Nine. One and a half.
Together these two numbers are giving New England sports fans a collective heart attack.
Nine is the number of games that the Boston Red Sox have remaining in the regular season. It is also the Red Sox so-called 'magic number' to clinch the American League East pennant. That means that any combination of Red Sox wins and Yankee's losses that adds to nine clinches the Sox first outright division championship since 1995.
And that's where the one and a half comes in.
After being as far back as fourteen games behind the Red Sox, New York is only a game and a half behind the Sox in the division standings. The Yankees, winners of eight of their last ten games, are on the verge of overtaking the lead for the first time since April 18 and, if that happens, they could possibly win their tenth consecutive division title and their twelfth since 1994.
But while those numbers have been preoccupying the six states the makeup New England, the rest of the country has been seen some other numbers in their sports page headlines.
In the world of NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr. changed his team (to Hendrick Motorsports), his sponsor (to Mountain Dew), and his number, from his iconic 8 to 88. Earnhardt follows in the number-changing tradition of Boston hockey Ray Bourque, who in 1987 changed his number from 7 to 77 in honor of Phil Esposito's retirement of the lucky number.
In the NFL, there was a record setting game between the Bengals and the Browns that featured 96 points, 12 touchdowns, and 1,085 yards of offense. And then there was Terrell Owens, who mocked the Patriots cheating scandal (for which the League fined them $750,000) after scoring six in the end zone, and was subsequently fined $7,500 of his own (a mere pittance compared to the $66,500 he has been fined for other incidents throughout his career).
And here in Durham, there have been some pretty impressive numerical feats as well.
During their tournament last weekend, the Wildcat volleyball team put up record numbers against the Syracuse Orange. In the course of playing to a 3-2 win, UNH put up 94 kills and a .287 hitting percentage, both season highs. Captain Toni Barnas joined an elite club, by scoring a career high 36 kills becoming the fourth player in school history to have 30+ kills in a match. The Wildcats tied a team record with 84 sets in the match, led by a career high 78 from sophomore captain Kate Uitti.
In football, the Wildcats were lucky to survive an outstanding statistical barrage from the opponents when Marshall quarterback Bernard Morris torched the Wildcat D by completing 31 passes for 417 yards and three touchdowns. In three quarters! Even so, UNH was able to win the game 48-35, downing their third FBS (formerly Division 1-A) opponent in three years.
There are certain numbers that are easy to understand and to be passionate about (and not all of them are in MATH 420). In sports in particular they are abundant. They are in batting average and over/unders and ticking clocks and box scores. And for stat-heads like me, there are the weeks like the one we just had, where everything seems to add up perfectly.
One last word about the Red Sox.
It seems that over the last month, Red Sox Nation has attached a lot of hope to rookie outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who has been filling in admirably for regular starters Manny Ramirez and Coco Crisp. In 24 games with the Sox, Ellsbury has batted .366 with 3 home runs and thirteen runs batted in. He has provided a spark in a Sox offense that has been mostly lifeless and appears to the single sliver of hope that the Nation can grip onto.
That may not be the case, however, because of the one bad stat on Ellsbury's short but successful pro resume.
In game situations that are close and late (read: after the seventh inning and with the Sox within two runs of their opponent) Ellsbury is batting .154 with four strikeouts. This includes at least two instances of striking out to end the game in playoff type atmospheres. The first instance occurred last Friday at Fenway when he was completely overmatched by Yankee closer Mariano Rivera (who, admittedly, overmatches most of the batters he faces). The other at-bat occurred earlier this week at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, when Ellsbury struck out looking against Toronto reliever Scott Downs two lose the second game of the series.
Granted, the Sox did not have any other options to go with in those situations and Ellsbury only has 86 at-bats in the big leagues. But in the playoffs he will be facing the best pitchers and the best closers in what should be close games, and he hasn't proven that he is dependable in that situation yet.
Ellsbury will be with the Red Sox for a long time, hopefully. But, if he is going to be the hope of the Sox in the playoffs its easy to quantify their chances of going deep into October.
Zero.
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