E-lim-in-ate the negative

I thought I'd mention in passing that it's that time in the baseball season, the time when teams start to be eliminated from contention, and the "magic numbers" of the leading teams start to be bandied about. Then, on September 1st, the rosters expand and we get to see all those minor leaguers and reserves on the 40-man list who have been shuttling back and forth all season -- all of which means we're coming down to the end, the final month of the regular season.

(Unfortunately for me, that's going to coincide with my beginning work on a workshop based on Brecht's Roundheads and Pointheads, and a three-week residency at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. From what I can tell, the cable providers up there carry the Mets and Yankees games, so I hope I'll be able to follow their progress as closely as I have for the past 5 months.)

At the moment, we're on the verge of losing the very first of the 30 MLB teams: the Kansas City Royals, having already been mathematically eliminated from the race in the AL Central a few days ago, now have an elimination number of 1 for the American League wild card race. They have only to lose one game, or the White Sox win one, and the Royals are totally out of contention, and can only be spoilers.

As for the hometown teams, they still have a lot to go. The Yankees' magic number is 25 to eliminate the Red Sox from the division, and the Mets' is 17 to knock out the Phillies. There are still plenty of other teams in contention elsewhere, in one way or another: in no particular order -- the Red Sox, the White Sox, the Twins, the Cards, the Reds, the Astros, the Dodgers, the Padres, the Giants, the Diamondbacks, the Phillies, the Marlins, the Braves, the Brewers and the Rockies (whose elimination number in the division is 26 and 24 in the division). That's fully half of all major league teams.

Many of these teams are still fighting for a place because of the innovation of the wild card, and that's great, because it keeps people interested in the game for longer in the season. The problem is that many of those teams that could still get into the post-season (and from there potentially go on to win the World Series) have sub-.500 records. I would support some kind of rule change which would in some way penalize a wild card team which ends up the season with a losing record -- perhaps no post-season games played in their home stadium, or giving the team they are to play a one game bye.

Having a team with a losing record in the regular season be the World Champion [sic] would be a terrible thing for baseball, and I wish the baseball PTB would pay more attention to it.

Addendum: Just want to make it clear that the current leading contenders for the National League wild card (the Padres, and the Phillies and Reds, who are a half-game back) are all over .500 -- just barely. The American League wild card contenders White Sox, Twins, Red Sox) are all well above.

Note: Kansas City has indeed been eliminated from the American League Wild Card race, so they become the first team in either league to be completely out of it for the season.

Update (8/31 midday): Next up for elimination -- Tampa Bay (elimination number 3 in the division and 4 in the wild card). The Washington Nationals are almost out in their division (3) but are hanging in for the wild card.