Barring a remarkable September turnaround, the New York Yankees will not make the playoffs for the first time since 1993. That’s a remarkable streak, but not the most curious one involving baseball’s most storied franchise.

The last time the Yankees won a World Series (2000), Bill Clinton was president. Unless there’s a late-season miracle, the Bronx Bombers will go 0-for-8 during the George W. Bush presidency, just as they went 0-for-4 (with four losing seasons) with George H.W. Bush occupying the Oval Office.

The last time the Yankees won a World Series during a Republican administration, Dwight Eisenhower was president. Which means that on October 9, the Yankees will mark 50 years without a championship under a Republican regime.

In the interval, they won two World Series titles under John F. Kennedy (1961-62), two under Jimmy Carter (1977-78), and four under Clinton (1996, 1998-2000). Throw in the six won during the FDR regime and five under Harry Truman and the Yankees have captured 19 of their 26 championships with Democrats in the White House.

During the Yankees 50-year Republican drought, seven teams won the World Series under both parties, including Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. The other two – Florida and Toronto – didn’t exist in 1958.

No doubt George Steinbrenner, like many large-business owners, has reaped the financial rewards of Republican presidencies, which he’s long supported. But as far as baseball is concerned, he might have been giving cash to the wrong party. In 1974, The Boss pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign and a felony charge of obstruction of justice. That inspired Billy Martin’s famous line about Reggie Jackson and Steinbrenner: "One’s a born liar, and the other’s convicted." (The Yankees failed to reach the playoffs during the five full seasons of the Nixon administration.)

The Yankees reached the World Series in 1976 as Gerald Ford completed Nixon’s tenure, but it wasn’t until after Carter took over in January of 1977 that they won their first Fall Classic in 15 years.

Ronald Reagan, in one his last acts as president, pardoned Steinbrenner on January 19, 1989. It was the least Reagan could do. After all, his eight-year presidency included just one Yankee playoff appearance – the World Series loss to the Dodgers in strike-marred 1981.

Now, with the presidency hanging in the balance, it’s worth considering the future of the Yankees. Since Steinbrenner, at 78 and in declining health, can’t afford to wait another four (or eight) years for another World Series title, Yankee fans might want to consider supporting The Boss by voting for Barack Obama.

Is all of this coincidence? Perhaps. It’s just as likely that Alex Rodriguez really is "The Cooler," casting a chill on everything around him like so many Harry Potter dementors. Then again, the Boston Red Sox haven’t won a World Series under a Democrat since Woodrow Wilson in 1918 and they won in 2004 and ‘07 only after acquiring staunch Bush supporter Curt Schilling.  The New York Mets, meanwhile, won both of their titles under Republican administrations (1969/Nixon, 1986/Reagan).

In this electoral season, many voters are struggling when it comes to making a decision. After all, it’s unlikely that either Obama or John McCain will find immediate solutions to the war in Iraq, the struggling economy, or healthcare. Neither is a polarizing figure like Bush or Hillary Clinton. What American voters really need is a hot-button issue. And what’s more polarizing than the New York Yankees?

Nobody is lukewarm when it comes to the Bombers. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em. At the moment, it’s not hard to envision them returning to prominence next season. It’s also easy to see them enduring four more years of struggles as they rebuild the farm system and remodel themselves after the mighty Tampa Bay Rays (Motto: The Future in Blu-Ray!)

Thus, the November election is a referendum on the Yankees. If you support them, you must vote for Obama or accept another four (or eight) years without a World Series trophy. This shouldn’t be much of a task for most New Yorkers, who often support Democrats. (The Steinbrenners cast their votes in Florida.)

If you hate the Yankees, the choice is simple: McCain and upstart rookie Sarah Palin. Go figure. Red Sox Nation voting for a Republican, Massachusetts becoming a "red" state. And the conservative New York Yankees, the richest, most Republican-like of all U.S. sports teams, fearing the possibility of another GOP candidate in office.

Lately it seems every disgruntled or unemployed baseball player wants a one-way ticket to Tampa Bay to play for the Rays. Many smart baseball people somehow think the Rays would be interested in self-absorbed knuckleheads like Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Kenny Lofton.

