Count Yankees GM Brian Cashman among those rooting for Kentucky to finish the season 40-0 and win the national championship with the first perfect record since Indiana in 1976.
According to a great story from David Waldstein of The New York Times, Cashman grew up a huge Kentucky fan in Lexington and fantasized about ways he could help the Wildcats beat Denny Crum’s Louisville Cardinals.
Cashman also relishes the parallels between Kentucky and the Bronx Bombers.
Between 1949 and 1998, every time Kentucky won the national championship, the Yankees won the World Series. It happened in 1949; 1951; 1958; 1978; 1996, when Cashman was the assistant general manager of the Yankees; and then again in 1998, which was Cashman’s first season in charge.
Of course, when Kentucky won the NCAA title in 2012, the Yankees lost in the first round of the American League playoffs to Detroit.
Now, of course, Cashman is rooting for both franchises to win titles in 2015.
“It would be great if we can get back on track with them,” he said of the six times both teams have won championships in the same year. “But first Kentucky has to win it.”
Photo: Barton Silverman/The New York Times
