Breakin' the Trend
It’s weird what happens when you take a step back, take a deep breath, and get back to basics. After a horrendous, well-documented run on baseball, I made a conscious effort to make it fun for myself once again. I didn’t want to stop enjoying the game, but wagering amounts higher than the norm and a larger number of games was slowly doing just that. So I got back to basics – I would concentrate on fewer games, risk amounts that wouldn’t make me miserable if lost (kind of) and didn’t over-think my decisions.
I returned to the basics in another arena around the same time – crappy movies. I love laughably terrible films, and it gets no worse than 80’s flicks. It’s like they didn’t even care back then. The lack of plot, editing and acting, coupled with a cheesy soundtrack and gratuitous nudity makes for the greatest form of entertainment that mankind has to offer.
It had been awhile since I had revisited my old friends Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and Charlie Bronson. The 80’s action genre takes the cake because you can throw in tons of unnecessary graphic violence on top of everything else. What a hoot!
But right around the time that my baseball fortunes began to change, I caught ‘Breakin’’ on one of the movie channels. To say that I was happy would be like calling Barry Bonds a great singles hitter. I was elated.
Some of you might recall this gem from 1984. It featured Turbo, Ozone and some little white guy poppin and lockin their way to glory. It had Shooter McGavin as their agent sporting an afro-perm, not much unlike the one worn by SBR poster ‘wtf.’ It even featured gangster rapper Ice-T as the most unintimidating party DJ you will ever see. But it was the main theme song that linked my return to basics with baseball. Some clowns who went by ‘Ollie and Jerry’ performed ‘There’s No Stoppin’ Us.’ The lyrics reached out to me.
There’s no stopping us (no stopping)
No one does it better (no one does it better)
There’s no stopping us (no stopping)
Really doesn’t matter
There is no stopping me. Sure, I crash and burned so badly with baseball right up to the break, even finding a way to go 2-8 on the All-Star Game. Then on the first day back I went 1-3. That’s when I changed things up, and thus far it’s worked out great. Even the bad beats are going in my favor right now (good beats?). But unlike 80’s movies, I can’t revisit them whenever I want to. When it’s over, it’s done. So I plan to enjoy this ride for as long as it continues.
Lowering my betting amounts was a sure way to start hitting winners. It’s the equivalent of being single for years and having minimal luck with the ladies. You know that the minute that you start dating someone, all these same girls that you spent years trying to get with will suddenly be throwing themselves at you. It’s a ridiculous phenomenon. The same holds true with sports betting. When you are in a rut, go ahead and lower your risk amounts and watch the winners pour in.
Most of my plays have been for between one and two-and-a-half units, but I did sneak in two large plays before the powers-that-be took notice. The first was the Padres run line getting a run and a half for 10 units. They were losing by two in the 9th and I went to bed. Apparently some guy I’ve never heard of knocked one out of the park to get me my winner. Then just a couple of evenings ago I took a shot at the Marlins run line (+1.5) for 40 units! I don’t know what possessed me, but I loved this play. They won easily 8-6 and all was well in Breadland. All in all, I’m on a 15-3-3 (83%) run for +41.65 units. But most of us realize that baseball giveth and baseball taketh away. And taketh away. And taketh away some more.
This by no means makes up for the blazing 15% clip that I was hitting for most of June. As promising as this run has been, I need to only think back to the once promising careers of Adolfo Quinones and Michael Chambers. They were the upstart actors who played the roles of Ozone and Turbo in ‘Breakin’’ and the sequel, ‘Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.’ When you watched them break (and glide and windmill and headspin) onto the scene back then, you couldn’t help but believe that we had discovered the next DeNiro, the next Eastwood. They were that hot. But alas, neither has ever been cast in anything past the nineties, and even then it was a steady dose of cameos on shows like ‘Miami Vice,’ ‘Family Matters,’ and ‘The Dom DeLuise Show’ for Christ’s sake! Hollywood can be such a cruel lover.
