Chicago Cubs Fan Bets $200K On Winning Series
One Chicago Cubs fan is so convinced that this is the year the Curse of the Billy Goat ends is that he’s made the wager of a lifetime on the possibility of a first-time-in-a-lifetime event.
Editor’s note: This story has proven to be false; it turns out nobody really is so stupid as to bet one’s life savings on any one team winning a championship. But it’s still a fun story to think about, so for now we’ll leave the post in place.
After his favorite team’s red-hot start, one Chicago Cubs fan is now so convinced that this is the year, finally, that his team wins the World Series, that he’s bet his life on it.
Well, far more accurately, he’s bet his lifestyle, as in the retirement money he’s spent his adult life saving.
Don Majewski of Jefferson Park, Ill. took $200,000, or 94 percent, out of his retirement account, then flew to Las Vegas and put it all on the Cubs to win the 2016 World Series.
More from Chicago Cubs
- Stock Up, Stock Down: Braves, Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox
- Chicago Cubs face a conundrum in 2024 when it comes to Cody Bellinger
- Stock Up, Stock Down: Two teams rising, two falling post-trade deadline
- Chicago Cubs: The 4 players who are on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Stock Up, Stock Down: MLB trade deadline winners and losers
If he’s right, he’ll get $600k, plus his original wager. After taxes and a governement-imposed early withdrawal fee of 10 percent, Majewski figures he’ll have a net gain of $532,000. We think it won’t be that high; the $200,000 becomes taxable income this year, and will likely be taxed somewhere around 40 percent.
If he’s wrong, he’d not only be out the $200K he took to Vegas, but the 10 percent early withdrawal fee; or $20,000, and the $200K remains subject to income tax. We figure there’s $12K left in his account.
“I know it seems crazy, but what am I risking, really?” asks the 54-year-old Majewski in the article on Netonenews.com. “I could save for six more years, and maybe I’d have, what, a quarter million to live on for the rest of my life? And that’s if the market doesn’t tank again.
“You only get so many chances in your life to do something big,” Majewski added. “My whole life I’ve been watching the Cubs, saying ‘just give me one, just one.’ If I didn’t go for it now, I’d just regret it for the rest of my life.”
In case you’re wondering, Majewski said he did check with his wife, and fulfilled a promise “to sleep on it,” before making the trip to the MGM Grand. She a teacher in a public school system, and he’s a carpenter and former sanitation worker.
As of the close of play Tuesday night, Majewski looks golden; the Cubs are 25-6 and are ahead of pace to break the Seattle Mariners record for wins in a season. If the Cubs continued to win at an 80 percent clip, they’d hang the “W” flag 130 times this year; a scenario that even now seems far fetched.
Still, Majewski has but one regret at this stage of the season.
“What kills me is that I didn’t do this sooner, back in April, or before the season started,” he said. “I could have gotten six-to-one or better back then.”
Next: Royals under .500 for first time since 2014
It seems some Cubs fans will be cheering much more intently than others, especially in October.