REGIONAL #43:  This group included a substantial collection of genuinely bad teams and only one squad ranked in the top 1000 of the ELO:  the 1927 Cardinals.  And those 92-win, second place Cards had to face the #3 seed 1971 Indians and Sam McDowell in the first round, but a two run double by Les Bell in the 1st put the Cards up for good and Bill Sherdel manages to scatter 13 Cleveland hits in the 5-3 win.  The #2 seeded 1993 Red Sox rode Roger Clemens and a four-run 6th inning to down the 1961 A’s 5-2, while two bad Phillies teams both managed to capture wins in the bottom half of the bracket.  The 1960 Phillies’ Gene Conley outdueled the 1985 Pirates and Rich Reuschel for a 2-0 win, while the 1934 Phillies got a 6-hitter from swingman Syl Johnson and coasted to the semifinals with a 7-1 win over the 1941 A’s.

The first semifinal matched the top two seeds in the regional, and it proved to be a wild one.  The 1927 Cardinals jumped to a 1-0 lead on a Frankie Frisch RBI single in the 3rd, but the 1993 Red Sox responded in kind with a Mo Vaughn single in the top of the 4th to tie it.  St. Louis DH Johnny Schulte hits a solo HR off Frank Viola in the bottom of the inning and the Cards regain the lead, but the Red Sox score two in the top of the 5th to take the lead.  That doesn’t last through the inning, as the Cards score five in the bottom of the inning and add another five in the 7th courtesy of a Frisch 3-run double and a Jim Bottomley 2-run homer, and the score is now 12-3 and Pete Alexander thinks he can safely hit the bottle with that lead.  However, the Red Sox aren’t done yet, scoring two in the 8th and getting another three in the 9th on a bases-clearing double from John Valentin.  However, Alexander finally manages to get the last out and the Cards move onto the final with a 12-8 win.

  

In the other semifinal, the 1934 Phillies and the 1960 Phillies try to figure out how both can lose, and the 1960 variants do so best as Robin Roberts only lasts ⅓ of an inning and the 1934s ride homers from Dolph Camilli and Jimmie Wilson to move to the finals with the 9-4 win.  That sets up an old-school final between the 1927 Cardinals and the 93-loss 1934 Phillies, with the Cards Jesse Haines against Phils’ ace Curt Davis.  However, Davis gets injured in the 2nd inning, and solo homers by Heinie Schuble and Wattie Holm provide Haines with all he needs as the Cards capture the regional with the 3-1 win.