New York mayor Bill de Blasio honors World Series bet, sings ‘Kansas City’
The upside of being mayor of a city represented in the World Series is experiencing the atmosphere and sharing in the joy of that team’s fan base.
The downside? If your city’s team loses, chances are you’ll be doing something embarrassing as a result. That’s because the mayors of the cities involved usually make a friendly bet centered around food, first and foremost, fashion, and something embarrassing, like singing the winning team’s anthem.
[Elsewhere: Rays win lottery to play potential exhibition game in Cuba]
This year was no different, as New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and Kansas City mayor Sly Jones agreed to terms involving cheesecake, uniforms, and a musical performance honoring the winning team’s city.
As everybody knows, the Kansas City Royals went on the win the series four games to one. That meant de Blasio — a born and bred Boston Red Sox fan, we should note — had to take one for New York. And take one he did, performing ‘Kansas City’ with the assistance of the American Ballet Theatre dancers.
Credit where it’s due, de Blasio and company knocked that performance out of the park.
But that wasn’t all. New York’s leader lived up to the full terms of the deal, which were detailed by the Kansas City Star.
The video was James’ idea. During the World Series, James issued this challenge to de Blasio: if the Royals win, de Blasio has to go to a ballet school in New York, wear a Royals jersey and sing “Kansas City.” He also suggested that de Blasio send New York cheesecake.
If the Mets had won, James agreed to go to Kansas City Ballet, wear a Mets jersey and sing “New York, New York.” He also said he would send ribs to de Blasio.
Man, de Blasio really missed out on this one. Kansas City ribs? He had the better end of this bet by 2,000 miles, but the Royals have more resilience and ultimately scored more runs, meaning Sly Jones had his ribs and cheesecake too.
For the record, Jones is now 1-1 in World Series. He honored his loss to San Francisco mayor Ed Lee in June by singing “Amazing Grace” during the 83rd annual U.S. Conference of Mayors.
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Hats off to both mayors involved in this year’s World Series for being good sports.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
