Off Topic : Read This Book

Based on the fun that Two Gun and I have had over the years when we chased wagers that weren't exactly in our wheelhouse, I've decided that the greatest challenge for the upcoming season is going to be staying true to the system. We have strayed in the past, in car racing for example, to wagering on open wheels when we make our money studying NASCAR, or betting on American Idol instead of...anything else. I still think we got jobbed on that Adam thing last season, and we had him at +800.

Speaking of straying, when you see Two Gun, ask him about how he interpolated the "bet the Mexican" rule to apply to an Australian driver racing in England, and made it pay off.

To counter the stress of imposed discipline, I have the occasional off topic post. Today's is a guaranteed winner.

My son had a required summer reading assignment, a book called "Playing With the Enemy", written by a gentleman named Gary Moore. Through a set of fortuitous circumstances, the copy of the book my spouse ordered was delivered to our home personally by the author. That's Gary Moore with my son in the photo. The story of Playing With the Enemy is an inspiration and a celebration of life.

Mr. Moore has written the story of his father, Gene Moore, who was a true prodigy as a baseball player growing up in tiny Sesser, Illinois. Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 15, young Gene's march to the big leagues was put on hold by the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Dodgers, ever clever, channeled their best prospects into the Navy, where their duty assignment was to play baseball exhibitions against an Army squad in North Africa. The tale, told to Gary by his father the day before the elder Moore died, is an incredible, uplifting story of one man's journey. I will divulge only that the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the U.S. Army and Navy, and the U-505 submarine (yes, the one that is today at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry) are interwoven in a series of events that will charm you beyond all reasonable expectations, much as Gary Moore's stories behind the story have done for my family.

Click here to learn more about Playing With the Enemy.

Playing With the Enemy is going to be a major motion picture, too, tentativley set to be released in fall/winter of 2010,with some really big stars and one rising star. Gary's son, Toby Moore, will play the part of his own grandfather, Gene Moore. Gary will have a cameo as his own grandfather. So, the current day father and son will portray the prior day father and son, who are their respective grandfathers. It's kind of like the scene in Back to the Future II where Marty and the Professor watch themselves in another time, and I have never understood the time and space continuum explanation from the Professor.

Playing With the Enemy: It's a four star winner.

Four Star System

Last year, I researched a hundred games over the course of the college regular season. We (Two Gun Pete and I) bet most of those, plus a number of others. There were 34 bowl games last year. We bet every one.

We made a modest profit. This is not a big money proposition. If you have big money illusions, you should go somewhere else. Eddie and Kathryn are always pleased to have visitors out in the Vegas desert. I don't want to get a nasty message from your spouse that you're being evicted 'cause one of my games dumped and you bet the mortgage payment . Moderation is the key word.

If you are college football fan (the term is derived from fanatic, you know) and you want some laughs, glad to have you on board.

So here's the proposition: instead of working on 7 to 10 games a week, we'll work on 4. The one with the strongest imperative gets 4 stars. Next best gets 3 stars, then 2, and finally 1.

The week's bankroll gets broken down into 10 units. We'll wager 4 units on the four star game, 3 units on the 3 star game, etc. Back to the idea that this is fun, if you have ten bucks a week to bet, you make your bets 4/3/2/1. Yes, the online casinos take little bets. Twenty bucks a week is 8/6/4/2. If you're just in it for funsies, glad to have you here. We will bet real money.

Using this approach, we'll be able to spend a little more time shopping for attractive match ups and have more time to devote to evaluating each choice. Analyzing four games instead of ten games every week is more efficient.

What's an attractive match up? We don't pretend to know more that the guys who handicap games for a living. Can't be done, they're the best. What we do know is what has worked for us, so we'll stick to what we know and what we have experienced over the years.

There's some other stuff on the site that you may enjoy. There's links to some blogs that provide a combination of information, entertainment and, occasionally, a betting edge. The comment function is open, so you can post with reckless abandon. If you write something that's incredibly offensive, I might remove it. It is much more likely that I'll leave it, so the world gets to see what you're really like when you're in a mood.

That's the plan. More to come. Mondays and Thursdays. Bring a friend.

Pop Quiz

To get into the Monday and Thursday habit, today I offer a pop quiz. It's a shorty. Let me know how you do. By the way, has anybody seen Johnny Touchdown?

Match the school with its mascot name. Snap, huh? Try.
Answers will be posted as a comment.

(A) Bearkats...................(1) Kent
(B) Redhawks.................(2) Sam Houston State
(C) Golden Flashes.........(3) Tulane
(D) Great Danes.............(4) Miami, Ohio
(E) Green Wave.............(5) Albany

Basic Stuff -- Schedule

One of the challenges in publishing something like this is getting on a schedule--one that gives time to do the analysis, bounce it off Two Gun, and get some money down.

Most college football games start between 11:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. central time on Saturdays. TV pushed some games into Friday night, the traditional domain of Friday Night Lights. Those are, by the way, the Friday Night Lights (click the link to go to the site) babes at the right. I'm pretty concerned about coach having to start up the new program in East Dillon this season, thanks to that scheming rat bastard whose kid is the prodigy rising sophomore quarterback.

When the Friday games were successful (when we sat home and watched them, that is), the TV guys offered up some cash and voila, we have games going 4 and sometimes five nights a week.

To work with that, the week's selections will be published on Thursday mornings. Unless there's an opportunity on Wednesday night. Then we'll have to go earlier. I'll warn you in advance. The week's results will be up and waiting for you on Monday mornings, so you can start the week looking at how the weekend went.

When Bowl Season -- a.k.a. "the hap-happiest time....of the year" (can't you just hear Andy Williams singing that?) arrives, there will be more, so I'll put up more.

When you send stuff that needs to be seen or argued, we'll put it up. So, Mondays and Thursdays and an occasional sometime else.

Coming next: our system, or "what's the four star plan?"

Coming Soon to a Sportsbook Near You

I have a new venture in the blogosphere, and this is it: Four Star Football.

For several years, my associate Two Gun Pete and I have enjoyed the college football season with profitable investments on a number of games. Throughout the season I offered up my thoughts on games and shared some research on the genesis of mascots for varying schools. There was method to the madness, but there wasn't really a system.

Thanks to a brainstorm by Two Gun Pete, we now have a format and a system... and we're going to back it up with our own bankroll.

I'll explain the system and work out the publishing schedule over the next couple of weeks. I'll track our success and publish that, too. Your inputs are important, so please sound off regularly. This is intended to be a public meeting place.

Welcome--or welcome back, and please invite a friend.