Chez Reavie isn’t my favorite French restaurant, nor is it where the Los Angeles Dodgers play. Nope, Chez Reavie is the 2008 Canadian Open champion after carding a 1-under 70 on what turned out to be a beautiful Sunday at Glen Abbey. It’s the maiden PGA Tour win for the rookie, who was ranked No. 137 on the money list heading into the Open. Reavie more than doubled his earnings by taking a $900,000 check home for his efforts; he becomes the eighth player in 2008 to win his first-ever Tour event.

The Wichita native started the day one stroke ahead of Anthony Kim, the second favorite going into the tournament at 10-1. Kim shot a 64 on Saturday and was pegged at 8-13 before the final round, but he crumpled down the stretch with a 75. Billy Mayfair ended up finishing second, three strokes behind Reavie at 3-1 odds for Sunday.

Funny how things work out sometimes. Padraig Harrington had the best profile of all the golfers at this year’s British Open at Royal Birkdale: the defending champion, a European Tour vet, and someone not likely to be put off by the lousy weather.

Then Harrington injured his wrist hitting an impact bag, and his British Open odds started tumbling, from 14-1 to 16-1 to 33-1. But sure enough, Harrington shot a 74-68-72-69 to finish at +3, four strokes better than Ian Poulter and six ahead of Greg Norman, who held the lead after three rounds.

Sergio Garcia, who was the favorite going into the Open at 8-1, got progressively worse as the weekend wore on. He shot a 78 on Sunday and ended up tied for 51st place with a +17. Ernie Els rebounded from his opening round 80 to finish at +12, and Phil Mickelson came in at +14, tied with the immortal Jean Van de Velde.

The most successful corporations know how to spread the wealth around the community. Major League Baseball is very successful indeed. They’re turning the All-Star Game into a big-time display of philanthropy, giving away over $7 million to the New York City area and spending countless hours on charity work.

My personal favorite on the week’s list of events was the stickball tournament they played on Sunday in Harlem. Willie Mays (above photo) was on hand to cheer on the kids; the game ended in a 9-9 tie, but this was one All-Star event where a tie was entirely satisfactory.

Mays was a stickball legend in Harlem. When Mays was a member of the New York Giants, he would sometimes play with the neighborhood kids before a home game. “That’s how I learned to hit a breaking ball,” Mays told Salon back in 1999. Mays could hit it three sewers, i.e. three manhole covers away. Now that would make a great All-Star competition.

Online gambling can be done in the blink of an eye. Baseball moves along at a snail’s pace. Combine the two, and you open up a world of possibilities for live betting on MLB games.

A sharp bettor can really clean up in these situations. Consider Sunday night’s matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The game was tied going into the bottom of the ninth inning; you can picture all the Yankees fans watching the game, itching to bet on New York to win the game before it went into extra innings. It didn’t. Nor did the Red Sox win in the top of the 10th.

Beating the betting public is still the name of the game; live betting puts pressure on bettors to make choices, widening the gap between sharps and squares. Live betting also offers that many more chances to build a bankroll. The more, the merrier.

No big surprises at Wimbledon this week. Venus and Serena Williams each won her semifinal in women’s (or as they still call it across the pond, ladies’) singles action; they’ll meet in Saturday’s final at Centre Court for the third time. Serena took the first two encounters and is a –140 favorite at press time to do it again.

Even ignoring the recent retirements of Justine Henin and Martina Hingis, Wimbledon belongs to the Williams sisters. Their power game is perfect for the grass courts at SW19, although Venus has an even bigger advantage because of her faster serve and longer limbs.

The men were still in the semifinal stage at press time, but it would take a monumental upset to prevent Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal from reaching the final for the third straight year. Federer is the favorite on the futures market at 2-3; Nadal is even money to end Federer’s five-year winning streak on grass.