Regular readers of this blog know two things about it. One, this is the time of year when gambling comes to the forefront with the Twelve Greatest Saturdays of the Year and the J-Dub Gambling Challenge. Two, Mrs. J-Dub and I are huge fans of the Little League World Series. Given that, I was asked the other day if I ever considered gambling on the kids since the end of the Little League season now usually intersects with the beginning of college football.

The initial reaction was an emphatic “NO!” I simply had no desire to be the vanguard launching what may very well the purest remaining example of straight-up sports into the morass of money. Think about it…it just wouldn’t be the same if you sat down to watch today’s championship game knowing you found a line you liked. It wouldn’t be about watching kids still sticking to the rules of sportsmanship because nothing introduces a bloodlust-level of zeal to an event like the amount of money riding on it.

So, now I’m surfing a wave of self-satisfaction knowing I’m not going to be the one to sully South Williamsport with wagering. That was until Mrs. J-Dub burst into the room blasting the 12-gauge of truth.

For those of you in the Dubs-iverse who are married, you know there is no moment quite like when you spouse calls “Bullshit!” This is when time rips itself in half, and you must decide which side of the rift you’re going to ride. You can either defend yourself and charge headlong into your own defense. If you’re going that route, you’d better be sure you can win the argument that’s coming.

Since I had zero confidence in my position, I chose the other option. I rolled over and took my lumps. because I knew I was “guilty as charged.” That’s because I could not refute Mrs. J-Dub’s charge that I had in fact introduced gambling into the world of Little League.

No, I wasn’t doing the things you might expect an ex-bookie to do; I wasn’t setting lines. Instead, during an impending blow-out, when the manager was on the mound consoling what was about to be the losing pitcher, the close-up on that poor kid’s face told the whole story. Let’s just say that when Tom Hanks uttered the immortal line “there’s no crying in baseball,” he had obviously never seen a Little League game.

That’s why when I saw that scene, the ex-bookie in me just couldn’t be stopped. I looked right at Mrs. J-Dub and made the convicting statement…”Twenty bucks says this kid cries in the next five minutes.”

To be fair, yes…Mrs. J-Dub found that to be monstrously insensitive. But to be even more fair, after all the insensitive things she’s heard come out of the mouth of the salty former U.S. Marine she married…well, let’s just say there’s a “desensitization” factor involved.

In other words, that’s why I’m posing this question to you, the blog-reading public. As suicidal as it sounds, I’m throwing myself on the mercy of the court of public opinion.

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You can see all the episodes of “Story Time” here.

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