Yankees World Series Win? Who's to Blame?

The Phillies have no reason to be ashamed for losing to the Yankees in six games in the World Series. If anything it’s better that the Phils lost to the Yankees rather than a lesser team that they should have beaten. The fact that the Phillies were able to repeat as National League pennants winners is a testament to the team’s resiliency and desire. A year ago I wrote that the 2008 World Series champions were the greatest Phillies team of all time. Today I reaffirm that sentiment. Considering the problems the Phillies had with their starting pitching in terms of injuries and inefficiency, it’s even more amazing that they won the pennant. A lesser team would have folded.

As for the Yankees their World Series triumph can be seen either as a last hurrah for the older team members who were there between 1996 and 2003 or it heralds a resurrection of the Yankees dynastic dominance. There were unique aspects to this World Series. It marks the first time that a team won a World Series at the start of a new decade and won in the closing year of a decade. (The Yankees won in 2000 and again in 2009). That’s never happened before.

When the Yankees won game three I had a bad feeling that the Phillies would go down in defeat. When the Yankees won game four I became even more convinced because I knew that throughout the entire World Series history of the New York Yankees the Bronx Bombers never blew a 3-1 World Series lead. Their triumph in game six reaffirmed that fact.

There’s another more obscure factor that played heavily in the Yankees favor. I don’t know if some of you realize this but ever since 1973 (when George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees) the Yankees have always won the World Series when there was a Democrat in the White House and lost when there was a Republican as President.

Before you scoff, just look it up. In 1976 the Yankees lost to the Reds (when Gerald Ford was President). In 1977 and 1978 they won (when Jimmy Carter was in office). In 1981 they fell to the Dodgers (when Reagan was in office) but came back to win in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 (when Bill Clinton was President. They lost in 2001 and 2003 when George W. Bush occupied the Oval Office but now in 2009 they have won the World Series while Barack Obama presently inhabits the White House.

For those of you who hate the Yankees and hate it when they win then you can blame the Democrats for all this!