What is it about sports and superstitions and curses? Apparently last week at Yankee Stadium a construction worker tried to bury Red Sox David Ortiz’s jersey in the foundation of the stadium. Once co-workers found out what he was doing, they spent hours digging it out for fear that the stadium would be cursed if the jersey remained. Rational people know that these things don’t affect what happens on the fields of play, yet they still believe in the power of the supposedly supernatural.

There are many famous curses in sports; the curse of the coin flip, the Sports Illustrated curse and the most recently, the Madden curse. We’ve also heard of or may have experienced superstitions of things like not washing your socks or kissing your bat before the pitch. Do theses things really affect the out come and do theses curses really exist?

What if the sports world stopped paying attention to these curses and superstitions? Would the good or bad luck change because of it? Honestly, I’m not sure if we will ever find out. I doubt many people are going to take a chance on changing their ways…..just in case. Hey you never know.

The “race” to win the NBA Most Valuable Player award is over. It was really over a while ago, when the conventional sports media came to a general consensus (in print) that Kobe Bryant deserves to be this year’s MVP. The actual votes will be counted, and the Maurice Podoloff Award handed out in June during the Finals.

We’re used to seeing newspaper editorials published in support of one presidential candidate or another. But what if only the newspaper editors were allowed to vote? From a betting standpoint, you’d have a pretty good idea who the winner would be just from reading the papers. That’s what has happened to the NBA MVP race – the voters are telling you whom they are going to vote for, and why.

Betting on the MVP should remain one of the hotter commodities on the NBA futures market. It’ll just be a shorter betting season, cut off by the MVP bandwagon.

For the first time since 1999, a filly may be making a run for the roses. The last time a filly has won the Kentucky Derby? 1988. Regret won it first in 1915; Genuine Risk took it in 1980; and Winning Colors was the last filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 1988.

Eight Belles has won all four of her starts this year, including the Honeybee at Oaklawn Park, but her owner Rick Porter isn’t sure he’ll race her in the Kentucky Oaks, where she’s favored to win, or the Kentucky Derby, where she’ll be racing with the big boys.

“Based on her talent, her ability, and her versatility, we think she belongs and can compete with colts at the very top end. We wouldn’t run her if we didn’t think we could win (the Derby),” Porter said.

Eight Belles has been training hard and depending on how well she does at Churchill Downs will determine which race she’ll run.

“The only negative is she doesn’t break sharply from the gate, and if she got an outside post in the Derby that wouldn’t help us,” Porter said. “Then we’d have the option of running in the Oaks, but I think she can run with the boys.”

Eight Belles Graded Earnings: $210,000
Eight Belles Race Record: 9-5-2-1

My Top 10 Kentucky Derby Picks:
1. Eight Belles
2. Big Brown
3. Colonel John
4. Pyro
5. Z Fortune
6. Gayego
7. Cool Coal Man
8. Adriano
9. Monba
10. Visionaire

Watch the YouTube video of the 2008 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park, in which Eight Belles won.

They are calling it the new “Green Monster.” Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals are completely revamping the 46 year old stadium and bringing it into the future creating perhaps the most environmentally friendly stadium in all of professional sports.

To become energy efficient low-flow plumbing in the stadium will reduce water consumption by 37%, saving 3.6 million gallons of water a year. New lighting allows for 21% less power and walls in the stadium are highly thermally efficient.

To build the new stadium a low-VOC (volatile organic compound) adhesives, glues, and paints were used along with local building materials to save on transportation costs and emissions. As for the old structure 5,500 tons of construction waste was recycled.

For a finishing touch on the stadium, a removal of all contaminated soil and industrial facilities are removed and replaced with liberally placed cherry trees and drought resistant shrubs to eliminate the need for irrigation.

Congratulations Washington Nationals, you are the wave of the future!

Alex Rodriguez is finally getting some slack these days, after going behind the back of agent Scott Boras to sign a contract extension with the New York Yankees. Whatever your opinion of A-Rod the person, A-Rod the baseball player is one of the best who ever lived.

Rodriguez didn’t get the silver spoon treatment. He was born to Dominican parents in the Washington Heights (aka “Crack City”) part of the Big Apple. His family moved back to the Dominican Republic when Rodriguez was four. When he was seven, they moved to Miami. Then his father skipped town.

A-Rod went on to be a high-school phenom in Miami. Easily the top prospect in the game at age 17, he decided against joining the University of Miami Hurricanes and turned pro. The Seattle Mariners chose him first overall in 1993. Since then: 522 home runs, nine Silver Sluggers, three MVP awards and counting.

