Spelling Bee Picks & More Tuesday Sports Biz
CNBC Sports Business Reporter
This four-time regional spelling champ really has impressed me over the years as he has grown up before our eyes. The problem I have with Horton, who finished an impressive sixth last year, is that he isn't that outwardly confident, which concerns me. "He hates being called the favorite, because no one really is," his mother Michelle recently told The Arizona Republic.
This is what Horton himself told the East Valley Tribune: "I think this is the best chance I've had so far. I also have an extremely good chance that I won't win." I don't like the way he says that, but I can't deny that he has great credentials.
4. Evan O'Dorney, No. 11
Who Will Win This Year's Spelling Bee?
Those who know me or have followed my work in recent years know that, besides specializing in sports business, I know niche sports better than anyone in the country does. It started with my love of the competitive eating circuit and carried over to becoming the top handicapper in the country on the National Spelling Bee.
Last year, while I was still at ESPN, I gave the betting public the top eight spellers. My No. 3 pick Katherine Close won it all and my other picks fared pretty well. So if you want to know who to root for this year, you have it all here for you.
Let me just say that it's very hard to predict the winner in the Spelling Bee because the words are so random, but trust me when I say that one of these kids is going to win. The Bee starts tomorrow, but it really commences on Thursday when ESPN picks up the coverage from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET with the Finals being broadcast live in primetime for the second straight year, from 8 to 10 p.m. ET on ABC. If you are scoring at home, I've included the number that my favorite spellers will wear so that you will know who is who.
One more note before I bring you the list. This year's finals is going to be broadcast by Mike & Mike (Greenberg and Golic), a hosting pair long overdue for an event like this one. The two can only hope to do play-by-play for something remotely close to this, the best moment in Spelling Bee history. Three years ago, eventual runner-up Akshay Buddiga fainted, then got up as if nothing happened and spelled the word "alopecoid," which -- by the way -- doesn't come up in spellchecker.
So here's my Top 10 list:
1. Samir Patel, No. 247
Two years ago, O'Dorney -- who reportedly writes classic piano concertos and creates board games -- surprised many when he made it to the eighth round in his first try at the Spelling Bee. Last year, he bowed out in the seventh round on 'mirliton,' but I feel that if this kid gets the luck of the words, he has a got a chance.
5. Matthew Evans, No. 161
Who Will Win This Year's Spelling Bee?
Those who know me or have followed my work in recent years know that, besides specializing in sports business, I know niche sports better than anyone in the country does. It started with my love of the competitive eating circuit and carried over to becoming the top handicapper in the country on the National Spelling Bee.
Last year, while I was still at ESPN, I gave the betting public the top eight spellers. My No. 3 pick Katherine Close won it all and my other picks fared pretty well. So if you want to know who to root for this year, you have it all here for you.
Let me just say that it's very hard to predict the winner in the Spelling Bee because the words are so random, but trust me when I say that one of these kids is going to win. The Bee starts tomorrow, but it really commences on Thursday when ESPN picks up the coverage from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET with the Finals being broadcast live in primetime for the second straight year, from 8 to 10 p.m. ET on ABC. If you are scoring at home, I've included the number that my favorite spellers will wear so that you will know who is who.
One more note before I bring you the list. This year's finals is going to be broadcast by Mike & Mike (Greenberg and Golic), a hosting pair long overdue for an event like this one. The two can only hope to do play-by-play for something remotely close to this, the best moment in Spelling Bee history. Three years ago, eventual runner-up Akshay Buddiga fainted, then got up as if nothing happened and spelled the word "alopecoid," which -- by the way -- doesn't come up in spellchecker.
So here's my Top 10 list:
1. Samir Patel, No. 247
Last year, I liked speller Bonny Jain because he was obviously a major genius -- having already won the National Geographic Geography Bee. Well, we find the same in Matthew Evans, who not only has a handle on the Spelling Bee. Earlier this month, Evans won the Reader's Digest Word Power Challenge, America's premier vocabulary competition. As an aside, Matthew's favorite word is 'bewussteinslage,' which means a "state of awareness."
6. Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan, No. 45
Gopalakrishnan is returning for her fourth go-around, which I like. Her high of 37th isn't very encouraging, but I like her 23-letter name. She told The Rocky Mountain News that her favorite word is 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,' which refers to a type of lung disease.
7. Lina Bader, No. 226
Bader finished 30th last year after being stumped on 'ichneumon,' a tough word that bears a resemblance to my favorite dinosaur (icthyosaur). This is Lina's fourth time in Washington D.C., and I always like the family history. Her brother Mohammed made the national finals in 2001 and 2002.
8. Tia Natasha-Elizabeth Thomas, No. 12
It's a little known fact that this 12-year-old hasn't made it close to the championship these past three years because her local bees are written tests not oral ones. So things change when she gets to the nation's capital. But she has spelled under the lights enough that I think she has the skills.
9. Kunal Sah, No. 260
I call Sah my sentimental favorite because he's the best story in the contest this year. Sah now lives with his uncle and aunt at a motel in Utah, after his parents were sent back to India a month after Sah competed in last year's Spelling Bee, as a result of being denied political asylum. Sah believes that if he wins, he can get his parents back. Plus, we're not going to lie; we love the fact that the eighth grader already has a pretty solid mustache.
10. Jasmine Shaquielle O'Neal Willis, No. 232
We know nothing about this girl other than the fact that her parents obviously wanted to honor Shaquille O'Neal by bestowing something close to that for her middle name. Although the name Shaquille hasn't been among the top 1000 baby names in the U.S. since 1996, it was actually in the top 500 in 1993 (180), 1994 (235), and 1995 (457), according to the Social Security Administration. If Jasmine wins, which I don't think will happen, we'll call her the "Little Aristotle."
The Wright Stuff?
