New York Yankees: Kentucky’s National Championship Is a Great Sign for Yankees
April 6, 2012 · Rick Weiner · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Generally, I’m not superstitious. While I think that everything happens for a reason, there is such a thing as a coincidence.
After reading a Facebook status from someone I’ve known since sixth grade this morning, I’m starting to think that maybe there’s something else going on.
He posted the following as his status early this morning: “The last six times that Kentucky has won the National Championship, the New York Yankees have won the World Series. Time to make that seven times in a row…”
Now it was early, and he’s got a young son, a wife and a dog—so I thought it was entirely possible that he was delusional from a lack of sleep, but after looking into it, he’s absolutely correct.
Prior to this year’s victory over Kansas, Kentucky last won the national championship in 1998 over Utah. In 1998, the Yankees put together the most impressive season of their last dynasty, going 114-48 and sweeping the San Diego Padres in four games to clinch the World Series.
Kentucky also won the title in 1996—something I remember vividly—because Kentucky took out my UMass Minutemen (I was a student at UMass at the time) in the Final Four before defeating Syracuse in the final game. That year began the last Yankees dynasty. The Yankees overcame being down two games to none against the Atlanta Braves and won the World Series four games to two.
We have to go back almost 20 years for the next one—to 1978, when the Wildcats took out Duke. The Yankees overcame a two-game deficit and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers for their second consecutive World Series title.
Going back another 20 years, Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp, defeated Seattle, who had reached the title game on the back of future NBA Hall of Fame inductee Elgin Baylor in 1958. The Yankees and Milwaukee Braves would go the distance before the Yankees won Game 7 by a score of 6-2—their seventh World Series title in the past 10 years.
Adolph Rupp’s Wildcats would beat Kansas State for the National Championship in 1951—the same year that the Yankees beat the New York Giants in six games to clinch their third consecutive World Series title.
1949 would mark Kentucky’s second consecutive national championship as they defeated Oklahoma A&M in the final game. That year also marked the beginning of a Yankee dynasty, as the bombers would take out the Brooklyn Dodgers in five games.
Now, maybe this is just one of those bizarre coincidences that happens from time to time.
But maybe, somehow, the Yankees and the Kentucky Wildcats are inexplicably tied together by some unseen bond.
Think about it.
Both are synonymous with greatness in their respective sports. Both have won the ultimate prize on multiple occasions, and both elicit the same reaction from people—either you love them or you hate them, there is no in-between. Some have referred to Kentucky’s Men’s Basketball program as an “Evil Empire”, the same moniker that has been put on the Yankees in the past.
They’ve both had polarizing figures be part of their organizations, in the past, with Adolph Rupp and George Steinbrenner, and in the present, with John Calipari and Alex Rodriguez.
Whether Kentucky’s success on the basketball court will translate into success on the diamond for the Yankees in 2012 remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure.
When one evil empire wins, the other isn’t far behind.
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