Mark’s Musings – November 2, 2016

Mark Fortune

One more day. One more week. There is a lot rolled into the next week. The World Series. The election. The Indians of course, need just one more win to clinch their first World Series Championship since 1948, which was a good year by all counts.

The Series returns to Progressive Field on Tuesday where the Tribe needs just one win but the boys from the windy city aren’t going away. Of course, we could have a winner by the time you read the print edition of this column on Wednesday but not if the series goes seven games. That game would be Wednesday night.

One more week of political meandering, squabbling and those blasted television commercials. At least they are now somewhat predictable. The ads, not the televisions. Those are not predictable.

Speaking of the election, remember when the candidates gave away books of matches left and right? Okay, that did not come out quite the way I wanted. I bet none of the candidates would even think of doing that today. It seems that the books of LBJ for President matches are quite popular and probably not worth too much. You know what’s coming next, just burn ‘em. Well, use them. NO! I just googled it and you can get money for that stuff on eBay. Who knew? Matchbooks, lapel pins, buttons and more. Yep. Surprised me.

The Browns are inching ever so closer to that number one draft pick. They came close this past week but no cigar. If you did have the cigar, you could use the LBJ matches to light it. Because if memory serves, that is about the same era as the most recent Browns Super Bowl championship.

Just think if you had some matches from the Cubs last World Series win, or the Indians for that matter? Well, Theodore Roosevelt was President in 1908 when the Cubs won, and Harry Truman was the President when the Indians won.

Milk was 32 cents in 1908; a gallon of gas was 11 cents. Fast forward to 1948 and you paid a whopping 86 cents for milk and 16 cents for a gallon of gas. Another site had gas at 26 cents per gallon in 1948. That is not a wide variance today, but significant in 1908. Of course, wages were also lower than they are today. The stock market in 1948 was at 177. Of course, those of you that know your history are aware that a year prior, the 1907 Bankers Panic or the Knickerbocker Crisis was in full swing. If not for J. P. Morgan and his influence with the big time financiers of the day, who knows what might have happened?

Only a year or so later, we saw the emergence of the Federal Reserve System and the central banking system that we know today. You might want to do a web search of the 1907 panic just for your bedtime reading.

Here is another little tidbit regarding World Series ticket prices at the 1908 games in Chicago. You could grab a seat at the old West Side Grounds for $1.50. Ticket prices at Wrigley Field, home of games three, four and five, went for an average asking price of a cool $7,200. And that’s enough for this week’s column!

Category: Mark's Musings, Opinion, Uncategorized