REGIONAL #75:  This group didn't include any pennant winners, or even any teams within a season of winning a pennant.   There were three teams that will go on to win pennants a few years down the road, and they were probably the favorites here:  the 1976 Phillies, the 1993 Indians, and the 1986 A's.   Given that these overviews are done without looking at the records or the cards of any of the teams involved, most of these squads are unfamiliar to me, although I thought that there were no great teams on hand here so any of these squads could have taken the regional.   If forced, I'd predicted a Phillies/Indians final, with the Phillies (1976, not the dreadful 1924 version) squeaking by for the regional title.  Turns out I was seriously wrong about that.

First round action:

Setting the lineup for the 81-81 1969 Astros, I was thinking that this team was better than I had thought they might be, particularly with 20-game winner Larry Dierker going for them on the mound.  That was NOT the reaction I had in reviewing the 55-win 1924 Phillies, which might have as bad a starting rotation as any team I've seen in this tournament.  Things then went pretty much as expected, with the Astros jumping out to a 9-0 lead by the 3rd inning and coasting from there to a 13-6 win.  Doug Rader had 2 homers and 4 RBI to pace the attack, although 8 of the 9 Astro batters had RBIs (we're looking at you, Johnny Edwards).  Cy Williams did his best for the Phillies with a HR and four RBI, and although Dierker wasn't particularly sharp, it didn't require much when you have 13 runs of support.

The 1976 Phillies won 101 games and the NL East; although they were swept by the Big Red Machine and denied a pennant, setting the lineup convinced me that this might qualify as a great team--it had offense, defense, and pitching.  Their first round opponent, the 1998 Orioles, only won 79 games but they boasted a prime steroid-era lineup, led by a pharmacologically enhanced Rafael Palmeiro and with Cal Ripken at the opposite end of his consecutive game streak that he began on the '82 team in the previous regional.  With two pretty fair pitchers in Steve Carlton and Mike Mussina facing off, the resulting slugfest was a bit surprising.  Schmidt led it off in the top of the 1st with a 2-run homer; Mike Bordick answered in the bottom of the 2nd with one of his own and the Orioles moved out to a 4-2 lead.  Dick Allen's 3-run shot in the 3rd made it 6-4, but a Chris Hoiles solo blast in the bottom of the inning narrowed it to 6-5.  In the 5th, Palmeiro juiced a 2-run shot to put the Orioles up 7-6; the teams traded runs in the 7th, the Phils score 2 in the 8th but the Orioles tied it in the bottom of the inning on a Brady Anderson double.  The game thus stands knotted at 9-9 after 9, and it's Ron Reed vs. Jesse Orosco as the squads head to extra innings.  The Phils get Bowa on 1st on a walk, then Garry Maddox misses a split HR/DO and 1-17 Bowa heads for home--roll: 20.  That brings up Luzinski, who lofts a FlyX to Brady Anderson:  Single-2, and the Phils score the go-ahead run.  Reed shuts down the O's in the bottom of the 10th, and the Phillies survive a tough one, showing that they won't go down without a fight.  Question:  Is it unnatural to yell at Tim McCarver's card, "If you know so much, how come you can't get a hit??"

Who are these guys?

The 76-win 1993 Indians were not nearly as good a team as I thought they might be, given their successes later in the decade, but they still seemed appreciably better than the 66-win 2013 Twins, who had hardly any names on their team that I recognized.  However, one of the names that I did, Justin Morneau, hit a 3-run HR in the top of the 1st, and another HR by Florimon in the 2nd made it 5-0 Twins and sent Indians starter Jose Mesa to an early shower.  Eric Plunk came in and held the Twins in check, and in the 5th Twins starter Sam Deduno (who?), with a no-hitter after 4, was battered by a succession of Cleveland hits and by the time reliever Caleb Thielbar (who?) managed to douse the flames, the Indians led 6-5.  However, Plunk eventually hit his limit and turned the ball over to Derek Lilliquist in the 8th, and that didn't go well as Brian Dozier finished things up for the Twins the way they began--with a 3-run homer, and Perkins came in for the 9th to retire the Indians in order and preserve the 8-6 win for the Twins.
 

