The 60/60 Rule
I'm not sure whence I first heard this adage - it may have been from George "Sparky" Anderson - but it goes like this:
Every team will win 60 games, and every team will lose 60 games. It's the remaining 42 games that separate the first place teams from the last place teams.
That's pretty amazing, when you think about it. It usually holds true, as it did this year, if you employ a slight fudge factor. The Yankees only lost 59 games, but they won six more games than the next-winningest team. The pathetic Nationals only won 59 games, but they lost three more games than the second most-futile team, the Pirates.
What I take away from this is that there are no unimportant games. I hear a lot of alleged baseball pundits talk about September games "that count." This is, of course, absurd. Games in April and May count the same as every other game.
©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor
Labels: Observation
posted by Douglas T. Dinsmoor @ 12:36 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Douglas,
I remember that being attributed to Sparky, too.
Another thought. Translate this to the NFL. Imagine the very best team going 10-6, the good ones going 9-7, the worst 6-10 and bad ones 7-9. Everybody else goes 8-8.
The best NFL teams go like 14-2 or 13-3. Imagine a baseball team going 140-22.
But consider this in terms of five games. The best of teams go 3-2, the worst 2-3. The difference between the best baseball team and the worst is only every fifth game. Now, that's amazing.
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