RANKMAN & SON/Pick 6 dedicated to Sid Diamond

Rankman & Son dedicate this week’s Pick 6 Friday to the memory of Sid Diamond, the legendary Las Vegas bookmaker who passed away Oct. 24 at age 83.

I never met Sid but his middle-son Jeff is one of my racquetball partners at the local L.A. Fitness.

In Boston they would describe lefty Jeff’s forehand shot as “wicked.”

Jeff, known only as “JD” to all of us, is a charter-member subscriber to TMG College Sports and a loyal follower.

He calls me “Ranks” or “Rankman.” JD didn't follow his dad into gaming, but has a pretty good carpet business going in Chino called "Carpet Station." In fact, I'm typing this story on some industrial fuzz JD's crew laid down in my home office.

When TMG decided we should start picking college football games, well, I naturally started leaning on Son of Sid for some picking pointers.

I have NEVER placed an actual money bet on a college football game but Rankman & Son want to give our readers the best information we can on our weekly plays.

JD’s dad had been retired for years and watched the sports gaming business change like you wouldn’t believe. As a kid JD would help his dad in the Vegas books, sorting actual paper bets.

The amount of information and technology available now, of course, is astounding. But back in the day, JD told me, his dad used to call air traffic control towers at various airports to get weather reports. Sid even had a compass with the dimensions for every major league ball park. Yeah, it was different.

Steve Carp, a longtime colleague and former newspaper columnist in Las Vegas, captured the essence of Sid Diamond in a very nice tribute for Gamingtoday.com.

Sid Diamond started as a ticket writer at the Del Mar Sports Book in the 1970s and also ran books at Circus Circus and other sister properties.

“He was the classic Damon Runyon character,” Paulos said of Diamond, who wrote a column on sports betting for Gaming Today from 2010 to 2012. “But nobody had the ethics of Sid and he really knew how to take care of his customers.”

Here's the link to Steve's story:

We hope the spirit of Sid has helped Rankman & Son to a winning record this season on college football, knowing full well how fast our fortunes can turn. One thing we learned from Sid, through JD, is to not "chase." JD says "Monday Night Football" was a boon to Vegas with gamblers trying to make up for all their weekend losses.

Rankman & Son have stuck to a simple six-game formula this year. No bonus picks. Three games each. That's it. And we are scrapping along Ok so far.

It must have been Sid, from somewhere, telling Rankman to go ahead and take 0-7 San Jose State last week at home as a three-point favorite. That's crazy!

Seems fitting that the team San Jose defeated, and covered against, was the University of Nevada....Las Vegas.

Not so crazy. We heard you, Sid. RIP.