There is a time-honored tradition that when a city’s sports teams are in the playoffs, the mayor reaches out to their counterpart in the opposing domain, and the two place a friendly wager on the outcome.
With the Knicks and Rangers both gearing up for postseason runs against the 76ers and Capitals, respectively, NYC Mayor Eric Adams was asked during an appearance Thursday on “Evan and Tiki” on WFAN if he had made any bets with the mayors of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Adams, who was on the WFAN radio show to promote NYCFC’s new soccer-specific stadium in Queens that was approved by the city council last week, said he hadn’t set anything in stone yet regarding the wager.
But he said that since co-host Tiki Barber had brought it up, he’d reach out to Philadelphia’s Cherelle Parker and D.C.’s Muriel Bowser.
“I love that. You know what we didn’t do a bet yet,” Hizzoner responded to Barber’s question. “But, I’m going to reach out to them today and say, ‘Listen, Tikki told me to make a bet.’
“I’m going to make a bet, maybe I give them a vegan cheesecake or something like that.”
The mayor’s suggestion didn’t sit well with co-host Evan Roberts, who seemed to groan at the thought of putting a vegan cheesecake on the line.
“A vegan cheesecake, oh my goodness,” Roberts responded while Adams and Barber were laughing. “What are we, punishing them?”
A vegan cheesecake was on the line last year as well when the Giants faced the Eagles in the playoffs.
Among some of the previous sports-related wagers made by New York mayors, Bill de Blasio bet then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 that the loser had to sing the other city’s song on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” when the Rangers and Kings played in the Stanley Cup Final.
In 2001, Rudy Giuliani had to send Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley a bevy of New York delicacies, including a case of Brooklyn Lager and two dozen mixed knishes, after the Giants were defeated in the Super Bowl by the Ravens.
