6-4-1

Before every season starts, some teams contemplate what record they need to make the playoffs.  We can't speak for every team, but for TPG, this is an annual discussion right before the first game of the season.  As a team who is always right on the playoff bubble - now settling into an every other year pattern - the "number" is always on the front of our mind.  In the past, when the league had an 8-team playoff structure, the math was pretty easy.  In fact the rules even stated that if you had a .500 record or better you were insured of a playoff spot.  So it was simple - 5 wins and a tie, or 6 wins and you were in.  Period. 

Then came 2009.  The league voted during the manager's meeting, and we reduced the number of playoff teams to 6.  The reasoning was due to lack of permits, and keeping an 8-team structure meant playing a single elimination first round.  This decision was not controversial. And for the next 2 years, a 6-5 record (2009) and a 5-6 record (2010) got you in the playoffs.  In 2011, history was made when GA failed to make the playoffs even though they had an above .500 record (5-4-2 - which is essentially the same as 6-5).  For anyone knew, that was the first time a winning record did not get you in.  It seemed like the exception at the time, and not the rule.

So it felt pretty safe heading into 2012 that a 6-4-1 record would get you in.  And when TPG beat FXF in the regular season (a game we correctly assumed was the Turning Point of the Season) 8-7, that would end up being the deciding tie breaker.  And when both FXF and TPG finished the season at 6-4-1, TPG was in, and FXF was out.  In 2008-2011, a 6-4-1 record would have been good for 5th, 6th, 5th, and 5th respectively.  In 2012, that record would find FXF sitting at 7th, out of the playoffs for the first time in 14 years (or so they claim).

Yesterday, TPG took the field needing a win against GSA to clinch a playoff birth with the above mentioned 6-4-1 record.  And while we played well en route to a 7-2 victory (including a HR by SS Tommy "Guns" Anderson, and an awesome outfield assist by LCF David "Speedy" Beauchamp"), the real win occurred the night before.  Requiring some help to get in, TPG needed either a win by RAMSA over RRA, GA over FXF, SS over KPF, or RAMSA over FXF (in all cases we needed the "favorite" to beat the "underdog").  But a string of what seemed like a season getting cursed saw the first three of these games with an upset.  It came down to needing RAMSA to beat or tie FXF in their last game of the season.  RAMSA had already clinched the number 1 seed, and FXF was fighting for their lives.  Hat's off to RAMSA for not limping into the playoffs, and taking what was essentially a meaningless game and playing their hearts out in an 8-inning 4-4 tie.  TPG is in the playoffs in 2012.  First round, double header against SS.

Game ball goes to RAMSA pitcher David Solomon for coming through with a tie against FXF.  Thanks Dave.