TOWER GROVE — While President-elect Barack Obama swiftly pieces together his White House staff, the New York Yankees, that tattered dynasty from the 1990s, can start shifting their trophy case(s) around to make room for a 27th World Series title.
So says the trends, according to The New York Times.
The Yankees have not won a World Series with a Republican president since 1958. Their last eight titles, including four during the Clinton Administration, have come with a Democrat in the Oval Office. This recent headline over at Newsvine says it all: Vote Obama, Save the Yankees. When it comes to the local nine, the St. Louis Cardinals, coming off an election year is enough to assure a solid, if not spectacular season.
President George W. Bush delivers a pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Since the 1920 Presidential Election — that doozy of a rout by Warren G. Harding, who scored 404 in the electoral college — the Cardinals have had just two losing years in the 22 seasons that have following a president election. From 1921 to 1992, the Cardinals went 19 straight post-election summers with one losing year. Overall, they’ve had a .549 winning percentage in the first year of a new administration. They have made the playoffs three times, all since 1985, and won one pennant.
The Cardinals have done slightly better when it’s the GOP taking (or re-taking) office:
DEMOCRAT wins election … Cardinals’ winning percentage the next year … .544
REPUBLICAN wins election … Cardinals’ winning percentage the next year … .563
When a new President is elected, the Cardinals have had a losing record only once in the 14 seasons that coincide with the first year of a new administration. But they have never finished better than second place in those seasons, and they have only once made the postseason. (It took a Wild Card berth in 2001 to accomplish that.) In the nine times that there has been a change of President AND a change of party — as is the case, of course, this coming 2009 — the Cardinals have never had a losing record with a new party and new President in office.
NEW PRESIDENT … .539 winning percentage
NEW PRES. & NEW PARTY … .570 winning percentage
It should be noted that winning percentage is the better measurement here than average wins because of the 1981 shortened season, when the Cardinals went 59-43 in the first year of Ronald Reagan.
The Yankees have won six of their 26 championships in the year after a Presidential Election. Not all tha striking considering the odds are better than 1-for-4 in the last century that the Yankees won. But as detailed earlier this year by The New York Daily News, the Yankees success with a Democrat Commander in Chief borders on uncanny. (Bettered only by the Green Bay Packers’ 12 championship titles — nine with a Democrat in office and three with a Republican President. So, chin up, Dad.) The Yankees have won 22 of their 39 pennants with a Democrat in office. They’ve gone 7-10 in World Series with the GOP in the White House, and a remarkable 19-3 with a Democrat sitting there.
Two of those three losses were to the Cardinals, in 1942 (FDR) and 1964 (LBJ).
The past five National League pennants the Cardinals have won came with a Republican in the Presidency (1982, 1985, 1987, 2004 and 2006). But they’ve been rather bi-partisan with their trips to the World Series. The Cardinals have gone to a World Series nine times with a Republican in office and eight times with a Democrat. The biggest difference: They win when it’s a Democrat.
DEM … 6-2 (.750)
REP … 4-5 (.444)
As for the new President’s belowed White Sox. Their last World Series win came the year after a Presidential Election, back in 2005. But the White Sox have won only one World Series with a Democrat on Pennsylvania Avenue — in 1917, during Woodrow Wilson’s administration. Of course, they have won only three World Series titles total.
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Speaking of Presidents, last call for votes on the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mount Rushmore.
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