5/1/2011: Yuma, AZ – Joe Dobbs was just, well, just an average Joe.  He’d married his wife Helen not long after leaving high school, they’d had a couple of kids who were going to the same high school as he and his wife had gone to, and like most Americans he played the lottery and dreamed of winning.  Everyday he would drive to Penny’s Diner for breakfast with Al Marshall.  Then they’d head off to the construction company they both worked for, they’d put in a hard day’s work, have a beer when they clocked off, and then Joe would make his way home.  It was the same thing every day; nothing really changed from day to day, week to week.  Nothing, that was, until one day.

“Joe, did you pick up the lottery ticket?”

“Yeah, it’s next to the milk I picked up from the store.”

“Joe, when’s my birthday?”

“Same day as it is every year, hun; 10^th of March.  Why?”

“Because the lottery ticket says it’s the 20^th.  You put the number 20 down instead of the number 10.  I can’t believe you forgot the date of my birthday.”

“Helen, I have no idea how I got it mixed up… Al!”

“What does it have to do with Al?”

“Al was in the store with me when I was putting the numbers on and, like usual, we were talking baseball.  Well, he asked me who did I think would be pitching on the 20^th against Aurora because he was taking his nephew to the game as a birthday present.  I’ll go and put the right numbers on; not like we’ll win either way, is it?”

“You can’t, it’s too late.  If our usual numbers come up, you’ll have to buy the biggest sorry present you can find.  You do know that, don’t you.”

“And if we win with these numbers?”

“You can buy the Yuma Bulldozers, seeing it was down to them you won.”

“I can hear you laughing, you know, saying that with the way Yuma is playing at the moment, I could probably buy them with the change in my pocket.”

Helen had gone to bed and left Joe watching an old B-movie.  She thought he must have fallen asleep watching it because she woke up around 3 AM wondering where Joe was.  She knew falling asleep on the sofa wouldn’t do Joe’s bad back any good, so she went to wake him.  When she reached the living room she was surprised to see Joe wide awake, just staring at the TV.

“Joe, come on, love, it’s after 3 AM.  I know you’re not at work tomorrow – or should I say today – but you know sleeping on the sofa doesn’t do your back any good.”

“You know before when you said if we won the lottery I could buy the Bulldozers?”

“Yes hun, if you won the $117 million you can buy the Bulldozers and make them into the best baseball team in the world.”

“It was $120 million.  The winning ticket won $120 million, not $117 million.”

Helen smiled at her husband, but before she could tell him it was time for bed…

“I didn’t win the lottery, Helen!  We won the lottery, all $120 million of it.  There was only one winning ticket and we have it.”

“Joe Dobbs!  You had better not be joking about this.”

Days later, with cameras clicking, Joe was presented to the media of Yuma and most of the other media outlets of the state as the man who held the $120 million ticket.  The biggest question that the media wanted to ask was what he intended on doing with the winnings?

“I think my wife can answer that one for me,” he said with a smile on his face.

“Crazy as it may seem, I promised my husband one thing if we won the lottery, and that was to buy the Yuma Bulldozers of the PEBA.  We’ve always kept our promises to each other, so yesterday we spoke to the owners of the Bulldozers, and I’m not to sure if it was a good sign but they seemed relieved to be selling the team.  So your new owner of the Yuma Bulldozers is Mr. Joe Dobbs.”