REGIONAL #9: This bracket boasted two pennant winners from the Old Timers series, two terrible expansion teams from 1980, and two notorious White Sox squads. The first game featured one of the latter squads, the 1919 White Sox, better known as the Black Sox, although I was interested to discover that the ELO ratings considered the Sox to be marked underdogs to the Reds in that Series. The Sox were also underdogs in this regional to their opponents, the 1946 Cardinals, ranked as one of the 100 best teams of all time. The Black Sox have never been very successful in various projects for me, having difficulty scoring runs, and that is exactly what happened in this first round game as Howie Pollet bests Eddie Cicotte in a 1-0 pitcher’s duel in which the lone run was a homer by Erv Dusak. In other first round action, Don Drysdale and the 1968 Dodgers take a 5-1 lead into the 8th inning against the 1980 Angels, but Drysdale falls apart and the Angels tie the game to send it into extra innings. However, in the 10th Mark Clear serves up a 2-run homer to Len Gabrielson and Jack Billingham holds on in the bottom of the inning to give the Dodgers the 7-5 win. In another game decided by late inning heroics, the 1972 Giants trail a bad 1980 Mariners team 2-1 going into the 9th but the Giants score four runs courtesy of homers by Dave Kingman and Ken Henderson to give Jim Barr a 5-2 victory. The other Sox team in the bracket, the 1977 White Sox aka the South Side Hitmen, don’t show enough hitting to surmount a terrible outing by Wilbur Wood, who lasts only 2/3rd of an inning against a bad 1980 Blue Jays team and the Jays waltz to a 6-2 upset win.
In the semifinal round, the 1946 Cardinals and the 1968 Dodgers watch Al Brazle and Don Sutton lock horns in another pitcher’s duel, with the Cards recording their second straight shutout as Brazle finishes out a 4-hit 2-0 win. Meanwhile, the 1972 Giants stage their second straight 9th inning rally, as they break up a Dave Stieb shutout in the 9th with a 3-run Willie McCovey homer to defeat the 1980 Blue Jays and send the Giants into the finals with a 3-2 win.

Thus, the finals match the 1972 Giants, who had won both prior games with come-from-behind rallies in the 9th inning, and the top-seeded 1946 Cardinals, who hadn’t allowed a run in the entire regional, but had only scored three runs in total themselves. This time, the Giants don’t bother waiting until the 9th inning for heroics, with another 3-run homer from McCovey and another shot from Kingman quickly thwarting Murray Dickson’s efforts, and the Giants cruise home with an 8-3 win to nail down the regional title. The Giants name 34-year old Willie McCovey as their MVP, who had a big regional despite being in the beginning of a serious decline in his career, as he hit only .213 with 14 HR during the season.