The Memphis Tigers haven’t been to the national championship since 1973; the UCLA Bruins, on the other hand, have been to the title game three times now (in the last three years). How big was this game for Memphis? Huge.

Leading the Tigers was Derrick Rose, who scored 28 points; Chris-Douglas Roberts scored 25 points; and Joey Dorsey picked up 15 rebounds, keeping UCLA center Kevin Love to 12 points and 9 rebounds.

“He’s a great player,” Dorsey said of Love. “I was just trying to make it hard for him to score, and just trying to dominate the glass so they wouldn’t get second shots on the offensive end.”

The loss was a bitter pill for Bruins’ coach Ben Howland to swallow. Thinking that UCLA had a stronger D, Howland must now explain to his players how it is that even with a superstar like Kevin Love on your team, it ain’t over ’til it’s over. And for this UCLA squad, it is over…until next year.

“It’s disappointing,” coach Howland said, “and there’s a lot of sad kids in that locker room right now.”

This just in: The North Carolina Tar Heels are pretty good at basketball. They’re so good, they’re getting 8-5 odds to come out of the Final Four and win the NCAA men’s national championship.

That’s quite a compliment. There are no slouches among the three other teams in Saturday’s semifinal; UNC’s competition is the Kansas Jayhawks (3-1 to win the title), the Memphis Tigers (27-10) and the UCLA Bruins (16-5). All No. 1 seeds, just like North Carolina. Are the Bruins only half as good as the Tar Heels?

North Carolina has been convincingly dominant over four straight opponents. None of the other teams can claim that. But four games is also a very small sample size, and all four of these clubs have put together a tremendous season up to now. Finding that balance between long- and short-term performance analysis is part of the art of handicapping, just like any other investment.

We’ve had some more movement – just a little – on the March Madness odds front. Here’s Friday’s slate with the betting lines at press time.

Midwest
No. 12 Villanova at No. 1 Kansas (–12)
No. 10 Davidson at No. 3 Wisconsin (–5)

South
No. 5 Michigan State at No. 1 Memphis (–4.5)
No. 3 Stanford at No. 2 Texas (–2)

The difference is with the Texas Longhorns, who have lost some steam after reaching –2.5 on Wednesday. This line has been difficult for the books to pin down; it might be anywhere in the vicinity by the time you read this. Stanford is playing in the Pac-10 shadow of UCLA, but the novelty factor of twins Brook and Robin Lopez has earned the Cardinal some extra eyeballs.

There are strong under trends for both teams if the pointspread doesn’t agree with you. The total for Stanford-Texas is 134 (under –105).

David Beckham will make his 100th appearance for England today against France. Only four men have ever reached 100 appearances for England previously. There has been a rumor swirling around that he may or may not play today due to a groin injury sending fans in a fury, and fortunately there was no real injury.

Fabio Capello, England’s coach said yesterday that Beckham will play part of the game at Stade de France; however he hasn’t decided if the midfielder will start. Beckham didn’t play in Capello’s first match against Switzerland last month because the coach felt he wasn’t fit enough during the Major League Soccer off-season.

There is speculation that Beckham, who has regained full fitness ahead of start of the MLS season, may be on the bench but Capello won’t announce his lineup, even to the players.

“I know David Beckham and what he can give me and I think he can make the difference in some respects,” Capello said. “I know what he can give to a team. As for the future, we will have to see.”

History tells us that to write Beckham off is never a smart thing to do. Time and time again, he has proven himself to bounce back at what ever comes his way.

Thursday’s first-round action was all about the chalk. Thirteen of the 16 matchups went to the favorites, and there were no serious upsets of note – although Belmont made it very, very interesting against Duke.

Kansas State was a 3-point dog versus USC, but anyone who puts even a modicum of faith into statistical analysis saw Michael Beasley and the Wildcats winning that one. They’ll be a big handful for the Wisconsin Badgers to deal with in the second round.

UCLA’s massive 70-29 victory over Mississippi Valley State (-31.5) also deserves some praise. That was without Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who wasn’t needed and thus buys some extra time for his sprained left ankle to heal. This is the value of getting a No. 1 seed in the Tournament.

Speaking of which, Kansas (-21) also covered in an 85-61 pasting of Portland State. Rock, chalk, Jayhawk. They get UNLV on Saturday in Omaha.