REGIONAL #33:  This group featured two high-profile pennant winners, the Big Red Machine and the M&M Boys the season after their record-breaking pursuit of the Babe.  For the most part, they wouldn’t have huge obstacles preventing them from meeting in the finals, as the best of the rest seemed to be an okay Musial-era Cardinals team, along with a couple of mediocre White Sox entries from the early 1970s and some middling contestants from the Giants and the Angels.  The ELO rankings predicted the Reds to prevail over the Yankees in the final, which would make them the 4th Reds team from the 70s to take a regional.

In round one, the 1962 Yankees’ Ralph Terry and the 1974 White Sox’ Bart Johnson were locked in a duel, with the Sox leading 1-0 until the top of the 9th when a Roger Maris solo shot tied things up, and the game went into extra frames.  In the top of the 11th, Tony Kubek adds another solo blast and the game is up to Yankee reliever  Bridges; he allows two hits in the bottom of the 11th but one of those runners is erased by a Jorge Orta DP, so it comes down to Dick Allen as the winning run with two out.  And Allen comes through with a walk-off blast that gives the Sox the upset victory over the pennant-winners, 3-2.   In the second game, the pre-Allen 1971 White Sox nonetheless power through the 1961 Cardinals, as Ernie Broglio lasts less than three innings and the Sox cruise to a 15-6 win, with Tom Egan hitting two homers and driving in six.  There were considerably fewer fireworks in the matchup of the 1967 Angels and the 1983 Giants, with Fred Breining and Jim McGlothlen locked in a duel in which a Jeff Leonard RBI single provided the lone run, Breining tossing a 3-hitter in the 1-0 win.  Finally, the 1975 Reds powered to a lead on homers from George Foster and Johnny Bench, and Clay Carroll held off a furious comeback from the 1977 Brewers to save the Reds’ 5-4 victory.

The first semifinal paired two Chisox upset winners, the 1971 White Sox and the 1974 White Sox, and although many players were on both teams it was the ‘71 version of Bill Melton who hit the homer and Tom Bradley scattered six hits to best Wilbur Wood in the 5-2 win.   The other second round game found the 1975 Reds jumping to a 3-0 lead but then getting outpowered by the 1983 Giants, with Chili Davis and Joel Youngblood both going deep on Don Gullett.  By that time, Atlee Hammaker had settled down and was able to close out the 4-3 win for the Giants, and the #1 seeded Reds go down as the wheels come off the Machine.

In the final, the #4 seed 1983 Giants and Mike Krukow faced the upstart #7 seeded 1971 White Sox and Bart Johnson–who had already won a game in the first round for a different Sox team.  A Jay Johnson homer to lead off the 5th, later followed by a Tom Egan RBI single, and the Sox have a 2-0 lead.  Joel Youngblood drives in a run to get one back in the bottom of the inning, and in the 8th Dave Bergman doubles in Leonard and the game is knotted entering the 9th.  The Sox fail to score in their half of the 9th; in the bottom Johnson gets one out and then Leonard crushes a walk off blast and the Giants capture the regional title with the 3-2 walk off win, Gary Lavelle getting the win in relief.