LEFTOVERS: Mayor’s malaprops legendary

A misspeaking machine, Boston mayor Tom “Mumbles” Menino is at it again.

With the World Series between the Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals set to start today at Fenway Park, Menino has urged Boston fans to act responsibly while supporting the Sox in their quest for the — wait for it — “World Series Cup.”

Whether Menino was thinking about the Stanley Cup or World Cup when he made the gaffe, the comment pales in comparison to his long line of verbal blunders.

While discussing the New England Patriots, Menino once butchered the names of three players in a row, referring to Rob Gronkowski as “Grabowski,” Wes Welker as “Wes Wekler,” and Aaron Hernandez as “Hehnendez.”

During another interview he taped last season while wearing a Vince Wilfork jersey, he called the defensive lineman “Wilcock” before boasting that the Pats had played well while “Gonk” was hurt.

Asked for his thoughts on the Boston Celtics a couple of years ago, Menino said “KJ” and “Hondo” were the players who drove the team, not KG (Kevin Garnett) and (Rajon) Rondo.

The mayor made perhaps his biggest blunders in a speech about some of Boston’s best sports moments, which he described as “ionic” instead of iconic and during which he praised former Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek for “splitting the uprights” in two of the Patriots’ Super Bowl victories. Varitek, Vinatieri, what’s the difference? They both start with the letter V.

If you don’t have a rooting interest in the World Series, you might consider supporting the Red Sox in the hopes that Menino will make another memorable speech at the team’s championship parade.

We can hear him now, praising manager Will Ferrell, catcher Jarrod Saltandsomevinegar, third baseman Humphrey Bogart and right fielder Shane Beefarino.

■ ALL BETS ARE OFF — On the subject of mayors from World Series-bound cities, St. Louis mayor Francis Slay declared he won’t take part in any traditional mayoral bets with Menino.

According to Slay, he doesn’t want to tie up his staff with such time-consuming tasks as shipping a few racks of ribs to Boston should the Cardinals lose or cracking a couple of lobster tails should they win.

“Plus, it isn’t fair to other mayors,” he cracked on his Twitter account. “I would, however, welcome a visit here from @mayortommenino.”

Slay ended his tweet with “#fgs.” Those are his initials, but Menino took the letters to mean they were wagering a case of Fig Newtons, which he calls Fig Nortons.

■ BEANTOWN BARGAIN — For once, it appears a ticket scalper has been scalped. Continuing our World Series Cup edition of Leftovers, we bring you the tale of one lucky fan who somehow found a $3 ticket to Game 1 on StubHub — where the cheapest ticket available as of Tuesday afternoon was $338 for standing room only.

According to Deadspin, a baseball fan named Erik bought a right-field box seat for $6, including fees, in a section where the cheapest ticket Tuesday was $656.50.

Some unlucky ticket seller must have misplaced a decimal point or forgot to add a couple of zeros to his price, but it could have been worse. The highest-priced ticket, a Boston dugout box seat two rows from the field, was listed at $12,487. None in the section was listed for $12.

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL