Before the resurrection on the Boston Redsox as a baseball A-list franchise, the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Redsox were the hallmarks of baseball futility. Both franchises were cursed, the Redsox by The Bambino, the Cubs by a goat. The Redsox broke the curse of The Bambino winning not one but two world series championships. The Cubs meanwhile continue perfecting the art of the futile. The late, great Chicago columnist Mike Royko made the obscure theory of the “Ex Cub Factor” famous in 1990 when he proclaimed that the dynastic Oakland A’s of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s would lose the world series to the over-matched and middling Cincinnati Reds.
For those not familiar with the Ex-Cub Factor, the curse works like this - any baseball team that makes the world series with 3 or more ex-Cubs on their roster will lose the world series. Since 1946 this has held true for 13 of 14 world series teams with 3 or more ex-cubs on their world series roster. Only the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960, on a fluke homerun by light hitting second baseman Bill Mazeroski bested the Ex Cub factor. However, in the only series to defy the Ex Cub Factor, the winning Pirates were outscored by the Yankees 55-27 over the seven game stand. Even when bested, The Ex Cub Factor gets in its shots.
In 1990 the country yawned in anticipation of the coming world series which was nothing more than a coronation of the Oakland A’s who made a laughing stock of the San Francisco Giants in the 1989 series, beating them convincingly four games to zero. However, late in the season, the A’s added their 3rd ex-Cub to their roster, seemingly daring the the Ex Cub Factor to show itself. Only long suffering Cub fan Mike Royko spotted this critical roster gaffe by the A’s and predicted certain victory for the Cincinnati Reds. Not only did the Reds win the world series, but in a defiant show of force, the Ex Cub Factor made a mockery of the 1990 series and the Red won in a route, four games to none.
I think the republicans might have their own curse, maybe it’s the “retread candidate curse”, but watching the GOP presidential circus is making me think they are starting to resemble the 1990 Oakland A’s. I don’t think that in modern times there has been a more vulnerable sitting president than President Obama. His polling numbers are beyond awful. His disapproval ratings are higher than his approval ratings. 70% of the country feels the country is headed in the wrong direction. Even his personal likability numbers are hitting new lows. The economic recovery that should have been has been muted by his over bearing tax and regulatory policies. Unemployment is so bad that unemployment numbers only go down when the number of people who quit looking for work goes up. The CBO has rescored his healthcare plan and published what everyone with half a brain already knew, that healthcare costs and the deficit will go up not down when Obamacare becomes the law of the land. Obama spiked an oil pipeline that would bring more North American oil to the United States and produce thousands of private sector jobs to appease his environmental base…and so on and so on….Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like a reasonable successful president.
However, given the republican field, when most anyone outside of a circus clown could beat president Obama in November, I would bet you $ 100 right now, that the republicans are going to nominate one of a only handful of people living today who cannot win in November. Newt Gingrich? Really? Six months ago, I suspect that the Obama’s were lamenting their last Christmas in the White House and how much they were going to miss vacationing around the world on the taxpayer’s dime. I imagine today they are measuring for new drapes and looking forward to hosting sweet 16 birthday parties in the White House for the First Daughters.
Maybe I have this wrong. Maybe the republicans really aren’t the political versions of the Chicago Cubs. Maybe they aren’t cursed by an Ex Cub factor or a Retread Candidate Curse. However, no one, and I mean no one outside the state of Ohio thought the Reds could beat the A’s in 1990. While the 2012 presidential election is there for the taking in 2012, on a silver platter, if Newt is the nominee, I suspect the republicans will give it back.
Marvelous Marv Throneberry was one of the worst fielding first basemen in baseball history on one of the worst teams in baseball history, the 1962 New York Mets. A story is told that after a game in which he committed his usual 2 errors, the last of which, a dropped routine popup, cost the Mets the game, there was a birthday celebration in the clubhouse for one of the Mets players. Each player had a piece of cake with the exception of Marvelous Marv. Legend has it that Throneberry complained aloud that everyone had cake and he had none. Marv’s legendary manager Casey Stengel looked at Marv and blurted out for the entire clubhouse to hear “We was gonna give you a piece of cake, but we was afraid you was gonna drop it!”
Why does this story make me think of the republicans? Why does the Ex Cub Factor make me nervous? Maybe I am just missing baseball season. Maybe I am overly pessimistic. However, I just have a strong feeling that the republicans are expecting to get a piece of cake this November…but I think they are gonna drop it.
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