Online Belmont betting players figure they’re going to get a race right down to the wire on June 11^th at Belmont Park, and they can only hope for a finish as exciting as the one we should get in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final on Friday in Boston.

Lightning Bruins Betting – Friday, 8:00 PM ET

The Lightning went 3-of-4 on the power play in a 5-4 win over the Bruins at home in Game 6, and they got eight points from Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier on the night. They still didn’t get a good performance from Dwayne Roloson, who had just 16 saves, but the Lightning overcame it.

Tim Thomas had his worst game of the series with 21 saves, but he was due after carrying the team for a lot of this series. David Krejci had a hat trick, while Milan Lucic added a goal for the Bruins, who made it interesting in the third period by not giving up when they were down by two goals. Now, they get a chance to close out the series at home.

The Bruins are -150 NHL betting favorites on Friday night at home, where they’ve won two of three against the Lightning in this series, and Boston eliminated Montreal at home in Game 7 of the first round, while Tampa Bay got the best of Pittsburgh on the road in the first round, so this is going to be a tight game. You have to go with the team that has the better goalie, so take Boston in your online sportsbook.

Baseball games offer a much different fan experience from the other three major sports in North America. NFL games are day-long cultural events that can be felt throughout the city, and given that there’s only eight regular season home games each year, they will consistently sell out. NBA and NHL games, while much more frequent, offer non-stop action and can entertain hardcore and casual fans alike.

But watching a regular-season MLB game is a different thing entirely. Firstly, a 162-game regular season makes it hard to become sufficiently invested in a mid-July interleague game to justify spending $30 on a ticket and $10 on a hot dog. And secondly, baseball games are kind of boring – and that’s coming from a fan. Very little is really happening for about 80% of the 3-plus hours.

All this makes it much more admirable when a city shows up year-round, even in lean years. For example, even the lowly Pirates continue to draw consistent crowds, despite hanging near the cellar of the MLB standings for nearly two decades.

On the other side of the equation are Tampa Bay Rays fans (if they exist). While they filled hideous Tropicana Field during the Rays run to the 2008 World Series, they’ve apparently all headed back to the beach, though their squad are still atop the AL East.

Whether it’s because of tradition, success, a nice venue, or the lack of anything better to do, some cities are baseball cities, and others aren’t.Here’s a few of each.

The Good

Pittsburgh Pirates

As mentioned above, the team hasn’t been competitive for years, the management has given the city little reason to be excited, and the Bucs routinely disappoint. Yet their attendance numbers hardly fluctuate. They drew the same number of fans in 2005, when they had the worst record in the NL, as they did in 1992, when they made it to the LCS.

St. Louis Cardinals

They like to call themselves “The Best Baseball Town in America,” have a reputation for being much less nasty than the notorious hecklers in cities like Philadelphia, and have kept showing up in championship contention years and losing seasons.

Boston Red Sox

Yes, they’re obnoxious, whining for 82 years about how they were “cursed,” and now they’re wearing pink hats, singing “Sweet Caroline”, and acting like they cheer for the best franchise in professional sports. But the fact is that they turn out in droves – whether the team is on the road or at home.And they hate the Yankees, which scores them points here.

The Bad

Tampa Bay Rays

They have a terrible name and a terrible venue, but the Rays have been an exciting team for five years now, but still can’t sell tickets. Their fanbase should be made up of retirees with time and money on their hands, but too many of them are East Coast transplants, their sports loyalties lying elsewhere.

New York Yankees

It doesn’t happen often, but when they lose, the attendance actually drops quite a bit.

Besides, it’s fun to hate on Yankees fans.

The Ugly

Los Angeles Dodgers

They have a habit of beating opposing fans into comas.

OK, maybe not a habit, but they did it once, and that’s a total dick move.

2011 Preakness betting players still have more than a week until the big race, so why not get in on some MLB action? There are a number of juicy matchups on the weekend slate in the majors, and here are a few tips to get you ready for your picks.

