Gamblers back an unlikely baseball hero

“ROLL TIDE,” one of my fellow hill walkers Shane said out of nowhere as we came down off the Temescal Trail, north of Santa Monica.

“Roll Tide,” responded the girl walking in the other direction.

She sauntered on, not looking around. Nor did Shane. She was wearing a University of Alabama t-shirt and he simply wanted to pay his respects to her team, the Crimson Tide, the famous footballing institution on the banks of the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa.