REGIONAL #24:  This was yet another talent-packed group, with four pennant winners from three different decades represented.  The ELO ratings tagged the 1922 Giants as one of the top 100 teams of all time and the regional favorite here, but it was possible that they would need to beat all three remaining pennant winners as they drew the WS Champion ‘82 Cards in the first round.  The rankings had the AL winning ‘66 Orioles as the other team in the final, but none of the teams in the regional were ranked as truly terrible and aside from an early Mariners team, it seemed that anyone could take the title.

The marquee matchup between the 1922 Giants and the 1982 Cardinals sees the Cards jump out to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning, led by a Tommy Herr double, and Joaquin Andujar holds the Giants in check until RBI singles from George Kelly and Frank Snyder make it closer, but it’s too little too late as the Cards hold on to eliminate the bracket favorite, 4-2.  The 1982 Mariners surprise the pennant winning 1967 Red Sox 4-1, with a Todd Cruz 2-run homer being all that Jim Beattie would need behind his 6-hitter.  The 1979 Yankees and the 1956 Phillies trade punches until they end nine innings deadlocked at 3-3, but in the 11th the Yanks erupt with homers by Reggie Jackson and Jim Spencer, and Goose Gossage dispatches the Phils in the bottom of the 11th to lock down the 6-3 win.  The final pennant winner of the regional, the 1966 Orioles, eliminate the 1961 Pirates in convincing fashion, 11-2, with two homers from Boog Powell and another by Frank Robinson in support of Steve Barber’s CG six-hitter.  

In the semifinals, the #8 seeded 1982 Mariners weren’t content with just eliminating a pennant winner in the first round, they had to add a second upset over a different pennant winner by defeating the 1982 Cardinals, 8-5.  The score was tied 4-4 entering the bottom of the 8th, but Manny Castillo broke the game open with a bases-loaded, bases clearing double off Bruce Sutter and the Mariners hang on despite a 9th inning homer by George Hendrick to move to the finals.  There, they would face the 1979 Yankees, who beat a pennant winner themselves in the 1966 Orioles, with Ron Guidry tossing a two-hitter and Oscar Gamble and Lou Piniella contributing homers in the 6-1 win.   Thus, the finals matched the #4 seed 1979 Yankees against those #8 seed 1982 Mariners, and once again the upstart Mariners prove very tough to keep down, battling to a 2-2 tie entering the 8th inning.  Reliever Ron Davis handles the M’s in the top of the 9th, so in the bottom of the inning it’s up to Seattle starter Floyd Bannister, who has only allowed 5 hits to that point.  Bannister whiffs Reggie Jackson, but then Jim Spencer connects for the walk-off solo shot that gives the Yankees the 3-2 win, and the first regional crown for the storied franchise after several more famous NY championship teams had failed to do so.  Of all the Yankee greats that have appeared in the tournament thus far, it is Jim Spencer who snags the first regional MVP honors for the franchise.