Democrats Against Verlander
Steve Novick
Much as you may sympathize with the City of Detroit, and admire Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, if you're a Democrat, you need to root against the Tigers in the Series.
Why? Well, the Tigers have won the Series in two Presidential years - 1968 and 1984. Not good years for our team. '68 is an especially scary precedent: the Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals and a shapeshifting Republican with no actual core beliefs won the Presidency.
The Cardinals, by contrast, bring Democratic Presidents in their Series-winning wake. They won in 1944 and 1964. As an added bonus, when they beat the Tigers in '06, they swept in a Democratic House.
The Giants have never won a World Series in a Presidential year. They've lost three (1936, 1912, 1904), and Democrats won in two of those years with Teddy Roosevelt winning the third (actually, the first). But I wouldn't want to bet on "good things happen when the Giants lose the Series"; the series winner is clearly the history-shaping actor, which in this case would be the bad-luck Tigers.
If the Giants win, there's an argument that it would be good luck for Democrats because of their effect on House races: Giants Series victories are correlated with historic gains for the out-party. In 1922, the Democrats won over 70 seats; in 1954 they recaptured control; and in 2010 the Republicans gained control.
Now, I know that some of you out there are thinking that I'm putting too much stock in small sample sizes. You are wrong. Remember, it's not sample NUMBER that matters; the phrase is sample SIZE. A World Series, any World Series, is an enormous event. Therefore, even one World Series is a large sample size - let alone several.
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11:56 a.m.
Oct 19, '12
As a progressive Democrat and lifelong Tiger fan, this is horribly depressing.
12:45 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
Superstition ain't the way!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDZFf0pm0SE
1:46 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
Well you know, Mitt Romney would have let the Detroit Tigers go bankrupt...
Also the Giants aren't dead yet.
1:57 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
This is malarkey.
GO TIGERS!
2:20 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
"Do you believe in magic? lalalala " - Lovin' Spoonful
Detroit wins, Auto Industry wins, and Obama wins.
2:27 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
I believe the correct response to Steve is in one of this week's XKCD comics. Go Tigers!
4:46 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
EVAN! you beat me to it!
2:31 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
Plus, isn't Verlander dating the niece of Fred Upton (R-MI), the House Chair of Energy and Commerce? But I'm w/ Logan - I stopped believing these sports/politics omens when the Packers won Monday Night Football and that meant John Kerry was going to win.
3:07 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
Obama Saved the Auto industry and the Tigers. (I'm unclear on how he saved the Tigers but he must have.)
4:26 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
At GM, the government is $27 billion in the hole on a $49.5 billion bailout. Although taxpayers own 26.5 percent of GM stock, the shares are trading for less than half the $53 price needed for the government to recoup all its money.
10:27 p.m.
Oct 19, '12
Evan, Trish - hilarious cartoon. I especially liked the Clinton / Dole one.
1:04 a.m.
Oct 21, '12
I know it's hard, when your team gets eliminated... from a pennant race, from a division series, from the LCS... I've been there. And it's easy to descend into superstition and schadenfreude... but the truth is, if your team is one of the 29 teams sitting at home right now, the best thing to do right now is watch the games and enjoy the hell out of them and pray for game sevens, because once the season is over winter has truly begun.
10:29 a.m.
Oct 21, '12
Jeez, Steve. I started reading the comments expecting to read some funny stuff... with the exception of Joe Baessler (Thanks, Joe), the humor seems to be restricted to everybody referencing the same comic strip... Best part of the column for me was forwarding it to my very good friends in Southern Illinois who are bedrock Republicans and dyed-in-the-wool Cardinal fans. Thanks for that bit of fun today.
11:31 a.m.
Oct 21, '12
common decency demands that True Americans support the Tigers because they did the world a Great Service by sweeping the Yankees. i'm rooting for whoever will follow up this Act of Goodness & beat the Cardinals.
12:54 p.m.
Oct 22, '12
I appreciate that the Tigers beat the Yankees and was routing for them but with this new information, I am going to have to back the Cards. I mean what would sports and politics be without superstition?
3:53 p.m.
Oct 29, '12
Go Giants!