Opinion: World Series baseball bet: Gavin Newsom poker-faced as Meg Whitman ups ante
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Has inveterate baseball gambler and mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom lost his nerve?
Following triumphant bets with mayors of major American cities as the Giants have progressed to the World Series to face the Texas Rangers, the mayor has some critics grumbling that he’s significantly lowered his stakes.
Previously, he’d won bets with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed that included flying the winning team’s flag above the opponent’s city hall.
Now he’s bet Robert Cluck, the mayor of Arlington, Texas, a Bay Area specialty dinner of Dungeness crab on the outcome of the World Series, which begins right about now.
The bet is so paltry, he didn’t even announce it on Twitter. But someone else announced theirs.
Welcome to the table, Meg Whitman. The California gubernatorial candidate took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce her own bet with incumbent Texas governor Rick Perry:
On phone w/ TX @GovernorPerry to place World Series wager. CA surfboard up against TX cowboy boots! Go @SFGiants! http://twitpic.com/31dcyt
No word yet from Perry, but Whitman clearly hopes she can march those cowboy boots into Sacramento like her predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, famously did.
If the Giants win, Newsom gets flown a box of Texas BBQ. High steaks indeed.
-- Craig Howie
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Image credit: Meg Whitman’s Twitter feed.