What Is A Magic Number In Baseball, And How Do You Calculate It?

 

What Is A Magic Number In Baseball, And How Do You Calculate It?

What is a magic number in baseball, and how do you calculate it? Originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

As the calendar nears September, baseball’s playoff race is beginning to heat up, and as a result, fans are once again having to bust out their calculators.

That is because of a statistic known as the “magic number,” which illustrates how close a team is to clinching a playoff spot.

Whether it be a division crown or a wild card spot, playoff berths in Major League Baseball are always special, and fans can be forgiven for getting a bit excited about how close the season is to wrapping up.

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So what does a magic number represent? And how do you calculate it?

  So what does a magic number represent? And how do you calculate it? For starters, here is the formula for the number: Magic number = 163 – (Playoff team’s win total + trailing team’s loss total) The number represents the combination of a team’s wins and an opponent’s losses that would result in a fan’s favorite team mathematically-clinching a playoff berth. By way of example, we can take the Chicago Cubs, who beat the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field on Wednesday afternoon. The victory gave the Cubs a record of 71-62 on the season, and a two-game lead over the San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks for a wild card berth. Assuming that the Diamondbacks win on Wednesday night, they would leapfrog the Giants in the wild card standings. The Giants currently have a record of 69-64. As a result, the Cubs’ magic number to eliminate the Giants would be: 163 – (71 + 64) = 28 That means that a combination of 28 Cubs wins and Giants losses would eliminate San Francisco and secure a...
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