THE MAGIC NUMBER & WHY THE DIVISION MATTERS

I've never been a fan of the wild card and I've never been a fan of squeaking into the playoffs.  That's because I always feel that as a fan, you want your team dominant and consistent and gelling going into the playoffs... and winning the division, because the perception is, we can roll over anyone at that point, and we're not limping in "with a chance".

I know, we've squeaked in before and things happened. Sometimes the wild card saves a team and brings new life to a club in a "short season" as they say... but I just don't like the odds of that.  That being said, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post has a great piece today titled, Yankees will make the playoffs if they reach this magic number. In it, he writes: 

   
"If the Yankees want to reasonably ensure a playoff berth, the number they should post on their clubhouse wall is 89 wins. Which would mean 28-16, a .636 winning percentage, the rest of the way. That isn’t realistic in any mathematical, number-crunching sense. But strange things can happen in small sample sizes, whether we’re discussing baseball, Presidential elections or “Police Academy” movies. The Yankees must strive for strangeness."

You know what? Fine.  It's a goal, right? But as you and I both know, the Yankees this season "just don't got it."  As you may have read in IT'S BIZARRO IN YANKEE GAMES THIS YEAR, it truly is:

"Every Yankee game feels the same this year.  They generally score a few runs, 1-3 early, then have to try to hang on if they want to win.  They have so many games where they score early, but then can’t score any additional runs in the 6^th to 9^th innings, and often for even longer than this.  
 
This pattern has occurred in 20 games in just July and August alone."

Quite frankly, if they can break that pattern, buck up and start to fight alittle bit, there's a shot we not only win 89 games, but start going after the red hot Orioles.  

Can we do it? Stranger things have happened, as Davidoff said... and as a fan, you want the division won.  

If it was me, if I was one of the Yankees... I say Division first... Wild Card second.  That's just me.

Great piece, Ken. You're one of my favorite writers. I also always loved Police Academy... just the first one...



Just sayin'.

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