Presidential World Series?

From King Kaufman's daily sports column on Salon:

"Reader Ben Zoll of Virginia -- cradle of democracy and birthplace of presidents -- writes with an intriguing question. Probably only intriguing to me. If the Astros and Red Sox make the World Series, he wonders, "Would this be the first time the World Series has mirrored the presidential race?" John Kerry is from Massachusetts and President Bush from Texas, as you may have heard.

This is the kind of pointless trivia I can really get into, and after a little research I think the answer is: Yes, that would be a first.

The closest we've ever come -- and to say it wasn't even remotely close is to grossly exaggerate how close we came -- was in the 1912 and 1916 elections.

In 1916 the Brooklyn Robins -- the once and future Dodgers -- played the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. In the election, President Woodrow Wilson ran against Charles Evans Hughes. Wilson was from New Jersey, in the way that Ronald Reagan was from California. He wasn't born there but he lived much of his adult life there and was elected governor. Hughes was from New York.

Now, New Jersey isn't New York, but if the Yankees had managed to win the American League that year, I'd have been willing to count a New York-New Jersey presidential election as mirroring a New York-Brooklyn World Series. It'd be a stretch, but stretching's good for you. The Yankees had a good year, for them. They went 80-74, their first winning season since 1910 and only their fourth in 16 years of existence. But that was only good enough for fourth place, 11 games out. They wouldn't win a pennant until 1921.

In 1912 Wilson had run against former President Teddy Roosevelt, a New Yorker, and incumbent William Howard Taft of Ohio. The Giants won the National League Pennant, so I'd have considered it a presidential mirror if either the Yankees, then still known as the Highlanders, or the Cleveland Indians, known at the time as the Naps, had won the American League. But the Highlanders lost 102 games and finished 55 games out of first. The Naps were 24 and a half games better, but still in a somnambulent fifth place.

Eugene V. Debs also ran as a Socialist, as was his habit in those days. He was from Indiana but he spent enough time in Chicago that I'd have been willing to count it if the White Sox had won the pennant. They finished fourth.

I'm stretching like mad, but history doesn't want to cooperate. Astros-Red Sox would be the first World Series ever to involve teams from the same states as two major presidential candidates.

What this means is exactly the same as what it means that the Red Sox haven't won a championship since 1918: Nothing. But it's fun to think about and hasn't been beaten into the ground.

Prediction: If the Astros and Red Sox make the World Series, this subject will be beaten into the ground. My God, just think about Jeanne Zelasko's script for the opening of the Game 1 broadcast! But you read about it here first. Unless there's some other writer out there who's interested in meaningless drivel."