Cubs have a magic number

[BUFAN]

With 17 game left the magic number is 13. Any combination of 13 Cub wins and Brewer losses gives us the pennant!!!

[Da Coach]

Also, every other 1st place team has a magic number except the Angels, who clinched the AL West already. The White Sox magic number is 17.
These standings show the magic numbers in parentheses, The Cubs' have the lowest one at 13.--

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/standings

[mike radigan]

MN for the Cubs:

13 MN for division - Milw
9 MN for wild card - Hou, Phil and St Lou
13 MN for NL home field advantage - NY

[georgethedog]

With 17 game left the magic number is 13. Any combination of 13 Cub wins and Brewer losses gives us the pennant!!!

Sorry to be technical, but the Cubs will only win the pennant if they win the National League. They will only be division champs unless they win the NLCS playoffs.

[mike radigan]

Thru Sept 11:

11 MN for division - Milw
8 MN for wild card - Hou and Phil
12 MN for NL home field advantage - NY

[Fyrebyrd]

funny....i thought the cubs magic number was 100......more years

[Murph]

funny....i thought the cubs magic number was 100......more years

That's almost as funny as posting a picture of your tattoo......

[mike radigan]

Thru Sept 13:

10 MN for division - Milw
8 MN for wild card - Hou and Phil
11 MN for NL home field advantage - NY

[Fyrebyrd]

That's almost as funny as posting a picture of your tattoo......

point taken

[Big Mike]

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080913&content_id=3467132&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Looks like the Cubs will have a chance to get some fans up to Milwaukee for a couple games one Sunday and one on Monday!

[mike radigan]

Thru Sept 14:

7 MN for division - Milw
7 MN for wild card - Phil
9 MN for NL home field advantage - NY

[mike radigan]

Thru Sept 14:

7 MN for division - Milw
7 MN for wild card - Phil
9 MN for NL home field advantage - NY

BTW, the MN I used for NY (9) for NL home field advantage assumes Chi finishes ahead of NY. They will not have a playoff to determine home field advantage if they end with identical records. Does anyone know who holds the tiebreaker for this? If it is Chi then the MN is 8.

[mike radigan]

Thru Sep 15 afternoon:

6 MN for division - Milw
6 MN for wild card - Phil
8 MN for NL home field advantage - NY (if NY loses tonight it drops one more). Also, although I'm not positive I think the tiebreaker would be head to head to determine home field if it came down to Chi and NY. That has yet to be decided as Chi has won the only two between them this year, but they have four remaining.

[mike radigan]

Thru Sep 15 :

6 MN for division - Milw
6 MN for wild card - Phil
7 MN for NL home field advantage - NY

[mike radigan]

Thru Sept 16:

Cubs 91 – 58

Division
MN = 4 Milw (163-91-6)
St Louis eliminated (163-91-72)

Both NL home field and Wild Card
MN = 5 Phil (163-91-67)
MN = 5 NY (163-91-67)