"If C.C. Sabathia starts game one of the World Series, the Yankees will know they have won tonight." -- Fox Sports baseball analyst Tim McCarver, sinking to bathyspheric depths of belaboring the obvious, early in Sunday's game six of the ALCS. (The Yankees won and it probably won't take until Wednesday night for them to realize it.)

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Pardon a smallish digression from the world of games to something truly important ... baseball. With painful memories of the '04 and '05 postseason meltdowns acid-etched into my mind, I've not been able to summon the intestinal fortitude to watch either of the first two Red Sox/Angels games. (And postseason Angels games really take a toll on one's stomach.)

Now, with the Halos up 2-0, I'm wondering if it's safe to peek between my fingers as the series repairs to Fenway Park. My gut-twisting gut-level feeling is that this series goes the full five games, which is my recipe for pure torture. But ... Angels pitchers seemed to have conquered their fear of BoSox hitters and shut them down.

Besides, I've been wrong before about this team -- 1,000% wrong about Bobby Abreu, who's been a tremendous influence for the better. His superb plate discipline has been worlds away from the bizarre flailing of Vladimir Guerrero (which you can only get away with if you're Vlad and can lift a far-outside pitch over the fence in straightaway center). Patient at-bats were the key to the Angels' '02 World Series run, which made up for less-than-dominant starting pitching. If there's an Angels/Yankees ALCS, it'll be a contest to see who can take more pitches: a real tortoise-and-hare match.

At least the Angels and BoSox share a common adversary: the umpires. "Country" Joe West and C.B. Bucknor are showing yet again why they are two of the worst in MLB ... although seemingly every American League playoff game this year (including the Metrodome miniseries that finished the Detroit Tigers) has been plagued by truly craptacular umpiring and amazingly poor calls. If this were the NFL, these clowns would be relegated to working late-season Rams/Raiders games or some purgatorial equivalent.

Speaking of the Yanks, I can't hold out much hope for my old home team, the Minnesota Twins. All the Homer Hankies in the world aren't going to do it for a pitching staff that can't hold a lead against the Bronx Bombers, and it pains me to type that.

Thanks for your indulgence. We now return to our irregularly scheduled blogging. As soon as I find my Rally Monkeys, that is.

P.S.: It's a damnable shame that our server won't load previously unused images into the blogs. 'Cuz I've got a great Philly Phanatic photo that would be perfect should they make it to the Fall Classic.

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Only $14 million in cash (plus a $100 million equity infusion), according to The Donald. Bondholders say, we'll see your $115 million and raise you $100 million. The latter would recoup at least some -- but not very much -- of their $1.25 billion debt under their plan, while Das Trump would send them away virtually empty-handed. (Moral: When Donald Trump asks you for a loan, take a page from Nancy Reagan and Just Say No.)

The bondholders' assignment of a $75 million valuation to Trump Marina seems awfully optimistic for what is, in essence, a corpse that can't be sold. In essence, the real value proposition is resurgent Trump Taj Mahal, with the other two casinos scarcely better than throw-ins. The Marina is, if anything, an albatross around the company's neck. Still, given that CEO Mark Juliano is going to exceptional lengths to champion the Trumpster's bid, which is a big "screw you" to the debtholders, here's hoping Judge Judith H. Wizmur holds firm for a more responsible solution.

Ho: No! "I don't see major resorts opening for the next couple of years now," says Lawrence Ho. thereby raining pessimism on the expansion plans of Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and Galaxy Entertainment. The younger Ho also speculates upon the Chinese government's motivation for throttling, then somewhat relenting upon travel to Macao. Interesting tidbit: Marketwatch.com reports that "Venetian Sands" [sic] has cut its number of table games by 25%.

Nevada revenues in. And yeah, they suck. They're much less sucky than usual (-9%), showing an upward trend in baccarat plus two locals-oriented bright spots in the form of Aliante Station and M Resort. It's unclear, though, how much of the growth generated by the last two is new business vs. redistribution of dollars from elsewhere in the valley. The Sun's analysis is far more informative than that found in the R-J.

Wait 'til next year. That's the timeline for casinos in Massachusetts. Even though western Mass looks like slim pickings, lawmakers will probably have to put a casino there just to get the bill onto the floor.

Penn bid falls. Lenders to bankrupt Fontainebleau won a small victory or two, as the judge overseeing the case seems determined to keep lead developer Jeffrey Soffer as far from the disposition of F'bleau as possible. (Soffer is both a debtor and creditor on the project.)