I don’t want to fade into oblivion like Ozone and Turbo. I’d settle for a Steve Guttenberg parallel. Of course he will never return to his glory days of ‘Police Academy’ and ‘3 Men and a Baby,’ but at least he’s still pumping out movies with the likes of Billy Zane, Eric Roberts and Louis Gossett Jr. I would settle for this once the bottom falls out – and it will. I just don’t ever want to return to 15%.
I’ll continue to do all that I can to preserve this run by picking and choosing my big spots and staying small otherwise, acting on only a few games, and staying loose. But for now, there’s no stopping me. No one does it better. And I’m slaying all opponents at the sportsbooks and on the dance floors, sucka.
I returned to the basics in another arena around the same time – crappy movies. I love laughably terrible films, and it gets no worse than 80’s flicks. It’s like they didn’t even care back then. The lack of plot, editing and acting, coupled with a cheesy soundtrack and gratuitous nudity makes for the greatest form of entertainment that mankind has to offer.
SBR poster ‘wtf’ missed his calling with that hair
But right around the time that my baseball fortunes began to change, I caught ‘Breakin’’ on one of the movie channels. To say that I was happy would be like calling Barry Bonds a great singles hitter. I was elated.
Some of you might recall this gem from 1984. It featured Turbo, Ozone and some little white guy poppin and lockin their way to glory. It had Shooter McGavin as their agent sporting an afro-perm, not much unlike the one worn by SBR poster ‘wtf.’ It even featured gangster rapper Ice-T as the most unintimidating party DJ you will ever see. But it was the main theme song that linked my return to basics with baseball. Some clowns who went by ‘Ollie and Jerry’ performed ‘There’s No Stoppin’ Us.’ The lyrics reached out to me.
There’s no stopping us (no stopping)
No one does it better (no one does it better)
There’s no stopping us (no stopping)
Really doesn’t matter
There is no stopping me. Sure, I crash and burned so badly with baseball right up to the break, even finding a way to go 2-8 on the All-Star Game. Then on the first day back I went 1-3. That’s when I changed things up, and thus far it’s worked out great. Even the bad beats are going in my favor right now (good beats?). But unlike 80’s movies, I can’t revisit them whenever I want to. When it’s over, it’s done. So I plan to enjoy this ride for as long as it continues.
Lowering my betting amounts was a sure way to start hitting winners. It’s the equivalent of being single for years and having minimal luck with the ladies. You know that the minute that you start dating someone, all these same girls that you spent years trying to get with will suddenly be throwing themselves at you. It’s a ridiculous phenomenon. The same holds true with sports betting. When you are in a rut, go ahead and lower your risk amounts and watch the winners pour in.
Most of my plays have been for between one and two-and-a-half units, but I did sneak in two large plays before the powers-that-be took notice. The first was the Padres run line getting a run and a half for 10 units. They were losing by two in the 9th and I went to bed. Apparently some guy I’ve never heard of knocked one out of the park to get me my winner. Then just a couple of evenings ago I took a shot at the Marlins run line (+1.5) for 40 units! I don’t know what possessed me, but I loved this play. They won easily 8-6 and all was well in Breadland. All in all, I’m on a 15-3-3 (83%) run for +41.65 units. But most of us realize that baseball giveth and baseball taketh away. And taketh away. And taketh away some more.
I love Hanley Ramirez. A lot.
I don’t want to fade into oblivion like Ozone and Turbo. I’d settle for a Steve Guttenberg parallel. Of course he will never return to his glory days of ‘Police Academy’ and ‘3 Men and a Baby,’ but at least he’s still pumping out movies with the likes of Billy Zane, Eric Roberts and Louis Gossett Jr. I would settle for this once the bottom falls out – and it will. I just don’t ever want to return to 15%.
I’ll continue to do all that I can to preserve this run by picking and choosing my big spots and staying small otherwise, acting on only a few games, and staying loose. But for now, there’s no stopping me. No one does it better. And I’m slaying all opponents at the sportsbooks and on the dance floors, sucka.
