Close associations with Rudy Giuliani aside, the New York Daily News’ William McGee insists “Barack Obama signifies hope. Not over the economic meltdown or the War on Terror, but for October baseball in the Bronx.”
With a Democratic rather than Republican commander in chief, the Yankees have won several more pennants (22 compared to 17) and nearly three times as many championships (19 to 7). In fact, the team has a losing World Series record when the GOP controls the Executive Branch, going 7-10 for a .412 clip. Under Democrats, the Yanks are an outstanding 19-3 in the Fall Classic, which translates into a breathtaking .864 winning percentage. That’s 197 percentage points higher than the team’s overall World Series record.
Of course, there’s irony in Dems favoring the Yankees, considering Richard Nixon had a permanent seat in the owner’s box at Yankee Stadium and Giuliani has long been a ubiquitous presence near the dugout. George Steinbrenner himself was caught up in Watergate when he was suspended for making an illegal contribution to the the Committee to Re-elect the President. Even Alex Rodriguez has donated heavily to GOP campaigns. Yet the strange fact remains that Nixon presided over the only administration between Woodrow Wilson and George H.W. Bush in which the Yankees did not win even one pennant.
Actually, the last time the Yankees won it all with a Republican President in office was 1958, in the age of Ike. Simply put, for more than 40 years a Democratic presidency has been a lock for a Yankee ticker-tape parade – and a Republican presidency has meant they will come up short.
It’s clear Bush can’t leave office too soon: If the Yankees don’t win the Series next year, the 2000s will rank alongside Reagan’s 1980s as the only decade since the 1910s in which the team didn’t win at least two championships.
Is it too late to change my vote(s)?