FOR RELEASE: Oct. 15, 1999
Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
Office: (607) 255-3290
E-Mail: [email protected]
Compuserve: Bill Steele, 72650,565
http://www.news.cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, it's like d*jà vu all over again.
The New York Yankees and the New York Mets, now playing in each of their league's championship series, appear to have climatological history on their side: Each of the past four subway World Series has been preceded by one of the state's warmest Julys on record.
This year's July tied for the seventh warmest July in state history, with an average temperature of 71.6 degrees Fahrenheit , according to Keith Eggleston, senior climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University and a die-hard Yankees fan. Could this be an omen of another subway series in the offing?
New York state's warmest July on record was in 1921, when the average temperature for the month was 73.9 degrees. In the subsequent subway World Series, the New York Giants beat the Yankees, five games to three. The second hottest July, averaging 73.7 degrees in 1955, became the "wait-'til-next-year" year as Walter Alston's Brooklyn Dodgers beat Casey Stengel's Yankees for the first time, four games to three.
The state's third warmest July, averaging 72.7 degrees in 1949, saw the first of Stengel's five consecutive World Series victories, as his Yankees beat the Dodgers in five games. New York state's fourth warmest July, in 1952, with an average of 72.2 degrees, saw the Yankees take their fourth straight World Series by beating the Dodgers in seven games.
After that, the statistical association of July heat waves with a subway Series becomes less certain. There was no World Series in 1901, when New York state had its fifth warmest July with a temperature averaging 72 degrees. And the sixth warmest July, in 1935, saw the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs. This year's July average temperature tied 1916 and 1931 for the seventh warmest July in state history, years in which the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals won the fall classic, respectively.
August however, might present another omen, against a meeting of New York teams: Each of New York state's three warmest Augusts have also been followed by a subway series, but August 1999 wasn't even close to a record. It was 66.1 degrees, or 0.4 of a degree below the normal average temperature of 66.5.
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