I was 13 that year. In my home state, Michigan, it was the last year on record Detroit Tigers won the World Series following a 35-and-5 record of their first 40 games of that MLB season. That seemed to overshadow the 1984 United States presidential election in my area of the country. My memory of the 1984 presidential election was no one was betting on Walter Mondale to unseat Ronald Reagan because not many seemed overly interested in who the Democrats would nominate in the first place.
That was more to be remembered -- maybe the best team to have ever won a World Series that did not have a future Baseball Hall of Fame (Alan Trammell belongs in the Hall of Fame even if he was the fourth-best shortstop of his time; the others were Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith, and Robin Yount. The 1980s had some great middle-infielders. Lou Whitaker was unpopular among baseball writers because he 'failed' to salute the American flag. He was a Jehovah's Witness, and Jehovah's Witnesses consider any salute to a flag an act of idolatry. I may think a salute to the US flag harmless, but following one's religious convictions is honorable in contrast to betting on baseball games, throwing games, or using performance-enhancing drugs to extend a career.
But I digress.
The Republicans carried Michigan very close to their national numbers in 1984 and 1988. And when Bill Clinton won a Democratic pickup of Michigan, while he unseated George Bush in Election 1992, the state still came close to the national margin. That period of three election cycles gave Michigan its overrated "swing state" status that still tends to get mentioned among Corporate News Media. In truth, Michigan has never notched beyond six cycles in consecutively backing presidential winners. (And those six were with the winning Republicans from 1860 to 1880.) A 1984 Michigan was more about Detroit Tigers than that year's presidential election.
