Gov's beany bet raises steaks in NCAA Bird Bowl
We can only hope the Division One championship game Friday night is more interesting than the stakes in the bet between the governors of Delaware and Washington
The TV people must be thrilled: Eastern Washington University, in the dusty Spokane suburb of Cheyney, Wash., will send its college-football Eagles to prey on the Fighting Blue Hens of the University of Delaware, from the ex-factory town of Newark, Del., down the pike from the mini-state's runt metropolis, Wilmington, in a Division One NCAA championship game tomorrow night.
Spokane vs. Wilmington! Can it get any more exciting?
It can! Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire want to liven up the contest. So they're betting on the outcome: Delaware lima beans... versus Washington potatoes.
Lima beans? "Yes, Delaware leads the nation in lima bean acres harvested," Markell spokeswoman Felicia Pullam tells me. Against potatoes, dug from somewhere near the Idaho state line. It's the Succotash Bowl!
And that's not all: Markell is sweetening the pot by adding "chicken from Sussex County," which brags its hard-pressed farmers stuff more hens in cages than any other county in America; along with "Dogfish Head Beach Beer," which is normally "only available in Delaware," made from roots, and non-alcoholic.
Gregoire has called Markell's bluff by adding "Walla Walla wine," and cattle meat, to the prospective gubernatorial groanin' board down in Dover, where Markell lives when the Delaware General Assembly is in session and no citizen's property is safe.
Game is Friday night, 7 pm Eastern Time. Pullam says Gov. Markell plans to watch the game. At Pizza Hut Park. In Frisco, Texas. Which turns out to be a soccer stadium. I'm not asking why.