REGIONAL #56:  The next "regional" in my endless single elimination tournament boasts two pennant winners, the 2002 Giants and the 1983 Orioles. Both survive the 1st round in different fashion: the Orioles ride back-to-back homers by Ripken and Murray and a Mike Boddicker 5-hitter to dispose of an 81-win 1949 A's team; the Giants, down 2-0 to the 1990 Dodgers and Ramon Martinez with 2 out and 2 on in the bottom of the 9th, see Rich Aurelia roll a HR 1-13/DOUBLE on Martinez, and miss it. However, the 1-11 runner on 1st manages to beat the throw home, and the Giants send it to extra innings, where a flagging Martinez, who insists upon remaining in the game, throws a gopher ball to Barry Bonds (hey, his name was on the card in 2002!) for a walk-off Giants win. In other first round action, the 1958 Giants beat the 1958 Cubs of the same season 6-4 on an O'Connell homer in the top of the 9th; and 2 homers and 4 RBI for Red Schoendienst leads the 1953 Cardinals in blowing out a pretty bad 2019 Giants team, with Madison Bumgarner not making it out of the 2nd inning.

The first of the two pennant winners to be eliminated is the 2002 Giants, who can't muster any late inning heroics this time and fall to their cousins the 1958 Giants 5-0, Stu Miller tossing a 2-hit shutout. '58 catcher Bob Schmidt thinks he's Mike Schmidt and hits two 2-run homers. The 1958 Giants were a decent team, 3rd place in the NL and halfway between their pennants in 1954 and 1962, meaning that they had key pieces of both squads like Johnny Antonelli and Orlando Cepeda, in addition to mainstay Willie Mays.

And down goes the other pennant winner, as Ray Jablonski takes Scott McGregor deep for a 3-run HR in the top of the 9th and the 1953 Cardinals eliminate the 1983 Orioles 4-2. Vinegar Bend Mizell tosses a 4-hitter, but with the Cards down 2-0 going into the 9th it looked like his effort would be wasted, but Slaughter and Musial knocked out base hits to set the table for Jablonski. So it's an all-50's final, break out the Elvis records!

The regional goes to the 1953 Cardinals in a hard-fought 5-3 win over the 1958 Giants, with Gerry Staley pitching out of two bases-loaded jams, one involving retiring Willie Mays to end the inning. The two big-name HOFers of Mays and Musial both had homers in the game, with Musial selected as the regional MVP although it was very much a team effort--all 9 St. Louis starters had at least one RBI over the 3 games. This is the 4th Cardinal team to win a regional in my tournament, joining the '27, '73, and '78 versions.