The 76-win 1986 A's were still a few years away from their Bash Brothers prime, but they still looked a fair amount better than the 62-win 1957 Cubs, who looked a bit like Ernie Banks and the seven dwarves.  But chalk one up for the dwarves, as the Cubs used a 2-run HR in the first inning by Dale Long and three unearned runs in the 6th courtesy of a Bochte 2-base error to give the Cubs the 5-4 win.  Banks was hitless for the Cubs, while Kingman and Tony Phillips both homered for the A's, but Moe Drabowsky was just good enough for the Cubs to notch the complete game win.

The survivors:

In gushing about the near-greatness of the 1976 Phillies, I failed to note that their weak link was probably their starting rotation, although they could tap an experienced starter in Jim Lonborg to face the 1969 Astros.  In contrast, the Astros had a deep staff that was likely better than the Phils (no doubt aided by the Astrodome, and no ballpark effects here in the Basic game) and Tom Griffin was a strong counter to Lonborg.  The Astros got on the board in the 2nd on a sac fly by John Edwards (the only Astro who didn't have an RBI in the first round), but a Johnstone double followed by a Schmidt homer in the 3rd made it 3-1 Philadelphia.  Norm Miller singled in a run in the 6th to make it 3-2, but in the 7th a walk followed by a 2-base error by "1" CF Garry Maddox put the go-ahead run in scoring position for Houston.  The Phillies called upon Tug McCraw to preserve the lead, but Denis Menke lined a hard single, scoring two and putting the Astros up 4-3.  Griffin settled in and shut down the Phils the rest of the way, giving the Astros the 4-3 win and a spot in the regional finals, where they hope to join two previous Houston regional winners (1972 and 1980).

The second semifinal featured two 60-win teams who were underdog winners in the first round, but neither inspired much confidence as they went deeper into their rotations.   The 2013 Twins picked up a run in the top of the 1st on a sac fly from Joe Mauer, but the 1957 Cubs responded in the bottom of the inning with back to back HRs by Moryn and Banks.  Banks added a second solo shot in the 4th and Bob Speake did the same in the 5th, pushing Cubs out to a 4-1 lead.  However, a solo HR by Mauer in the 6th and a 2-run shot by Morneau in the 8th tied things up at 4-4.  In the bottom of the 8th, the Cubs get runners on 1st and 3rd with two out but coming to the plate is defensive replacement Jerry Kindall, a .160 hitter with a .472 OPS, and there is little other option at 3b on the bench.  So Kindall bats, and of course hits a double off Twins reliever Anthony Swarzak's card, putting the Cubs up 5-4.  In the 9th, Cubs starter Bob Rush allows a leadoff hit and is pulled for Jim Brosnan, who retires the side in order and sends the Cubs to the finals with a 5-4 win.

Shoulda kept this guy

It was thus the 1969 Astros with Denny Lemaster against the 1957 Cubs and Don Elston for the regional title, two teams with serious flaws but with a proven ability to win.  The Astros moved to a 1-0 lead in the 4th on a Norm Miller sac fly, but timely singles by Bobby Adams and Chuck Tanner pushed the Cubs out front 2-1 in the 5th.  It stayed that way until the top of the 8th, when Elston walked two and was replaced by Jim Brosnan, who had saved the semifinal game.  However, Denis Menke singled past defensive liability Dale Long at 1b to tie the game.  Knotted 2-2 in the 9th, Brosnan lucked out when Doug Rader missed a HR 1-10/DO split, but a walk and an infield in grounder put two runners in scoring position.  Brosnan induced another infield in grounder from Edwards, and then faced Joe Morgan with two outs.  One never wants to face a Hall of Famer with the game on the line, and Morgan smacked a single (missing a DO/SI split) to score two, promptly stole second, and then scored on a Marty Martinez base hit.  The shell-shocked Cubs could muster nothing against Lemaster in the bottom of the 9th, and the '69 Astros carry home the regional title.