Manager Joe Maddon and personnel chief Andrew Friedman have done a masterful job assembling a young, inexpensive, talented team free of egos, drama, and headaches. That’s downright impossible to do in professional sports in 2008 and be competitive. Maddon, as bench coach for the Angels for a decade, helped forge the terrific chemistry that resulted in an unlikely World Series title for the Rally Monkey Halos in 2002. And he’s doing a similar job in Tampa Bay.

When Delmon Young couldn’t behave, Maddon had Friedman ship him off to Minnesota for Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett in what already looks like one of the best deals of the last five years. The Rays kicked problem child Elijah Dukes to the curb. And even though the Rays no doubt regret leaving Josh Hamilton up for grabs, it’s hard to fault an organization for wanting to rid itself of players with issues.

In my 18 years of covering baseball, I’ve never been in a winning clubhouse that didn’t have a few bad apples, but it’s hard to find one in Tampa Bay. Garza can be a bit of a smart aleck and B.J. Upton has his moments of immaturity, but they’d be considered model citizens on many teams.

That’s why the notion of the Rays adding a Bonds, Sheffield, or Lofton to the mix is downright preposterous. It’s tough to think of three more high-maintenance players. It’s probably no coincidence that the three have a combined total of one World Series ring, from Sheffield’s 1997 Marlins.

No player has napalmed more bridges than Sheffield. He quit on the Milwaukee Brewers early in his career, frustrated players managers such as Bobby Cox, Jim Leyland, and Joe Torre, and seems to concoct conspiracy theories and vendettas out of thin air.

Bonds, as you might have heard, has some issues.

Then there’s Lofton. Alex Rodriguez is known as "The Cooler" in baseball circles. Like a Vegas loser hired by casinos to stand next to people on hot streaks, A-Rod seems to douse the fires of whatever team acquires him.

That’s not an inaccurate nickname, but A-Rod is a sparkplug compared to Lofton, who is the Forrest Gump of losers. Wherever he goes, teams fall apart during the postseason.

Lofton has been to the postseason 11 times, usually with heavily favored teams.  He’s reached the World Series twice, losing both times. Wherever there’s a memorable postseason collapse, you can find Lofton in the loser’s clubhouse.

In the 1995 World Series, many thought the Indians would be the latest team to capitalize on the Braves’ inability to win the Fall Classic. Lofton batted .200 and Atlanta won in six games.

The Braves, not yet aware of the Lofton jinx, acquired him before the 1997 season. That year, the wildcard Marlins upset Atlanta in the NLCS as Lofton batted .185.

In 1999, Lofton was back with the Indians, who went 97-65 and won the AL Central by 21.5 games. In the ALDS, the Tribe took a 2-1 series lead on the wild-card Red Sox only to lose the last two games 23-7 and 12-8. Cleveland scored 32 runs in the series. Lofton went 2-for-16 with six strikeouts.

Lofton reached the World Series for the second time in 2002 as a member of the Giants, who squandered a 3-2 lead and lost to the Angels and their Rally Monkey.

The following year, Lofton was playing for the Cubs, who took a 3-1 lead over the wild-card Marlins in the NLCS.  Cubs fans blame this one on Steve Bartman, but it wasn’t Bartman who dropped the last three games, including the final two at Wrigley. If fans are going to blame Bartman and goat curses, it seems Lofton would be a more plausible explanation.

Remarkably, that’s not the most epic choke job involving a Lofton team. That would come the following season, when the Yankees and Lofton squandered a 3-0 ALCS lead to the Red Sox and Curt Schilling’s bloody sock.

The Cooler wasn’t done, however. In 2005, he managed to play in just 110 games for $3.1 million from the upstart Phillies, who blew a wild-card berth in the last week of the season. In ‘06, he went 1-for-13 in the ALDS as the Dodgers were swept by the Mets.

Incredibly, the Indians acquired him for a third tour of duty late in the 2007 season. Sure enough, the Tribe coughed up a 3-1 ALCS lead and lost to the Red Sox, with Lofton batting .222.

If these were a few isolated instances, they could be shrugged off as coincidence and not karma. But Lofton has been a bad guy ever since he teamed up with Albert Belle early in his career. He’s never had a strong outfield arm. Now 41, he couldn’t throw out Sid Bream trying to score the winning run. (Wait, that’s the one memorable postseason collapse of recent years not involving Lofton. That was Bonds who blew the throw.)

Lofton reportedly turned down an overture from the Rays in spring training, believing their $1 million offer was insulting. Actually, it’s the best move the Rays never made.