Recently, one of my students (an avid Marlin fan and knowing that I am also a baseball fan) asked me which teams were making the playoffs this year. Making the clarification that is too early to make such predictions, I chose the following teams: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers, and Cardinals from the National League and Blue Jays, Indians, Athletics and Red Sox (this hurts since I am a Yankees' fan!). However, my predictions were based on gut instincts, but if I would have read professor Bruce Bukiet's mathematical model to make baseball predictions, I probably would feel more confident about my predictions. His mathematical model to make baseball predictions have been pretty much accurate every year. Predicting certain events or behaviors based on particular data is one of the most practical applications for learning mathematics. Learn more about Bukiet's mathematical model by clicking the science daily web site link below.