Jeff Haney on World Series odds that look out of whack

Monday, Sept. 24, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

As major league baseball enters the final week of its regular season, the American League looks like a clear favorite against its National League counterparts in wagering to come away with the World Series championship.

With the playoffs set to begin Oct. 3, the top three leading contenders to win the World Series - and four of the top five - are from the AL, according to oddsmakers.

In a couple of odd twists, depending on how the final week plays out, it might be possible to grab the team with the AL's best record at the highest odds to win the title - and the AL's wild-card team could be the overall World Series betting favorite.

The Cleveland Indians, who have clinched their first AL Central title since 2001, were listed at odds of 7-1 to win the World Series at the Palms sports book on Sunday.

The price indicates the Tribe is the longest shot from the AL, even though at 92-63 they are tied with the Boston Red Sox for the league's best record.

Boston and the New York Yankees were listed as World Series co-favorites, each at odds of 3-1, followed by the Los Angeles Angels at 9-2.

The Yankees, who opened as 4-9 favorites to win the AL East in January at the Las Vegas Hilton sports book, close the regular season at bottom-feeders Tampa Bay and Baltimore. If the Yankees make the playoffs via a wild card, they could do so as the World Series betting favorite if their odds drop even a bit.

The New York Mets, National League betting favorites for much of the season, are still tops in the NL at 11-2 to win the World Series, according to Palms odds.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, leading the NL West, are 10-1 to win the World Series, even as they enter the regular season's final week with a better record than the Mets.

The Chicago Cubs, whose magic number was 6 Sunday, are 8-1 in Series futures betting, followed by the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres at 10-1 apiece.

Philadelphia, which had won nine of 10 games before Sunday's loss to Washington, host Atlanta for three games and then finish with a series against the Nationals, one of the league's worst teams. San Diego plays at also-ran San Francisco and Milwaukee, a 15-1 World Series shot trying to make up ground on the Cubs.

Long-shot bettors who project a meltdown or two in the NL this week can take a flier on the Colorado Rockies, third in the wild-card standings, at odds of 75-1. Colorado had won seven in a row heading into Sunday's action.

Upset special

A pregame analysis from one of those Internet-based offshore sports betting operations reflected the consensus of the football betting public on Saturday's Louisville-Syracuse game.

"Louisville couldn't have asked for a better post-upset opponent then (sic) Syracuse," it read, the handicapper's grasp of the English language evidently as bad as his prediction.

"Usually a spread that massive warrants a raised eyebrow, but the Cardinals are one (angry) football team, and Syracuse is that Chevy that has stalled on the train tracks. ... Bet on the Cardinals storming the field and whipping Syracuse against the wall as they blow up the spread and try to make a statement after a narrow loss to Kentucky."

Louisville opened as a 36-point favorite and closed at minus-37 1/2 in Las Vegas sports books before losing outright to Syracuse, 38-35.

The old "they're gonna kill 'em" hypothesis also failed spectacularly in Saturday's Nebraska-Ball State game. The Huskers were bet up from a 21 1/2-point favorite to as high as minus-24 1/2 before escaping with a 41-40 victory.