REGIONAL # 70:    This regional included one WS champ--the 1959 Dodgers--and three examples of franchises still attempting to notch their first regional win:  the Expos, Blue Jays, and Angels.  I try to make predictions based entirely on my memory of these teams--before looking at any cards or even their team record--and it seemed to me like many of these squads were in competitive runs at the time.  Even so, I'd probably have bet on the Dodgers, who were in a transitional period between two great versions of that franchise--the Brooklyn teams of the mid-50s and the LA teams of the mid-60s.  However, I am mainly familiar with those Dodgers (and dislike them) for beating one of my favorite teams, the Go-Go Sox, in the Series.

First round action

Assembling the lineup for the 71-win 1949 Pirates, I was thinking that this team was pretty terrible, although I reconsidered somewhat when I came to the last player in their deck--Ralph Kiner, with a card of Ruthian proportions.   Even so, things didn't start out well for the Pirates when the leadoff hitter for the 86-win 1963 Reds, Tommy Harper, homered off Pirates starter Murray Dickson's card.  However, the Pirates rebounded with 5 runs against Jim Maloney in the 2nd, led by a Dino Restelli homer.  A 3-run HR by Gordy Coleman in the 3rd narrowed the gap to 5-4, but Restelli tripled in 2 in the 5th and Dickson held on for a 7-5 victory.  Restelli lacked only a single to hit for the cycle; the Pirates won in spite of, rather than because of, Kiner who was hitless and parlayed all three of his chances out in LF into hits.

The 1959 Dodgers, might have won the World Series, but they only put together an unimpressive 88-68 record in winning the NL.  Their 1st round opponent, the 1985 Blue Jays, won the AL East with 99 wins, losing a 7-game series in the ALCS, and after putting together the lineups it seemed to me that the Jays were better than the Dodgers in every respect-better offense top to bottom, better defense, and even (I think) better pitching, although playing in the Coliseum probably didn't help the Dodger pitching any.  At any rate, the Jays certainly played like the better team this day, with a 2-run homer by Barfield in the 1st setting the tone early against Don Drysdale, whose efforts to intimidate the Jays lineup cleared didn't work as they rapped 11 hits.  Meanwhile, Dave Stieb held the Dodgers to four hits-two of which were triples by Neal--and the Jays eliminate yet another pennant winner with a 6-2 triumph.

A matchup between two mediocrities, the 81-81 1988 Expos and the 79-83 1973 Angels, had Nolan Ryan and Pascual Perez facing off.  The Angels were an interesting team, with two 20-game winners (Ryan and Singer) on a sub-.500 team, mainly because aside from Frank Robinson, the Angels didn't have much to offer on offense.  However, they hid that well this day, clouting Perez and a succession of Montreal relievers for 15 hits en route to an easy 12-5 win.  Jeff Torborg drove in four runs and Robinson went 4-4 with two doubles; Ryan wasn't particularly sharp but went the distance, striking out the side in the 9th to punctuate his appearance nicely.

It was old home week as the 79-win 1983 Giants took the field against the 81-win 1984 Twins; I had played that Giants team in a full-season replay, face to face, back in 1984.  In fact, Greg Minton was still bearing the marks of being crumpled and stuffed in a water glass following a long-ago gopher ball, a bit of ill-considered card defacing that nonetheless brought some nostalgia with it.  So I was curious how these aged pieces of cardstock would respond to me after all these years, and the answer was--it all seemed very familiar.  The Giants could only muster three hits and committed two errors, but I had tapped Atlee Hammaker to face the Twins--the guy who had always been the ace of this staff for me.  And, lo and behold, Atlee stymied the Twins, tossing a four-hit shutout, and one of the Giants hits being a 2-run homer by Darrell Evans paced the 3-0 win and a chance to continue my sentimental journey.

The survivors

Having disposed of the regional's only pennant winner, the 1985 Jays thought the 1949 Pirates would be a walk in the park, especially when Ralph Kiner went down to injury in the 1st inning while grounding into a double play.  However, Pirates starter Cliff Chambers was keeping the Jays in check, and his counterpart, Toronto's Jimmy Key, himself went down to injury in the 3rd inning.  Pirate pinch hitter Les Fleming drove in a run on a sac fly in the 5th, but it was matched in the bottom of the frame by a Rance Mulliniks homer.  The Jays moved to a 3-1 lead on unearned runs stemming from two consecutive errors by Chambers, but an Upshaw error and a double by Kiner's replacement, Dixie Walker, tied it up in the 8th, as Toronto had to bring in Henke to fix a mess started by Gary Lavelle.  Henke retired the Pirates in order in the top of the 9th, and in the bottom of the inning a depleted Chambers, with nobody decent in the bullpen, allowed consecutive hits to Whitt, Fernandez, and a walk-off single to Damaso Garcia to give the Jays a hard-fought 4-3 win, and the first berth in the regional finals for this franchise.

The 1973 Angels sent their second 20-game winner to the mound, Bill Singer, against an 1983 Giants team that had some trouble scraping out hits in the first round.   Singer did his job, holding the Giants to 5 hits and 2 runs through nine innings, but the anemic offense of the Angels showed through and they also could only muster two runs, pushing the game into extra innings.  Gary Lavelle (who had pitched into a near-disaster in the other semifinal) retired the Angels in the top of the 10th and Singer did the same in the bottom, forcing both teams to turn to the bullpen in the 11th.  The Giants brought in crumpled Greg Minton with trepidation, but he set the Angels down in order.  The Angels turned to Steve Barber, who failed to record an out--one error and two hits later, the Giants had earned a spot in the regional final with a 3-2 win.

For the regional final, it was Doyle Alexander for the 1985 Jays facing off against the 1983 Giants

RIP 4/15/2020

' Fred Breining.  A two-run shot by Dave Bergman moved the Giants out to a quick lead in the 2nd, but a sac fly from Barfield and back to back doubles from Bell and Moseby had the game tied 2-2 after 4.  The game remained knotted until the 7th, when Damaso Garcia homered off Breining's card, and crumpled Greg Minton couldn't fend off the Jays, allow an insurance homer to Garth Iorg in the 9th.  Meanwhile, Alexander settled down and ended with a 5-hit CG to give the Jays the 7-2 come from behind win, and the first regional title for Toronto.  Sadly, I only just realized in making this post that we lost the great DP combination for the Jays this year: Tony Fernandez in February and Garcia in April; their regional win was a fitting tribute.