Since the magic number (and I’ll take the example of baseball, because while I don’t get to watch them much, I do follow the Mets) is so easy to calculate, why not post it on the standings as soon as there have been games played?
This would be a good use of technology relative to baseball (or any sport).
In case you’re wondering, the math for the magic number is as follows:
G + 1 − WA − LB
where
- G is the total number of games in the season
- WA is the number of wins that Team A has in the season
- LB is the number of losses that Team B has in the season
As of today, the magic number for the Mets is 162 + 1 – 12 – 6, or 145.