REGIONAL #79: This regional had some interesting squads but no pennant winners. The '68 Cubs and '73 Orioles had a chance to reprise the finals of Regional #25, where the '69 Cubs defeated the '72 Orioles, although I didn't think either of the current regional versions were as good as the teams that met earlier. The '76 Tigers, of course, featured The Bird, the 2003 Cardinals were just a season off from the NL pennant, and the '91 Expos would try to win Montreal's first regional. My guess was a Cardinals/Expos final, with the Cards prevailing.  

First round action: 

The 1973 Orioles won 97 games and the AL East, and they had Cy Young award winner Jim Palmer on the mound; the 1949 Reds lost 92 games and had little to brag about, with a young Ted Kluszewski having his worst power year (8 HR?) as a regular. However, the Orioles displayed all the characteristics of a favorite looking to get beaten: leaving runners in scoring position, hitting into double plays, Bumbry nailed twice stealing second, and Belanger (ss-1) making an error that gave the Reds a 2-1 lead in the 6th. However, in the bottom of the 6th the Orioles started playing like division winners, with Belanger contributing a 2-run double to atone for his error, and ultimately the Orioles prevailed with a 5-3 victory, with Palmer tossing a 5-hit complete game for the win. 

The 2003 Cardinals won 85 games with a monster year from Albert Pujols and a strong supporting cast, but a suspect starting rotation. However, the last-place, 101-loss 1955 Senators were suspect everywhere and were mainly looking at real estate in the Twin Cities area. The matchup turned out pretty much as expected; the Cards put on an offensive clinic, with a grand slam by Jim Edmonds, a 4-hit performance from Scott Rolen that included two doubles and a triple, and pairs of RBI from Pujols, JD Drew, and Bo Hart. In the meantime, St. Louis starter Woody Williams scattered 7 hits, with an Eddie Yost homer the sole blemish, although he did make things interesting by walking three straight batters to start the bottom of the 9th. True to form, the Senators' Mickey Vernon promptly hit into a triple play, sending the Cards off with a blowout 13-1 win. 

The 1976 Tigers were primarily known for their rookie pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, who captured the imagination of the fans while winning 19 games and Rookie of the Year honors. It is not as well remembered that the Tigers were otherwise a pretty bad team, finishing next to last in the AL East winning only 74 games. Fortunately for them, their first round opponent was even worse, the 1960 Cubs who went 60-94 to finish next to last in the NL, with little to root for aside from Ernie Banks. The first score was in the 5th when Ron Leflore recorded his 2nd of 3 steals of second, and Rusty Staub drove him in for a 1-0 Tiger lead. In the 7th, Chicago DH Frank Thomas (misleading, isn't that?) hits a 2-run homer to put the Cubs up, but in the bottom of the inning the Tigers score three, Alex Johnson delivering a 2-run double. Fidrych allows three straight hits to start the 9th, and can't hold the lead as the Cubs tie it at 4-4, and the game goes to extra innings. Finally, in the bottom of the 11th, Mickey Stanley singles off Cubs reliever Don Elston, Veryzer sacrifices him to 2nd, and with 2 out Alex Johnson laces a hit to score Stanley and give the Tigers (and reliever John Hiller) the 5-4 walk-off victory. 

The 1968 Cubs won 84 games in finishing 3rd in the NL, while the 1991 Expos lost 90 games and finished last in the NL East. The "ELO" rankings put the Cubs (the 1058th best team of all time) well ahead of the Expos (#1586) but I liked the Montreal speed, hitting, and a strong Dennis Martinez on the mound. The Expos moved out to a 1-0 lead on a Tim Wallach solo HR in the 2nd, and a 2-run double by Spike Owen pushed it to 3-0 Montreal in the 4th. Meanwhile, Martinez had a perfect game going into the 7th inning, when a mistake to Adolpho Phillips made the seats at the Stade Olympique to make it 3-1. However, that was it for the Cubs--Martinez ended up with a one-hitter and just one BB allowed, and that erased in a double-play, so he pitched to just 28 batters. 20-game winner Fergie Jenkins tossed a 4-hit complete game but that wasn't good enough, and Les Expos move on with a 3-1 win. 