F'bleau, for its part, revealed that Penn National Gaming's offer is now "substantially less" than $300 million, but would include money to replace the windows that are reportedly falling off the building. (One more reason not to build a Strip megaresort tower flush against the "pedestrian realm.")

Groundbreaking today for the long-awaited SugarHouse casino in Philadelphia, under the shadow of a stick-it-to-SugarHouse tax that's been proposed in the Lege. Table games, meanwhile, might be off the table in the face of a $200 million lawsuit. You see, non-racino casinos are allowed to have 5,000 slots (in return for a $50 million fee). Small "resort" casinos -- known as "Category 3" -- only have to $5 million and get 500 slots (accessible only to guests). That's proportional, obviously, and seems fair.

However ... lawmakers want to tilt the playing field by giving Category 3 casinos 30% as many slots as, say, Rivers Casino or SugarHouse, instead of 10% ... and open those games to the general public, not just guests. Of course, the state can't go to the one existing Category 3 casino and ask for another $10 million -- can it? Casino operators are also solidly behind the GOP position on table games: $10 million upfront plus a 12% tax. But, unless House Dems completely capitulate, the gaming bosses are unlikely to get what they want, at least where the tax rate is concerned.

Penn whiffs again. Although Penn Nat'l was supposed to be a bidder in the bankruptcy auction for the Lone Star Park racino, it evidently didn't get into the action and the track went to the Chickasaw Nation for $27 million. (A lot less than Harrah's Entertainment paid to get into Ohio.)

Which means that if/when gambling is legitimized in Texas, the Chickasaws will have a double advantage (parimutuel + tribal status), while Penn will be looking at yet another missed opportunity. Penn's corporate strategy is a baffling alternation of rashness and hyper-caution.

In other tribal news, much-criticized National Indian Gaming Commission Chairman Phil Hogen is gone, thank God, and with him his new, more-restrictive Class II rules. Hogen was justly pilloried for attempting a rollback of hard-won gains in what games tribes could offer. His new rules reflected Bush administration paternalism toward tribes and while they're officially postponed for a year, I think it's safe to say they're dead.* No wonder Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK) is smiling. Watch out for that doorknob, Mister (Ex-)Chairman.

(* It's probable the same thing would have happened under a President McCain, as either candidate would have brought a more enlightened attitude to D.C.-tribal relationships.)

Supporters of video gambling are starting to push back in Illinois, at least in rural, conservative McHenry County. So far it's been the urban areas where this expansion of gambling hasn't been gaining traction.

A repeal of UIGEA continues to gain ground in the House of Representatives, even if it got pulled off the floor in the Senate. (Thanks for nothing, Harry Reid.) The money quote, literally, is a reference to an amendment Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) which would would specify that "corporate taxes owed on regulated Internet gambling activities are collected, as they currently are from the land-based casino industry." [emphasis added]

If that means what it implies, it would remove the spectre of industry-wide federal gambling taxation from the discussion and leave taxation to the states. If not, then the nose of the federal casino-tax camel is still sticking through the legislative tent. And you know where that leads.

We've seen a nationwide gaming tax get shot down during the Clinton administration but there are desperate times, obviously. Republicans like Mike Huckabee and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) have been looking to sock it to casinos at the federal level for some years now, so I fear it could have bipartisan support, should such a debate come to pass.

It's playoff time. A tired, flat-footed Minnesota Twins squad looked positively dreaful last night, flailing at outside pitches from C.C. Sabathia (if you couldn't reach that slider in the first inning, your arms aren't going to be any longer in the seventh, son). Cliff Lee made short work of the Colorado Rockies (besides, Jim Tracy can't win in the postseason), the St. Louis Cardinals look set to continue their tradition of postseason underperformance and my Anaheim Angels are forever reduced to a quivering heap of Jello in playoff games against the Boston Red Sox. Why am I having visions of brooms? 

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That is the question for today. It's not the larger, existential question of whether the opinions of one curmudgeonly blogger amount to a hill of beans in this world, especially when even the village idiot has a cyber-soapbox.

No, it's a more practical quandary. My cup runneth over with prospective topics -- and with pending deadlines. To wit, a theatre review and a news story for the July 23 CityLife, reviews to stockpile for Mike Shackleford's forthcoming WizardOfVegas.com Web site, three Question of the Day topics, and a revision of an old article I wrote for Washington National Opera in the wayback.

