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Here are some New Year's wishes for our Mahoning Valley sports fans:
The Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers will both have a better 2023 season than 2022. NFL fans around here haven't been excited about football unless there is a bet riding on it. By the way, let's hope for success at the new sports betting venue at the Mahoning Valley Race Course and Hollywood Casino in Austintown. A big party is set for 9 p.m. New Year's Eve in anticipation of the first Ohio sports bets at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.
For Browns and Steeler fans, that means interest in Sunday's games can perk up with a few wagers, but this comes with some warnings. The Steelers' slim playoff hopes hang on a number of occurrences that start with two losses by the Miami Dolphins and the Steelers must also beat Baltimore and Cleveland over the next two weeks along with a number of other extremely rare probabilities from other games.
Remember last year, the Pittsburgh team managed to weave its way to a playoff berth when the Raiders and Chargers had to go deep into overtime to avoid a tie that would have kept the Steelers out of the 2021 playoffs.
For Browns fans looking to bet on their team in their Sunday game in Washington, D.C., here's some advice: don't! The Redskins, er-Commanders, must win to retain their spot as the last NFC playoff qualifier. And the Browns will probably be taking the field without their star running back Nick Chubb, whose production has been dropping lately because of late-season nagging injuries.
Speaking of the Raiders, I told you some wrong information in my last column. When talking about the 1968 "Heidi" game, I had mistakenly stated that the New York Jets had come back to win the game in Oakland after the NBC network had pulled the plug on the game telecast in favor of showing the popular children's program. Well, reader John Phillips informed me that I was asleep during the game. I actually didn't see the end of the game like the rest of America! Checking the encyclopedias, I found that Phillips was right and it was the Oakland Raiders who scored 17 points in the final two minutes to beat Joe Namath and the Jets, 43-23! Let's set the record straight as the Raiders, now in the betting capital of Las Vegas, move on with a new quarterback after benching Derek Carr after last week's loss in snowy and frigid Pittsburgh.
Speaking of the frigid weather during the Christmas holiday, I wondered whether a push would be made for Cleveland to put a roof over First Energy Stadium. You have to wonder about any home-field weather advantage, especially after the New Orleans Saints, who regularly play indoors, took to the frigid turf on Dec. 24 on the shores of Lake Erie and outplayed the home team in wind-chill temperatures reaching into the minus-20s.
The small crowd inside First Energy Stadium was encouraged to bring thermoses filled with all manner of drink, any type of electric heating gizmo known to polar bears, plus other do-dads to stave off the cold.
The upper deck of the stadium was emptied and the few thousand who braved the potentially deadly weather were huddled in the lower bowl to watch the carnage on the field. It looked like the Browns players didn't want to be there as the cold winter sky darkened on Christmas Eve. The clatter you heard wasn't Santa and his reindeer, but the sound of cleats of players beating it to the warm showers of the locker room.
Basketball fans have to be enjoying the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs hope not to falter at the end of this long season as they did last year. They have a new superstar in Donovan Mitchell, obtained in a blockbuster offseason trade from Utah. Mitchell looks like the real deal, he could be the Cavs second-best player ever, behind LeBron, of course. Those fans of Cleveland sports teams are encouraged to get on the Cavs bandwagon, especially those who felt betrayed by LeBron constantly flying the coop.
Baseball season, with the onset of pitchers and catchers reporting in sunny Arizona and Florida, is less than 45 days away. Those seeking to follow the Guardians in Arizona and Pirates in Florida should find some good deals on flights. There's nothing better than escaping the cold in Ohio for a few days to watch a baseball game.
The college football bowl season -- with both Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Sundays -- has to take a back seat to the NFL playoff drive. The big bowls -- the playoff semifinals involving Ohio State vs. Georgia in Atlanta's Peach Bowl and Michigan vs. TCU in Arizona's Fiesta Bowl -- are being played on New Year's Eve, a few hours before sports betting becomes legal in the Buckeye State. Those bettors in Ohio will get their first chance to bet on the Granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl featuring Penn State vs. Utah, which this year will be featured at 4:45 p.m. on Jan. 2 as the last bowl game prior to the CFP national championship. As one who thoroughly enjoyed last year's Rose Bowl between Utah and Ohio State, I'm advising bettors to take the over in points scored.
To all, don't eat, drink or bet too much, but have a happy new year!