This afternoon, the remaining members of the Yankees 2009 World Series Championship team will have the honor of meeting President Barack Obama at the White House. For the core four Yankees (Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte), this will be the third sitting President with whom they have visited to celebrate a championship (Bill Clinton three times and George W. Bush once). However, the visit to Bush resulted from a victory during the Clinton administration. Over the last 50 years, the Yankees have thrived under Democrat administrations, but come up empty when a Republican was in the White House. The Yankees last championship under the GOP dates all the way back to 1958, when Dwight Eisenhower was the commander in chief. Since then, all nine of the Yankees World Series victories have come with a Democrat leading the nation. I never like to mix politics and sports, but perhaps that’s something to keep in mind the next time you enter a polling booth during a presidential election.
W | L | T | Pct | R | RA | AL | WS | |
Democrats | 4426 | 3164 | 44 | 0.583 | 37531 | 30930 | 23 | 20 |
Republicans | 5161 | 4136 | 49 | 0.555 | 45171 | 40354 | 17 | 7 |
Yankees Record By Administration | ||||||||
W | L | T | Pct | R | RA | AL | WS | |
Barack Obama | 115 | 65 | 0 | 0.639 | 1011 | 820 | 1 | 1 |
Warren Harding | 257 | 146 | 0 | 0.638 | 2227 | 1706 | 2 | 0 |
John Kennedy | 309 | 176 | 1 | 0.637 | 2358 | 1839 | 3 | 2 |
Franklin Roosevelt | 1156 | 677 | 17 | 0.631 | 10355 | 7705 | 7 | 6 |
Dwight Eisenhower | 761 | 468 | 4 | 0.619 | 6140 | 4695 | 6 | 3 |
Herbery Hoover | 375 | 240 | 4 | 0.610 | 4030 | 3157 | 1 | 1 |
Harry Truman | 747 | 483 | 3 | 0.607 | 6279 | 4860 | 5 | 5 |
Jimmy Carter | 392 | 255 | 0 | 0.606 | 3120 | 2567 | 2 | 2 |
George W. Bush | 775 | 518 | 2 | 0.599 | 7048 | 5994 | 2 | 0 |
Calvin Coolidge | 493 | 331 | 5 | 0.598 | 4522 | 3680 | 4 | 3 |
Bill Clinton | 724 | 504 | 1 | 0.590 | 6738 | 5659 | 4 | 4 |
Gerald Ford | 215 | 156 | 0 | 0.580 | 1644 | 1344 | 1 | 0 |
Ronald Reagan | 677 | 562 | 0 | 0.546 | 5854 | 5345 | 1 | 0 |
Richard Nixon | 468 | 444 | 2 | 0.513 | 3526 | 3419 | 0 | 0 |
William McKinley | 60 | 59 | 2 | 0.504 | 67 | 69 | 0 | 0 |
Lyndon Johnson | 401 | 406 | 6 | 0.497 | 3010 | 2945 | 1 | 0 |
Woodrow Wilson | 582 | 598 | 16 | 0.493 | 4660 | 4535 | 0 | 0 |
Theodore Roosevelt | 504 | 535 | 21 | 0.485 | 4876 | 5172 | 0 | 0 |
William Taft | 288 | 318 | 9 | 0.475 | 2529 | 2709 | 0 | 0 |
George H.W. Bush | 288 | 359 | 0 | 0.445 | 2708 | 3064 | 0 | 0 |