There are many things that go into becoming a successful handicapper. You've got to be able to devote hours and hours to the non-stop information that comes your way either by television, radio, newspapers or on the Internet. You've got to be able to dissect it and translate it. Those are all handicapping basics. However one important tool that is often overlooked is networking. It's a tool I use year around and it has led to many a winner for me.

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Through my various email contacts and phone calls, I've set up an extensive list of contacts that help me year around. From football to basketball to hockey to baseball these contacts get me information, sometimes "exclusive information" on players, teams and situations on and off the field that I may have missed otherwise.

One such contact is a gentleman who follows baseball on the West Coast and primarily keeps tabs on the Dodgers, Angels, Padres, Giants and A's. It was my friend who tipped me off to the ankle injury to Dodger shortstop Rafael Furcal. At first the team downplayed the severity of the injury but in a matter of hours I knew it was a high ankle sprain that would keep him out of the line-up for the first week of the season. That was an inside tip. With that information and knowing that LA's strategy was to win with "little ball" and defense and that Furcal was a big part of the offense, I immediately took a stronger look at the UNDER in the Dodgers opening games. Sure enough, they got just two hits on opening day against Ben Sheets and the Brewers. I cashed in big time on that game despite a horrible outing by Dodger pitcher Derek Lowe. I followed them for the entire Milwaukee series and the first two games of the Giants series and I was rewarded with a 3-1-1 mark to the UNDER.

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The basics are there to be a standout handicapper. Money management and discipline will always show up at the top of any list. But you must have a network of people that can give that inside information that no other 'capper has. That's my big advantage here at Doc's. We may swing and miss occasionally but with the networking I'm doing and the contacts I'm creating, I'll hit them out of the park more often than not.