UPDATE: Dang it, it’s a fake. Turns out it’s an altered ticket, per ESPN’s gambling expert. Stand down. But continue to read Hunter S. Thompson quotes. He had his moments.
3:57PM: Hunter S. Thompson once said that it’s important to know that losing comes with the territory when it comes to the business of gambling. He even compared it to playing linebacker in the NFL, saying “just as getting crippled for life is an acceptable risk in the linebacker business,” so too is losing when one gambles. “They both are extremely violent sports, and pain is part of the bargain. Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
A Chicago man named Don Majewski bought the ticket and will be taking the ride for the next five and a half months or so. And he paid big for the ticket. $200,000 to be precise, which is most of his life savings. And he plunked it all down on the Chicago Cubs. From NetOneSports:
He’s a sanitation worker-turned-carpenter. And he’s married. He says his wife approved of the bet, as long as he slept on it. Which he did. But then he put $200K on a baseball team. In May.
I’m pretty risk averse. I don’t gamble much and don’t enjoy the ride terribly much even when I do buy the ticket. But I don’t think you have to be risk averse to give Mr. Majewski the side eye on this one. You just have to know how baseball works and remember just how often the best looking team in May tanks it down the stretch. And just how often the team that wins it all was nowhere close to being the best looking team in May.
Good luck, good sir. But hoo boy.
