REGIONAL #97:  The draw for this group was an interesting one--nothing from the 21st century, and my initial glance at the bracket suggested that all eight teams were going to be pretty good, with the 1955 Yankees winning a pennant and a number of other teams entered that I thought were probably pennant contenders.  Because a Yankee squad had won the previous regional and potentially broken somewhat of a Yankee jinx in this tournament, I decided to pick an all-Yankees final here, with the 1955 version besting the 1934 version.  Unusually, my picks aligned with those using the ELO ranks, which listed the '55 Yanks as one of the 100 best teams of all time.  Those rankings also tabbed the Giants and the '53 version of the White Sox as dark horse candidates.

First round action

The 1955 Yankees won 96 games and the American League, although they finally got beat by the Dodgers in the Series.  The 1962 White Sox won 85 games to finish 5th in the AL, but their 1961 counterparts reached the finals of Super-Regional E and they were starting 20-game winner Ray Herbert against the Yank's Whitey Ford.  Herbert reels off four perfect innings against the Yanks, but in the top of the 5th Skowron ends the no-hitter by leading off with a HR 1-16/TR split that he misses--and then gets stranded at third.  The Sox luck, which was evident in the previous super-regional, persists when McDougald misses a HR 1-10/flyB split in the 6th.  In the 8th, Skowron tries to score from 2nd on an Irv Noren single--and is cut down at the plate to end the inning, but Ford is still holding the White Sox scoreless.  Finally, in the top of the 9th, Elston Howard pinch-hits for Billy Hunter and doubles, McDougald squibs a single, and the Sox infield comes in with nobody out and Hank Bauer at the plate.  The Sox think about Turk Lown, but leave Herbert in, and....boom, Bauer converts a HR 1-4/DO split, the Sox split dice magic has run dry, and Whitey Ford retires the Sox in order for a 3-hitter shutout and the 3-0 win.

The matchup between the 87-67 1930 Giants and the 77-win 1998 Rockies featured two teams from very different eras that each came from seasons with crazy hitting numbers; the Giants had 6 hitters with averages above .325 (including Bill Terry's .401), while the Rockies had 5 .300 hitters and 4 guys with more than 20 HR.  Of course, neither team had much pitching, although Carl Hubble certainly compared favorably to Darryl Kile as a #1 starter.  Surprisingly, the game remained in a scoreless tie until the bottom of the 4th, when Larry Walker broke up Hubbell's no-hitter with a double, and then Vinny Castilla singled him home to give the Rockies a 1-0 lead.  The Giants strike back in the 6th when a Fred Lindstrom homer gives them a 2-1 lead, but history repeats itself in the bottom of the inning with a Walker double & Castillo single to tie the game at 2-2.  With a stronger bullpen than the Giants, the Rockies have Kile on a short leash and when he allows a single to Ethan Allen in the 7th, Dave Veres is summoned.  Veres runs into trouble in the 8th, when with 2 out he allows a Terry single, walks Mel Ott, and then singles by Shanty Hogan and Fred Leach bring them both home, and the Giants lead 4-2 with Veres yanked in favor of Dipoto.  Hubbell quickly retires two Rockies in the bottom of the 8th, but then Helton triples, Walker hits his 3rd double of the game, and Castilla....homers, and the Rockies now lead 5-4 heading into the 9th.  Dipoto gets 2 quick outs in the 9th, but singles by Jackson and Lindstrom bring up Bill Terry with the tying run in scoring position; Terry smacks a hard liner to RF but Walker makes a spectacular play and seals the 5-4 win for the Rockies.

Lots of bombing

The 94-60 1934 Yankees finished in second place in the AL with great years from Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey, and although Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Earle Combs, and Tony Lazzeri were in decline, they still were threats.  The 91-71 1962 Twins also finished second in the AL and had some threats of their own, with all eight position players hitting double digits in HR and Harmon Killebrew only falling short of Gehrig's 49 HRs by one.  Furthermore, two 20-game winners were on the mound, Lefty Gomez and Camilo Pascual, and although the ELO ranks had the Yanks as sizeable favorites I felt that the two teams were pretty evenly matched.  However, when both Gehrig and Ruth went yard in the top of the 1st inning to give NY a quick 3-0 lead, I had to reconsider, and when they pounded Pascual for another 5 runs in the 2nd (including 3 runs on Gehrig's 2nd homer), I bowed to the wisdom of the ELO ranks.  A Bob Allison homer in the 4th makes it 8-2, but the Yanks quickly get those runs back when Ruth hits HIS second HR of the game and it's 10-2.   When Crosetti leads off the 6th with a HR off Pascual's card, the Twins run up the white flag on Pascual and try Joe Bonikowski, who does retire Gehrig for the first time of the game, and when Killebrew mashes a solo shot in the bottom of the inning the score is 11-3.  A Versalles double in the 7th makes it 11-4, but in the top of the 9th Gehrig hits his 3rd homer of the game to put the icing on a 13-4 blowout victory for the Yanks--with Gehrig and Ruth, playing in their last season as teammates, combining for 5 homers and 10 RBI.

