Columnist Jeff Haney: NFL fans can bet December 25 game today

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 9:43 a.m.

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or haney@vegas.com

The Imperial Palace sports book whetted the appetites of football bettors last week, posting lines on 55 "key games" in the 2000 NFL season.

Three to four games from each week of the season are featured, from the September 3 openers to a Christmas day matchup between the Titans and the Cowboys in Week 17. Tennessee is a 5-point favorite over Dallas.

Besides the "key games," football bettors can also wager on all 15 Week 1 games.

The IP and the Regent Las Vegas in Summerlin were the first sports books to put up betting lines on Week 1 when they did so two months ago.

Imperial Palace sports book director Jay Kornegay said the early wagering is generating plenty of excitement, especially among recreational bettors and visitors to the city.

"It's a real popular bet," Kornegay said. "It breaks the ice with a lot of novice players. They might come in here in April or May and say 'Gosh, I wish I was in here for football season.'

"But then they see these numbers are up, so they can make a bet now and keep track of it all summer. ... It's a great conversation piece."

Professional gamblers, on the other hand, have shown little interest in betting into the Week 1 lines, Kornegay said.

"The wise guys tend not to play it because it's so far off," Kornegay said. "There are a lot of variables, and wise guys don't like to take that kind of risk."

Because so few books have posted Week 1 lines, Kornegay said they hold no attraction to "scalpers" or "middlers" -- professional bettors who try to play one line against another and secure a profit.

"They are pretty generic numbers," Kornegay said of the Week 1 lines. "There's nothing in the Caribbean, for example, to compare it to."

The only line movement of note in Week 1 came in the Jets-Packers game, in which Green Bay has been bet from minus 3 1/2 to minus 4 1/2, due largely to Keyshawn Johnson's departure from New York.

In the first week's marquee matchup, the Super Bowl champion Rams are favored by 7 points over the Broncos on Monday, Sept. 4.

A sampling of other "key games" among the 55 on the board at the IP: Redskins (minus 7) over Cowboys in Week 3; Colts (minus 2 1/2) over Jaguars in Week 4; Jaguars (minus 1) over host Titans in Week 7; Rams (minus 3 1/2) over Redskins in Week 12; and Packers (minus 1 1/2) over Bucs in Week 17.

Lima, 21-11 with 191 strikeouts and 46 walks in 1999, is 1-7 with an 8.19 ERA, 47 strikeouts and 18 walks this season.

The Astros were 24-12 in games Lima started last season; they're 3-7 this year heading into today's game at Colorado. Lima has allowed 20 home runs in 2000 after yielding only 16 in all of 1999.

In the early going, Lima lost games in which he was favored by minus 160, minus 170 and minus 200. When oddsmakers wised up and made him a plus 115 underdog against Kerry Wood on May 2, Lima went out and lost 11-1.

Lima has acknowledged he's worried about his father's ongoing battle with cancer this year, a situation that could be affecting his mental state.

Some other clues to Lima's decline can be found in his profile in "The Scouting Notebook 2000" by Stats Incorporated:

The bettor combined 10 baseball games with an NBA playoff game and an NHL playoff game. The play paired 10 favorites, including two as high as minus 185, with two even-money bets -- and no underdogs.

"We are delighted to see such an exciting win -- it is not every day you get a chance to turn $10 into over $11,000," VIP manager Mike Chalmers was quoted in the release.

Although sports book directors are usually "delighted" to see customers betting multiple-team parlays -- a sure path to a diminished bankroll -- you have to wonder if making such a large payout was really an "exciting" experience for VIP (vipsports.com).

That number represents a return to competitive pricing for De La Hoya, a prohibitive 15-1 favorite in his last outing, a seventh-round knockout of Derrell Coley in February.

In his previous several bouts, De La Hoya (32-1, 26 KOs) was pick 'em against Felix Trinidad last September (lost a majority decision), minus 350 over Oba Carr last May (11th-round KO), minus 350 over Ike Quartey in January '99 (split-decision victory) and minus 200 over Julio Cesar Chavez in September '98 (8th-round KO).

Mosley (34-0, 32 KOs) is coming off a couple of knockout victories in which he was a big favorite: 42-1 over Willie Wise in January and 18-1 over Wilfredo Rivera last September.