Red Sox Yankees Betting

These American League East rivals are meeting for the second time this season, as the Red Sox took two of three at Fenway Park last month. The Yankees have split their last 10 meetings at home with Boston, with four games going over the posted total, and two games ended in a push. (Matchup to watch: Saturday, 7:10 PM ET, Daisuke Matsuzaka vs. C.C. Sabathia)

Angels Rangers Betting

An American League West clash will go down in Texas this weekend as the Angels head to the Ballpark, where they have split their last 10 meetings. Five games fell under the posted total, along with a pair of pushes, and this will be the Angels’ second trip to Texas as they took two of three there in mid-April. (Matchup to watch: Friday, 8:05 PM ET, Jered Weaver vs. Alexi Ogando)

Phillies Braves Betting

In the National League, the East is the place to be as the Phillies travel to Turner Field, where they are 5-5 in their last 10 games. Seven of the games have gone over the posted total, and this will be the third series of the season between the two after they split the first six games. Don’t expect long odds for this series at your favorite online betting sites. (Matchup to watch:  Friday, 7:35 PM ET, Cole Hamels vs. Derek Lowe).

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Now that the 2011 NFL Draft has come and gone, complete with plenty of boos and awkward handshakes, the cottage industry of draftniks has taken to predicting who’s going to get hot and who’s going to flame out. And they love comparing future busts to ones that have come before. So as a favour to all the wannabe Mel Kipers and Todd McShays, here’s a brief rogues gallery of NFL embarrassments that they can compare Cam Newton to.

- JaMarcus Russell, Oakland Raiders

Probably the closest comparison – and worst-case scenario – for Newton, JaMarcus Russell is as big a bust as he is a person. The 6-foot-6, 285-pound QB out of LSU came into the league with one of the most powerful arms in football. Al Davis, tempted as always by fantasies of an explosive vertical passing offense, picked the big man first overall. The trouble started shortly after, as Russell held out through training camp before signing a monstrous $68.5-million contract in the first week of the season.

It proved to be the biggest waste of money since the Virtual Boy. Russell threw for 18 scores in his three seasons with the Raiders, eventually being benched for the thoroughly mediocre Bruce Gradkowski and released. He showed no pocket awareness, couldn’t run, and often looked out of shape. Since leaving the NFL, he’s also been arrested for downing purple drank.

A real winner.

-Ryan Leaf, San Diego Chargers

Thanks to the obnoxious, lazy disappointment that is Ryan Leaf, Russell might not even be the biggest QB bust of all time. Leaf was picked one spot after Peyton Manning, who went on to become arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history. Talk about your study in contrasts. While Peyton was a maniacal hard worker, Leaf didn’t even bother showing up to a rookie symposium. Manning was – and remains – a leader in his locker room. Leaf preferred to use it as a venue to scream at reporters. He was such a petulant weasel that even Rodney Harrison, not exactly known as the most pleasant player in history, called him “a nightmare.”

Somehow, Leaf was just as bad on the field. In the third game of his rookie season, he went 1 for 15 for only four yards while fumbling the ball three times. So…yeah. Ryan Leaf sucked.

-Lawrence Phillips, St. Louis Rams

Any GM considering overlooking “character concerns” would be well-served to look back on the odyssey of Lawrence Philips. Coming out of Nebraska, he was almost unanimously considered the most talented player in the draft, but slipped to sixth on account of serious worries about his behaviour.

You can probably imagine how this story ended. A rap sheet longer than his stat sheet, stints in NFL Europe, the CFL, and Arena Football, more arrests, and now a 31-year prison sentence.

-Tony Mandarich, Green Bay Packers

Described by Sports Illustrated as “The Best Offensive Line Prospect Ever”, Oakville’s own Tony Mandarich was a larger-than-life character in his heyday, and with that big personality came a big appetite for alcohol and attention. His on-field performance never materialized, and he was released by the Packers after three lacklustre seasons.

In the years following his football career, he’s spoken candidly about his steroid use and addictions, and had a successful stint as an NFL analyst with The Score television network in Canada.

-Brian Bosworth, Seattle Seahawks

With his hulking physique and ridiculous blonde Mohawk, “The Boz” looked more like a WWE character than an NFL player. And he had the personality to boot. He once called the NCAA the “National Communists Against Athletes,” sued the NFL as a rookie so he could wear #44 (it didn’t work out), and flew to practice in a helicopter.

Of course, his on-field play never lived up to his off-field antics, and he was forced to retire two games into the 1989 season following a shoulder injury. He would go onto a longer, though no less embarrassing, career in Hollywood action films.

