As many of my soon to be loyal reader know I have an annual bet with Jerry Smith. Or as we refer to it “the bet” – because there really isn’t any other bet that is worth talking about. The bet is a baseball bet and at one time we referred to our selfs as the betting baseball gourmets, because the prise of the bet is food.
Here’s how the bet works – in a draft system – with last years loser drafting first we chose 2 winning and 2 losing teams in each league. Each win or lose for our teams counts as one point. The person with the most points at the end of the season is treat to a meal at the most expensive restaurant they can find. Originally the loser was required to fix a gourmet meal with out any help for the four of us (yes June and Susan get to join us for the meal – after all they suffer through a full season of us updating them on “the score”). About 17 years ago we changed the rules to going out to a nice place because Jerry insisted on using goat cheese on much of what he made.
This is our 23rd season and here are our teams for the year:
Smith Winners: New York Yankees, Boston, St Louis and Florida Smith Losers: Washington, Milwaukee , Toronto and Kansas City
Johnson Winners: Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota, Atlanta and Chicago Cubs Johnson Losers: Colorado, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and Seattle
As of today – i’m up by 8 points. This year has been interesting because neither of us as taken a commanding lead.
This is a photo of Jerry and I in New Orleans the site of the 2005 Payoff Dinner. Next year we will be going to Santa Fe where i hope to find the most expensive restaraunt in town – that is if i can continue in the lead – if Jerry somehow wins for the 8th time of the 23 seasons we might I will suggest Burger King.
hey, your picks look interesting. more creative than NYY BoSox StL and FLA. Seems like the obvious favorites to me. Good luck, and it seems like a really fun bet to have, I’ll probably plagiarize it in the future.
I’ve heard of this bet. You should go international with it. Dinner in London. Dinner is Bangkok. Dinner in Nairobi (which I hope to do sometime in the next two years!!!!!!!)
So how ofter are you going to update the score? I’m only down by 7 today. J
Luke – this year I went for the “losers” first – hoping that they would get me more points than the winners – i knew that he would get NYY and Boston and maybe even St Louis, so far my strategy is working.
P1 – if we go international it will be to TJ.