Las Vegas oddsmakers favor Chicago Cubs to repeat in 2017

LAS VEGAS — The Chicago Cubs have already broken the curse and won a World Series.

Now, oddsmakers in Las Vegas predict the team will become only the third in almost 40 years to win it a second straight time.

The city’s sports books like the team to win it all, with some making the Cubs a 7-2 favorite. Other favorites are the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers.

“It’s a team that wasn’t built for the short run; it was built for the long run, and they have the capability of being a strong contender for years to come,” Jay Kornegay, sports book director at the Westgate Las Vegas, said about the Cubs. “I’m not saying it’s a dynasty, but it’s certainly looking like it could be.”

The Cubs, who open against the Cardinals in St. Louis on Sunday, are 7-2 favorites at Westgate, followed by the Indians at 5-1 after opening at 12-1.

The American Gaming Association has estimated that $36.5 billion will be wagered on Major League Baseball this year, most of it illegally through offshore websites and bookies.

Sports bettors in Las Vegas have always loved the Cubs. Even when they had no chance to make it to the World Series, people would put money on them.

“Usually, they are 15-20 spots down the list and still have drawn lots of tickets and money, creating big liabilities for sports books over the years,” said Jay Rood, vice president of race and sports books at MGM Resorts International, where the Cubs are a 3-1 favorite to win it all. “The Cubs have nearly twice as many tickets written as the next closest team, which is the Indians.”

The Caesars Palace sports book has written 1,700 tickets on the defending champions and 1,200 on the runner-up Indians. The Dodgers, with their loyal California following, have about 800 tickets.

Director Frank Kunovic said the betting line at the hotel-casino for the number of games the Cubs will win is at 96.5. For the Dodgers, it’s 94 and the Indians 93.5.

At Wynn Las Vegas, the Cubs are projected to win 96 games, the Indians 94 and the Red Sox 92.

“Boston’s got a good team. They were solid before what happened to (David) Price,” Johnny Avello, the Wynn’s longtime oddsmaker and sports book director, said referring to the left-hander’s ailing elbow. “But the Cubs are as good as they were last year, maybe even better. Therefore, there’s no reason not to make them the favorite.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Great expectations: Indians eye World Series title after ’16 run

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Above the small cactuses and flowering plants dotting the concrete-blocked plaza outside the doorway to Cleveland’s training complex is a new sign that serves as both a reminder and motivator.

“American League Champions 2016,” it says.

The Indians have some unfinished business.


One swing away from beating the Chicago Cubs in an epic World Series last year, the Indians, who pumped up their payroll to nearly $130 million by winning baseball’s offseason with the surprise signing of free-agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion this winter, have their sights set on a return to the postseason — and this time winning it all.

“Everyone is very proud of what we accomplished last year, but everybody wants that one more run,” Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis said Sunday. “Everybody wants to get back. We finally got a taste of that fruit, and we want to be there and we want to stay there.”

With one of baseball’s best starting rotations, deepest bullpens and a lineup counting on the return of All-Star Michael Brantley from injury, the Indians, who lost 94 games in 2012, are positioned to make another run at ending a World Series title drought stretching to 1948 — now the majors’ longest.

Cleveland has vaulted from powderpuff to powerhouse.

The Indians are determined to erase the memory of last year’s Series when they gave away a 3-1 lead to the Cubs, who completed their comeback by winning an unforgettable Game 7 on Nov. 2 in extra innings. Chicago’s victory not only triggered a celebration on the soggy grass in Progressive Field, but a national outpouring of affection for the lovable Cubbies and their fans, who waited 108 years to sip championship champagne.

There was obvious heartache in Cleveland. But also hope.

By going so far in the postseason despite not having Brantley, missing starters Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar and losing starter Trevor Bauer in the AL Championship Series when he sliced open his right pinkie while repairing a drone at home, the Indians showed resiliency, confidence and a glimpse of their potential.

They were one step away, and this year the Indians are better prepared to take it.

