REGIONAL #57:  A small story of Strat imitating life: in the latest regional in my endless single elimination tournament, a first round matchup between 1930 Dodgers (actually called the Robins at the time) and 1956 Reds resulted in a modest upset, a 6-5 win by Brooklyn, even though their 2nd baseman Neal Finn rolled the dreaded 15 game injury, meaning he's out of this tournament forever. I decided to check out Finn's story, and see if maybe he went on to front the band Crowded House after his injury, but discovered to my dismay that after a good rookie season in 1930 and a '31 season in which he received MVP votes, he went in for surgery in the middle of the 1933 season for pain related to an ulcer, and never recovered from the surgery--dying a month later at the age of 29. So this regional is in honor of Neal "Mickey" Finn, who unfortunately rolled an injury 20 in both my tournament and in life.

Fittingly, injuries played a significant role in all of the other first round matchups.   The division winning 2002 Twins lost SS Cristian Guzman and the game to their 1992 Twins counterparts; the 1962 Pirates rode a Donn Clendenon walkoff double off 1986 Yankees starter Dennis Rasmussen to win 3-2, but lost Roberto Clemente for the next game; and 2016 Braves starter Julio Teheran was hurt in the 4th inning against the 1974 Giants, who scorched Braves relievers for 6 runs in the 5th to erase a 7-1 deficit.   However, a two-run single by Freddie Freeman put Atlanta ahead for good with a 10-7 win.

 

In the semifinals, a 9th inning homer by 1930 Dodgers CF Johnny Frederick off 1992 Twins star reliever Rick Aguilera pushed Brooklyn past the Twins 4-3, while the 2016 Braves continued their scoring onslaught with an 8-2 win over the Clemente-less 1962 Pirates, with seven different Braves driving in runs. 

However, in the finals matchup, the lack of any starting pitching depth in the #8 seeded 2016 Braves rotation became glaringly apparent, and the #4 seed 1930 Dodgers emerged as the regional winner with an easy 7-2 victory.   Regional MVP Johnny Frederick made it clear that the loss of teammate Finn motivated the entire squad to contribute, indicating that this would be only the beginning of a march towards the championship in Finn's honor.