Quote:
Originally posted by str8outavannuys
Amazingly, with all these posts, nobody has answered Paigow's question of why the Cleveland game affected the Yankees "clinching," as Cleveland's in a different division.
The answer is that if a division ends up in a tie, and IF BOTH TEAMS ARE NOT AUTOMATICALLY IN THE PLAYOFFS, then they play a one-game playoff to see who wins the division. But if a division is a tie and both teams are in the playoffs, they go to the head-to-head tiebreaker to see who gets the (pretty meaningless) "division title") instead of playing another game.
Cleveland losing today meant that if there was a tie, both the Yankees and Red Sox would make the playoffs, thus guaranteeing the Yankees the division title (because of the head-to-head record). If the Indians had won today and tomorrow, and the Yanks and Sox had split today and tomorrow, then all three would finish with the same record, thus requiring a Yanks-Red Sox division title playoff game, followed by loser-vs-Cleveland game for the wildcard.
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This analysis makes absolutely no sense for two teams in the same division. There is no scenario possible in which both teams would not automatically be in the playoffs. One team in the division
has to be in the playoffs -- the Division Champion. This would be determined by the tie-breaker, as I explained before. Because the teams within the division match up against each other 19 times, there necessarily has to be a division winner on the tie-breaker.
Two teams in the same division cannot tie for a division championship when they play an odd number of games head-to-head, regardless of whether they have the same overall winning record for the season. This is why you always have one series between teams within the same division which has
four games rather than the standard three, and therein lies the genius of the unbalanced schedule.
Based on the above, your second paragraph is just not accurate. The Yankees, by winning yesterday, won the tie-breaker in their division based upon head-to-head record, even if they lose today. Had the Red Sox won yesterday and the Yankees won today, the Red Sox would have won the season series 10-9. (Actually, looking at the standings again, I think the Red Sox would have won the division outright had they swept, by being one game better overall in the W-L column.)
Thus, no playoff game would have been necessary and the runner-up in the division would automatically be the wild-card if they win today, because they are one game ahead in the wild card standings due to the Indians loss yesterday.
If that division runner-up loses today, and the Indians win, then the runner-up in the East would have play the Indians in a one-game playoff to determine the Wild Card, because their records would be identical, and there is no tie-breaker for teams not within the same division.
I blame your misunderstanding the issue less on your Yale education and more on the fact that you are from Canada. I won't even pretend that I understand ice hockey.
ETA: I also don't blame Hank for misunderstanding the issue, because he said he doesn't follow baseball regularly, and besides, it was Saturday night, and y'all know how he gets.
