159 (Day Two)

The White Sox came within one out of reducing their Magic Number to 158 (the number erroneously reported yesterday), but closer Bobby Jenks couldn't hold the 1-0 lead he inherited from Jon Garland (seven innings of three hit ball) and set-up man Mike MacDougal (one inning, no hits). The Athletics scored two runs on four hits to win 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth. Scottie Pods, Rob Mackowiak, and Juan Uribe mustered the only hits for the Sox, but it would have been enough to win if only Jenks had done his job. The loss prevented the team from moving into a tie for second with Detroit and Minnesota, one-half game back of Cleveland. Instead, the Sox are alone in fourth, 1.5 games behind the Indians, and trail the Tigers and Twins by a full game. There's not much else to say about the game, so let's turn to two other topics.

First, yesterday's mistaken Magic Number. The Update was started in order to report on the Sox's Magic Number, so you'd think at least we could get that right. But we must confess to having a brain cramp when reporting Tuesday's number. In case you've forgotten, the formula is: 163 minus the number of Sox victories and the opponent in question's number of losses. What the Update did was give you the Sox's Magic Number over Minnesota, i.e., 158, not over Cleveland, 159, which overtook the Twins by virtue of the latter's loss the night before. You don't really need to understand the math. We do it so you don't have to. All you need to know is that the Update promises to improve its quality control in order to bring you an accurate accounting every time. In fact, the Update staffer responsible for the snafu has been suspended for two weeks while he thinks about what he did wrong.

And speaking of being suspended for two weeks, unless you've been living in a cave, you know that Don Imus has been put on ice for a fortnight in response to his offensive remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. The Update wants to make it clear that none of its staff will be appearing on the Imus in the Morning radio show in the future. Can Newsweek (Howard Alter) or CBS News (Bob Schieffer) or NBC News (Tim Russert) say the same thing? We think not. Go Update! Go Sox!