By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, SEPT. 27, 2012) — The United States of Snooky and Honey Boo Boo, now in the midst of a presidential election, can offer any large number of cases in point to prove the vacuous country’s lack of values and priorities.

The most important issue of the day on Tuesday wasn’t the presidential election. It was not hunger and joblessness in America. It wasn’t government corruption at every level, that each year wasted trillions in taxpayer money. It wasn’t the deficit or terrorism.

Nope, it wasn’t anything like that.

The most important issue in America, as measured by Internet traffic, was the outcome of the Green Bay Packers-Seattle Seahawks game Monday night. The game ended with a controversial (and blown) call made by the inept substitute NFL refs, who ruled the final play a touchdown for Seattle. The replays showed the TD catch in the end zone by a Seattle receiver had occurred only after the receiver had committed a blatant interference penalty. The penalty wasn’t called. The call stood, even though the Green Bay defender had most of the ball, and it should have been ruled an interception.

Now why should the issue almost cause the Internet to melt down on Tuesday? In the word, the answer is gambling. As we all know by the illegal football cards that are available ever Tuesday at barroom and country clubs throughout Pittsfield and Berkshire County, betting on football is “for entertainment purposes only.” Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

The Springfield mob prints the cards with the Vegas line and ships the cards to Berkshire County. Its local runners distribute them to the local taverns and social clubs, criminal activity all. The cops know about it, of course, which means it gets easily and conveniently overlooked. The process is repeated in barrooms and clubs across the country.

Follow the Money

According to Reuters, gamblers waged about $400 million on the game on the sports book in Las Vegas. Total betting on this one game was estimated at $1 billion. R. J. Bell, CEO if pregame.com, a company that  reports on sports betting, confirmed the figures. Gamblers put about about 1/3 of the money on the Packers, who gave up points. The blown call translates into $750 million changing hands in one instant, going from bettors to the bookies.

Prior to the Hail Mary pass into the end zone on the final play, the Packers held a 12-7 lead, covering on the spread. Had the right call been made, the $750 would have been in the pockets of  those who wagered. Their sense of outrage lit the Internet on fire, and many sports sites reported record traffic. This tells THE PLANET, incidentally, that the NFL-referees situation will be settled shortly, and the action will come mainly from pressure being put on the league by mobsters, bookies, wise guys, gamblers — anyone, actually, involved anywhere on the mostly illegal food chain that comprises NFL wagering.

From Reuters: “The NFL acknowledged on Tuesday that referees missed a clear penalty against the Seattle receiver that should have ended the game. The league said, however, that it supported the result of the video review and that Seattle’s victory was final.”

The outburst from gamblers got the NFL’s attention like nothing else had been able to do.

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

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TWO SCORE AND 12 AGO, THE PLANET HAD A PENULTIMATE ‘SPLINTER’ EXPERIENCE

Exactly 52 years ago today, THE PLANET, then all of eight years old, watched the Baltimore Orioles defeat the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park by the ignominious score of 17-3.

The day was significant for these reasons:

(1) It was the first game we saw in person at Fenway Park.

(2) It was the penultimate game of Ted Williams‘ career.

TEDDY BALLGAME

We went on to see many other games at the “lyric little bandbox of a park,” and later, in our days as a baseball writer, got to meet Ted Williams. Nothing tops the thrill, though, of looking back in memory and recalling the dank, overcast September day,one shared with my Dad and brothers. The following day, of course, Williams would hit a home run the last time up in his storied career, one of the grand moments in baseball history that still gets mention to this day.

A Day Late But Still on Time

Missing history by one day has a tantalizing aspect to it, kind of like all the ships who passed by the iceberg that the following night would sink Titanic. It’s as if the pending moment, in the process of building, conveys something to the atmosphere before it actually arrives. We say this, because we can still remember walking up the ramp from underneath the grandstand to the box seats on the first base side, back of the Red Sox dugout, and feeling something akin to static electricity in the air.

At our first glimpse of the field, we saw the Red Sox in their dazzling, crisp home white uniforms warming up. The overcast day gave the unis a brilliance the sun would have washed out, like turning on a flashlight in the daytime. The grass, as it always does to any kid seeing a major league game (this was our fifth; the first four were at Yankee Stadium), seemed impossibly green, in a hue we call Oz Emerald. The air had a buzz to it, probably from the pre-game chit-chatting of the small crowd and the organ playing of John Kiley. Still, we like to think it was some kind of crackling psychic residue building up for the next day, when, in the 8th inning, Williams clocked a Jack Fisher fastball into the Boston bullpen. That shall be our explanation, anyway.

Here, courtesy of baseball reference, is everything you could possible want to know statistically about that day, one that continues to have so much personal resonance.

                1  2  3   4  5  6   7  8  9    R H E
                -  -  -   -  -  -   -  -  -    -  -  -
Orioles         2  4  0   4  3  1   2  1  0 17 18 0
Red Sox         0  0  0   1  0  0   0  1  1 3 13 3

Win Probability Chart

Explanation of WPA  · Mouse over chart for play descriptions  · See below chart for tools  · Direct Link in URL Bar

Clear Chart Big Plays Scoring Plays Fix Chart in View While Scrolling	Select a batter BAL-Jackie Brandt batting, wpa 0.14 BAL-Jim Gentile batting, wpa 0.10 BAL-Gus Triandos batting, wpa 0.10 BAL-Albie Pearson batting, wpa 0.05 BAL-Marv Breeding batting, wpa 0.03 BOS-Vic Wertz batting, wpa 0.03 BOS-Pete Runnels batting, wpa 0.01 BAL-Dave Nicholson batting, wpa 0.01 BAL-Gene Woodling batting, wpa 0.01 BAL-Jim Busby batting, wpa 0.00 BOS-Rip Repulski batting, wpa 0.00 BAL-Jerry Adair batting, wpa 0.00 BOS-Carroll Hardy batting, wpa 0.00 BAL-Ray Barker batting, wpa 0.00 BAL-Clint Courtney batting, wpa 0.00 BAL-Bob Boyd batting, wpa 0.00 BOS-Don Gile batting, wpa -0.00 BOS-Frank Malzone batting, wpa -0.00 BOS-Arnold Earley batting, wpa -0.01 BOS-Pumpsie Green batting, wpa -0.01 BOS-Russ Nixon batting, wpa -0.01 BAL-Brooks Robinson batting, wpa -0.02 BAL-Ron Hansen batting, wpa -0.02 BOS-Ted Williams batting, wpa -0.02 BOS-Marlan Coughtry batting, wpa -0.02 BOS-Lou Clinton batting, wpa -0.03 BAL-Hal Brown batting, wpa -0.03 BOS-Willie Tasby batting, wpa -0.03	Select a pitcher BAL-Hal Brown pitching, wpa 0.10 BAL-Gordon Jones pitching, wpa 0.00 BOS-Tom Sturdivant pitching, wpa 0.00 BOS-Jerry Casale pitching, wpa 0.00 BOS-Dave Hillman pitching, wpa -0.01 BOS-Arnold Earley pitching, wpa -0.06 BOS-Ike Delock pitching, wpa -0.33
	Hold mouse over play on chart to see description of play. Leverage is shown below the chart Low to High.

Retrosheet.org Boxscore:BOS196009270
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