Why the Excitement Index Rocks

I blogged last week about the excitement index for MLB post-seasons. Here are the scores for the first round:

New York/Minnesota: 5.43
Philadelphia/Cincinnati: 4.28
Texas/Tampa: 7.33
San Francisco/Atlanta: 9.9

I post this because it demonstrates why I like the system. The Texas/Tampa series went five games, so you would think it was the best. But, in fact, the games weren’t that close. Texas won the first two games easily. Game three was close before Tampa pulled away and neither of the last two games were very close. It was a good series, no question, but not a great one by any means.

The Braves series, as the days shaved off my life can attest, was much more tense. All four were decided by one run, one in the 9th inning, another in extra innings. That makes a very good series, even if it only went four games.