Mother-In-Law Issues at the World Series

The Stanley Cup Finals are now set, and will see the Dallas Stars play the Tampa Bay Lightning. As in all play-off games in the NHL, Under is where to start looking for value, but in the Stanley Cup Finals this is even more true with 63% of games going Under in the last ten seasons. 

In a low scoring sport, we can't assume we will get 1.952 but Unders is a good place to start. In the past three seasons, this hasn't been a profitable strategy with every Game 1 going Over but with no crowd or home advantage, this season's playoffs have seen Unders win 56.5% of the time. 

I mentioned earlier in the week that there were three qualifiers for the NFL Small Road Dog System, but the line moved on the Chicago Bears game so 'officially' it wasn't a winner. We did have a winner on Thursday though, so 'officially' we are back up to 2-1 with possibly another four selections tomorrow.

Still no draws in the Premier League this season with plenty of goals reducing the probability. Newly promoted clubs have conceded 22 goals combined after just two games.

I mentioned that the World Series would be held in one stadium this year (Texas Rangers) but a little research revealed that this isn't a first.

In 1944, the St Louis Browns played the St Louis Cardinals in what was called a "Streetcar Series" with both clubs sharing the imaginatively named Sportsman Park.

There's an amusing story about the logistics of this series:

Since there was a shortage of housing during the war, and the teams were never at home at the same time during the regular season, the two managers — Luke Sewell of the Browns and Billy Southworth of the Cardinals — shared an apartment.

Of course, they’d both have to be in St. Louis for the World Series.

“However admirable this display of interleague cooperation might have appeared during the season, it would never do for the opposing managers to sit in the same living room after a World Series game, sipping bourbon and chatting politely with their wives,” wrote William B. Mead in his book “Even The Browns: The Zany, True Story of Baseball in the Early Forties.’”

“Besides, Sewell wanted to invite his mother, and Mrs. Southworth could hardly be expected to put up with a mother-in-law from the wrong family and, indeed, the wrong league.”

Fortunately, according to Mead, another resident of the apartment building was out of town for the month. The Southworths were able to move into the unoccupied unit during the series, snuffing out that potential crisis.

The Cardinals came from 1-2 down to win the Series 4-2 and the Browns later moved to Baltimore becoming the Orioles.

All World Series games in the same stadium also happened in 1921 and 1922 when the New York Giants twice beat the New York Yankees while sharing the Polo Grounds, which was the original home of the New York Mets. The Giants moved to San Francisco and I believe the Yankees are still in New York...