SUPER-REGIONAL C:   This matchup of regional winners was played many years ago, perhaps sometime in the 1990s, and featured the winners of regionals #17 through #24.  The 64 teams that began these brackets included 12 pennant winners and two of the top 100 of all time, the 1970 Orioles and the 1922 Giants–neither of whom made it out of the first round.  In fact, only one of those pennant winners survived their regional:  the formidable 1954 Giants.   They carry the best ELO rank into the super-regional, but three other teams are also ranked among the top 100, including the 1979 Yankees and Dodgers teams from 1972 and 1975.  We shall see how well all of these teams can perform while digging to the bottom of their rotation in round four.

Round Four

Both the 1956 Pirates and the 1974 Cubs had fairly dismal ELO rankings, but both had proved their mettle as regional winners, with the Pirates being underdogs in all three games and the Cubs only favored in one of theirs.   It was the Cubs Burt Hooton against the Bucs’ Vern Law, and it was Law’s day, as he shut out the Cubs until a Bill Madlock RBI single in the 8th while the Pirates chased Hooton in the 4th, with a Dick Groat homer leading a 5-run inning en route to an 8-1 win.  They will face the winner of the clash between the 1971 Reds and the 1975 Dodgers, which was the nascent Big Red Machine as Ross Grimsley holds LA to five hits while homers by Johnny Bench and Lee May power the Reds to a 6-1 win.  The second LA entrant in the super-regional, the 1972 Dodgers, doesn’t fare any better against the 100-loss, underdog 1971 Padres, despite jumping out to a lead in the 1st on a 2-run homer by Willie Davis; the Padres eventually squeak out runs against Tommy John and Jim Brewer to claim a 4-3 upset win.  However, Tommy John comes back in the next game to pull off an upset of his own (assisted by Goose Gossage) as the 1979 Yankees upset the top-seeded 1954 Giants, 5-3, with a two-run double by Chris Chambliss in the 7th being the critical blow.

Round Five

The underdog run of the 1956 Pirates finally comes to an end against the 1971 Reds, particularly the arm of Gary Nolan, who tosses a 4-hitter while Lee May hits a blast that puts the Reds up permanently in the first inning.  However, in the other round five game, the worst ranked team of the bracket, the 1971 Padres, stun the 1978 Yankees, scoring four runs in the top of the 1st, three on a Nate Colbert homer, and chase Catfish Hunter after only one-third of an inning pitched.  The Yanks charge back to tie it in the 4th and they take a 5-4 lead in the 5th on a Willie Randolph HR, but the Padres crush a tiring Ron Davis in the 7th and by the time Gossage can get the third out, the Padres lead 9-5.  However, the Yanks weren’t done, as they rally in the 9th on a Jim Spencer homer and a Bobby Murcer RBI double, but SD’s Clay Kirby manages to end the inning with the Padres on top, 9-8, sending them to the super-regional finals with an upset win.

Round Six:  Super-Regional C Final

Out of 64 teams that started this bracket, only two sub-.500 teams from the 1971 National League survive:  the 79-83 1971 Reds and the improbable, 100-loss 1971 Padres.  It’s Cincinnati’s Don Gullett against SD’s Dave Roberts for all the marbles, and both are effective early with the game a scoreless tie through four innings.  In the top of the 5th, the Reds get on the board with a 2-run double from Hal McRae, and a 2-run single from Tommy Helms makes it 4-0 and things in San Diego Stadium are deadly quiet.  It gets a lot noisier when Leron Lee raps a bases loaded single in the 7th to score two, and Jestadt adds another hit that narrows the gap to one run, chasing Gullett for closer Clay Carroll.  He takes the Reds into the bottom of the 9th, where C Bob Barton strokes a clutch 2-out single that ties the game to send it into extra innings.   The Reds can’t rattle Roberts in his last inning of eligibility in the 10th, and so it’s up to Carroll; he issues a walk but then gets two out to face .235 hitter Ivan Murrell.  But Murrell triples, game over, and the miraculous Padres, with an ELO rank putting them among the worst 150 teams of all time, manage to win their 6th in a row to stand atop 63 other teams–60 of whom were ranked better than them–as the super-regional champ with the 5-4 extra-inning walk off win.