The survivors: 

The ELO rankings put the 1973 Orioles as the 165th best team of all time, considerably better than the 2003 Cards at #598, but although Baltimore had a strong starting rotation, the Cardinals lineup included far more weapons as evidenced by the 13 runs they scored in the first round. The Orioles opened things up in the 5th with solo HRs by Earl Williams and Bobby Grich, both off STL starter Matt Morris's card, but the Cards retaliated with 3 runs off Cuellar in the bottom of the inning. In the 7th, the Cardinals defense imploded, with four errors (two by ss-2 Renteria) and when the dust clears STL reliever Kiki Calero allows 5 unearned runs for a 7-3 Baltimore lead. The Cards strike back with a run in the 7th and 2 in the 8th, which ends with Bo Hart being nailed trying to score from 2nd with the tying run. Meanwhile, Cards closer Jason Isringhausen is handling the O's, and in the 9th the Cards put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out courtesy of a Belanger (ss-1) error and a RF X-chart double. That brings up Jim Edmonds to face Baltimore closer Grant Jackson, and with the infield in Edmonds rolls a 2-2: gbA++ plus injury. Both runs score, and presumably Edmonds was hurt in the post-game celebration of the 8-7 win, although he should be available for the finals. 

Although the 1976 Tigers survived the first round with The Bird on the mound, getting any further was going to be a challenge; the ELO ratings ranked them as the worst team in the AL that season, WITH Fidrych. Even so, their opponent, the 1991 Expos, still lost more games although the ELO ratings ranked them higher than the Tigers. The Tigers did jump out to a commanding 4-0 lead in the 3rd, rocking Montreal starter Chris Nabholz for six hits, but the Expos put up a run in the bottom of the inning and another in the 4th made it 4-2. In the 6th, Tigers starter Dave Roberts lost his stuff, and the Expos kept knocking hit after hit until pinch hitter Bret Barberie and his .353 average knocked in the go-ahead run off Tigers closer Hiller to make it 5-4 Expos. An error and a double in the 8th chased Nabholz, but Expos closer Jeff Fassero came in to squelch the rally and held on to put the Expos in the finals with a 5-4 win--a rare instance where I was actually correct in predicting the teams in the finals! 

The 1991 Expos were the 6th representative of that franchise to reach the regional semifinals, but no Expos team had ever won a regional, and the 90-loss 1991 version seemed like an unlikely candidate to be the first. Their opponent, a much higher ranked 2003 Cardinals team, had lost J.D. Drew to injury, although Jim Edmonds was ready to play after his walk-off injury in the semifinals. The weak St. Louis starting rotation also was in play, with Garrett Stephenson (7-13, 4.59 ERA) being the Cards best option. The Expos exploited that weakness quickly, with Marquis Grissom blasting a 2-run homer off Stephenson's card in the bottom of the first. A Tim Wallach squib hit made it 3-0 in the 3rd, and although Tino Martinez doubled to put the Cardinals on the board in the 4th, Expos catcher Gil Reyes singled home a run in the bottom of the inning to make it 4-1. In the 5th, Larry Walker hit the second 2-run homer of the game off Stephenson's card, sending him to the showers and putting Cal Eldred on the mound, but it was too late. Mark Gardner tossed a complete game 6-hitter for the Expos, and the joyous if sparse Stade Olympique crowd celebrated the first Expos regional win with a 6-1 victory.

Interesting card of the regional:

For this feature, I thought about presenting The Bird, but he didn't pitch that well and his team didn't get that far, so I decided to go with this one, Mr. Bret Barberie.  He presented an interesting dilemma:  a killer offensive card, terrible at defense, but DH eligible under tournament rules (minimum 100 ABs).  However, I also had the option of upgrading LF defense by putting in strong fielding (and good-hitting, albeit not quite Barberie) Dave Martinez and moving Ivan Calderon to DH.  I elected to go with the fielding and use Barberie to pinch hit or to replace an unexpectedly weak-hitting Andres Galarraga after the 5th inning if the Expos fell behind.  My decision seemed to work, as the underdog Expos won the regional and Barberie had the game-winning hit as a pinch hitter in the second round.  However, another interesting aspect of the Barberie card is something common to all 1991 cards that made them unique in the history of Strat-o-matic cards--can you spot what that is?