REGIONAL #13:  There were three strong pennant winners in this grouping, including the “We Are Family Pirates”, the Koufax/Drysdale Dodgers, and the Yanks that put away the Whiz Kids in the World Series.   There was also an Indians team from a couple of seasons after their great ‘54 squad, and then a couple of terrible entries from the Braves and the White Sox.  The ELO ranks were surprisingly (to me) bullish on the 1950 Yankees, selecting them over the ‘79 Pirates in the finals.  However, as is so often the case in this project, things don’t exactly go according to plan.

The marquee game of the first round, involving two pennant winners, matched the 1979 Pirates against the 1965 Dodgers, and the Pirates became a dysfunctional family in the presence of Don Drysdale, who tossed a 3-hit shutout and a Jim Lefebvre 2-run double was sufficient to propel the Dodgers to the 3-0 win.  Two much lower profile teams, the 1967 Indians and the 1981 Twins, had a see-saw battle in which the Twins jumped out to an early 4-0 lead to chase Luis Tiant, but the Indians rallied to tie it, spearheaded by a Leon Wagner homer, and then took the lead in the 8th on a Vern Fuller RBI single.  In the bottom of the 9th the Twins put the tying and winning runs in scoring position, but Orlando Pena comes in to save the 5-4 victory for the Indians.  The final pennant winner of the bracket, the 1950 Yankees, were huge ELO favorites over a 101-loss 1977 Braves team, but Andy Messersmith welcomes the Yanks to the free-agency era with a shutout, and although Tommy Bryne only makes one mistake, a solo HR by Biff Pocoroba, that is enough for the 1-0 upset win for the Braves.  Finally, the 1969 White Sox stun Mike Garcia and the 1956 Indians with homers by Buddy Bradford and Gail Hopkins pacing the 5-4 win.

Daddy Wags the dog

In the semifinals, the 1965 Dodgers decide to save Koufax for the finals, sending out Claude Osteen to face the unheralded 1967 Indians, but that proves to be a big mistake as Sonny Siebert baffles the Dodgers and a couple of RBI from Tony Horton lead the Indians to a 3-1 victory.  The second semifinal was a faceoff between two genuinely bad teams, but the 1977 Braves and their pitching staff are looking anything but bad, with Phil Niekro tossing their second straight shutout as the Braves rout the 1969 White Sox 7-0.  A 3-run shot by Jeff Burroughs against Tommy John provided the fireworks, as the Old Comiskey scoreboard was certainly silent all game.  

That set up a rather unexpected final pitting the #5 seed 1967 Indians against the #8 seed 1977 Braves, with the Indians’ Steve Hargan matched against Dick Ruthven for Atlanta.  The Indians jump out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st on RBI singles from Chuck Hinton and Lee Maye (not May), and although a solo shot from Burroughs in the 2nd narrows the lead, Hargan shuts down the Braves and the Indians take a 3-1 win and the regional title–their tournament-leading third for the franchise.