In November 1982, Roger Hufford wrote a logic puzzle in GAMES magazine which predicted the outcome of the 1990 American League East.
In April 2019, Andrew Parr wrote a follow-up logic puzzle using those results to see how far off they were.
See if you can solve both puzzles.
Puzzle #1:
Before the beginning of the 1990 season, all the teams in the American League East tried to predict how the other teams would finish. It turns out that both
the 1st-place and 7th-place teams were wrong about both predictions, and the 4th-place team was right about both predictions. The other teams each made one
correct and one incorrect prediction. How did the seven teams place at the end of the year?
Blue Jays: The Red Sox will be 4th and the Indians will be 5th.
Brewers: The Indians will be 6th and the Tigers will be 2nd.
Indians: The Tigers will be 7th and the Red Sox will be 2nd.
Orioles: The Brewers will be 5th and the Yankees will be 4th.
Red Sox: The Yankees will be 7th and the Blue Jays will be 3rd.
Tigers: The Brewers will be 1st and the Orioles will be 6th.
Yankees: The Blue Jays will be 1st and the Orioles will be 3rd.
Puzzle #2:
Once you have finished Puzzle #1, we will see how close those predictions were. Let's turn the results of that logic puzzle into a new logic puzzle.
Given the predictions from puzzle #1 and the six clues below, see if you can determine the actual standings of the 1990 AL East division.
1. Only one spot was predicted accurately.
2. None of the teams with animal mascots were predicted correctly.
3. The predicted top four teams did indeed finish in the top four in 1990, but none finished in the predicted positions.
4. The Brewers did not finish above the Orioles.
5. The Tigers didn't beat any teams with colors in their names; neither did the Blue Jays.
6. The Indians didn't finish in third place.
ANSWER Key
Here is the answer to Puzzle #1:
1st: Indians
2nd: Tigers
3rd: Blue Jays
4th: Red Sox
5th: Brewers
6th: Orioles
7th: Yankees
Here is the answer to Puzzle #2:
1st: Red Sox
2nd: Blue Jays
3rd: Tigers
4th: Indians
5th: Orioles
6th: Brewers
7th: Yankees