Say ... one of the QoDs upon which I'm working asks for instances of complaints about Harrah's Entertainment. Care to chip in? You'll be duly credited (or not, if you prefer). Actually, the back pages of S&G have been a marvelous source of information on this topic, due in no small part to your contributions. Actor Ben Browder (Stargate SG-1) says that the most important element of any story is the audience. That goes double for S&G.

Also, in the (I hope) very near future, there will be some original S&G reportage on labor negotiations at Caesars Palace, among other topics. In the meantime, I have a week of GamingFloor.com to catch up with, plus wrapping my brain around LinkedIn and Facebook, when there's a moment to spare. Given the exponentially faster advance of technology (compared to say, 1965), I can but conclude that it's a Star Trek world and we're just living in it ... long and prosperously, one hopes.

In the meantime, if the blogorrhea is less generous than average, I beg your indulgence.

All-Star Game: Not much to say about it, other than its relative brevity was merciful. (Never saw so much first-pitch swinging in my life.) Contrary to expectation, the most interesting aspect was the usually tiresome pre-game extravaganza. Sheryl Crow gave a master class in how the National Anthem should be sung and President Obama threw a rainbow curve the likes of which I haven't seen since the heyday of Sid Fernandez.

And it did bring a lump to my throat to see our nation's first black president shaking hands with Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, venerated figures in the Cardinal-worshiping McKee family and two players whose prime coincided with the apex of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. I'd love to know how much Brock and Gibson think our country has advanced since then. Oh, and Tim McCarver was actually bearable. Wonders never cease.

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Back at the home office, things still aren't up to speed. I'm caught between a cold and a stomach bug, so I feel pretty thoroughly depleted. On top of that, I'm trying to grappled with a sudden plunge into depression. It's one of the lingering aftereffects of having fallen victim to clergy-parishioner sexual abuse when I was younger. I didn't address it in therapy when I had the chance and I'm paying the price now.

Despite the risk of giving too much information, I feel it's important to acknowledge the past in the hope that it might encourage other people that they're not alone and it's never too late to get help. Considering that this kind of trauma can wreak havoc in all spheres of one's life, the dangers of suppressing it are great indeed.

Oh, and my refrigerator is broken ...

... other than that, it's as wonderful as Mondays are famous for being. At least there's the Home Run Derby tonight.

Seen last night flying into Las Vegas from Dallas, former MLB manager and current Fox Sports personality Kevin Kennedy (or, as a friend refers to him, "the man with the square head").

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MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren is re-mulling asset sales of MGM Grand Detroit, Gold Strike (Tunica, Miss.) and Beau Rivage. But all Strip assets are definitively off the market (yes, even Slots A Fun). Since the Detroit and Tunica casinos are already encumbered with CityCenter-related debt, presumably Murren would transfer those mortgages to some or all of the "Mandalay mile." As far as I know, those three casinos are still unencumbered. The Detroit resort would be a real "trophy asset" for any potential buyer ... presuming that banks are more inclined to lend than they were(n't) the last time Murren shopped this trio around.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal took a good look at MGM's Giza deal -- and it's even better than initially thought. Not only will the company collect management and franchise fees, it also gets a cut of any profits. If there's a downside here, I'm too myopic to see it.

MGM wouldn't sell Monte Carlo when Jack Binion came calling. One presumes this had more to do with potentially being able to extend CityCenter into Monte Carlo, rather than Jack's money not being good enough for MGM. However, if the company really cares about the property, why are they slowly letting it go to seed? The Brew Pub will close on July 12.

Also ... our LVA research team has discovered that no further Lance Burton performances are scheduled. This seemingly writes finis to his long relationship with Monte Carlo. Is it just an expedient way to save money or was Burton's unpardonable sin to get very good reviews from the local dailies right after Criss F. Angel laid an $85 million egg with Believe? Burton out and Angel in? That's just not right.

"IUER"? WTF? Don't call Melco Crown International's new City of Dreams a "casino." Melcospeak for the new pleasure place is "integrated urban entertainment resort." At least Steve Wynn's "casino-based destination resort" coinage rolled off the tongue a little more felicitously. On second thought, just call it "a casino."

