A little about this "Magic Number" thing. The magic number for the Tigers to clinch the American League Central championship is any combination of Tigers wins and Twins losses that makes our winning inevitable.

The formula is (games remaining + 1) minus (2nd place team's losses minus 1st place team's losses).

If there are 12 games left, the first place team is 95 and 55 and the second place team is 87 and 63, then 12 + 1 - (63-55) = 13 - 8 = 5. Both teams go four and one, making their records 99 and 56, and 91 and 64. Now the first place team is 8 games ahead and with 7 games left, hence the first place team has clinched.

Immediately before game 1 of the season, everybody's magic number is 163 because there are 162 games in the season and the formula assumes an outright win, not a tie!

BUT!

MLB now says state if the division race ends in a tie, the championship goes to the team that wins the season series!* So the Tigers need only tie the Twins because we went 11-8 in the season series. So the magic number is REALLY just games remaining minus (twins losses minus tigers losses). 5 - (63-62) = 4. If we win three of the last 5, the Twins have to win all 5.

I'm sure everybody's glad I got that cleared up.

*there are playoff scenarios in the event of a multiple tie, more info at MLB. This press release has good info but is out of date for the AL Central because the Sox were not yet eliminated.

Do you use WinRAR and Rapidshare? Here is the soundtrack from the film "Good Night and Good Luck", in a RAR file on Rapidshare LINK.
Very choice small group jazz with big soft tenor sound, a great set of standard, lesser known, and original tunes, well tailored arranging details, and the wonderful Ms. Reeves sounding like sort of an understated Sarah Vaughan.

Lalo Schifrin's "Gone with the Wave" soundtrack - this is early 60s West Coast jazz. In some ways the most interesting tune is the 5/4 tune, this being a fashionable gimmick at the time. Only thing is Paul Desmond's "Take Five" actually had a nice swing to it. I remember playing "Take Five" with a jazz combo of high school kids at a city park in Big Rapids, Michigan in the late 70s, and the locals enjoyed it. You could see their heads bobbing away and they didn't quite know what was different about it but they liked it. The 5/4 tune on this album is pretty lame. The rest is OK though.

This LP rip is from Scorebaby Annex. I got asked to repost it.

The Dean Solden Trio with Surry Scheerer performs Wednesday September 27 from 9:30 to 11:30 at Swing Ann Arbor's Wednesday Lessons at the Michigan Union in Ann Arbor. Drop-in Swing dancing lessons, $4, no partner required.

The II-V-I Orchestra performs Sunday September 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Creekside Grille. We've been getting great support for these last-Sunday-of-the-month performances.

The Dean Solden Trio with Surry Scheerer performs Saturday October 7 from 10 to 1:30 or so at Goodnite Gracie's in downtown Ann Arbor. It's a real jazz gig in a martini bar!!