Boston mayor agrees to baseball wager

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino usually doesn't bet on league championships.

But St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker wouldn't accept no for an answer.

In a friendly wager, Menino will send Tampa Bay a New England lobster bake from Legal Seafood, a famous Boston chain, if the Rays wins. That package includes a cup of clam chowder, mussels, sausage, corn on the cob and a steamed lobster. Dessert is a Boston cream pie from a local Boston bakery.

Baker, along with Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard and Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, extended the same bet from their previous wager with Chicago. If the Rays lose, they have to give up a Florida beach picnic:  Cuban sandwiches from the Columbia Restaurant at the Pier, conch fritters and stone crab from Clearwater's Palm Pavilion and Frenchy's restaurants, key lime pie from St. Pete's 4th Street Shrimp Store, commemorative cigars from Tampa's J.C. Newman Cigar Company and Florida Orange Juice, naturally.

"The Rays and Red Sox have had a great rivalry," said Baker in a statement.  "With all due respect, I've already got my lobster bib ready."

Baker said Menino turned down the wager at first, but Baker, who has a casual relationship with the Boston Mayor, convinced Menino to come around.

Meanwhile, since the Rays beat the Chicago White Sox, the city expects to receive a shipment of polish sausages from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley any day now. Some of the food will be given to the Rays and the rest will go toward Pinellas Hope, the outdoor homeless shelter in unincorporated Pinellas County.

-Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer