REGIONAL #95:  This group had no pennant winners but lots of variety:  a standard deviation of 42 years around a mean season of 1964!   In thinking about contenders, I knew the Mets would win a pennant the following year, I suspected (as I incorrectly had in the last regional) that the Tigers were pretty good, and Giants teams from the 1970's had already captured three regionals and tend to play over their heads.  I picked the Mets over a steroid-era Padres team in the finals.  The ELO rankings instead picked the 1911 Cubs to beat the Mets, which I figured must involve some remnants of the Tinker to Evers to Chance group; however, I was comfortable with my choice as I doubted that a deadball era team would stand much of a chance against a similarly-ranked steroid-era squad.

 First round action  

My main recollection of the 96-loss 1971 Senators was that they had Frank Howard, one of my favorites from that era, but aside from a pretty good bullpen they had little else. I was thinking that the 1911 Cubs (92-62, 2nd place in the NL) had never seen the likes of Howard's 26 HR before, but Cubs RF Wildfire Schulte hit 21 HR himself--and he also hit 21 triples, almost as many as Hondo hit in his entire career! The Senators meager offense isn't helped when DH Jeff Burroughs is lost to injury for the tournament in the 3rd inning. The Cubs take a 1-0 lead in the 4th when Schulte doubles and Heinie Zimmerman singles him in, but the Nats tie it immediately in the top of the 5th when Howard doubles in Don Mincher on a missed HR split. In the 6th, Washington reels off four hits against Three Finger Brown, including a Tim Cullen triple, and suddenly the Senators hold a 4-1 lead and Cubs manager Frank Chance inserts himself into the lineup to try to provide a spark. In the 7th, Brown loads the bases on a hit and two walks, and the Cubs have to pull their HOFer in favor of Charlie Smith, who holds the Senators to 1 run on a Toby Harrah sac fly, but it's now 5-1 and Nats starter Pete Broberg is looking more like Pete Alexander. Two straight hits against Smith in the 8th, followed by a Hondo 3-run HR, and it's 8-1 Washington and Cubs fans are starting to blame a goat that won't even be born until 30 years later. And so it ends, with Broberg tossing a 3-hitter and Washington raking Cubs pitching for 17 hits, and the ELO regional favorite is blown out of the tournament in the 1st round.

The 76-win 1997 Padres against the 82-71 1927 Tigers posed an interesting matchup between a mediocre steroid era team and a decent team from the classic era.  After setting the lineup the Tigers looked like a much better team than the 1941 squad that won the previous regional, led by Harry Heilmann's gaudy .398 batting average, although the Padres' Tony Gwynn and his .372 average wasn't far behind.  The Tigers show Padre starter Joey Hamilton their hitting prowess early, batting around in the 2nd inning to score 5 runs with Neun and Gehringer both contributing 2-RBI singles.  The Padres respond with a run in the 3rd when Caminiti singles home Gwynn, but when the Tigers open the bottom of the 3rd with three straight hits, San Diego feels it has to go to closer Trevor Hoffman if they are going to have a chance in this game, so Hamilton departs after allowing 9 hits in 2 innings.  Hoffman promptly allows a hit, and the Tigers now lead 8-1 after three.  The Tigers score again in the 4th on a Taverner fielders choice, and meanwhile Tigers starter Earl Whitehill is cruising.  Fothergill drives in another Tiger run in the 8th against the third Padre pitcher, Bruske, and that puts the cap on the 10-1 Tiger victory and a convincing win for the classic era, although for a steroid-era squad the Padres were not a particularly power-laden example.

My choice for regional favorite, the 1999 Mets won 97 games and made the NLCS with lots of weapons--power, average, speed, defense, and a lockdown closer in Armando Benitez.  They faced a good 89-win 1978 Giants team who had a strong Bob Knepper on the mound, but on cardstock the Mets still looked like the better team by a comfortable margin.   However, the 1st inning had a lot of uncomfortable omens for the Mets--first, leadoff batter Terry Whitfield belts a HR, followed by an error from Mets 2B-1 Edgardo Alfonso; then when the Mets get their shot in the bottom of the 1st, leadoff hitter Roger Cedeno gets a single but is nailed by Marc Hill stealing 2nd despite Cedeno's AA rating.  Leading 1-0, the Giants then load the bases in the 4th with nobody out, but Al Leiter pitches his way out of the jam and keeps any runs from scoring.  The Mets finally get a run to tie the game in the bottom of the 7th when Piazza leads off the inning with a towering blast into the deepest reaches of Shea Stadium, but in the top of the 8th Darrell Evans leads off with a walk followed by a Jack Clark 2-run shot, and the Mets have to go to Benitez to try to keep things from getting worse.  He does his job, but the Mets offense is helpless against Knepper; they finally get a hit and a walk in the bottom of the 9th, putting John Olerud up as the potential game-winning run with one out, but Olerud hits into a double play, and the Mets go down quietly 3-1, while the Giants move on to the semis.

The 2017 Phillies lost 96 games and were a bad modern era team, but they still had 8 players in their lineup with a SLG% above .400, whereas the deadball 1911 Cardinals managed to go 75-74 with only two such sluggers.  The Phillies also had one decent starting pitcher, Aaron Nola, and the lone sub-.400 SLG% hitter in the Philadephia lineup--SS Freddie Galvis--staked Nola to a 1-0 lead on an RBI single in the 3rd.  The Cards tie it in the 4th, and then move to a 3-1 lead in the 5th courtesy of an Ed Konechty double.  St. Louis starter Slim Sallee is in control until the 7th, when Cameron Rupp hit a 2-out solo shot to narrow the lead to 3-2 Cards, but Mowrey's RBI single in the bottom of the 7th makes it 4-2 and then Miller Huggins finds Nola's HR result in the 8th to push the lead to the final margin of 6-2 Cardinals--the first of three 1911 teams in the past two regionals to survive the first round.

The survivors

Both the 1971 Senators and the 1927 Tigers won blowout games in the 1st round, with the Senators win being the bigger surprise.  Both teams had a significant dropoff in their #2 starters, with neither Dick Bosman nor Sam Gibson able to put together a winning record.  A two-out rally in the 2nd, culminating in a triple by DH Lu Blue, puts the Tigers up 2-0, and in the 3rd the Senators lose SS Toby Harrah to a 15-game injury--having already lost DH Jeff Burroughs for 10 games in the 1st round.  The Tigers put up two more in the 4th, and in the bottom of the 8th when Larry Woodall finds Bosman's HR result for a 3-run blast, the Senators summon Joe Grzenda and his 1.93 ERA, but that doesn't help and when the inning ends after 6 Tiger hits and 3 Senator errors, the score is 10-0 Detroit.   And that's how it ends, with Sam Gibson channeling Bob Gibson to record a 6-hit shutout, and the Tigers are on a roll seeking to capture a second straight regional for the franchise.

Bob Beats Blue

The 1978 Giants and the 1911 Cardinals both had their workhorses on the mound for their semifinal matchup, with Vida Blue (18-10, 258 IP) against Bob Harmon (23-16, 348 IP).  In the 2nd, the Cards lose LF Rube Ellis to a minor injury, and the lack of bench depth in these deadball era squads becomes glaringly apparent.  Even so, both workhorses are in fine form, and entering the 9th inning the game remains in a scoreless tie.  In the top of the 9th, Giants 1B Mike Ivie misses a HR split, and is stranded at second as Harmon records three straight outs.  For the Cards in the bottom of the 9th, Steve Evans leads off with a single, Blue whiffs Bresnahan, and Konechty hits a grounder to SS-3 Metzger, who can't complete the DP and Evans goes to 2nd as the potential winning run.  Blue delivers to Mike Mowrey--it's a 6-2 roll, and what should be there but a weird DO 1/SI** split; Evans scores and the Cards squeak into the finals with a 1-0 victory on Harmon's 5-hit shutout.

Not since Regional #43 had two pre-WWII teams faced off in a regional final, with both the 1927 Tigers and 1911 Cardinals disposing of more modern opponents in the first two rounds.  The Tigers had blasted their opposition to reach the finals, and they start off fast against the Cards, with Neun drawing a walk to lead off the top of the 1st, stealing second, and then Gehringer singles him home.  Three more straight hits and it's 3-0 Tigers before St. Louis has picked up a bat.  However, the Cards attempt to show that they aren't going down as quietly as had earlier Tiger opponents, with Miller Huggins leading off the bottom of the 1st with a HR off Tiger starter Ken Holloway's card.  Cards starter Bill Steele settles down, but in the 7th the Tigers load the bases with nobody out and convert for 2 runs on a Larry Woodall single, and they add 2 more in the 8th on RBIs from Heilmann and Fothergill to make it a 7-1 game.  Meanwhile, the Cards efforts are repeatedly stymied by the Tigers all-"1" DP combo, and Holloway ends with a 6-hit 7-1 victory and the Tigers win a second straight regional, outscoring the opposition by a 27-2 margin.

Interesting card of Regional #95:  Charlie Gehringer has always been one of my favorite players from the pre-WWII era, having served as a consistently productive member of various teams I've had in draft leagues I've played over the years.  I thought it was appropriate to select his card to be featured because the last two regional winners, the 1941 Tigers and the 1927 Tigers, had exactly one player in common:  Gehringer.  His 1941 card showed him as a shadow of his former self (although he still drew 95 walks), but the 1927 card pictured here reflects a 24 year just starting to show the abilities that would be on display for the next 15 years.  Although elected to the Hall of Fame, I've often thought that Gehringer has been somewhat overlooked among the greats of the game; for example, in 1929 he led the league in games played, plate appearances, runs scored, hits, doubles, triples, and stolen bases; he drove in 106 runs and had an OPS of .936--all that, and he didn't receive a SINGLE vote for MVP.  The baseball writers did finally award him the MVP in 1937, when he led the AL in batting with a .371 average.

REGIONAL #94:   The draw for this regional was seriously old school, with only one team that played after the Kennedy administration.  Although I initially didn't notice any pennant winners, I had forgotten that the '48 Braves won the NL in their last gasp in Boston.  I did know that the '38 Giants were at the tail end of a very successful dynasty, those '86 Cubs were pretty good as I remembered, the '60 Braves probably retained many of their weapons from their late 50s pennant winners, and the '41 Tigers had won the AL the previous year and would do so again after the war.  Overlooking those '48 Braves, I felt that the Cubs-Tigers 1st round matchup would critical, and I picked the '41 Tigers over the '60 Braves in the finals.  The ELO rankings did not overlook the Braves' pennant, although they did rank three AL teams as better than the Braves that year; those rankings also pegged the two Braves teams in this regional as the two best, with the 1948 version favored over the Giants in the finals.

 First round action:  

The 1938 Giants went 83-67, good for 3rd place in the NL, and their two Hall of Famers, Carl Hubbell and Mel Ott, were key components of the team.  They expected an easy time against the '55 Orioles, who lost 97 games, had no power (54 team HR), and were ranked as the worst team in the regional.  Sure enough, the Giants greeted Baltimore starter Jim Wilson with 4 hits and 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning, and in the 6th the 3rd Oriole error of the game opened the floodgates for another 4, with a Hank Leiber double providing the big blow.  The O's finally push across a run in the 7th against Hubbell on a Willie Miranda RBI single, but the Giants add two more in the 8th on another Leiber double and a Dick Bartell solo shot.  The 35-year old Hubbell finishes things out with a businesslike 6-hitter, and the Giants move on with the lopsided 10-1 victory.

My selection of the '41 Tigers to win this bracket was made, as is my tradition, without looking at any of the teams involved, and I discovered that although the names I expected were there, the performances weren't:  Hank Greenberg only had 67 AB, Charlie Gehringer was an old "4" fielder, Bobo Newsom managed to lose 20 games, and the team as a whole had a mediocre 75-79 record.  However, the '86 Cubs weren't anywhere near as good as I thought I remembered, as although they had some pop in their lineup in the form of Ryne Sandberg, Leon Durham, Ron Cey, and Gary Matthews, they still managed to lose 90 games.  The Cubs load the bases in the bottom of the 2nd against Tiger starter Al Benton, but can only convert one run on a Dunston sac fly; in the 3rd, the Cubs lose Jody Davis to injury.  The Tigers don't get a baserunner until the 5th, but that walk seems to shake Cubs starter Scott Sanderson; another hit and a Frank Croucher double ties the game, although slow Birdie Tebbetts is nailed at the plate to end the inning.  Durham's 2-run HR in the bottom of the inning puts the Cubs back on top, but in the 6th the Tigers continue their beating of Sanderson, with squib singles and a sac fly giving the Tigers a 4-3 lead.  When Sanderson allows a hit to begin the 7th, the Cubs have seen enough and summon Lee Smith, who does his job but it is too late as Benton has the Cubs under control.  The Tigers escape with a come-from-behind 4-3 win, although they lose OF Pat Mullin to injury for the second round--meaning that Hank Greenberg will be making an appearance.

The pennant-winning '48 Braves went 91-62 and were in the midst of their "Spahn and Sain and two days of rain" era, although in fact there was talent in the rotation from other pennant-winners including Vern Bickford and Nels Potter.  The 73-win 1951 Tigers had few holdovers after a decade from the team that won the previous game, with Vic Wertz being their primary offensive weapon.  The Braves put up a run against Dizzy Trout in the bottom of the 2nd on a Phil Masi RBI single, but the Tigers clawed back hard in the 3rd, opening the inning with 3 straight hits against Sain and then Pat Mullin avenged the injury to his 1941 self in the prior game with a 3-run homer, and the Tigers led 5-1 after 3.  Detroit puts another 5-spot on Sain in the 8th, with Johnny Groth contributing a 3-run blast, and the Braves can't sustain anything against Trout, who ends with a 7-hit CG and the Tigers move on with a convincing 10-1 win over the ELO regional favorite.

After bypassing 1948 Warren Spahn in the previous game and having Johnny Sain get shelled, I decided I wouldn't make the same mistake with the 1960 Braves, who finished 2nd in the NL with an 88-66 record; with the meat of the Braves lineup consisting of Aaron, Mathews, and Adcock, it looked like the deadball era 1911 White Sox (who went 77-74) had their work cut out for them, although they had their own Hall of Famer on the mound in big Ed Walsh.  However, the Braves explode against Walsh in the 2nd, with two bad plays by Sox 2B Amby McConnell opening the door for six Milwaukee runs, with two on an Aaron HR and another two on a long single by Johnny Logan.  McConnell atones slightly with an RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd, and the Sox collection of slap hitters really comes alive against Spahn in the 5th for four more runs, with Harry Lord knocking in two with a double.  With the game now at a tight 6-5 score, both HOFers bear down and neither squad can score for the remainder of the game, which allows the Braves to escape with the 6-5 win and the chance to avenge their 1948 comrades in the semifinals.

The survivors:

After needing a come from behind win in round one, the 1941 Tigers decided to try playing from ahead in their semifinal against the 1938 Giants, loading the bases against Harry Gumpert in the 2nd inning with nobody out, but they could only convert one run on a Croucher sac fly.  The Giants break through against Tommy Bridges in the 5th, with a Dick Bartell double scoring one, followed by a walk to load the bases for HOFer Mel Ott--who hits into a fielders choice that nonetheless scores the go-ahead run.  The Tigers retake the lead in the 6th, when a Greenberg walk is followed by a Bruce Campbell HR that makes it 3-2.  The Giants respond in the 7th on another bases loaded fielders choice that ties the game, but in the process they lose SS Dick Bartell to injury for the rest of the tournament.  Once again, the Tigers respond in the bottom of the 8th, with a sharp single by Croucher scoring Campbell from second giving the Tigers a 4-3 lead.  That means it's up to Bridges and the terrible Tiger defense to hang on in the 9th, and after 2 quick outs injury replacement George Myatt singles to bring up Mel Ott as the potential go-ahead run.  But Ott squibs it back to Bridges, who fields it cleanly, and the Tigers win 4-3 and head to the regional final.

The semifinal between the 1951 Tigers and the 1960 Braves featured two teams on a mission, which for the Tigers involved seeking an all-Tigers final, while the Braves sought to avenge the first-round loss of their 1948 counterparts to these same Tigers.  As they did in round one, the Braves got off to a quick start, knocking around Virgil Trucks for four hits and two runs in the 1st inning, and adding another three runs in the 2nd on back to back doubles by Mel Roach and Hank Aaron.  When Trucks allows 3 straight hits to start the 3rd, the Tigers run up the white flag on Trucks and try Hal Newhouser, but he isn't much of a relief and when the dust clears the Braves now have a 10-0 lead after 3 innings--and the Tigers still haven't had a baserunner against Milwaukee's Bob Buhl.  Detroit does get on the board in the 4th on a walk and a Pat Mullin double, but the Braves add a run in the 6th on a Bruton sac fly.  In the 8th, the Tigers wake up and begin playing like the team that won big in round one, scoring four (three on a Mullin HR) to cut the deficit to 6 runs.  But Buhl sets down the Tigers in order in the 9th, and the Braves win 11-5 to move to the finals to face a different version of the Tigers.

2-0 in the Regional

I had picked the 1941 Tigers to win this regional because I remembered that the Tiger teams of the 30s as being quite good.  However, after assembling their lineup I discovered that they were seriously flawed, with an all "4" double play combo backing up a starting rotation that couldn't seem to throw strikes.  Nonetheless, here they were in the regional final, seemingly overmatched against the powerful 1960 Braves and 19 game winner Lew Burdette.  The Tigers tapped Dizzy Trout for the start, maybe because a 10-year-older version of Trout had defeated a different Braves team in the first round of this regional, but this Trout walked almost three times as many batters as Burdette in roughly half the inning pitched.  And that sets the stage for the 1st inning, where Trout walks the bases full but escapes with no damage; then Trout walks two more in the 2nd, but again the Braves can't capitalize.  In the 3rd, Bruce Campbell rolls and misses Burdette's HR split, but the resulting double scores two and the Tigers lead 2-0.  A Campbell triple in the 7th scores another two, and the Braves still don't have a hit (but plenty of walks) against Trout.   Finally, in the bottom of the 7th Mel Roach breaks up the no-hitter with a 2-out single, but it doesn't lead to anything.  With little help in the Braves bullpen, the Tigers pound Burdette for 4 hits and 3 runs in the 9th, with Pat Mullin apparently recovering well from his 1st round injury as he contributes a two-run double.  In the 9th, Trout again walks the bases loaded, but strikes out Adcock to seal the shutout, the 7-0 win, and the regional for the Tigers.  Trout pitches a 2-hitter, but walked an amazing 13 batters yet still threw a shutout!  Note that although it was based entirely on ignorance, this was my 2nd correct prediction of a regional winner in a row after a long dry spell.

Interesting card of Regional #94: Because of his limited AB, HOFer Hank Greenberg could only start in this regional as an injury replacement, and he did so admirably with a hit and two walks in the second round for a .750 OBP.  However, the most interesting aspect here involves the reason for his limited AB:  he was drafted for military duty and had to report for duty on May 7, 1941, hitting his only two HR of the season against the Yankees in his last game before leaving.  However, around the end of the 1941 season, Congress voted that men over 28 years old were exempt from the draft, and the 30 year-old Sgt. Greenberg was given his discharge--on December 5, 1941.  However, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor two days later, and Greenberg immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corps, serving in southeast Asia in the Burma campaign.

REGIONAL #93:  This was a bracket that included a nice mix of old-school and more recent squads, with only one team from this millennium.  Trying to pick a winner from memory, I was somewhat stumped; I knew the Indians had won a pennant a few years earlier and the Blue Jays would win a pennant a few years later; I remembered 1983 being Johnny Bench's last season (celebrated at the All-Star game in Old Comiskey), and I couldn't remember if the Pirates had begun their decades-long funk by 1997.  I figured the steroid-era Indians had to have a puncher's chance so I picked them; for a change the ELO ranks aligned with mine, picking the Indians over the Jays in the final.  

First round action:

Both the 74-79 1941 Giants and the 77-85 1962 Orioles struck me as pretty decent teams that should have been capable of .500 records; the Giants had two Hall of Famers in the lineup and one--Carl Hubbell--on the mound, while the Orioles responded with their own HOFer--Robin Roberts--on the mound, another (Brooksie) in the lineup, and a third in the bullpen (Wilhelm), which doesn't even count the two HOF managers they had as bench players--Whitey Herzog and Dick Williams!  It looked like it was going to be a long day for Hubbell, as the first two rolls for the Orioles were on Hubbell's HR reading, although both missed the 1-10 split.  Nonetheless, the Orioles jumped to a 2-0 lead in the 1st, but a Mel Ott single narrowed it to 2-1 in the 3rd.  The Orioles make it 3-1 in the 6th on a Boog Powell single, although a second run is cut down at the plate to end the inning.  The Giants get 2 on with 2 out in the 8th and the O's decide to pull Roberts and go to Wilhelm to seal the deal, and he strikes out Dick Bartell to end the threat.  Brooks Robinson then leads off the 9th by rolling yet another Hubbell HR result, and this time he gets the split to push the lead to 4-1.  And they needed it--in the top of the 9th the Giants stage a furious comeback against Wilhelm, recording 4 hits with RBI singles from Ott and Johnny Rucker, and cleanup hitter Babe Young comes to the plate with the tying run on 3rd and the go-ahead run in the form of Ott on 1st.  But Wilhelm fools Young with a knuckler, and the resulting popout provides the narrow escape for the 4-3 Orioles win.

The 1988 Blue Jays won 87 games and had a number of weapons going for them, including staff ace Dave Stieb on the mound, but the 61-49 1981 Astros won the "second half" of that strike season and had a great equalizer--Nolan Ryan and his 1.69 ERA, making an appearance in his 3rd straight regional.  The game stays scoreless until the 5th, when Phil Garner misses Stieb's HR split but the resulting double sends fleet Terry Puhl home for a 1-0 lead.  Alan Ashby makes it 2-0 on a fielders' choice in the 8th, and it looks like the Blue Jays just cannot solve Ryan. However, in the bottom of the 9th a single and a walk put Jays on 1st and 2nd, and with one out George Bell hits a grounder to Houston 3B-2 Art Howe, who can end the game with a DP but throws it into the dugout for a 2-base error.  The score is now 2-1, with the tying run on 3rd and the winning run at 2nd; the Houston infield comes in and Ryan is looking for the strikeout. However, Kelly Gruber slashes a liner over the head of CF Tony Scott, both runs score, and the Blue Jays manage the come-from-behind walk off 3-2 win against perhaps the best pitcher in the regional.

When my random team selector program came up with the 1997 Pirates, I couldn't remember if they had yet begun their long residency in bad-team purgatory that persisted for at least 20 years, and the answer was "sort of":  the team was under .500 at 79-83 but still managed to finish 2nd in the NL Central.  However, they looked like the 1927 Yanks compared to the 1954 A's, a 51-103 team that couldn't hit, pitch, or field and was so bad they were evicted from Philadephia following the season.  The Pirates edged out to a 1-0 lead in the 2nd on a Jason Kendall sac fly, and make it 2-0 in the 4th on a Dunston fielders choice.  However, the A's tie it up in the 5th when Pirates CF Jermain Allensworth can't get to a Jim Finegan fly that falls for a double, scoring two.  That lead doesn't last long, as A's starter Arnie Portocarrero loads the bases, and Pirates PH Turner Ward and his 1.007 OPS comes through with a single that makes it 4-2 Pittsburgh.   In the top of the 7th, a Lou Limmer solo HR narrows it to 4-3, and when Vic Power doubles with 1 out in the 8th the Pirates summon Ricardo Rincon to relieve Francisco Cordova, and Rincon records two quick strikeouts to end the threat.  Rincon continues his streak in the 9th, striking out the side to earn the save in the 4-3 Pirates win, and record the admirable pitching line of 5 BF, 5 K's.

The 2000 Indians won 90 games to finish 2nd in the AL Central, and featured steroid-fueled power throughout the lineup along with an all "1" infield, although they elected to start snakebit Chuck Finley, who had lost 4 of his 5 previous starts in this tournament.  Even so, they felt confident that they could handle the 74-win 1983 Reds, with limited offense but with Mario Soto throwing bullets on the mound.  The Indians took a 1-0 lead on a Manny Ramirez RBI single in the bottom of the 1st, but the Reds immediately tied it in the 2nd when Nick Esasky tripled in a lumbering Johnny Bench, who was on the verge of retiring.  Travis Fryman hits a 2-run HR in the 4th to make it 3-1, and the Indians add another run in the 5th on another Ramirez RBI single.  However, the Reds load the bases against Finley in the 8th with 1 out, and Cleveland closer Bob Wickman is summoned from the pen.  One run scores on a Bench sac fly, and it's 4-2 entering the 9th.  Wickman loses control in the 9th, with a single and 2 walks loading the bases with one out, and Wickman then issues another walk to make it 4-3.  After a conference on the mound, the Indians stick with Wickman with the bases still loaded, and he rewards that decision by striking out Gary Redus and Dan Driessen in succession, preserving the 4-3 win and the semifinal trip for the Tribe.  Worthy of note:  every first round game in this regional was won by a single run.

The survivors

The underdog 1962 Orioles greeted 1988 Toronto starter John Cerutti with four hits and three runs (two on a Jackie Brandt triple) to start the first semifinal game, putting the Blue Jays on notice that they faced another uphill climb if they were to survive this round.  To show that they were not intimidated, Jays leadoff hitter Tony Fernandez hits a solo HR off O's starter Milt Pappas' card, and it looks like it's game on.  But looks can be deceiving; from that point forward, both Cerutti and Pappas dominated the opposition and neither team could mount a threat.  When Pappas allows only his 3rd hit in the 8th inning, the O's turn the ball over to Dick Hall fearing Pappas' propensity for the longball, and Hall does the job, closing things out for a 3-1 Orioles win and a trip to the finals.

Slender but hittable

The 2000 Indians trotted out not-yet-portly Bartolo Colon to face Steve Cooke and the 1997 Pirates, and the Pirates treated Colon rudely in the 1st, with a leadoff hit followed by a double and then a long single by Joe Randa that made it 2-0 Bucs. A clutch hit by Sandy Alomar Jr. made it 2-1 in the bottom of the 2nd, and then a Kenny Lofton single tied it up in the 6th--all the more remarkable as Lofton had managed to hit into DPs in both of his previous at-bats. Meanwhile, Colon is struggling, allowing 10 hits in the first 6 innings but somehow repeatedly managing to escape damage. In the 7th, the Indians get runners on the corners and the Pirates turn to Rincon, the savior of the first round game--and Jim Thome takes Rincon's first offering over the wall for a 3-run shot and a 5-2 lead. However, Pittsburgh strikes back in the 8th, with Jose Guillen knocking in a run (at which point Colon exits in favor of Steve Karsay); Tony Womack then singles Guillen to 3rd and steals 2nd himself, and the tying run is now in scoring position with 1 out. However, Jermaine Allensworth rolls the dreaded LOMAX, and the Indians escape still holding the 5-3 lead. The Pirates have nothing against Karsay in the 9th, and Kenny Lofton makes a nice play in CF to secure the 5-3 Indians win and earn the Tribe a chance for a record 10th regional win for the Cleveland franchise.

Both the regional favorite 2000 Indians and #4 seed 1962 Baltimore had gained the final with narrow victories in the first two rounds, but I couldn't help get the feeling that we hadn't yet seen the Indians offense in full flower.  The pitching matchup between CLE Dave Burba and BAL Chuck Estrada also left room for plenty of scoring, although both teams had their bullpens pretty much at full strength for the game.  Nonetheless, nobody could get on the board until the 4th inning, when the Indians can only convert a bases-loaded opportunity into one run on a Travis Fryman sac fly.  History repeats itself in the 8th, when the Indians load the bases again, the Orioles summon Wilhelm from the pen, and Cleveland can only score one on a Thome sac fly.  With Burba throwing the 3-hit shutout, the Indians decide to leave him in to start the 9th, but when he walks PH Earl Robinson with one out the Tribe summons closer Bob Wickman, who fans Brandt but allows a single to Russ Snyder to bring up HOF Brooks Robinson as the go-ahead run at the plate.  The roll:  2-11, strikeout...just below that 2-10 solid HR.  The 2-0 victory gives Cleveland it's tournament-best 10th regional win and my first accurate prediction of a regional winner in a long time.  However, the unexpected MVP of the series:  the Indians defense, without a single error in the entire regional and that all-"1" infield making play after play to bail out otherwise shaky starting pitching.

Interesting card of Regional #93:  Although the Indians won the regional, it wasn't because of Manny being Manny; Ramirez didn't hit a HR in any of the games, although he had several timely singles that were more reminiscent of Manny Mota.  However, very unlike Mota, this Manny led the AL in SLG% and OPS in what proved to be his last year with the Indians.  Ramirez hit 555 HR over his career, which should have made him a lock for the HOF, but multiple positive PED test results and his consistent history of flakiness pretty much doomed his candidacy; this past year, his 5th year on the ballot, he was listed on only 28.2% BBWAA ballots.  Nonetheless, his 2000 card is something to behold.

REGIONAL #92:  This regional had no pennant winners, nor did it have any teams from the classic era, with teams mainly ranging from the disco era to the steroid era.  I didn't have sharp memories of any of these teams (turns out there were three good division winners here), although I seemed to recall some strong pitching from the mid-80s Astros and two other teams, the 1978 Royals and the 2000 Angels, who would each win the AL pennant two years later.  Given that an Angels team had won the prior regional and the 2000 version was smack at the peak of the steroid era, I figured I'd put my money on them.  The ELO rankings suggested that I (as usual) chose unwisely, tapping the Angels as the second-worst team in the regional; instead, those rankings pick the 2012 Nationals over the Royals in a very tight matchup.  I haven't correctly predicted a winner since Regional #82 anyhow, so being wrong here would maintain the status quo.

First round action

I had figured the 2000 Angels (82-80 W/L record) to be a prototypical steroid-era team, and I was right:  6 guys in the lineup with at least 25 homers, and not a decent starting pitcher in sight.  By the ELO ranks, they were slight underdogs against the similarly-.500ish 1981 Giants (56-55), who not surprisingly had better pitching but had Jack Clark leading the club with only 17 homers (albeit in a strike-shortened season).  The question of this Bay-area faceoff appeared to be whether the Giants' Vida Blue could keep the power of the Angels in check.  The Giants start off with a quick 1-0 lead on a Jeff Leonard solo HR in the bottom of the 1st; however, back-to-back shots by Mo Vaughn and Ron Gant to lead off the 5th put the Angels up 2-1.  A sac fly by Leonard in the 6th ties the game, and both Blue and Angels starter Ramon Ortiz keep the rest of regulation scoreless, and we head to extra innings tied 2-2.  Blue blanks the top of the Angels order in the top of the 10th.  In the bottom of the inning, Ortiz gets two quick outs, then singles by Joe Morgan and Larry Herndon put the winning run on 3rd and Jeff Leonard up again.  Ortiz delivers, the roll is 5-7, TR 1-2/flyB; split die for Leonard.....it's a 2!  The Giants get the walk-off win behind Vida Blue's 5-hit, 10-inning performance and Leonard's one-man show offense, and my pick for the regional goes down in round one.

As the second millennial team of the regional, the 73-win 2000 Brewers were an inferior version of the Angels team we just saw; 3 guys hitting 30+ homers and a pitching staff littered with stiffs.  The 92-win 1978 Royals won the AL West and were the polar opposite of the Brewers; excellent pitching and defense but an offense built around singles hitters and speed.  The speed of the Royals was apparent early, when in the 2nd inning Amos Otis doubled and Hal McRae singled him home for a 1-0 Royals lead.  Meanwhile, Larry Gura allows no Brewer hits until the 5th, when Henry Blanco singles in a run.  Blanco, as a C-1, is also holding the Royals speed in check, so KC tries a different tack:  the longball, and a 2-run shot by Darrell Porter and a 3-run blast by Frank White contribute to a 7-1 lead, and that is the final score as Gura completes the 3-hit victory.

Putting together the lineup for the 2012 Nationals made me understand why they won 98 games and the NL East, and why the ELO ranks would favor this team; good pitching both starting and relief, solid defense, and four guys hitting over 20 HR in the lineup.  The 83-win 1988 Padres were an okay team--decent pitching, but no hitters with 20 HR and some guys who could neither field nor hit in the starting lineup (Keith Moreland, we're looking at you).  Roberto Alomar put the Padres up in the 2nd when John Kruk raced (?) home from second on a long single.  The Nats immediately responded with four straight hits against Eric Show in the top of the 3rd, including a 2-run Bryce Harper double, that made it 3-1 Washington.  The Nationals add four more in the 4th, including a bases loaded double by Harper that scores 3, and with the last out of the 4th Show is mercifully injured and he must turn the ball over to Padres relief ace Mark Davis.  Davis does his job, holding Washington scoreless for 4 innings while the Padres chip away at Gio Gonzalez and narrow the lead to 7-3.  However, Davis is burnt after 4 and new reliever Lance McCullers is greeted with a 5-hit barrage in the top of the 9th that includes a 2-run Harper homer (making 7 RBI for him), and afterwards the shell-shocked Padres go down in order to give the Nationals the dominating 11-3 victory.

