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welcome to '08

years ending in 8 are generally not auspicious for the cardinals. the 8 year was the cards' worst of the 1930s and 1970s (71-80 and 69-93, respectively), and their 2d-worst of the 1900s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1980s. the team has never had its best year of a given decade in the 8 year. their second-worst record of the post-1900 era came in an 8 year (1908); their worst season of the last 80-plus years came in an 8 year (1978). in short, the cardinals generally suck during years ending in 8. among the 10 possible year-ending digits, only one has witnessed an overall losing record for the franchise: 8.

years
ending
in
won-loss pct
0 858-851 .502
1 923-722 .561
2 901-806 .528
3 868-843 .507
4 914-769 .543
5 891-821 .520
6 867-862 .501
7 913-816 .528
8 748-796 .484
9 779-770 .503

looking on the bright side, the franchise has a .530 winning percentage in leap years, vs just a .514 percentage in non-leap years (since 1900). and the team has finished first in 7 of the 27 leap years since 1900 (26 percent), vs 14 first-place finishes in the 81 non-leap years (15 percent).

one last factor to consider: the 2000s are currently the cards' second-winningest decade, but they'll need to finish it off with a couple of good years or it'll slide to 3d, possibly to 4th:

decade won-loss pct
1940s 960-580 .6234
2000s 736-559 .5683
1930s 869-665 .5665
1960s 884-718 .5518

as long as the cards are no worse than 9 games under .500 over the next two seasons combined (ie, 79 wins a year), they'll conclude the 2000s with a winning percentage higher than .5518, good for 3d place. to maintain the decade's 2d-place standing, the team will have to average 91 wins over the next couple of seasons.

happy new year ev'yone.