Who's on First?

An abbreviated version of the hour long conversation that took place yesterday after the Phillies lost:

Scott: Can they still win the division?

Me: Yes, if they win tomorrow, but the Mets have to lose their game.

Scott: What if they both win?

Me: Then they play a one game tie-breaker in Philly on Monday.

Scott: If the Phillies lose that game can they still be the wild card?

Me: Um, I don't know, Matt?

Matt: It's pretty complicated.  I don't really know.

Scott: I just want to know if they can still be the wild card.

Matt: Well, it depends on what the other teams do and there's just too many scenarios to go through it all.

Scott: Why can't you just tell me whether or not the Phillies still have a chance to be the wild card?

Me: I think we have to sit down and write out all the possible scenarios.

Matt: They pay people to do that, stop wasting your time.  Look, all you need to worry about is whether the Phillies win tomorrow.  If they lose, then they are out.

Scott: Not if the Mets lose, too.  Then they can still win the division if they win the playoff game.

Matt: OK, you're right. (big sigh).  Can't we just go to bed now.

Scott: I still want to know if the Phillies can win the wild card.

Matt: (totally exasperated) No more questions!!  I'm done!

Scott: Why can't you just tell me whether or not the Phillies still have a chance to be the wild card?

Me: Let's sit down and do the scenarios.  OK, let's see, if the Phillies win and the Mets win and Sand Diego loses and Colorado wins, then, OK, my head hurts, we are going to have to make up a spreadsheet.

Matt: Or just wait until tomorrow when the people who are paid to figure this out will have it all mapped out!

Me: (feeling like a failure for not doing the math problem with Scott) We can figure this out, really, I'm sure of it.  OK, let's start over, there are 4 teams so with a win or a loss for each that's like 16 different things that could happen....

Scott: Mommy?  What's wrong?  I'm waiting...

Me: This is going to take too long.

This morning before I even got out of bed:

Scott:  Mom?  I figured it out.  If the Phillies win today and the Mets win so they have to play the play off game for the division and the Phillies lose that game, then they play another playoff game against the Padres if they lose today and then they would get the wild card if they won that game.

Me: Huh? Really?

Scott: I think so, let's check the computer.

And we did and guess who was right?

How come when Bossy talks about the Phillies it's so much more fun?  And she even used the word "heiny" and made it seem cute (well, she did use it while referring to Chase Utley).

Comments

[Kazuki]

From most reports you're senieg excellent defense and a hitter with a good eye and decent approach. Is that not tangilble? Or are we taking the Dom Brown approach to evaluating this guy and relying on small sample sizes? You call it an excuse but in truth this is our reality with him. Making any kind of determination on this guy right now is unfair at best. Would I have liked him to tear the cover off the ball? Of course. But try to look on the bright side, he's staying on the field so far and his baseball accumen doesn't seem to have been affected by his long layoff. I look forward to senieg what he does this year and hope he's over his injury problems.

[Fiwe]

Here;s a thought. The clabier of hitter sent to the AFL is higher than the quality of the pitchers, as the better pitchers have usually maxed out their innings in the regular season, and teams wish to rest them during the offseason. Pitchers are facing a higher clabier of hitter than they are used to, and their ERA is what it is, rationalized away, in some cases, by lack of participation. They are facing a clabier of hitter closer to the MLB level and there ain't no gradin' on the curve..Seems to me the stats oriented raised a stink awhile back because someone converted minor league performance to MLB performance, and now we have minor league offseason training and education exhibition setting performance equated to an MLB performance.

[Lori at Spinning Yellow]

Laura - Matt calls it the heartbreak of Philly sports. He's a Yankee fan, they always win.

[Laura]

I am living with a miserable husband right now b/c now that the Phillies have won that means the the Eagles couldn't possibly have won also. No, never in Philadelphia..............

[Delilah]

This very conversation took place in my house for the entire month of September. I'm glad it had a happy ending, or I'd be living with a pretty miserable husband right now.

[Jordan Sadler]

I bow down to your understanding of both baseball and mathematics.

[Laura]

This just gave me the willies!

[slouching mom]

This sounds like something Ben would come up with. You've said it, and I agree -- those two share some personality traits.

LOL! Our children can make us feel so damn...stupid.