REGIONAL #81:  Half of the teams in this regional were one year away from winning a pennant:  The 2015 Giants, 2001 Angels, 1984 Cardinals, and 1960 White Sox all fell in this category, while the 1968 Reds missed out by being two years away from the beginnings of the Big Red Machine dynasty.  So, while there may be no pennant winners here, there is plenty of talent.  The Angels wanted to immediately avenge the 2002 team's loss in the Regional #80, while my personal sentimental favorite is the Go-Go Sox, although my sentiments are rarely honored in this tournament.  I'll predict an Orwellian regional final, with an all-1984 cast and the Cardinals prevailing.  The ELO rankings (shown in parentheses in the bracket) tap my White Sox to win it all over the Giants in the final, which is concerning as being the ELO favorite seems to be the kiss of death in these regionals.  However, I do agree with their view of the prospects for the 1951 St. Louis Browns, who they list among the 50 worst teams of all times.

First round action:

The 2015 Giants won 84 games a year after capturing the NL pennant, and they were an impressive team, with exceptional defense (average range rating of their 8 starters of 1.5!), consistent if unspectacular offensive weapons,and Cy Young candidate Madison Bumgarner on the mound.  The 2001 Angels only managed 75 wins, and were obviously missing many of the key pieces of the 2002 version that won the AL pennant.  However, they greet Bumgarner rudely in the bottom of the 1st, raking him for 4 hits and 3 runs to push the Angels out to a quick lead.  Giants 3b Matt Duffy struck back, singled in two in the 4th, and when Buster Posey doubled with one out in the 6th, the Angels decided that it was time to revisit the strategy that had worked so well for the 2002 team in the previous regional:  turn it over to the bullpen.  However, Angels reliever Al Levine couldn't hold the lead, allowing a pitchers-card single to Marlon Byrd to score Posey and tie the game at 3-3.  Meanwhile, Bumgarner had settled in and the Anaheim bats were as quiet as a mouse (probably Mickey).  To keep things in reach, the Angels brought in closer Troy Percival to try to duplicate his Regional #80 heroics, and he held on to push the game into extra innings.  However, in the top of the 10th Percival retires the first two, but the SF Brandons (Belt and Crawford) walk and single to make it 1st and 3rd with Joe Panik up.  Percival delivers--CATCHERS CARD X.  Ben Molina (c-2) is desperately trying to avoid the passed ball--but instead manages a "safe at first on dropped popup" roll.  The Giants lead for the first time in the game, and Giants reliever Javier Lopez comes in to retire the Angels in order, saving the 4-3 win for Bumgarner and the Giants.

The 84-win 1984 Cardinals would win the NL the following season, and this version of the team relied upon solid fielding and remarkable team speed--in setting the lineup, I decided to line up FIVE AA stealers in a row, just because I could.   The '41 Phillies lost 111 games, and were so punchless that the best DH I could find for them had a .323 SLUGGING percentage.  Their best starting pitcher, Lee Grissom, had a record of 2-13, and facing 20-game winner Joaquin Andujar on the mound for the Cards you'd figure that prospects for a Phils win were pretty dim.  Although the Phils managed to move out to a 1-0 lead in the 4th when Joe Marty hit into a DP that scored a runner on 3rd, that was it for their offense as Andujar went the distance with a 5-hitter.  In the meantime, the Cards stole 3 bases on hapless c-4 Bennie Warren, and all three turned into runs as the Cards moved on with a 4-1 win.  However, the Cards have surprisingly little power and their rotation drops off quickly after Andujar, so things might get a bit more challenging when SF's c-1 Buster Posey is behind the plate in the semis.

After managing the terrible Phillies in the preceding game, I was curious to set the lineup for the 102-loss '51 Browns because the ELO rankings listed them as being even worse than those Phils.  However, there were some nice surprises on the Browns:  Ned Garver actually won 20 games for the squad, Satchel Paige was in the bullpen, Bob Nieman was available as a pinch hitter with a .372 average, and Tommy Byrne somehow managed to walk 150 batters in 144 innings but still managed an ERA of only 4.26.  Their opponent, the 83-win 1968 Reds, were not quite the Big Red Machine yet, but most of the parts were in place, and they boasted a typical 1968 season rotation that was perhaps better than those of the dynasty years.  The Browns jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st on an RBI single from the appropriately named DH Matt Batts, but the Reds counter in the bottom of the inning with a Rose double and Perez single making it 2-1 Cincinnati.  The Reds then solve Garver in the 3rd, Perez driving in another two and Reds DH Mack Jones launching a 3-run homer to make it 7-1, and the Reds start celebrating in the dugout.  The celebration seemed premature when the Browns scored 3 in the 5th on a Ken Wood double, and another 2 in the 6th narrowed the score to 7-6 as Reds starter Gary Nolan was having trouble hitting the strike zone.  Finally, in the bottom of the 8th Johnny Bench hit a 2-run HR to give the Reds some breathing room, and it ended that way, 9-6 Reds.  Nolan's pitching line in his shaky CG:  6 runs allowed on 6 hits and 7 walks.

A year after breaking a 40 year drought by winning the AL pennant, the 87-win 1960 White Sox still boasted many of the players that made them one of my favorite teams of all time, plus they added the immortal Minnie Minoso, a long time south side favorite.  However, I was also somewhat fond of the '84 Giants, as I had played the '83 version in a full-season play-by-mail league replay, although the '84 version had a far worse starting rotation that led them to 96 losses.  The Go-Go Sox struck in the first in typical fashion; Aparicio singles, steals second, Minoso singles him in.  In the 2nd, Chili Davis parks a solo shot to tie things up, and then in the bottom of the 3rd it's again an Aparicio single, steal, Minoso RBI.  In the 5th, Roy Sievers slams a 3-run HR and Joe Ginsberg, replacing an injured Sherm Lollar, adds an RBI single to provide a comfortable-seeming 6-1 lead, chasing SF starter Bill Laskey.  However, in the top of the 6th Frank Baumann is rocked for 5 hits and 4 runs, and suddenly it's a 6-5 game.  A Jeff Leonard single ties things up in the 8th, and the Giants threaten again in the 9th but Gerry Staley comes in to prevent any damage, and the game heads to extra innings.  Staley does his job, and in the bottom of the 11th Nellie Fox singles against Giants closer Gary Lavelle, takes second on a Sievers walk, and Sox RFer Al Smith lines a sharp single into right to score Fox and give the Sox the 7-6 walkoff win.

The survivors:

The semifinal matchup between the 2015 Giants and the 1984 Cards featured two teams with strong defense and pretty good starters (Jake Peavy vs. Kurt Kepshire), so it looked to be a low scoring affair.  When Matt Duffy tripled in a run in the top of the 4th and then scored on a sac fly, that two run lead looked formidable, and indeed that proved to be all that was needed.  Peavy pitched 5 scoreless innings for the Giants, but when he walked the first two batters in the 6th he was pulled, over his strong objections.  It proved to be a good move, as Hunter Strickland and Sergio Romo allowed just 2 hits over 4 innings and the Giants head to the finals with a 4-1 victory.  Key performance:  Duffy was just a HR shy of hitting for the cycle.

The '60 White Sox tapped HOFer Early Wynn for their semifinal game against the '68 Reds, but the 40-year-old Wynn's age was showing as the Reds raked him for nine hits and four runs in the first 3 innings.  In the meantime, Reds starter Jerry Arrigo was doing a fair impression of a HOFer, throwing six no-hit innings to start the game, but reality set in when the first two Sox batters in the 7th, Roy Sievers and Al Smith, hit back to back solo HRs.  Another hard hit by Gene Freese and Arrigo was gone, yielding first to Ted Abernathy and then to Clay Carroll, and that was it for the Sox; the Reds march on to the finals with a 4-2 win.  For the Reds, Lee May's pair of two-out RBI singles provided the key offensive spark.   Worthy of note:  this was the first of six games thus far in the regional where the ELO favorite did not win.

The regional finals between the 2015 Giants and 1968 Reds began in an unfamiliar manner for the defensively-minded Giants--three unearned runs in the 1st inning for the Reds when RF Justin Maxwell misplayed a Tony Perez flyball, and then Johnny Bench added a 2-run double.  The Giants roared back in the 4th to tie the game with RBI singles from Matt Duffy and Angel Pagan, but the wheels came off for SF starter Mike Leake in the 5th, allowing 4 straight hits, including a Perez HR, and it was 6-3 by the time the Giants bullpen could restore order.  In the 8th, the Giants got two on against Cincy starter Jim Maloney and Clay Carroll came in to end the threat. The Giants again got two on in the 9th with one out and Joe Panik representing the tying run at the plate, but Carroll induced the GB-2b-X and Tommy Helms smoothly converted the DP to preserve the 6-3 win and the regional title for the Reds.  This was the 8th regional win for the venerable Reds franchise (to go along with 1924, 1971, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1993, and 2012), putting them in the tournament lead in that category.  Tony Perez was tapped as regional MVP with a HR and seven RBI in the three games, knocking in at least one run in every game; Clay Carroll's two saves earned him an honorable mention.

Interesting card of Regional #81:   In the almost 50 years since the designated hitter rule was introduced, has there ever been a more inaccurate "designation" than this one?   Mr. Hill's DH-only card has to be the worst example of such that I've ever seen.  In fairness, Hill was a feared hitter in his day, with a lifetime SLG of .482, and the Angels were perfectly justified in signing him for $1.5 million as in the preceding season he had an OPS of .936 with 27 HR divided across two teams.  However these 66 ABs in 2001 were understandably the last of Glenallen's career, as he played his last game at the end of May.