As soon as Bimbo saw one of her caregivers, Joyce Dietsch, walk into the room holding a handful of NFL pennants, the eyes of Baltimore’s favorite monkey opened wide as she descended to the bottom of her cage and perked her head.

“She knows what’s happening,” Dietsch said. “She knows it’s time to pick games, and I really think she enjoys it.”

We’ll give Bimbo an “A” for effort — she’s trying. She’s still watching football games on Sunday afternoons with her monkey friends Oogie, Zoey and Cocoa. However, The Examiner’s pigskin-picking primate struggled last week. She went 4-10, which included heartbreaking losses by the Dolphins, 49ers and Bills.

But she’s ready for the prime time, as Bimbo will be featured on sports portions of WJZ 13’s newscast this evening at 6. This weekend, she’s picking against the station’s stellar sports anchors — Mark Viviano and Stan Saunders.

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In Bimbo’s last competition, it didn’t matter if Bimbo would have gotten a few more right because her opponents WBAL’s Keith Mills (10-4) and ESPN’s Mike Greenberg (11-3) posted the two highest winning percentages among those who have faced the 36-year-old monkey.

Colleen Layton-Robbins, Bimbo’s owner, said the primate learned her lesson of picking too many road teams to win, as she picked nine of 14 visiting teams to win last week. This week, Bimbo believes in the home-field advantage, which should make Ravens fans happy and Redskins fans disappointed.

jgallo@baltimoreexaminer.com