Does the World Series Winner Determine the Presidential Election Winner?

The 2016 election is approaching fast, everyone wondering who will take the White House.

With this project, I aim to determine if the league that wins the World Series in an election year determines which party wins the presidential election.

In order to do this, first, I'll compile the list of which league won the World Series in presidential election years and which political party won the election. This will be ordered by color. So, the American League represents the Republican Party, while the National League represents the Democratic Party. I will then order the information in a table.

The league that wins the World Series in the year of a presidential election will have no affect on the political party that wins the election. The two events are completely unrelated and have no connection with each other, and so have no affect on each other, one way or the other.

I decided to start from the 1908 World Series/Election because it was the first year in which they both were held. As I am testing whether or not the League that wins the World Series determines the which political party wins the election, I didn’t list the team names or the names of the Presidents, as that information is irrelevant to this investigation. As stated in the Introduction, the National League matched up with the Democratic Party, while the American League matched up with the Republican Party.

In terms of the American League winning the World Series with the Republican Party winning the Presidential Election, and the National League winning the World Series with the Democratic Party winning the Presidential Election, there was a match 17 out of 27 times.

17/27= 63%

The American League and the Republican Party shared victory years the more than the National League and the Democratic Party did, with 10 victory years. However, there is only a difference of 3 (10-7) in the number of times the two have shared victory years over the National League and Democratic Party.

Since 1908, the American League has won 17 out of 27, or 63%, of the World Series’ that took place in election years. The Republican Party has won 13 of the Presidential Elections, or 48% during this time.The National League has won 10 of the World Series’, or 37%, in this time period. The Democratic Party has won 14, or 52%, of the Presidential Elections.

American League Win- 17/27= 63%

Republican Party Win- 13/27= 48%

National League Win- 10/27= 37%

Democrat Party Win- 14/27= 52%

I believe my investigation has no problems with validity.

All of my information was obtained off of the internet, and can be corroborated with multiple sources, as it is all public record. My math was double and triple checked, so I’m confident that there is no mistake there.

Based on the data I collected, it’s too soon to say whether or not the World Series has an affect on which party wins the presidential election.

While there was a match 63% of the time, there was only 27 times to go off of, which is not enough. This is also shown by the fact that range of American League/Republican Party shared victory years to National League/Democratic Party shared victory years is 3.

I also want to point out that since 1908, the American League has won the World Series 4 more times than the Republican Party has won the Presidential Election, so they might not be that much in sync. Likewise, the Democratic Party has won 4 more elections than the National League has won World Series.

The best way to continue this investigation would be to wait twenty-five to fifty years and then try again, that way there will be a lot more data to collect.