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Once again, from worst to first

Even as they were still playing the Yankees, the Red Sox clinched the AL East title when Toronto lost tonight.

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But celebrating with champagne and whatnot, after they blew the lead in the ninth inning? Not cool. They didn't have to be morose and trudge into the clubhouse with their heads hung low - they've had a great season, so far, and they certainly deserve congratulations - but dousing each other following a loss, over what was a relatively foregone conclusion given the number of games remaining, was really hollow and felt staged for the cameras.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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So what, they should have waited and seen if they won tonight to actually celebrate? That's quite the "hot take". They've been playing since April, were nowhere near winning the division 2-3months ago, and now they're a game back from being the best team in the AL. They have a lot to celebrate, and I'm sure it was genuine.

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the division because of the actions of other teams. In other words, it was LUCK, not performance. Perhaps it's time to reassess some of those idiotically huge salaries these people get.

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In other words, it was LUCK, not performance.

Their 92-66 record says otherwise. You don't luck your way to a 90+ win season.

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They clinched the Division spot last night not because they won their game, but because another team lost. Sorry, but that's pure LUCK, not performance. And it doesn't justify a celebration.

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one at-bat, or one inning, or one game, or one series. But luck doesn't take you to 92 victories, including an 11-game streak that crushes your division rivals' chances of making it a contest.

The relentless grind of the 162-game season catches up with every baseball team. Every batter eventually falls from 1.000 and .700 down to somewhere well under .400. Individual hitting streaks hardly ever approach 30 games. No-hitters are exceedingly rare.

The Sox got this far with a neat balance of hard-hitting veterans, youthful talent and speed, and pitching that stayed just healthy enough to keep them hanging around through the long summer. And then they got hot at exactly the right time.

Nobody wins a division purely by luck, however dull your grasp of statistics.

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So by your definitions, when they win it's because they performed. When they lose, but something good happens, it's because they got lucky (pure lucky even).

Over the season, using those definitions, they performed for greater than 90 games but didn't perform for fewer than 70 games (none of which were lucky as nothing good happened as a result of those losses until the one that got them the division).

This gave them a better performing-versus-not-performing ratio than any other team in their division. So far your definitions match reality.

But that one game they just lost which cinched the division didn't alter their performing-versus-not-performing ratio enough to drop below any other team. And even if they don't perform (hell, they don't even have to play the rest of the games let alone perform in them!) for the remainder of the season, they can't drop below any other team's performance ratio at this point. So, they win the division even by losing every remaining game.

So, where's the luck you claim is necessary to factor in? I used your definitions but never had to talk about luck let alone "pure luck". Unless you're just wrong. Then, we're back to reality.

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Intermediary milestones like this? A quiet round of mutual congratulations and maybe a managerial pep talk off-camera. This isn't Indianapolis, where "AFC Finalist" gets a banner in the stadium.

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Moar plz.

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uninformed opinions about our sports teams that I love to shout at the top of my lungs! They kick you out if you don't do that.

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In most soccer leagues around the world, taking the top spot in the league after playing all the other teams multiple times is what you celebrate. There's no artificial "playoffs" where pitching rosters go out the window and winning 4 games becomes more important than winning 162 games.

I mean the ALDS in this context is meaningless. Hurray, you were the best team in your division (or one of the two not worst teams who had to play each other in a single game to see who got to keep playing because we all know that one game in baseball is much more meaningful than a coin flip)! Hurray! Now, you get to face the other division and/or wild card team to get 4 wins to see who gets to claim to be the best in the league...even though we have 162 games we could look at instead. And then you get to play the best(?) team from the other league who has made it through this stirring gauntlet of luck to claim to be the "best" of the entire MLB (even though there is a rule difference between the two and we now play an All-Star game to see which rule variation gets more games than the other but both teams have to abide by both rule sets). AND you even get to say you beat the whole "World" in that final series in a totally meaningless use of the word.

So, yeah....winning your division is actually a big deal since it's the purest expression of how well your entire season went for you before the meat grinder/dice throwing begins for the month of October.

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Staged for the cameras?

Staged for the cameras?

IMAGE(http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2016/0928/r133170_576x324_16-9.jpg)

I don't know what could possibly give you that idea.

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Even worse is in the past when there was a huge celebration for getting a wildcard slot. Yay, we're number 4.

Yup, save it for getting into the series and winning.

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Because I saw a celebration of 11 straight wins over the entire AL East which gave them the division tonight regardless of how the game on the field ended.

That's worth celebrating no matter what.

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Congrats Red Sox!! Love the champagne celebrations... there's so much negativity in this world that it's nice to see our team smiling and having a blast after clinching the title. Zip it, haters!

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They could have at least won the game , the sit was contradictory, winning the titel by default when they could have added to the prosperity by chipping away at the home field advantage scenario. At the crossroads they chocked. Their bitter sworn enemy , a mere shell of its former self, carried the day. Think of the legend of Ortiz , boys , leave nothing on the table, dominate, ect ect .

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Buy a dictionary.

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They piled up the best record in the division, maybe will have the league's best before they're done, after having a truly abysmal June. It would have been more satisfying to clinch while winning -- and especially not while coughing up the game is such excruciating fashion -- but it's the result of 158 games so far, not a single night. At least a few more nights to watch Papi, who is going out brilliantly.

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Four teams over .500, and they all mostly play each other.

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