Kipnis pointed to the Kansas City Royals, who bounced back from losing Game 7 of the World Series in 2014 to winning it the following year, as a model for the Indians.

“They knew they wanted to be right back there,” he said. “They knew what it might take or fill in the hole from what they were missing the year before and they went out and did it. We’re kind of hoping to follow that path and there are guys who now know what it takes and what they need to work on and what they need to kind of fix to get back there. It gives you that past experience that now you don’t have to ask any questions. You have that experience yourself.”

With a light rain falling and the nearby Estrella Mountains shrouded in low clouds, manager Terry Francona laid out his expectations during a team meeting on Sunday. Francona said he spent the past week stressing over how to deliver the proper message — “cutting and pasting the old-fashioned way, erasing” — as he felt he owed his players a clear outlook for 2017.

Francona wants his players to be proud of what they accomplished, but not to dwell upon the success or be satisfied. He reminded them not to cut corners or to take anything for granted.

As great as it was, last season is over.

“Our players have with their talent, and with the way they have played, people think they have a chance of doing some pretty good things,” he said. “Now you gotta go out and do it and there’s a way to do it. … if you got rewarded for last year, we would do it. Like if (baseball) said, ‘Hey, man, you went to the World Series last year, you get five extra wins.’ We’d take them. But that’s not how it’s going to be.”

The Indians were attentive while Francona spoke, and Kipnis said without being disrespectful, most off the players knew the message already.

“Guys were almost not like, ‘We know,'” he said. “But was like, ‘Hey, we know. Let’s get-this-going-kind-of-thing.’ It wasn’t like we’re too good for it by any means. It was we’re right there with you, and let’s get back to work — right now. You could get that sense around the room, and I think it’s a real good thing.”

NOTES: Francona isn’t ready to name ace Corey Kluber his opening-day starter, and said the club is “slowing” the right-hander down early in camp. Kluber pitched 215 innings during the regular season and another 34 1/3 in the postseason, making three starts on short rest. “If he’s not ready for Game 1, we can adjust,” Francona said. “We’re more than willing to, because there’s a lot at stake over the course of the year. We know opening day is a big deal, but we want him to position himself where he’s ready to log as many innings as we need.” The Indians open at Texas on April 3.

source: sports.inquirer.net

‘Next year’ finally arrives for joyous Chicago Cubs fans

CHICAGO — Next year is here.

At exactly 11:47 p.m. local time, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series that has eluded them for 108 years. Fans who packed bars to watch the games on television near Wrigley Field — neither of which existed back in 1908 — erupted in cheers before swarming onto the streets just before midnight Wednesday to celebrate in the shadows of the statues of Cubs greats Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and legendary announcer Harry Caray.

As the game ended, the roar from inside the bars and the throng of fans on the street was deafening, before the crowds both inside and out sang “go Cubs go” at the top of their lungs.

As the celebration progressed, thousands of fans poured into the streets leading away from Wrigley, many of them singing “We Are The Champions.”

Fans hugged each other, many of them crying. They took each other’s picture and pictures of themselves, and took turns writing their names and words of congratulations in chalk on Wrigley’s brick walls. Some got on friends’ shoulders to find spots high up on the walls that were not yet covered with names of fans.

An hour after the game ended there were still thousands of people in the ballpark neighborhood, known as Wrigleyville, and there were still fireworks exploding every few minutes.

“This was torture,” said Mike Delmanowski, a lifelong Cubs fan who flew to Chicago from California just to be surrounded by other Cubs fans. “I would not have missed it for anything.

“I am so proud to be a part of it,” said his wife, Sue, who was crying off and on from the fifth inning.

Mike Dillon said all he could think about was his father, who died without ever seeing what Dillon witnessed.

“I came here by myself, but I’m not alone at all,” said Mike Dillon, 57, of Joliet.

Craig and April Likhite drove to Chicago from Evanston with their 10-year-old son, Cade, because they wanted to see history made with other fans as close to Wrigley Field as possible.

