Villaraigosa's deal: Your Olympics for our Zell

There's an interesting bet brewing over the Dodgers-Cubs playoff series, with Chicago's mayor, Richard Daley, offering a goodie bag of Chicago's food and drinks and sporting goods should the Cubs lose.

Now comes word that L.A.'s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa has accepted the bet -- and offered much higher stakes:

“If the Dodgers win, Los Angeles gets Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid,” Villaraigosa said. “If the Cubs win, Chicago can take back Sam Zell.”

Wait -- there's more.

"It would be a tremendous blow to the City of Los Angeles to lose such a great corporate citizen such as Mr. Zell," Villaraigosa said. "So in unlikely event that the Dodgers lose, I’d insist that as a consolation he sell the L.A. Times back to an L.A. owner before heading back to Chicago.”

At the time of this writing: Cubs 2, Dodgers zip.

Who are you rooting for now?

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo: EPA