[Ads-l] magic number

[Laurence Horn]

No early cites; I remember "magic number" from the mid-1950s and I know it
was around before then. I'm wondering about the obviously parasitic "tragic
number", for the number of losses (or wins by the team with the next worst
record) that it will take for the team in question to be eliminated (from
contention for a division or league championship or wildcard slot).  Much
more recent than "magic number" I'm sure.

LH

On Sat, Sep 14, 2024 at 4:58 PM James Landau <
00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> It's that time of year again, and we keep hearing about the "magic number"
> for division-leading teams (as of last night, the magic number for the
> Philadelphia Phillies was 9, that is, any combination of 9 wins by the
> Phillies and losses by the New Yorik Mets gives the Phillies the National
> League East pennant.
> Here's the earliest usage I could find on Google Books:
> American Magazine  Volumes 142-143  page 39  year 1946
> https://books.google.com/books?id=Ilt5OP_f3xsC&q=
> "magic+number%27%2Bbaseball&dq="magic+number%27%2Bbaseball&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2uMuNp8OIAxU8M1kFHam_KiA4FBDoAXoECAUQAg
>
> "The next year the magic number of 21 tilted the scales in the
> championship race.  The Chicago Cubs won 21 straight in the September
> straightaway.  The last link in that chain was represented by a victory
> over the Cardinals in St. Louis, and it clinched the pennant for the Cubs"
> note bene:  this was a snippet view, I could not find anything confirming
> the date of the issue (Google Books said 1946) and the wording was not
> conclusive that the text matched the definition I gave above of "magic
> number".
> Does anyone have a better citation?
> James Landau
> jjjrlandau at netscape.com
>
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>

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