Bets

Governor Martin O'Malley narrowly avoided a minor Twitter storm over beer Saturday morning after making a bet with the governor of California on the Super Bowl . Friday afternoon, he responded to a wager with California Gov. Jerry Brown by staking a case of Natty Boh. But Saturday morning, the Brewers Association of Maryland posted a message asking O'Malley to support the local economy and consider putting up a tasty beverage that is...

The Super Bowl is serious now. Beer bragging rights are on the line. While Budweiser inevitably will dole out millions on advertising during Sunday's big game between the Ravens and 49ers, two craft breweries with ties to Baltimore and San Francisco have opted for a friendly wager. According to the Frederick News-Post , Maryland's Flying Dog Brewery and California's Anchor Brewery have agreed that the brewery from the home state of the losing team will have to pour the other's beer for a week.

When it comes to Super Bowl XLVII, it seems everyone is willing to put some skin in the game. Or at least a little ego. (Yes, we're talking about you, Mayor Hancock.) The bets for - and against - the Baltimore Ravens are piling up. And it's not just in Vegas parlors. The Maryland Zoo is placing a bet with the San Francisco Zoological Society that would rename the exhibit of the team's official raven mascots. If the 49ers win, the birds Rise and Conquer- often seen during home games - will suddenly find themselves living in the "San Francisco 49ers exhibit.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is planning to donate to the homeless her winnings from the Ravens AFC championship game victory against New England. On Tuesday, the mayor is slated to deliver food to the Cottage Avenue Community. The food was sent by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino after losing a bet with Rawlings-Blake over the outcome of the game between the Ravens and the Patriots.  The Boston mayor sent to City Hall a package filled with goods from Boston's public markets. The winnings included cannoli, ravioli, various packaged goods and an assortment of seafood, including mussels, scallops, oysters and four live lobsters.

The owners of Jewish-style delicatessens in San Francisco and Baltimore have placed a friendly wager on the Super Bowl game. The losing deli will donate $500 to a charity of choice in the winning team's city. The bet between Miller's East Coast Delicatessen in San Francisco and Attman's Deli in Baltimore was the idea of Robby Morgenstern of Miller's, who made, and won, a similar bet with a Detroit deli owner on the outcome of the 2012 World Series. The Baltimore deli's owner, Marc Attman, accepted the bet with Miller's.

The Patriots' coach might be a sore loser, but Boston mayor Thomas Menino has sportingly made good on the losing bet he made with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on the AFC Championship game.  A package filled with goods from Boston's public markets arrived at Baltimore City Hall on Friday. Inside were cannoli, ravioli, various packaged goods and an assortment of seafood, including mussels, scallops, oysters -- and four live lobsters. Rawlings-Blake, who was not in Baltimore on Friday, will be making a visit next week to the Cottage Avenue Community , the Park Circle transitional housing program for homeless families she chose as the recipients of the package.

The Royal Rumble is the match I look forward to most in WWE, not just because it begins the "Road To WrestleMania" and shapes a lot of those cards and rivalries, but because it feeds your ADD cravings as a pro wrestling fan. Every two minutes, about the time you secretly want something new or exciting to happen in a match, a new person joins in and makes the match interesting again. This happens 28 times. By the time No. 30 hits the ring, your "fan ADD" has been fed enough that you can calmly sit through the remaining minutes (usually 6-to-10)

Who pays for the food involved when mayors and governors make bets on football games? When it comes to Faidley's crab cakes, the centerpiece of the market package Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has wagered on Sunday's AFC championship game, Faidley's is prepared to provide the goods. Faidley's owner Bill Devine said he has promised and provided crab cakes for municipal bets before, dating back to the William Donald Schaefer era. "It's a feel-good gesture," said Devine about his make-good promise.

It's not just politicans wagering on NFL playoff games. Earlier this week, Heavy Seas Beer owner Hugh Sisson proposed a wager on the AFC Championship game between the Ravens and the Patriots to Jim Koch, chairman of the Boston Beer Company and Samuel Adams beer.  Here's the exchange, which happened over email on Wednesday and Thursday: Hi Jim Straight up bet - 1 case of my Loose Cannon IPA for 1 case of your Boston Lager, Ravens...

Ray Lewis will play through an injury, but Denver Mayor Michael Hancock isn't about to dance through one. After losing a bet to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake over the outcome of the Ravens-Broncos playoff game, Hancock was supposed to perform Lewis' signature pregame dance Tuesday. Instead, the mayor showed up with a limp. "He's injured," said Hancock's spokeswoman Amber Miller. "He was at a National Western Stock Show event last night, and he caught his boot. He seriously strained his quad.