It's mid-October, the Major League Baseball playoffs are underway and, even if you hate to watch baseball!, there's a story now brewing you need to follow.
It's about the Philadelphia Phillies, the losingest team in U.S. sports history. The Phillies' lifetime 11,259 losses rank worst among all professional teams across all professional sports.
Except sometimes, the Phillies win. And when they win it all, the U.S. economy falls into recession.
I'm not making this up.
The Philadelphia baseball franchise has won the World Series four times in the last 100 years. Each win coincided with a major economic crisis.
Win #1 - 1929
The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago Cubs on October 14, 1929. Two weeks later, on October 28, 1929, a day that's come to be known as Black Monday, the U.S. stock market crashed, and the Great Depression began.
Win #2 - 1930
The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Cardinals in six games on Wednesday, October 8, 1930. The economy sank deeper into the depression which would last at least another four years until The New Deal and the creation of the FHA.
Win #3 - 1980
The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Kansas City Royals in six games on October 21, 1980. Inflation rates hit 13.5 percent for the year and within nine months, the economy enters it worst recession in 50 years - you know... since the last time a Philadelphia team won it all.
Win #4 - 2008
The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games on October 29, 2008. Technically, the U.S. economy was already in recession but only a few months in. It would take $2 trillion in aid to bring housing and the economy out of the red. Home values took 3.5 years to recover.
Win #5 - 2023?
And now here we are, on the precipice of another World Series, and the Philadelphia baseball team is rolling.
They trounced the Miami Marlins in the playoffs' first round.
They steamrolled the Atlanta Braves in the second round.
Now, in the last round before the World Series, the Phillies jumped out to a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Phils have outscored their opponents by a combined 56-13 since the playoffs started. The pitching and hitting have been dominant. The team looks good.
And, although the Federal Reserve doesn't use the Phillies as an economic indicator, consider this your warning: rooting for the Phillies could be akin to rooting for a recession.
As for me, that's a chance I'm willing to take. The Phillies are my team, and the sample size is just too small.
Let's go Phils.
Happy homebuying,
|
