Thursday, September 30, 2010

Baseball update

My friend, Sunday School teacher, and former fellow blogger, Right Minded, reads this blog. He is an avid Phillies fan (or is that "phan"?).

Others in my Sunday School class, as well as many readers of this blog are Atlanta Braves fans. So am I.

The Phillies have clinched the Division title and a playoff berth. The Phillies are also guaranteed the best record in the National League. The Braves (at the time of this post) have a 1.5 game lead in the Wild Card chase with three games left.

Those three games are against the Phillies - who have nothing to play for.

I was reading on some National League Wild Card facts recently:
- the winner of the division that also houses the team with a Wild Card berth has never won a World Series

- the winner of the division that also houses the team with a WC berth has advanced further than the WC team only 3 out of 15 times - BUT - the winner of the WC has advanced further than their division's winner in 6 of the 15 years

- In the NL, the WC winner has made it to the World Series 6 times in 15 years, while the winner of the division that also had a WC entry has made it to the World Series 2 times. Of those times, the WC has won 2 championships while the division winner hasn't won any.
After learning this, I'd prefer the Braves be the Wild Card as opposed to the division winner.

5 comments:

  1. A-ha. The proverbial shot across the bow. I don't believe this. One of my class members is trash-talking the teacher.

    Okay. You mention that two NL wild cards have won the World Series. That would be the Florida Marlins in 1997 and 2003. And just who, pray tell, was the N.L. East champion each of those years who got one-upped by the wild card?

    Ahem.

    :-)

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  2. I'll publish the comment this time... but if you don't watch the language, I won't publish more of the filth! :)

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  3. Also, if I recall correctly, in 2007 the WILD CARD Colorado Rockies beat the Division champs from Philadelphia in the first round.


    So the Phillies as Division winners lose 33% of the time to the Wild Card team.

    Meanwhile, the Braves lost to another Division Champion each year.


    Hmmm...

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  4. In baseball, I'll take a 0.667 winning percentage any day.

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  5. Well,
    The Braves did not make it as far as the Phillies, but both lost to the Giants.

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