Good morning!
Metered parking was free on Sundays so I locked up the car and walked from Liberty Street to the MGM Casino through Union Station where a locomotive huffed overhead like a somnolent beast.

Near Symphony Hall, people were gathered around a pastor dressed in cleric robes who nodded to a guitarist and everyone sang Amazing Grace.

The casino is located across from the oddly designed Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse where I once saw a man walk through the metal detector wearing a T-shirt that said I didn’t do it.

A state police car is always parked outside the casino as a reminder for patrons to behave themselves. Inside, I asked how to find the sportsbook and a member of the floor staff pointed past the slot machines, table games and cashiers windows.

I stopped at a roulette wheel and watched the tiny white pill bounce and land on 12 red and not Carlton Fisk’s number 27.

The sportsbook is wedged into a corner and is closet space compared to the palaces in Las Vegas. Clearly, MGM doesn’t want to waste floor space on something that will soon be done using sportsbook apps.

I prefer brick and mortar locations for two reasons. First, downloading a betting app is like having a candy machine in my house, and second if I lose I don’t have to meet the bookie at a gas station or behind a bodega.

Most of the kiosks were occupied by bettors who stared at the screens trying to decide how and what to bet. “Where’d you get this?” I asked a middle aged man who was perusing several sheets filled with prop bets.

“I found it on the side of the road, but they have them over there,” he said, pointing to the betting windows. I walked past several rows of seats and a bank of TV sets and stood behind a man in a wheelchair. The poor guy was struggling to maneuver between the ropes, but before I could help an attentive supervisor unhooked the rope and wheeled him to a VIP window.

I left the line, introduced myself and asked if he could answer a few questions. He agreed as long as I didn’t use his name. “I need some job security,” he said. “It took four months just to get licensed by the gaming commission.”

He dispelled a rumor that the state was taxing gamblers’ winnings. “They take 15 percent of our winnings. That’s enough,” he said.

“How’s the action so far?”

“Yesterday we handled $250,000. We hope we’ll reach a half million. We’ve had a few five-thousand dollar bets but nothing big, no $10,000 bets yet.”

“Do you have a promotion for first time bettors?”

“No,” he said.

I thanked him and stepped back between the ropes and bet $50 on the Chiefs. “Is there a vig?” I asked the teller, referring to the 10 percent bookie fee.

“What’s that?” he asked.

It’s how bookies make their money. Peter and Paul both bet $110 to make $100 on the Chiefs and Eagles, respectively. Peter wins $100, Paul loses $110 and the bookie nets a sawbuck.

“No,” said the teller. “We just take whatever you want to bet.”

Actually they do charge a vig. My bet on the Chiefs cost $50 to win $45.45 and collect $95.45. I’ll keep it in my wallet until baseball season, when the hapless Red Sox are at Yankee Stadium.

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The UMass women’s basketball team avenged its lone A-10 loss to URI in January by crushing the Ramettes, 78-57, before 2,422 fans at the Ryan Center in South Kingston on Thursday.

The Minutewomen deserve that same kind of support and fans can show it when they host Davidson in a noontime tipoff on Sunday. Tickets cost 10 bucks. It’s a good way to beat the February doldrums and cheer on Mass. Aggie.

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UMass basketball opponents smell blood in the water. On Tuesday the Minutemen were favored by 4½ points to beat last place Loyola Chicago but lost, 64-62, before a scant crowd of 2,670 at the Mullins Center.

The final score doesn’t reflect how poorly the Minutemen played in the first 32 minutes. “I’m tired of us being embarrassed by bad defense,” said coach Frank Martin. “We got a bad case of selfishness on our team.”

Martin added, however, that he might’ve found a combination that will work. “Those last eight minutes we played like a college basketball team,” he said of the team’s 16-3 comeback down the stretch. “I was proud of those guys that were on the court.”

Consequently, expect to see a lot more of Isaac Kante, Wildens Leveque, T.J. Weeks, Tafara Gapare and Keon Thompson on the court today at URI.

Injuries remain a bugaboo. Noah Fernandes had another MRI on his bad ankle “and it doesn’t look good,” said an insider, and Matt Cross left on crutches early against the Ramblers. “Matt’s the guy that provides the toughness, without him we had guys making excuses,” said Martin. “This creates an opportunity for Tafara Gapare to get some minutes. He wants to play, well he’s going to have to play now.”

