When I was a kid going to the coliseum (late 80's-early 90's), I distinctly remember a conversation with my dad.  "Son," he said, as we were discussing the standings late in the year, "Forget what the games behind says.  This is the time of year to start looking at the loss column.  That is of greater importance."  I didn't really grasp it at the time, although I believed it to be gospel since it was coming from pops.  And eventually I began to see the light the older I got.

Recent events have got me thinking about it again.  I know it's rough seeing the A's only 5.5 up (although that is still pretty cool), given the circumstances, but look at the loss column.  We're still 6 games up.  For anyone that hasn't thought about that (which I'm sure is few as we have some very quick baseball minds on here) here's a basic rundown:

It's much easier for the A's to think that while it may be easy for the Angels to make up the five wins (as they are a winning team), they also know it would be difficult (but certainly not impossible) for them to lose the six more times (as they are also a winning team).  Does that make sense?  It's kind of late, so maybe I didn't explain it very well.  I'm sure there is some type of fallacy that I probably walked into, but I started thinking about this when we were 8.5 up (9 in the loss column) and haven't noticed anyone else bring it up.  

So, even though we lost and the Angels won again (damn AK, why couldn't he put down a friggin sac bunt?), at least that 1/2 game is on our side.  I don't know if that means anything to you guys, but it matters to me.

GO A'S!!!!!