Double Play: 2 Baseball Idiosyncracies You Won't Want to Steal
Part of my job with Hinsdale Little League Baseball is entering in a ton of game scores. The home team is always listed below the visiting team in the game tables, which has become mind-cripplingly annoying for me.
Why?
Let’s say I’m entering in Game 807 between the visiting Mets and the home team, the Blue Jays (see image). If the Mets win the game, I have no problem entering in the score. However, if the Blue Jays win, my mind refuses to let me put a lower score in before a higher winning score. I always have to enter in the winning team first, and then reverse-tab to enter the losing team’s score.
Somewhat related, this next situation is equally as idiosyncratically annoying to me.
If the Blue Jays beat the Mets 8-5, what was the Mets’s losing score? Did they lose 5-8? No! They lost 8-5. They won 5-8, and the Blue Jays lost 5-8. Only one of those makes good sense to say (the one where the winning team beats the losing team by a score of 8-5). However, it is correct to say that someone who won 8-5 also lost 5-8.
Why?
Because the word “lost” is assigned a value of -1 and the word “won” is assigned a value of +1. So, “losing 5-8” mathematically equals the following: (-1)[5-8]. Which, of course, resolves to winning 8-5.
But who really cares about the Mets or the Blue Jays anyway? Go Cubs!
