STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
I bet that you will be amused by this next story.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Pay the man, Steve, because yes, you're right. I will be amused.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: It's about a bet on the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Finals. The Florida Panthers are one win away from becoming back-to-back champs.
INSKEEP: Edmonton Oilers fans are still holding out hope they can come back. And one of those fans is Edmonton's mayor, Amarjeet Sohi. He's hoping for a different result than last year when the Oilers lost the final series, and he lost a bet.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AMARJEET SOHI: Unfortunately, I had to wear the Florida Panthers jersey last year and had to go into a city hall meeting wearing it.
INSKEEP: Edmonton's mayor made that bet with Mike Ryan, the mayor of Sunrise, Florida, which is where the Panthers play. And when the final became a rematch this year, Ryan agreed to another bet with higher stakes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE RYAN: What we're doing this year is when the Florida Panthers win, we're going to send him a proclamation for him to read declaring the city of Sunrise, Florida, and the Florida Panthers Day in Edmonton. And he has to read it just like we wrote it.
INSKEEP: OK. Mayoral bets are a tradition...
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: ...That has been going on since at least the 1930s. In the 1938 World Series, the New York Yankees defeated the Chicago Cubs, of course, and New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia won a 500-pound pig.
MARTÍNEZ: What (laughter)?
INSKEEP: I guess, you know, Chicago's slaughterhouses, commodity markets, pork bellies...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: ...So he got a pig from Chicago.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, makes sense. In 2011, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl had to hang a Packers flag on the city county building after the Steelers lost the Super Bowl to the Green Bay Packers. And he spoke to WTAE that day while wearing a Packers shirt.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LUKE RAVENSTAHL: Take it down now, right?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah (laughter).
RAVENSTAHL: They won't know the difference. It was up all day. We swear.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Sunrise, Florida, Mayor Ryan says these traditions have a bigger meaning.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RYAN: It's about the connection of two cities or a connection of countries talking about why they enjoy so much the benefits of sport, not just for the economy, but what it does for a community.
INSKEEP: Connection, blah, blah, blah. It's about winning. It's about winning. No, no, no, no, it's about connection. And Edmonton Mayor Sohi values the effect it has on his city.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SOHI: As mayors, we have a responsibility to kind of continue to instill and support that pride in our players and in our communities. So that's the reason that this tradition has carried on for decades.
INSKEEP: Sunrise Mayor Ryan hopes he'll avoid embarrassment of acknowledging the Oilers' greatness, but he'll still wait on the final score.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RYAN: We learned last year that when we were up three games to none and people were talking about the parade in south Florida, we then went on to lose three games.
INSKEEP: The Panthers can win the cup tonight if they beat the Oilers in Florida.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABOR SZABO'S "BREEZIN'") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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