“To finally see this in my lifetime with my son here with us, it means everything,” Craig Likhite said. “This game with all the ups and downs showed him exactly what it is to be a Cubs fan.”

“My dad passed away this year. He would have loved this,” said Likhite, 50.

Judy Pareti flew in from New York City to watch the game at Murphy’s Bleachers, a neighborhood sports bar in a building where her grandfather lived and where his hot dog stand was located. “My dad and grandfather owned it, and I was born here,” she said. “I would never want to be anywhere but here for this.”

Liz Wolfe, a 36-year-old physical therapist, said, “People always said if the Cubs win the World Series it would be like hell freezing over. I’m still in shock. This is the most exciting thing in my life.”

Long-time Cubs fan Bob Newhart, who grew up in the Chicago area, tweeted his congratulations to the team. “The billy goat is dead!! As I’ve said, from the beginning, I’m getting too old for this!,” the 87-year-old comedian wrote, alluding to one of the oldest alleged curses on the team.

The 8-7 extra-inning victory over the Indians at Progressive Field in Cleveland came after the emptiness and bitterness of years past when the Cubs found spectacular and sometimes downright strange ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Every Cubs fan knows those stories, starting with the 1969 team loaded with Hall of Famers that amassed a 9 1/2-game lead in mid-August before they started losing game after game in such numbers that the Miracle Mets not only caught them but ended up winning the National League East by 8 games.

Then came 1984. After taking the first two games of the National League Divisional Series against the Padres at Wrigley, the Cubs needed just one win in San Diego to advance to the NLCS. They were swept in three games on the West Coast.

There were other playoff losses but none as painful as in 2003 when in a where-were-you-when-it-happened moment that Cubs fans still have trouble comprehending, Steve Bartman deflected a ball that seemed destined for Moises Alou’s glove with the Cubs just five outs from reaching the World Series.

Fans watched in horror as the Cubs fell apart, and few who left the park that night believed the team would win game seven the next night. They didn’t.

But that was all in the past as Cubs fans throughout Chicago celebrated into the early hours of Thursday.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Chapman, Cubs top Indians 3-2 to force Game 6 in World Series

CHICAGO — They’ve waited 108 years for a championship. So with this World Series on the verge of slipping away, the Chicago Cubs could not wait any longer.

Manager Joe Maddon summoned closer Aroldis Chapman from the bullpen in the seventh inning for the first eight-out save of his big league career, needing to hold off the Cleveland Indians in Game 5.

As nervous fans fretted at Wrigley Field, Chapman fired his 100 mph heat and preserved the Cubs’ 3-2 win Sunday night, cutting Cleveland’s lead to 3-2.

The Cubs won a Series game at Wrigley for the first time since Game 6 in 1945.

“High anxiety,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “A lot of deep breaths. Every pitch gets bigger and bigger as the game goes on. It’s unbelievable. Great win here, we sent these fans off with a win, now we have to go to Cleveland and win.”

Now, the team that led the majors in wins this year will try to extend its season again Tuesday night when Chicago right-hander Jake Arrieta faces Josh Tomlin at Cleveland in Game 6.

Chicago is trying to become the first club to overcome a 3-1 Series deficit since the 1985 Kansas City Royals and the first to do it by winning Games 6 and 7 on the road since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Cleveland, in search of its first title since 1948, is in search of its third-ever title and has won the championship at home just once, in 1920.

Chapman hadn’t pitched in the seventh inning since 2012. He threw 42 pitches, 15 of them at least 100 mph.

The lefty struck out four and fanned Jose Ramirez, who had homered earlier, with 101 mph heat to end it.

With the crowd at the Friendly Confines desperate for a win, Kris Bryant homered to start a three-run burst in the fourth off Trevor Bauer.

That gave Jon Lester a 3-1 lead. The Indians nicked him for a run in the sixth, and Carl Edwards Jr. took over to begin the seventh with a 3-2 edge.

Chapman came in with a runner on second and one out. He stranded the potential tying run at second base in the seventh and at third in the eighth, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

Lester, the Game 1 loser, improved to 4-1 in Series play by allowing two runs and six hits.

