Baseball: the ex cubs factor in the yankee boston playoff series

A Cornell professor named Ronald Seeber raised the ex-Cubs factor in an e-mail message to friends yesterday,

The ex-Cubs factor was brought to light years ago to explain why some teams won and some lost in the World Series. If a team had at least five players who had previously played for the Cubs and had more former Cubs than its opponent, that team would lose the World Series.

The barometer has since been expanded to other postseason series. Applying the factor to this series, the Yankees were in trouble. They had five ex-Cubs, the Red Sox only two.

On the Yankees' roster were the ex-Cubs Tom Gordon, Jon Lieber, Miguel Cairo, Kenny Lofton and Felix Heredia. On the Red Sox' roster were Bill Mueller and Mark Bellhorn, whose three-run homer was the decisive blow in Boston's 4-2 victory that tied the series.

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