The Houston Astros have a lot of haters following the team’s infamous cheating scandal that broke in 2019. But maybe, just maybe, the Astros are who we all should be rooting for in this year’s Fall Classic.
Dating back to the early 20th century, every single time a Philadelphia baseball team wins the World Series, a severe economic downturn follows.
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Let’s start with the first example:
Philadelphia Athletics 1929 World Series Title
The Athletics, the same Athletics that now play in Oakland, originally played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954. The team then moved to Kansas City before finding its eventual and current home.
The Athletics defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-1 in the best-of-seven series in October 1929. Specifically, the Fall Classic concluded on Oct. 14, when the Athletics scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth in comeback fashion to defeat the Cubs 3-2 in the title-clinching Game 5.
Exactly 10 days later, the Great Depression stock market crash began. Stocks dropped more than 10% at the bell on Oct. 24. Black Tuesday, a day in which the Dow dropped more than 12%, was five days later on Oct. 29.
Philadelphia Phillies 1980 World Series Title
Philadelphia’s other baseball team, the Phillies, was not as successful as the Athletics in its early days. Despite playing in the MLB since the 1800s and winning multiple National League pennants, the Phillies had never won a World Series. That is, until 1980.
Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton, N.L. MVP and Cy Young award winners respectively, led the "Phightin Phils" to its first World Series title in its 97-year history. The team defeated the Kansas City Royals four games to two. Schmidt was named the series MVP.
Heading into the 1980s, inflation was rising and cracks were forming in the economy. The stock market wasn’t doing well, and it only got worse. The bear market would continue and not bottom until 1982.
Philadelphia Phillies 2008 World Series Title
Well, the first Philly baseball title came right around the Great Depression, and the most recent came during the Great Recession. Like the 1980 title, cracks had already been forming in the economy when the Phils won in 2008.
But, the economic and market weakness would continue from when the Phils won the 2008 world series in October. The stock market didn’t bottom until a few months later on March 6, 2009.
So, every single time a Philadelphia baseball team has won the title, the stock market has crashed and we’ve had a severe recession.
Should we be worried? Correlation does not equal causation — and we only have a sample size of three.
Photo via Shutterstock.