Ramirez homered in the second to put the Indians ahead. Cleveland closed within a run in the sixth when Rajai Davis singled, stole second scored on a two-out single by Francisco Lindor.

Mike Napoli singled against Edwards leading off the seventh and took second on a passed ball by rookie catcher Willson Contreras, who had just replaced David Ross.

Carlos Santana flied out, and Chapman came in to strike out Ramirez with a 100 mph pitch. He hit Brandon Guyer on the left leg and retired Roberto Perez on a groundout as fans screamed in relief.

Then in the eighth, Davis singled with one out on a hard grounder down the line that Rizzo stopped with a dive — Chapman took a few seconds before heading to cover first, leaving Rizzo with no one to throw to. Davis stole second, and after Jason Kipnis fouled out, swiped third standing up.

Lindor, Cleveland’s hottest hitter, took a 101 mph pitch at the knees for a called third strike, then stood in the batter’s box for nearly 20 seconds in anger and frustration.

Bauer, his pinkie seemingly healed from a cut sustained while playing with a toy drone during the AL Championship Series, dropped to 0-2 in the Series, giving up three runs and six hits in four innings.

After a pair of relatively balmy autumn nights on the North Side, the temperature dropped to 50 degrees at game time and a 10 mph win added chill. Maddon wore a ski hat with a blue pompom rather than a baseball cap.

Bryant, in a 1-for-15 slide, led off the fourth with a drive into the left-field bleachers, where a fan in the first row dropped it.

Rizzo sent the next pitch off the ivy on the right-field wall for a double, admiring its flight before hustling, took third on Ben Zobrist’s single and came home with the go-ahead run when Addison Russell reached out and topped a pitch down the third-base line for an infield single.

Jason Heyward took a called third strike, slumping Javier Baez dropped a bunt down the third-base line for a single that loaded the bases and Ross, a 39-year-old making perhaps his final big league start, hit a sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead.

CARBON COPY

Ross allowed Santana’s second-inning foul pop to glance off his glove and Rizzo batted the ball in the air with his bare hand, then gloved it. It was similar to Game 6 in 1980, when Philadelphia first baseman Pete Rose grabbed Frank White’s foul pop after it nicked off catcher Bob Boone.

WEB GEM

Cubs right fielder Heyward climbed the brick wall in the right-field corner, then reached back to catch Bauer’s wind-blown foul fly.

MOVING ON

This was the last game with the bullpens in foul territory at Wrigley, where new bullpens under the bleachers are to open next season. Zobrist had to climb the mound to catch Kipnis’ seventh-inning fly.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Finally! A Cubs team that ain’t afraid of no ghosts

CHICAGO — Grown men didn’t weep.

Maybe because anyone old enough to actually remember the last time the Chicago Cubs made it to the World Series would be at least 71 and know enough to stay home instead of parking himself in the middle of the pandemonium that engulfed Wrigley Field late Saturday.

Not so 78-year-old Billy Williams, a Hall of Famer and Cubs’ mainstay through the 1960s and ’70s. This was a moment he had to see for himself.

“I think about the guys I played with who never got to see this,” Williams began. “Especially Ernie Banks and (Ron) Santo. Man, we tried so hard for so many years and now they’re gone. … And I can’t tell you how long these fans stuck with us or how many times I heard stuff like, ‘This is the year.’

“But this,” he said with a sweep of his arm toward the still-rocking grandstand, “is finally the year.”

After believing their team was cursed by a goat, crossed by a black cat and undone by one of their own, after checking their sanity at the turnstiles for seven decades and counting, fans of the team on the North Side of town no longer needed any excuses . None needed reminding, either, that there was one hill still left to climb, starting Tuesday night in Cleveland.

But at the moment, a white flag with a single blue “W” fluttered in the night sky atop the huge, manually operated scoreboard in center field — a tradition begun in the 1930s so that riders on the nearby elevated train line would know when the Cubs won — and their fans basked in its possibilities.

