appear to be off.

Five of the 12 teams from the MAC qualified for a bowl game. Last week Western Michigan lost to South Alabama, 30-23, in front of 12,021 fans at the Salute to Veterans Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., and on Friday in Orlando MAC champion Ohio played Jacksonville State in the Cure Bowl. 

On Monday, Northern Illinois kicks off against Fresno State in the Idaho Potato Bowl and on Thursday, Toledo plays Pitt in the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit and Bowling Green plays Arkansas State in the 68 Ventures Bowl in Mobile.

Just think, a year from now you could be packing for Boise.

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Tickets start at $45 to watch UConn play UNC in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl at Fenway Park on Dec. 28, and $74 for the BC game versus Nebraska in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Emails are exhorting fans to “Buy Your Tickets in Advance: As a Pinstripe Bowl fan, you know that tickets can sell out quickly.” 

Yeah right, 50,000 fans are going to stampede Yankee Stadium to watch two out-of-town teams, one from Boston no less.

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Speaking of BC, Scott Pioli had high praise for first-year coach Bill O’Brien on Tom Curran’s Patriot Talk podcast. “Masterful,” said the six-time NFL executive of the year. “He got back to the basics. They were a better team blocking. They were a better team tackling. They didn’t have a lot of dumb penalties. They didn’t do things to lose games.”

The Eagles won three of their last four against Syracuse, North Carolina and Pitt and are 2.5-point underdogs against Nebraska next week.

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Social News: The Loyal Order of the Blade convened at John and Denise Paresky’s home in Deerfield on Dec. 13 to reminisce about playing for Lunt Silversmiths in the Greenfield Hockey League. Tom Echeverria bought and shucked 50 oysters (no one got sick) and Todd Boynton recruited three new pickleball players. A fun time was had by all.

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Red Sox fans are gaga over left-hander Garrett Crochet who is 9-19 in 219 innings over parts of four seasons. Getting him from the White Sox for 23-year-old rookie catcher Kyle Teel was like trading gold for silver.

Catchers are a team’s backbone and finding a good one is like finding a good quarterback. The White Sox got Pudge Fisk after a contract snafu made him a free agent, and now they have another potential great catcher in Teel.

Lefties don’t fare well in the shadow of the Green Monster. Yankees ace Whitey Ford was 7-6 with a 6.16 ERA at Fenway Park, according to Rick McNair of Bosox Injection.

Eight years ago the White Sox traded southpaw Chris Sale to Boston for infielder Yoan Moncada, pitcher Michael Kopech and two players who have since retired.

In 2019 Sale went winless in 13 starts at Fenway Park. After averaging seven wins a season in Boston he was traded to Atlanta last December and won 18 games and the Cy Young Award. Nobody saw it coming because in Boston every day is Halloween and every trade comes back to haunt them.

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The Bastards of Boston Baseball’s Terry Cushman on what other teams think of Boston’s front office: “I think it rubbed the industry the wrong way how Chaim Bloom was treated on the way out. Boston is toxic. They have no friends anywhere, in any sector of the sport. Boston is that team where if you’re going to a party you ask, is Boston going to be there? If they are, I’m not going.”

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SQUIBBERS: After UVM won the D-1 soccer title on Monday, Max Kissell who scored the winning goal told the Boston Globe: “There’s no Cinderella. It’s not luck or whatever. It’s will. It’s skill. And it’s talent.” … The Catamounts tied UMass, 2-2, on Oct. 1 in Burlington. … UVM dropped football in 1974. Their last grid game was against AIC and they lost, 41-15. … Congrats to Dick Allen for being elected to the Hall of Fame. Allen once appeared on the cover of SI standing in the dugout juggling five baseballs with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. … TV analyst and podcaster Ross Tucker called Drake Maye “Favre-ian” after Sunday’s game in Arizona. … The SportsHub’s Tony Massarotti says Pats coach Jerod Mayo needs to understand one thing about the media: “They’re not your friend.”  … According to a WFAN stat hound, Giants quarterback Tim Boyle is 0-11 in games where he’s thrown at least one pass. … UMass Lowell advertises on the Patriots radio network, so why doesn’t UMass-Amherst? … Patriots Football Weekly editor Paul Perillo admitted to the Sports Hub’s Michael Felger that he once got tossed from a high school tournament game. “What’d ya say?” asked Felger. “I asked if he was from Dighton or Rehoboth.” … The Athletic reports that Jets owner Woody Johnson is letting his teenage sons Brick and Jack influence front office decisions. “I answered to a teenager,” deposed GM Joe Douglas told friends. … Cardale Jones has found his niche working for an NIL agency. “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play football?” Cardale asked when he was at Ohio State. “We ain’t come here to play school.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com