One of the most
exciting events in sports is a “pennant race,” assuming your team is in
it.  At the beginning of the season, I
was hoping for merely a winning season for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  With that objective met (last week), the next
objective is to make the playoffs and their “magic number” to be a wild-card
team in the  playoffs is 6 – any
combination of Pirates victories or Washington National losses totaling 6 will
result in a playoff spot.  Yes, I realize
the Pirates are one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League
Central Division.  But, if you know anything
of the past several years of Pirates second half collapses, you know why I am
only cheering for the wild-card playoff spot (for now!).  11 games remain with plenty of opportunity of
both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.