Holy cow! The husk of the late, lamented Holy Cow Brew Pub & Casino (home of the best beer in Las Vegas) is proposed for redevelopment -- again. It was briefly the site-to-be of the phantom Ivana condo tower, one of the more egregious examples of condo "vaporware" during the recent bubble. Arizona- and New Mexico-based developers intend to tip the old Cow and replace her with a low-rise, low-cost (no hotel) casino.

The Strip needs some fresh mid-market casinos and this one could be it. But why make your anchor tenant a Walgreens when it's the flagship retailer ... of Palazzo. We sure could use the jobs, too, what with unemployment hitting record levels in Nevada. A good thing that Gov. Jim Gibbons was shamed into accepting federal funding for the jobless.

No Surprise Dept.: So the Moulin Rouge is (literally) toast and arson is suspected. The fire happened the day after a bankruptcy auction found no takers for the property.

Obama backpedals (sidepedals?) on gay rights. If he wants to give the country change it can believe in, how about revoking the profoundly un-American policy of throwing our LGBT brothers and sisters out of the military? If they've volunteered to lay down their lives for Old Glory, they're better people than me. And if Harry Truman is remembered for nothing else, he'll always be the president who integrated the military with a stroke of a pen. Does President Obama have Truman-like intenstinal fortitude?

One of the vilest of major-league baseball players back in the Eighties was slow-moving, philandering, showboating slugger Mel Hall. But we never knew just how loathsome he was. Good luck in the slammer, Mel.

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Nevada lawmakers' revenue model.

There's one industry that does far and away more than any other to pay the bar tab for the State of Nevada and it's probably about to be mandated to pay even more. That's because even though we're suffering through, proportionally speaking, the worst budget deficit in the U.S. and the methodology underlying Nevada's general fund is incredibly flawed, other industries will be allowed to continue shirk their share of the load.

How do we know this? Because invertebrate gubernatorial wannabe Barbara Buckley (D-[Your logo here]) flat-out won't support a corporate income tax. Which might be all right if she had a viable alternative, other than a pie-in-the-sky suggestion that Nevada diversify its economy.

Heck, people more serious than Buckley have been calling for such diversification for years and it still hasn't happened (in part because the wretched state of Nevada education -- about to get worse -- scares companies away). And it's sure as shooting not going to magically happen in the scant few weeks the Lege has to cobble together something resembling a budget.

Sales taxes and gaming taxes each represent roughly a third of the state's revenue base. The former is regressive both by definition and in practice, while the latter discriminates heavily against one industry, while letting all others pretty much off the hook. For instance, the state's two most lucrative mines paid $13.3 million in taxes to Nevada in all of 2007 -- on $436 million in taxable revenues. Casinos, however, paid $65 million in taxes on $840 million in revenue last February alone.

Were Nevada's gaming industry not in freefall, that disparity would be more glaring still. But Silver State solons would rather jam hot needles into their eyes than ask the sacrosanct extractive industries for one thin dime more. (Boy, they'll be sorry when those mines are tapped out.)

Heck, our legal brothels have actually offered to be taxed but our maidenly lawmakers demurely proclaimed, "No, no, a thousand times, no! You cannot buy my caress." How come? It would create -- get this -- image problems for a state that got on the map as the divorce capitol of America. Prostitutes are showing themselves more civic-minded that our ostensible "leadership" ... but the profession known as prostitution has always been considerably more honest than the prostitution known as politics.

Given the ramshackle history of Nevada's tax structure and some hints dropped by Buckley and crony Morse "Moose" Arberry, we've got a pretty good idea of what to expect from their Secret Budget Plan (under wraps until next month): More of the same. As in higher sales taxes, state fees ... and, yes, gaming taxes. Steve Wynn's warning about the catastrophic effect of the latter is apparently going to fall upon deaf legislative ears. Wynn's said he's "the most powerful man in Nevada." Now would be a good time to prove it.

On another note ...

God forbid, you need to answer the call of nature during the playing of a mediocre Irving Berlin song, at least when you're at Yankee Stadium. Support freedom -- or else! That good old George Steinbrenner spirit remains alive and well, I see.

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My apologies for leaving regular readers high and dry on Thursday. I was KO'd by a viral infection of some sort. Between that and a couple of doses of Zicam, I spent most of the day drifting in and out of sleep. Amazingly, I managed to stay awake through the early part of a Dodgers/Padres game in which neither starting pitcher could find the strike zone with two hands and a flashlight (the first two innings took an hour to play), only to doze off as things became -- moderately -- interesting and each team overcame its aversion to scoring runs.

