Despite James Holzhauer showing no signs of putting a pause on whooping unholy amounts of Jeopardy! ass, the sports gambler megachamp might have willed his way into his next gig. In a new interview with The Athletic, Holzhauer reiterated his lifelong passion for baseball, specifically how he always imagined himself one day working at the MLB front office — a dream he hasn’t given up on. “Part of me always wonders what it would be like to realize that childhood dream,” he explained. “Baseball was my goal from a young age, but gambling had significantly fewer barriers to entry.” Well, thanks to his newfound exposure and successful “strategically aggressive” game-play on the show, The Athletic reports that “at least one team has some level of interest in his services,” although the details of team and position are vague.
Holzhauer’s historic Jeopardy! streak has now eclipsed $1,608,627 over 21 games, as he continues to chase the records set by the show’s ultimate god, Ken Jennings. (For reference, Jennings won $2.5 million over 74 games.) In a recent interview with Vulture, Holzhauer said he didn’t base his aggressive strategy on anyone in particular and doesn’t blame fellow contestants if they don’t want to adapt it for themselves. “If you’re not playing a game you find comfortable, that’s going to be worse for you than just having a suboptimal game-theory strategy,” he told us. “If you’re the kind of player who needs to take the low-value clues first to become comfortable with the categories to move along, that’s what you should do. But if you’re like me, who goes in cold-blooded about it, then you play the cold-blooded strategy. Everyone is doing the best things for themselves.” Holzhauer will be back for his next Jeopardy! round on May 20, after the annual Teachers Tournament.
