While binge watching MASH the episode A War for All Seasons comes on. As I watch, Klinger and Potter bet on baseball, Potter asks Klinger a question, “Isn’t true that whoever is leading in the standings on July 4th wins the division?” This piqued my interest. For today Fun Fact Friday, I went through all the stats from 1905 to 2014.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com, I was able to go through all the standings.

In the MASH episode the year is 1951, I start my research from 1905-1950. If you go through the standing who is leading on July 4th will be leading the division at the end of the year.  Television is often wrong, but for once it is right. a whopping 70% of the time from 1905-1950 whoever was in 1st on the 4th was 1st at the end of the season.

After that time, the figure drops dramatically to 34% from 1951 to 2014 and the last time it was done was in 2006, by the New York Mets.