Wednesday's report on Sheldon Adelson's surprise appearance in Austin, prompted this reader reaction, posted here because it was devoured by LVA's Comment-Eating Server: Regarding Texas and Casino Gaming: IMO the reason North Texas and Oklahoma are so closely linked is because Texas  has strong beer and strong porn, and Oklahoma has Casino Gaming, and both sides are more OK with it than they want to admit.

Having taken note of Adelson's Texas peregrination, the Las Vegas Review-Journal said to Las Vegas Sands, in effect, "Show me the money!" (Adelson is promising to spend $2 billion-plus on a Dallas-area casino.) The company's response was that its current troubles "wouldn't impair its ability to invest in Texas, in large part because even if gambling is legalized there licenses wouldn't be up for grabs until at least March 2011."

So is Sands promising to have its financial house in order 23 months from now? We'll take that as a "Yes." (Don't forget that Adelson is also courting Massachusetts legislators in hopes of landing a casino deal in his native state.)

The Dallas Morning News, to its credit, did a little number crunching and -- at the end of its story -- poked a big hole in the revenue projections being made by Texas casino proponents. In essence, they're promising 3X-4.5X the amount of casino-tax lucre that Nevada pulls in, with only double the tax rate and a tiny fraction as many casinos. Uh-huh.

Then again, the poster boy for a Lone Star casino industry is the man who once crowed, "We could build 10 Las Vegas Strips over here [in Asia], there’s so much demand!" How's that working out?

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It may be tempting fate to mention this, but online voters like Mandalay Bay best among Strip casinos ... or, at bare minimum, dislike it the least. Voters in the Steve Friess "Stripper Poll" on which casino most ought to be imploded have cast nary a ballot against the big place with the Komodo Dragon (seen giving rival casinos a Bronx cheer). As for the winners/losers of this ignominious race, Tropicana Las Vegas still holds the lead but only 16 votes separate its first-place status from the fourth-place spot held by Imperial Palace. "Impotent Palace," look to thy laurels!

Baseball season: Six months of alternating paradise and torment -- paid out in 162 increments -- begin today. This Los Angeles Angels fan is at best guardedly optimistic, seeing how the team continues to accrue one-dimensional sluggers, tubby Bobby Abreu being the latest specimen. Also, with our three top-shelf pitchers on the ... well, on the shelf for time being, the starting rotation is the weakest it's been since 2003.

Now with two of the best Angels of recent memory, Garret Anderson and Casey Kotchman, playing for the Atlanta Braves, I'm actually going to have to start thinking positive thoughts about the Braves, if not of their tiresome manager, Bobby Cox, whose incessant petulance wore out its welcome, oh, around 1991.

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Representative democracy seems to be too radical a concept for the New Jersey state senate's Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committe to enwrap within its parochial minds. It's sent back for redrafting a bill that would allow Atlantic City casino employees to hold elective office there, too. Dangerous, revolutionary stuff, that.

Most reasonable people know a conflict of interest when they see one, but Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) wants it codified in the statute. GOP Sen. Joseph Pennacchio, of Passaic, went one further, huffing and puffing that allowing casino workers to represent themselves "potentially could be putting the wolf in the chicken coop, where right now the wolf is on the outside."

Geez, if you work in an Atlantic City casino, moving to a leper colony would be a step up, at least when attitudes like Pennacchio's hold sway. Besides, taxation without representation is so 1775, senators.

The Wall Street bailout in 10 words or less: And the winner is ... President George W. Bush with, "If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down." It won't pass for Nobel Prize-winning economic analysis, but it possesses the virtues of being memorable and succinct.

1999 Mets revisited. A reader points out, "You know, those Mets were not too overachieving.  Their Pythagorean W-L was only 2 games worse than their actual W-L. It's the 2000 Mets that were seriously overachieving. By comparison, the 1999 Braves were 5 games over their Pythagorean. The winner on overachieving, however, are this year's Angels ... 12 games over!"

Math was, by far, my worst subject, so I'll take your word for it. But -- did you have to remind me of the 2000 World Series, which the Mets lost when creepy manager Bobby Valentine hung pitcher Al Leiter out to dry in the final game? (Never mind a possibly steroid-maddened Roger Clemens trying to harpoon Mike Piazza with a broken bat.) I've never teared up at the end of a sporting event ... except that once.

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