When Baseball Bets Go Bad: Jake Arrieta Has to Get a New Tattoo

A bet’s a bet is a bet.

Whether your the Queen of England, a mechanic down the street or the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, you don’t make a bet unless you intend on paying up. I’m guessing Jake Arrieta understood that, before he got himself into this mess, but I’m sure that doesn’t make anything easier.

Oh, you don’t know?

Jake Arrieta’s former college team, the TCU Horned Frogs, squared up against teammate Tommy La Stella’s alma mater Carolina Coastal University in the College World Series … and a bet was made. Whoever’s team lost, the agreement went, must get a tattoo of the opposing team’s letters somewhere on their body. Unfortunately – well, for Arrieta, at least – the team that lost was TCU.

Now, Arrieta has to get a “CCU” tattoo, and he’s really going to. You know Jake’s no sore loser. “I’ll wear it proudly,” Arrieta said. “We lost fair and square.” Although Arrieta intends on getting a small, black-light tattoo, it’s a tattoo nonetheless. And you just know he’s dreading the day he attends a party with a blacklight, looks in the mirror and is met with the shame and embarrassment of wearing the opposition’s letters.

A bet’s a bet is a bet.