The 2022 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros is to begin tonight. October is exciting for baseball fans, especially if you are a Philadephia Phillies fan. For the rest of us baseball fans, we certainly don’t want the Phillies to win.
In 2008, I was just 5 years old when the Philadelphia Phillies played in the World Series against my beloved Tampa Bay Rays, winning the series 4 games to 1. It was difficult to swallow that my team lost and it was the beginning of the housing crash and the Great Recession. Times became difficult for many, including my family, but we survived.
The Phillies’ last World Series victory before that was in 1980. The Phillies faced off against the Kansas City Royals winning the series 4 games to 2. In 1981 the United States was at the beginning of a recession that lasted 16 months. Prior to the 1981 recession, the country had just recovered from a mild recession from January 1980 until later in July 1980 when the economy returned to growth.
In 1929, the then Philadephia Athletics of the American League, now the Oakland Athletics, faced off against the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, Oct 8-14. The Athletics beat the Cubs 4 games to 1 in that series. Fifteen days later Black Tuesday happened, and the stock market crash of October 29, 1929. This was the beginning of the Great Depression which lasted until 1939.
When you think about it, by rooting for the Phillies to win in the playoffs, and win the World Series fans are actually rooting for a financial crisis if history is correct. So I guess I need to bet on them to win the World Series now just so I can survive the next financial crisis they cause.
Rising Dough
Do sports have a correlation with the financial markets and the economic health of a nation, explain your thoughts?
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