I’ve been trying to use Siri more for tasks in the Sierra Beta, and I finally had an obvious one to go looking for tonight. I asked her what the Nationals Magic Number is. This was her response:

Well, that’s not ideal. Why doesn’t Siri know how to make this calculation? The magic number to win the division in baseball is a known formula. That formula is

(163 - (leading team's wins + second place team's losses))

. As I type this, the Nationals have 75 wins, and the 2nd place Mets have 64 losses. This makes the Nationals’ magic number 24 (163 – (75+64)). This number should be easily calculable for Siri.

Alternatively, for teams in the Wild Card race, there is an alternate formula, that involves removing the division leaders from the standings tree, and combining the rest of the teams into a single table, and subtracting the wins of the leading team and the losses of the third place team to get the result.

Why isn’t this the sort of thing Siri knows about? Given MLBAM’s tight relationship with Apple (and MLBAM’s use of their data throughout various keynotes over the years!), why isn’t this something Siri knows how to do?

Think of the opportunities for fun things to say. You could ask Siri what the Yankees magic number is, and instead of this, you might get something funny like “Well, I’m sorry to tell you John, they’re not getting their 28th this year.”

I mean, how great would it be if Siri was an inveterate Red Sox fan and just spent the whole time needling Yankees fans?

Anyway, I’ve filed a bug, and if you’d like to dupe it, it’s number 28066166, and it follows here:

Summary:
Currently, if you ask Siri what the Nationals’ magic number is, she isn’t sure. The magic number to win the division in baseball is a known formula. That formula is 163 – (leading team’s wins + second place team’s losses).

As I type this, the Nationals have 75 wins, and the 2nd place Mets have 64 losses. This makes the Nationals’ magic number 24 (163 – (75+64)). This number should be easily calculable for Siri.

Alternatively, for teams in the Wild Card race, there is an alternate formula, that involves removing the division leaders from the standings tree, and combining the rest of the teams into a single table, and subtracting the wins of the leading team and the losses of the third place team to get the result.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Ask Siri for the Nationals magic number
2. Be denied.

Expected Results:
1. Ask Siri for the Nationals magic number
2. Be displayed the division standings (good!) and get the correct answer for their magic number for the playoffs.

Actual Results:
1. Ask Siri for the Nationals magic number
2. Be displayed the division standings (good!) and get a noncommittal answer (bad.)

Version:
10.12 Beta (16A313a)

Notes:
Major League Baseball should also be able to furnish this data directly.