“They win 100-plus games (in the regular season), they really have no weaknesses, they’ve got youth, veteran starting pitching … they catch the baseball, they can slug, they get on base, and they’re relentless,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterward, by way of a scouting report.

“That’s a very good club over there.”

You couldn’t have said that just seven years ago, when owner Tom Ricketts forked over $875 million of the family’s fortune to buy the ballclub and that faith was tested mightily. Normally a level-headed sort, he fell in love with the Cubs soon after moving to the city as an 18-year-old to attend the University of Chicago. The Cubs went 83-78 in Ricketts’ first year, then posted five losing seasons in a row.

In 2011, he shelled out good money to hire onetime Red Sox boy wonder Theo Epstein to rebuild the roster as president of baseball operations; the next year, the Cubs lost 101 games. But with Epstein pulling the strings, they also began collecting youngsters like Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell and Kris Bryant, occasionally mixing in high-priced veteran pitchers like Jon Lester and John Lackey and turning around Jake Arrieta’s career.

In 2015, Ricketts shelled out good money again to hire manager Joe Maddon; last season, they were swept by the Mets in the NLCS. The cornerstone of Maddon’s baseball philosophy is focus on the short term; try to win each at-bat, each inning, each game. He pulls stunts to make it fun — bringing in zoo animals, wearing pajamas on the flight home from road trips and breaking up the monotony of a long season.

But even he struggled on this night not to look back.

“You stand out on that platform afterwards and you’re looking at the ballpark and the fans and the W flags everywhere, and truthfully you think about everybody,” Maddon said. “I think about the fans and their parents and their grandparents and great-grandparents and everything that’s been going on here for a while. I think about my wife, Jaye, my kids, my mom back in Pennsylvania, my dad who wasn’t here.

“It’s overwhelming,” he added finally, “and it’s awesome.”

The Cubs last won it all in 1908, which means they’ve been without a championship 40 years longer than the Indians, holders of the second-longest run without a championship in major North American pro sports. They may be the sentimental favorites, but they’re also savvy, ruthless and blessed with short memories — basically, anything but your father’s Cubbies.

Ditto for the owner. Asked what it would feel like to see that same flag fly at the end of the World Series, Ricketts admitted he already had his eye on a souvenir. It was likely to be more painful than expensive.

“I may make the ‘W’ a tattoo,” he said.

He won’t be alone.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Cubs beat Dodgers 5-0 to reach 1st World Series since 1945

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs won their first National League pennant since 1945 and are a step closer to ending a 108-year World Series drought after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 on Saturday to clinch a 4-2 victory in the NL Championship Series.

Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks outpitched Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw while Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras homered early at Wrigley Field.

The drought ended when closer Aroldis Chapman got Yasiel Puig to ground into a double play, setting off wild celebrations among the success-starved fans.

The Cubs will open the World Series at Cleveland on Tuesday. The Indians haven’t won it since 1948. CBB/rga

source: sports.inquirer.net

MLB attendance drops 1.1 percent, still 11th-highest season

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s average attendance dropped 1.1 percent this season but still was the sport’s 11th-highest year.

The 30 teams combined to draw 73,159,044 fans and average 30,169, the commissioner’s office said Tuesday. That was down from last year’s total of 73.76 million and average of 30,517. The average was the lowest since 30,138 in 2010.

The record total of 79.5 million and average of 32,785 were set in 2007.

The NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers led in home attendance at 3.7 million, followed in the NL by St. Louis (3.44 million), San Francisco (3.37 million) and the Chicago Cubs (3.23 million).

Toronto topped the AL at 3.39 million, followed by the New York Yankees (3.06 million) and Los Angeles Angels (3.02 million).

Tampa Bay had the lowest home attendances at 1.29 million, and Oakland was 29th at 1.52 million. Cleveland was 28th at 1.59 million despite winning the AL Central for the first time since 2007.

Miami drew an NL-low 1.71 million.

source: sports.inquirer.net