The Curse of the Bambino, The Curse of the Billy Goat, hell, even The Curse of Andruw Jones.
I don’t buy curses. I think they’re just excuses to ease fanbase pain. Just like real life, there is ebb and flow to a baseball franchise’s tenure. Your team can’t win every year.
But there is a new curse, (well, not new per se, just not talked about a lot) but it’s the first time I heard of it. The Curse of George Steinbrenner Getting in Trouble for Making Illegal Campaign Contributions to Former President Richard Nixon. I know what you’re thinking. What is going on right now? But before I explain this so-called curse, first, let me tell you how I stumbled onto it.
Who knew that America Online Business or AOL was still around? I thought the organization died off with dial-up modems. Even though AOL isn’t as prominent as it once was, it doesn’t mean that the organization won’t drop a quality fact or two every now and again.
In an article about how excited President Donald Trump is about Giancarlo Stanton playing for the New York Yankees, AOL dropped the fact that it’s been roughly sixty years since the Yanks won a World Series under the tutelage of a Republican president, and if you didn’t know Trump is part of the GOP.
Ok, I want to admit I read the fact on AOL, but it came from the mind of Allan Smith of Business Insider. All credit should go to Smith.
But wait, I’m wrong. Smith put it into an article, and he did a lovely job, but Eric Columbus, a former official for President Barack Obama, started the conversation on Twitter. Columbus stated that “not since Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 have the Yanks won the World Series under a GOP president.” Columbus continued that when Steinbrenner bought the Yanks in 1973 and then pleaded guilty in 1974 to the transgression as mentioned as the curse earlier, the Yanks haven’t won the World Series under Nixon’s political party.
Let’s do a tally. Under Jimmy Carter: Two rings in 1977-78. Under Bill Clinton: four rings in 1996 and 1997-2000, and finally under Barack Obama: one ring in 2009. Under Republicans, the Yanks have appeared in the World Series four times. 1976 under Gerald Ford, 1981 under Ronald Reagan, and 2001 (I’m in Arizona right now, and I hear about this World Series at least once a week) and 2003 under George W. Bush.
So, as diehard Yankees fans, should we want Trump talking about our new baseball superstar Stanton? Should we not vote for Trump in 2020? Should we want Trump impeached? Think about it. Digest this information I just shared. If you believe in curses, then maybe you want to answer “yes” to the above questions so the Yanks can win this year, or in the future. If you’re like me and you don’t, we will wait for our time to win a championship like everyone else. As Yankees fans, we’re blessed that our time has happened more than any other MLB franchise.
Ok, a Republican is in office right now, but remember all the curses mentioned at the top of the article ended, except that Andruw Jones one, but he’s not on the team anymore. So, who cares.
