Long Lost Video of Reagan and Rose Found!

To celebrate President’s Day, The Captain’s Blog dug deep into its dusty archives to uncover one of the most highly sought after video clips dealing with baseball and the U.S. Presidency. The elusive footage, which features Pete Rose and President Reagan, had escaped capture on the internet until today, so sit back and enjoy this unique treasure.

The video below takes place during a postgame press conference on August 10, 1981, the day Rose broke Stan Musial’s all-time National League hit record with tally number 3,631. While standing between Musial and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Rose was handed a red phone, but actually getting through to the President proved to be rather difficult. During the whole ordeal, Rose had the assembled crowd in stitches, but the funniest remark comes about 13 seconds into the video when he makes a veiled reference to the air traffic controller strike that had taken place one week earlier. Two days after the strike, President Reagan terminated all who had participated, which not only caused quite a political stir, but ultimately set Rose up with the perfect punchline.

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Update: Yankees Lean Left When It Comes to Championships

(In addition to appearing at The Captain’s Blog, this post is also being syndicated at TheYankeeAnalysts. It has also been updated from its initial publication on April 26, 2010).

Instead of worrying about who will fill out the starting rotation or occupy the backend of the bench, Yankees’ fans seeking to predict the team’s performance in 2011 might be better off considering who currently resides in the White House. Over the last 50 years, the Yankees have thrived under Democrat administrations, but come up empty when a Republican received his mail at1600 Pennsylvania. 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.

Yankees Record by Political Party

	W	L	T	Pct	R	RA	AL	WS
Democrats	4509	3225	44	0.583	38294	31556	23	20
Republicans	5161	4136	49	0.555	45171	40354	17	7

Yankees Record by Presidential Administration

	W	L	T	Pct	R	RA	AL	WS
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
Barack Obama	198	126	0	0.611	1774	1446	1	1
Herbert 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

 

Presidential Performance

• Best Winning Percentage: Warren Harding (.638, from 1921 to August 2, 1923)
• Worst Winning Percentage: George HW Bush (.445, from 1989-1992)
• Most AL Pennants: Franklin Roosevelt (7, from 1933-1944)
• Most World Series Victories: Franklin Roosevelt (6, from 1933-1944)
• Best Season (By Win%): Calvin Coolidge (1927, 110-44)
• Worst Season (By Win%): William Taft (1912, 50-102-1)
• Best Run Differential: Franklin Roosevelt (1939, +2.70 runs/game)
• Worst Run Differential: Theodore Roosevelt (1908, -1.63 runs/game)

 Presidential Trivia

• Lyndon Johnson and Woodrow Wilson are the only two Democrats under whose administration the Yankees have not won a World Series. The Yankees have failed to win a championship under nine different Republican presidents.
• There have been three presidential successions during a Yankees season: McKinley to Roosevelt in 1901; Harding to Coolidge in 1923; and Nixon to Ford in 1974.
• Yankee pitchers have thrown eight no-hitters under a Democrat president and four no-hitters under a Republican.
• Yankee batters have hit for eight cycles under a Democrat president and seven cycles under a Republican.
• Of the Yankees five Cy Young award winners, three came under a Democrat president and two came under a Republican.
• Of the Yankees 20 MVPs, 11 came under a Democrat president and nine came under a Republican.

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Breakfast Links: A Quick Wind Sprint Around Spring Training

• Position players got into the swing of things over the weekend, including Derek Jeter, who is working on a minor adjustment to his batting stance. Jeter’s opening remarks of the spring were somewhat defiant, as the 37-year old shortstop seeks to break the unfavorable trend among men his age who play the position. Although never one to become absorbed by personal goals, Jeter also talked about his pursuit of 3,000 hits.
  

  Jeter has been working with Kevin Long on a slight adjustment to his swing (Photo: Getty Images).

• Absent the usual Spring Training controversy, Alex Rodriguez reported to camp with a new slimmed down appearance.
• Robinson Cano didn’t make it to Tampa on time because of a scheduling mix-up, but the All Star second baseman is eager to build on last year’s MVP-type season.
• Mark Teixeira arrived at camp on time, and talked about the offseason adjustments he made to ensure his bat does the same in April. Teixeira also brushed aside trade rumors and stated that he relished the role of being an underdog.
• When Andy Pettitte retired, the Yankees rotation not only lost a valuable left arm, but also a mentor.

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