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SPRING RECAP: The UMass men’s lacrosse team got off to the good start it desperately needed by holding off Army, 10-8, in the season opener on Saturday thanks to late goals by Tim Hoynes and Mike Tobin before 582 fans at Garber Field. … In Orlando, the UMass softball team was swept four straight in the UCF Tournament. The Minutewomen lost to Central Florida, Boise State, Ohio State and Georgia by a combined 28-8 score and batted a meager .151 (14-for-93). … Name a sport, any sport, and Boston College usually wins. Such was the case on Wednesday when the Eagles women’s lacrosse team routed UMass, 16-6.

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According to the medical director for the NFL Players Association Dr. Thom Mayer, there are 27 physicians on the sideline for every NFL game. Among them is an ER doctor skilled in traumatic intubations.

“Not somebody’s buddy, or someone you played golf with, or Hail good fellow,” Dr. Mayer said on Sirius-XM’s Doctor Radio, “but somebody who’s done at least eight traumatic intubations.”

This proved crucial the night Damar Hamlin collapsed from cardiac arrest. As the ambulance was making its bumpy ride out of the tunnel that night, the intubation needed to be repeated and done without letting blood into Hamlin’s lungs. “Without it, he could have been further injured or died,” said Dr. Mayer.

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New York Post Hall of Fame hockey writer Larry Brooks wasn’t impressed by the NHLPA’s decision to hire career politician Marty Walsh to be its union chief. Characterizing him as a “tub-thumper,” Brooks wrote that the reason Walsh quit his post as the Secretary of Labor was because he was miffed he didn’t replace outgoing chief of staff Ron Klain.

Brooks noted that Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs gave $13,000 to Walsh’s Boston mayoral campaign, and sarcastically added: “Maybe Walsh will take a harsher stance with the Board of Governors than he did with the railroads.”

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Greenfield’s Skip White and his wife Sandy were enjoying cocktails at the Blackfin Resort on the Keys last Saturday when their poolside friend Steve Tazuma got a call from the NFL. Seems that he and his twin brother Tom Patterson were separated at birth. One is a longtime Eagles fan and the other a longtime Chiefs fan, and the oddity garnered them an invite to the Super Bowl on the NFL’s dime.

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SQUIBBERS: Considering that the UMass hockey team blew back-to-back 3-0 leads in the third period against last place UVM last weekend, maybe Greg Carvel should have kept Deerfield’s Matt Lindsay as his assistant coach after all. … Recently anointed Hall of Famer Joe Klecko told the Post’s Steve Serby that the Jets should stay away from Aaron Rodgers. “I just think with his condescending attitude he could be more of a detriment.” … It’s a slow day in Fort Myers when the best the Globe’s Peter Abraham could come up with on Wednesday was that Rafael Devers has an autographed Alex Ovechkin jersey. … Fordham beat Davidson last week to reach 20 wins for the first time in 32 years. Hey, wasn’t that supposed to be UMass’s claim to fame? … Mike Golic on Sunday’s field conditions: “It looks like a golf course. There’s chunks of grass everywhere.” … Eagles running back Kenneth Gainwell was 16/1 to score the first Super Bowl touchdown, and prop players were crushed when the replay showed his knee touched the ground two inches short of the goal line. Instead, Jalen Hurts scored on the next play at 8/1. … The Vegas odds for guessing the right Super Bowl score: 260-to-1. … Former Cowboy Michael Irvin spoke to a hotel guest only briefly, but it was enough to get him thrown out of his room and pulled from covering the Super Bowl for the NFL Network. Irvin is suing his accuser for $100 million. “It is clear Michael is the latest victim of our cancel culture where all it takes is an accusation to ruin a person’s life,” said his attorney. … Lookalikes: John Calipari and the Price is Right’s Bob Barker. … John Adams, who had beat the rally drum in Cleveland’s centerfield bleachers since 1973, died last month at age 71. … Michael Strahan calls his Super Bowl ring from 2008 a “four table ring” because it can be seen from four tables away. … Welcome to the re-entry phase of the sports year, when everything goes dark until March Madness.

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com

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