As I had vaguely remembered, the 96-win 1986 Astros did indeed have a very strong pitching staff, including Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott at his scuffball best, which enabled them to win the NL West.  Turns out that their opponent was pretty good also--the 2019 Brewers won 89 games and finished 2nd, making the postseason as a wild card team largely because of a power-packed lineup led by Christian Yelich's 1.100 OPS.  However, Scott keeps the Brewer lineup in check, allowing only a Moustakas RBI single in 10 innings, but the Milwaukee staff keeps pace, with starter Zach Davies eventually giving way to Josh Hader and Junior Guerra who collectively keep it deadlocked at 1-1 through 10 innings.  To begin the 11th, Scott must yield to Charlie Kerfeld, and a Billy Hatcher error and two Brewer hits give the Brewers a 2-1 lead; in the bottom of the inning Guerra retires the 'stros in order to give Milwaukee the 2-1 extra-inning win and a trip to the semifinals.

The survivors

The 1981 Giants and Doyle Alexander faced off against Dennis Leonard and the 1978 Royals in the first semifinal; Leonard was a 21-game winner, but he was also a 17-game loser and his card was not as dominating as KC might have preferred.  The Giants found his weaknesses early, with 3 hits in the 2nd leading to a 1-0 lead, and a Jack Clark double in the 3rd making it 2-0.  However, the Royals then woke up and rapped 5 hits in the bottom of the 3rd, including a John Wathan homer, and took a 3-2 lead--which was extended to 5-2 in the 5th after a 2-run double by Darrell Porter.  The teams trade runs in the 8th, but by this time Leonard is in control, and he finishes with the 6-3 complete game victory.

The semifinal between the 2012 Nationals and 2019 Brewers featured two teams with loads of offensive weapons, but Washington's Stephen Strasburg had the clear edge on the mound against Milwaukee's Brandon Woodruff.  That edge was evident before Strasburg threw a pitch, as the Nats explode for 5 runs in the top of the 1st highlighted by a bases-clearing double from Ryan Zimmerman.  Zimmerman adds a 3-run homer in the 5th to extend his RBI count to 6, and the Nats have a 9-1 lead.  Homers by Hiura and Moustakas chip away at the lead, but Strasburg doesn't even break a sweat and easily finishes out the game, allowing 7 hits en route to a 9-4 Nationals win.  The Nats thus enter the finals having outscored the opposition 20-7 in the first two rounds.

Solano: unlikely hero

The regional finals between the 1978 Royals and the 2012 Nationals featured two divisional winners who were the two best teams in the bracket by the ELO ranks, which also indicated that the two teams were nearly evenly matched.  The Royals jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the 2nd on doubles from Porter and Wathan--both of which involved a missed 6-5 HR split on Nats starter Jordan Zimmerman's card, and in the bottom of the inning Nats SS Ian Desmond is lost to injury for the remainder of the game.  Amos Otis singled home a run in the 3rd to make it 2-0, although it could have been worse as Zimmerman retired Hal McRae to end the inning with the bases loaded.  Again, in the bottom of the 3rd, the Nats respond with C Kurt Suzuki going down with a 3-game injury, meaning that after 3 innings Washington has 2 injuries and 0 hits.  However, back-to-back errors by the Royals in the 5th lead to a Washington run, and then the Nats tie it up in the 8th on a Jason Werth double--a missed split on KC starter Paul Splittorf's 6-5 HR result.  The score remains 2-2 after nine, and we head to extra innings.  Jordan Zimmerman retires the Royals in order in the top of the 10th, having pitched flawlessly after a shaky start.  In the bottom of the inning, Washington's other Zimmerman, Ryan, doubles after missing his HR split, bringing up injury replacement reserve catcher Jhonatan Solano--who lines a SI** for the walkoff 3-2 victory and the first regional win for a team wearing the Nationals uniform.

Interesting card of Regional #92:  I have to admit that I don't think there is anything particularly interesting about George Brett's card(s), and he didn't really come through for the Royals when they needed him.  However, he does serve as an example of the first Strat season that I ever purchased when they released a season for which I already had an Advanced version of that year--1978.  In fact, I believe it was the first time that Strat ever re-released a season that had already been done in Advanced.  I purchased the re-release, and it was the last time I did so.  This may be a controversial viewpoint, but I just don't like the perforated cards, thin cardstock, light blue print with shading (now thankfully abandoned), or the (to me) ugly card patterns that characterize most Strat releases since the 1980s.  Because I prefer to play Basic when I play C&D solo and never attempt to replay entire seasons, I see little reason to shell out for a new set that may admittedly include some additional guys with 25 at-bats or 15 innings, but who were obviously not a critical part of their team.  So no 1972 or 1956 for me this year, thanks--as old school as they are, this curmudgeon prefers the even older ones that I already have!