The gradual loss of parity in the NBA gave us a number of mediocre first-round series, along with a couple changing-of-the-guard upsets in the Grizzlies’ elimination of the Spurs and Atlanta’s win over Dwight Howard and his merry band of washed-up guys who can’t shoot anymore.

But the second round is usually when the fireworks start. And as strange as it is to see MEM on playoff scoreboards, there isn’t a single dud series on the schedule.

Let’s take a quick look at how the NBA’s elite eight stack up as the second round kicks off.

8. Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks deserve credit for coming together after a rather uninspired regular season, playing solid all-around basketball and overcoming an unbelievable series from Dwight Howard.

The fact is, though, they’re the only remaining team without a bona-fide star or a real identity. Joe Johnson is the team’s franchise player in dollars only, and Al Horford is a very good, but certainly not great player. Making matters worse is the loss of Kirk Hinrich at the end of the Orlando Series. He’s the best defensive guard on the team, and the only guy with a hope of slowing down Derrick Rose.

Bottom line is that this is a team built to make it to the second round, and no further. Congratulations on meeting expectations, Atlanta. Good luck making this one last six games.

7. Memphis Grizzlies

By effectively hammering the final nail in the coffin of the Spurs’ dynasty, the Grizz announced their stunning arrival as one of the NBA’s most exciting young teams. They’ve been nasty inside with Zach Randolph morphing from WWE-level nutjob into arguably the best interior scorer in basketball, and Marc Gasol developing into a big, bruising ballhog.

Sam Young and Mike Conley isn’t the most inspiring backcourt, and will have their hands full with the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook, but the team is playing really well together and just seems to have an atypically good vibe around them.

Despite the absence of injured star Rudy Gay, they have a realistic shot at another big upset. (And oh look, a quick peek at the NBA scores and they’re already up 1 – 0).

6. Dallas Mavericks

The Mavs were written off by so many prognosticators heading into the first round that you wouldn’t have known they were favourites. Brandon Roy gave them a scare with his epic turning-back-the-clock performance in Game 4, and the negativity increased.

But to the surprise of seemingly everybody outside of their own locker room, they rallied and finished off the plucky Blazers in six. They have to be encouraged by a productive series by Jason Terry, because Dirk won’t be able to carry the load by himself against the two-time defending champs.

If nothing else, it should be fun to watch him trade fourth-quarter jumpers with Kobe for five or six games.

5. Boston Celtics

The Celtics seemed to ditch the woe-is-me attitude they adopted after the Kendrick Perkins trade, and got on track with an impressive sweep of the Knicks. They now face another shallow, star-heavy team in the Heatles, but with the Wade-LeBron two-man offense clicking as well as it is right now, they’ll need big contributions from the entire roster to get past. This could be a classic.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder apparently didn’t get the memo that their first-round series against athletic Nuggets was supposed to be a six- or seven-game fireworks display. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook took turns carrying the offense, while the tandem of Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins flexed their athleticism and toughness, respectively.

They’ll need a big series from both of those guys, because Zach Randolph looks unstoppable right now.

3. Miami Heat

The Heat continue to silence the critics. Wade and LeBron seem to be gradually assuming the Jordan-Pippen roles everyone hoped they would, Bosh is playing atypically good playoff basketball, and James Jones just might be the outside shooter they’ve desperately needed. They looked great in Game 1 against the Celtics, not only running them off the floor but getting under their skin, as demonstrated by Paul Pierce’s ejection. (Jones has to get some credit for selling The Truth’s harmless headbutt, though.)

2. Chicago Bulls

After their first couple of playoff games, all anyone could talk about was how the Bulls were a one-man team, and how Derrick Rose couldn’t possibly do it all by himself. They were half-right. Despite limited offensive contributions from his supporting cast, Rose decimated the Pacers with drive after drive into the paint. It was like he somehow had a sixth gear after an entire season played in fifth. The Bulls drew the best second-round match-up in the uninspiring Hawks, so hopefully they can get guys like Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer rolling in time for the Conference Finals.

1. Los Angeles Lakers

The defending champs get this spot until proven otherwise. Chris Paul and his horribly overmatched supporting cast gave them a bit of a test, but dominant wins in Game 5 and Game 6 reassured the legions of obnoxious Laker fans that they can still play championship basketball when needed.
They’re still in the driver’s seat.