Month: February 2024

The best bookies for betting on the MLB

Sports betting has taken America by storm over the last half-decade, but it has ramped up significantly over the last 18 months. More gambling companies have opened up to serve millions of new American bettors. Primarily, this is thanks to a combination of relaxed legislation and improved accessibility. As more sports fans seek out a greater range of markets, we’ve taken a look at the platforms that are best for baseball fans who are looking to bet on Major League games, and some of the components to keep an eye out for so that you can choose the betting platform that best suits your needs.

Accessing MLB betting welcome bonuses and promotions

No matter which sport you enjoy betting on, searching for welcome bonuses and promotions can often pay dividends. Ultimately, the whole purpose of a promotion is to give you free credits you can bet with so that you don’t have to dig too deep into your pocket. As the multibillion-dollar industry heats up in America, the most popular sports, such as MLB, become a key battleground for platforms seeking your patronage.

Although many sports betting companies have been trying to dominate individual sports betting markets for over a decade, household names like BetRivers Sportsbook have used their considerable size and capital to get ahead of everybody else. Betting on MLB might not involve the same sort of volume that the NFL or even the NBA attracts, but it’s still worth billions of dollars annually in the US.

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Former Twins outfielder Brant Alyea dies at 83

Brant Alyea

Brant Alyea was born in Passiac, New Jersey on December 8, 1940 and passed away at the age of 83 in his Pennsylvania home on February 4, 2024. Alyea was a very athletic student lettering in three sports at Rutherford High School, playing quarterback for the Bulldogs and starring in basketball and baseball. 

According to his SABR Bio, after graduating from high school Alyea accepted a scholarship to Hofstra College in Hempstead, New York, a seemingly perfect fit as the small Long Island institution was established on a campus bequeathed by a Dutch lumber magnate, William Hofstra, in the 1930s, and their athletic teams were known as the Flying Dutchmen. More significantly, Hofstra would give Alyea the opportunity to play basketball as well as baseball. The basketball team was then coached by another Dutchman originally from New Jersey, Butch van Breda Kolff. Alyea and the Dutchmen enjoyed significant basketball success in the NCAA College Division. In the 1959-60 season, they finished 23-1, losing only to Wagner College of Staten Island by two points in January, but that loss cost them the conference title and they were not selected for postseason play. The next year, Alyea led the Dutchmen in scoring and rebounding, and Hofstra was selected for the small-college tournament, in which the team was eliminated by Albright College.

But it was Alyea’s baseball skills, particularly his power that attracted baseball scouts and eventually led to his signing with the Cincinnati Reds in the Spring of 1962. The Reds assigned their 6’5″ prospect to Geneva (New York) of the Class D New York-Penn League, and he clubbed 32 home runs while hitting .319 in just 105 games. Those healthy numbers made Alyea a prime target in the Rule 5 draft, which at that time covered all first-year players who had not been placed on the 40-man roster, and Alyea was snatched up by the Washington Senators.

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Most games played in Senators/Twins franchise history

Harmon Killebrew

The Minnesota Twins were known as the Washington Senators before they moved to Minnesota and became the Twins after the 1960 MLB season ended. Let’s take a look at the players that played in over 1,000 games for the Senators and Twins between 1901-2023. Some of the players on this list you will be familiar with and others you will not.

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Twins trade Polanco to Mariners

Jorge Polanco

Just before bed time here in Florida on Monday night I saw the news that the Minnesota Twins were in the process of finalizing their trade of Jorge Polanco the switch-hitting second baseman who has been a regular part of the Twins infield since 2016 to the Seattle Mariners for four players, two experienced major league players and two minor league players and cash. The will get right-handed starter Anthony DeSclafani and reliever Justin Topa, and two minor leaguers, outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez and pitcher Darren Bowen. The Mariners will also send cash (rumored to be $8 million) to the Twins, the teams announced.

The Twins second second base job has multiple suitors and the soon to be 31 year-old Polanco was slated to make $10.5 million this season. Polanco was liked by his teammates and his fans alike and will be missed in Minnesota. But I have the feeling that we have not seen the last of the franchise leader in home runs by a switch-hitter and longest-tenured Twins player.

Polanco was signed by scout Fred Guerrero for the Minnesota Twins in 2009. On March 18, 2018, he received an 80-game suspension for testing positive for the banned old-school steroid, Stanozolol. Polanco claimed that he had consumed the steroid inadvertently, as he thought he was taking a simple vitamin supplement in his native Dominican Republic. In 2019, “Chulo” was the first player to hit for the cycle that season. This marked the start of an outstanding first half in which he was the Twins’ best offensive player while they were the best team in the American League. He was in turn elected as the starting shortstop in the 2019 All-Star Game.

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