It’s getting close to the end of the regular baseball season. Fanatic fans track not only which team is in first place or in position for a wild-card berth in the playoffs but also the number of games a team must win to avoid elimination.
The elimination, or “magic,” number is usually defined to be the smallest number such that any combination of wins by the first-place team and losses by the second-place team guarantees that the first-place team will win the division.