We're Not the Worst!
I was shocked when I did some research this week. In my life time (starting with the 1978 football season), the 'Riders have a record of 185-275-5, for a winning percentage of .398. In short, pretty pathetic. As well, they have never finished in first place, and have one Grey Cup to their name. Of course, that wasn't the shocking part - I've always known the 'Riders weren't very good. The surprising part to me was that Ottawa has actually done worse. Over the same period, their record is 120-257-2, for a winning percentage of .317. They have finished first in the league once (1979), and have 0 (yes, none!) Grey Cups. As well, they had 5 seasons where they didn't have a team at all.
All that to say, We're Not the Worst! I'm shocked, and yet thrilled at the same time. Now if only we could get back to our winning ways this year. Go 'Riders!
posted by Monty P at 9:34 PM
11 Comments:
Peter, a winning percentage of .398 simply means that they've won 39.8% of their games (move the decimal two to the right). It's just listed this way in sports for some reason - looks more professional, maybe.
10:00 PM, August 04, 2005
you are still saying that the riders are the worst no matter how you cut it then.
the name must be cursed.
10:31 PM, August 04, 2005
Odds of Sask going 28 years without being in first place
(28 nCr 0)(1/9)^0(8/9)^28
=0.036959
Odds of Ottawa going 23 years with only one 1st place finish
(23 nCr 1)(1/9)^1(8/9)^22
=0.191483
The riders only have a 3.6% chance of repeating this preformance whereas Ottawa has a 19% chance of repeating their preformance.
If you account for the slight differences in number of teams during this time there is only a very slight difference.
As well using the same formulas you can show that the odds of the riders going as long as they have without a home playoff game is less than 1% and if they don't do it again this year the odds will drop to less than 0.1%. Truly astounding.
By the way if I assume that you meant 1st in thier division and not in the league the odds for each team repeating that are 1.2% for Sask and 10.9% for Ottawa.
I admit that the riders have at least won one grey cup in that time and that they are rarely last but the eternal mediocrity with no flashes of greatness is what is really disapointing. Ottawa has at least mixed great seasons with poor ones. We are eternally below average.
12:30 AM, August 05, 2005
i want you to know I toled scott that, and he just cut and pasted on your blog!
11:04 AM, August 05, 2005
See, coming from Saskatchewan means that you are much stronger emotionally than anywhere else in the world. We have to put up with more than most. Sigh
12:55 AM, August 06, 2005
Actually, Scott, in all that time Ottawa had one winning record (1979, when they were first in their division and the league at 11-5). They had two other .500 seasons.
Riders never led the league or division, but they had 4 winning records (11-7 in '88, '93, '94, and '03), and had .500 records 4 times.
The bigger problem is that the western teams dominate the eastern teams (Best winning percentages: Edmonton .641, Montreal .560 [including their two years as Baltimore], Calgary .557, BC .548, and Winnipeg .544) If you take away the Baltimore years, Montreal's record drops to .537. In other words, the 4 best teams in the league are in the west. That makes it hard for Sask to finish first even when they have a winning record.
3:45 PM, August 11, 2005
My stats were based solely on what you reported in your post. As I said,"if I assume that you meant 1st in thier division and not in the league the odds for each team repeating that are 1.2% for Sask and 10.9% for Ottawa."
Sask still has a smaller chance of repeating the present run than Ottawa.
Of course BC, calgary, edmonton and winnipeg all have winning records....They play against the riders more often that the eastern teams!
9:41 PM, August 11, 2005
ok chriss, we got it , time for another post now!
7:08 PM, August 14, 2005
you know chris...you can make posts offline and then just copy them over in the few seconds you are online.
8:40 PM, August 15, 2005
I like-a to say "Holy Crap"
11:22 PM, August 16, 2005
good work. i made a...oh never mind...
11:29 PM, August 17, 2005
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