Cards KO 49ers; Leinart injures shoulder

Football Betting Lines

12/25/2006 - San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Leinart completed 9-of-13 passes for 162 yards and a score before spraining his left shoulder just before halftime, as the Arizona Cardinals went on to top San Francisco, 26-20, and knock the 49ers out of playoff contention.

Leinart got sacked by Roderick Green just under the two-minute mark of the second quarter and went to the locker room with a sprained left shoulder, but Kurt Warner came in to complete 9-of-13 passes for 105 yards in relief.

Edgerrin James rushed for 105 yards on 29 carries for the Cardinals (5-10), who have won three of their last four. Larry Fitzgerald caught four balls for 93 yards and a touchdown, while Anquan Boldin added 64 receiving yards on four catches.

Alex Smith completed 18-of-29 passes for 190 yards and an interception for the 49ers (6-9), who have dropped four of their last five. Frank Gore rushed for 51 yards on 11 attempts. Vernon Davis had four receptions for 91 yards, and Arnaz Battle posted 55 receiving yards on seven catches.

Because of San Francisco's loss, Seattle won the NFC West.

Gore scored on a one-yard run with five minutes left, but the Cardinals never gave the ball back after getting three more first downs.

San Francisco drew first blood on a 49-yard field goal from Joe Nedney with 10:19 remaining to cap a seven-play, 37-yard drive. Neil Rackers responded with a 25-yarder almost three minutes later to tie the score.

Marcel Shipp then ran it in from five yards out to cap an eight-play, 64-yard drive with a tick under a minute left to take a 10-3 Arizona lead into the second quarter.

Leinart got his passing game going and found Fitzgerald for a six-yard touchdown pass to cap a 10-play, 74-yard drive that chewed up over five minutes off the clock. Rackers followed with a 39-yarder about six minutes later, but Nedney converted a 32-yarder with just 22 seconds left for a 20-6 Arizona lead at halftime.

San Francisco punted on its first possession out of the locker room, but Troy Walters fumbled and Maurice Hicks recovered for the 49ers. They capitalized on the turnover when Gore scored from two yards out for a 20-13 deficit with 6:25 remaining in the third.

Rackers got credited with a 37-yard field goal three seconds into the fourth, but the ball actually hooked to the left of the upright, for a 23-13 Cardinals lead.

After Battle fumbled on San Fran's opening play of the drive, Robert Griffith recovered the ball. The Cardinals then needed just three plays to set up Rackers for a 32-yarder with 8:28 left.

The 49ers responded with a seven-play, all-passing drive to set up a one-yard touchdown run by Gore with five minutes left. However, Arizona picked up three first downs en route to running out the clock and the playoff hopes for the 49ers.

Game Notes

San Francisco has a 17-14 lead in its all-time series with the Cardinals, but has dropped four in a row to Arizona...The Cardinals opened University of Phoenix Stadium with a 34-27 win over San Francisco in Week 1, and also swept a pair of games against its NFC West rival last season. The Niners were 17-10 losers when Arizona visited Monster Park in Week 13...Prior to 2005, the 49ers had prevailed in eight of the previous nine head-to-head meetings. The Niners won by identical 31-28 marks, both in overtime, in a 2004 home-and- home...James became Arizona's first 1,000-yard rusher in eight years.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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