Baseball thread- Congrats White Sox! — Page 45

It gets no publicity - but it still exists.

We have a bird's eye view of the White Sox rally. *sighs*

3:00 CDT for the White Sox.

I'm actually rather thrilled that the Yankees to the East and are stuck w/ fending off the Angels...if for no other reason than the trek out west has to play a factor in their performance in some way, shape, or form.

I haven't caught up on the past few pages, but what was up w/ the Yankees automatically winning the East on Saturday? I know that they were saying it was because they had won one more game than us in over the course of the season (Yanks/Sox match-ups) but all week, including Saturday afternoon, during the game, they kept saying if they split the last 2 games, there'd be an additional game at Yankee Stadium (yesterday) and they were discussing who would be pitching etc. I also don't get why there would have had to have been an additional game against Cleveland had we lost and they won on Sunday. Why wouldn't it be the same deal? Whoever had the best record in their season series?? Seems kind of sketchy.

Whatever, I'm just thrilled the Yankees don't have home field advantage and I'm getting my money back for those tix I bought! I don't know what I was thinking. I wouldn't have gotten the tix in time, and I couldn't have gone anyway. Phew!

---

St. Louis beats Padres and Sox-Sox underway in Chicago.

Sorry Mabel, ex Cub factor!

Mabel, the tiebreaker thing is indeed puzzling, but here's what I think was going on- The White Sox had already clinched the Central and the Angels had the West, so the only spots left were the East and the Wild Card. The Red Sox, Yankees, and Indians were going for those last 2 spots in the last series.

When the first two games were over, the Red Sox and Yankees had each won and lost once, and the Indians had lost twice. The Yankees were then 1 game ahead of the Red Sox, who were 1 game ahead of the Indians.

So the possibilities were this- if the Red Sox won and the Indians won, the Sox and Yankees would be tied for the division, in which case the Yanks would get it by virtue of their superior record in the season series. The Red Sox would still be 1 game ahead of the Indians, and would therefore get the Wild Card.

If the Red Sox lost and the Indians won, the Yankees would have won the AL East by one game, and Bostona and Cleveland would have been tied for the Wild Card. Since the Wild Card is the last postseason spot available, the tiebreaker would have been a one-game playoff instead of the season series.

If both the Red Sox and Indians had lost, it would have been quite simple- the Yankees would have won the East by one game and the Red Sox would have gotten the Wild Card by 1.

As it was, the Red Sox won, and Cleveland lost, which made things relatively clear-cut. The Yankees and Red Sox had identical records, but the Yanks got the division because they beat the Sox in 10 of 19 games this year. Boston got shoved into the Wild Card race, but Cleveland played itself out of contention for it, so no tiebreaker was needed.

Phew. That is complicated. And I only addressed the last game- the possibilities the day before that were even worse. :P

White Sox smack the Red Sox 14-2.

4-0 Yankees so far in the 2nd....

Bwahahaha! I mean, uh...poor Red Sox. Right.

I'm not really sure who I'd prefer the Yankees to play in the ALCS (assuming they get there). I think the White Sox might be the better team, but every series against the Red Sox is heart-attack inducing. Though maybe less so since they finally won a champsionship. Hmm.

In other news, Steve Finley *^&%*^. And furthermore, %*&% %($* *$&%#.

Ah, that felt good.

Good for L!

One up. Wang tommorrow. I shall be at the Stadium on Friday.

---