Mailbag Friday
Welcome back to the biggest shit show in your inbox. This is the gambling newsletter written by a gambling degenerate for gambling degenerates.
It is the mailbag edition. We have not done one of these in a long time and because of that I am going to make the mailbag portion free to everyone.
I also have baseball bets at the very end.
Send your emails to basementbookie@gmail.com
Some of these emails are very old and some arrived like 5 minutes ago.
As always, I protect your privacy. Nobody wants to admit that they subscribe to this shit.
Here we go!
Email #1: Where the fuck have you been? Are you dead?
I'm clearly not dead, but I've been away for a bit, so I understand the question. A couple of things: first, there were some issues with Substack. I touched on these briefly a few months back, but they've all been worked out now.
Without going into great detail, as the football season ends, my life gets really busy, and then it slows down in March. This works out perfectly when it comes to gambling because I gamble the most on football, March Madness, and baseball.
Moving forward, I think this newsletter will take a hiatus in early February until March Madness begins. Don't you all need a break from me?
Email #2: So Pete Rose get banned but Ohtani is good? MLB protecting him.
As I answer this, more news has broken about Ohtani’s interpreter. Apparently, he stole $16 million, and the FBI says that Ohtani is the victim.
Let’s break this down. I know everyone is a conspiracy theorist now, but let’s look at the facts. Do you think baseball really wanted to find out that Pete Rose, their all-time hits leader and icon, was gambling on baseball? Of course not. It was not a good thing for baseball at all. Of course, the worst possible thing for baseball is having another scandal like they had with The Black Sox.
The rule is pretty clear-cut: if you gamble on baseball while you are involved in the sport of baseball, you are banned for life. Despite that, there is a ton of evidence that suggests that Bart Giamatti did not want to give Pete Rose a lifetime ban. He even told Rose as much. All he wanted from Rose in that first meeting was honesty. Giamatti already had the evidence. It’s like when your wife asks you a question; she already knows the answer. She just wants to see if you are going to be honest. Pete failed that test and doubled down. Giamatti had no choice, and then he died. Giamatti was a fan of Rose. What I am trying to say is Rose had a chance to save himself and messed up.
Now let’s talk Ohtani. When this first broke, I had a hard time believing his interpreter stole money from him. To me, it sounded like his interpreter got in over his head, and Ohtani bailed him out. Let’s not just call him the interpreter. They were very close friends. So his friend got himself in a bad situation, and Ohtani had the money to fix it. I still am leaning towards that theory, but with the latest news, maybe he really did steal the money.
The worst-case scenario is that Ohtani was the one actually betting, and his friend was just placing the bets for him. Two things: first, they have not found one bet on baseball. So even if that was the case, it would not warrant a lifetime ban; a suspension? Yes. Secondly, many of Ohtani’s teammates have said he is really not into sports. Now, I understand you don’t necessarily need to be into sports to bet on them. I have placed bets on sports I don’t care about, like World Cup soccer. I am a degenerate. However, when I bet on a World Cup soccer match, I suddenly became really interested in the score of the match I bet on. I think if Ohtani was the one betting his teammates would have noticed him looking at his phone a lot and yelling “Fuck!” My wife sees that shit nightly.
I feel confident that Ohtani is not the guy who is gambling. The question is, did he pay off his friend's gambling debts to an illegal bookie, or did his friend steal from him? Either way, Pete Rose needs to shut his mouth about it. He messed up and messed up and messed up. His dumb line of “I should have just had my interpreter bet for me” shows he is still clueless and dumb as a fucking rock.
Email #3: I put $10 on Tiger to win at +17500
True story.I bet on Tiger Woods to win the 2019 Masters in October of 2018. Talk about a future bet. I forgot how much I won and how much I bet. I think I bet $100 and maybe won $800?
Email #4: How many paid subscribers did you get in yesr one? Just think a little over a year ago your first newsletters were coming out
That's correct; this newsletter began in early March of 2023, as mentioned in email #1. March is when my gambling drive really kicks in, which is probably why I started the newsletter then.
We have over 14,000 subscribers, with about 8,000 actually reading each newsletter on the day it's sent out. As for paid subscribers, that number fluctuates a lot. You all seem to love football season though; there's a huge spike in paid subscribers in October. It feels like I'm a stripper on OnlyFans in the fall.
I appreciate every one of you, though. I may not be rich, but this is a nice little side hustle
Email #5: OJ is dead. Your thoughts?
Story time. My father is a big fan of Jim Brown. In fact, he often says that Jim Brown and OJ Simpson are the two best running backs of all time, although he makes it clear there's a big gap between #1 and #2. My father read Jim Brown’s autobiography, which I believe came out around 1986. In the book, Jim Brown goes off about OJ, basically calling him a phony and not what he appears to be. It's worth noting that Jim Brown had a history of violence against women. Essentially, Jim was acknowledging his own flaws but also pointing out that OJ, whom many saw as a great guy, was also flawed. The book didn't delve into great detail.
My dad read the book when it was released, but he never shared that section with me until... well, you know.
I was home from college when the news broke that OJ’s ex-wife and her friend were killed. I remember thinking, “Poor OJ. The mother of his kids and his ex-wife was killed. That has to be awful.”
If you're reading this and you're around 25 years old, you probably only know OJ as a murdering, crazy individual. But in June of 1994, OJ was the least likely person you'd expect to commit such a crime. I don’t even know who the equivalent person today is to how OJ was viewed in 1994. Maybe Peyton Manning? The difference is that Peyton is white. OJ was a black man whom even the most racist individuals admired. He was also cashing in; OJ used to make fun of Jim Brown for not "playing the game" and capitalizing on his fame. Jim Brown, on the other hand, was seen as the angry black man who spoke out on social issues – not something easily marketable, especially back then.
So when news broke that OJ’s ex-wife and her friend were murdered, nobody – and I mean nobody – was thinking he did it. Well, maybe Jim Brown did.
I remember when the news broke that OJ was being questioned about it. I don’t even think it was released that he was a suspect at first. Obviously, law enforcement suspected him because they knew about the domestic violence incidents. But the public didn't know any of that yet.
Then came the press conference. The District Attorney announced that OJ was supposed to turn himself in, but he didn't, and now he's a fugitive of the law. At that moment, my dad yelled, “Jim Brown was right!!….The Juice is on the Loose!”
ESPN did a great 30 for 30 on that day. It's hard to explain how big it was if you weren’t alive to see it.
As for his recent death, at least the "real killer" can now golf in peace. For years, he had to steer clear of golf courses because that's where OJ was always trying to find him
Email #6: Fuck you!
I get about 30 different emails with this sentiment. Fuck you, too!
That ends the mailbag. Let’s get to some bets.
Here is where I have to be an asshole, to read the rest of this newsletter you need to be a paid subscriber. Why? Becauuse I need to support my gambling habit. The good news, it is just $5 a month. You know you want to…..
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