The 1953 White Sox won 89 games to finish 3rd in the AL, while their 1st round opponent, the 1969 Phillies, lost 99 games with Richie Allen fairly lonely as their primary weapon.  The Sox jump out to a 2-0 lead with three extra-base hits off Rick Wise's card, including a triple by Jungle Jim Rivera, but the Phillies tie it in the 2nd when a Sam Mele error leads to a 2-run Don Money single off Sox starter Virgil Trucks' card.  The Phils move out in front in the bottom of the 3rd on a Callison sac fly, but the Sox then tie it in the 5th when Nellie Fox triples and Minoso singles him home.  The Sox push across two more in the 8th on a Bob Boyd RBI single, his 3rd hit of the game, and the Phillies search the bullpen but see no better options than Wise.  Mele atones for his earlier error with a solo shot off Wise in the 9th, and Trucks sets down the Phillies to send the Sox to the semifinals with a workmanlike 6-3 victory.

The survivors

The 1998 Rockies had an offense that benefited from the double whammy of altitude and the steroid era, but their starting pitching suffered terribly from both, and the latter was on display when the 1955 Yankees' Mickey Mantle hit a 2-run homer off John Thomson in the top of the 1st and Yogi Berra followed with a solo shot in the 4th.  When Thomson walked four batters in the 5th, the Rockies turned to their already depleted bullpen to try to quench the flames, but by the end of the 6th it was 7-0 Yankees and Tommy Byrne was bringing the Rockies down to sea level.  Colorado finally scored when Neifi Perez doubled home a run in the 8th, but that was the best they could muster as the Yanks cruise easily to the finals with a 7-1 win on Bryne's 4-hitter.

Ouch

It was two strong #2 starters with the 1934 Yanks' Red Ruffing against the 1953 White Sox and Billy Pierce in a good semifinal matchup, with the Bombers trying to make it an all-Yankees regional final.  Neither team can notch a hit until the 3rd, when both squander scoring opportunities--Crosetti missing Pierce's HR split and getting stranded at second, and then Nellie Fox hitting into a DP with runners on 1st and 3rd to end the bottom of the inning.  However, the Sox do get on the board in the 4th when Sam Mele homers with Minoso on to make it 2-0.  New York gets one of those runs back in the 5th when Lazzeri scores on a Saltzgaver fielders choice, and they load the bases in the 6th but Pierce pitches out of the jam.  In the bottom of the 6th,  Bob Boyd smashes a grounder back at Ruffing--it ricochets off Red's shin and they get Boyd, but the leg is broken and Ruffing is out for the tournament.  That incident wakes up the Yankees, who immediately score 5 in the top of the 7th--including a Gehrig grand slam--but then Lazzeri ends the inning with an injury and he's out for 3 games.  With Johnny Broaca now on the mound for the Yanks, the Sox score a run when Fox singles home Carrasquel to narrow the NY lead to 6-3, but that's all the Sox can muster and a depleted NY team heads to the all-Yankees final with the 6-3 victory.

A matchup in the Final between two different eras of great Yankee teams from 1934 and 1955 featured rosters that included 12 Hall of Famers, although starters 1934 Johnny Murphy and 1955 Johnny Kucks were certainly not among them.  One HOF put the 1955 Yankees up in the top of the 1st when Mantle tripled in a run, but the '34 Yankees tie it in the 2nd when Crosetti doubles in Dickey--although they fail to capitalize further, leaving the bases loaded.  The 55s retake the lead in the 3rd when errors by Saltzgaver and Gehrig result in an unearned run, but Gehrig immediately atones by leading off the bottom of the inning with a solo HR, and its 2-2 after 3.  However, in the 4th Don Heffner, playing for the injured Lazzeri, is himself injured, and suddenly the 34s all-"2" DP combo becomes an all-"4" duo as Crosetti has to move to play second.  In the 6th, Combs misplays a Mantle single for the 4th error of the game for the 34s and two runs for the 55s, and then Combs atones with a 2-run triple, and a Red Rolfe sac fly puts the 34s ahead 5-4 after 6.  When Kucks walks Ruth to lead off the 7th, the 55s bring in Don Larsen to keep things in range, and the move looks like a stroke of genius when the next batter (Dickey) rolls a 5-9, which had been Kucks HR reading but is a groundout on Larsen.  However, the next batter, George Selkirk, rolls a 4-9--Larsen's HR result--and now the 34s lead 7-4.  In the 9th, Murphy walks two with one out and he has to face Berra and Skowron as the tying runs--and he retires them both to give the battered 1934 Yankees the 7-4 victory and the regional title--the first for Yankees from the pre-war era.

Interesting card of Regional #97:  With 12 Hall of Fame players in the regional final, there were quite a few noteworthy players to choose from, but this guy was a one-man wrecking crew, with 3 homers in the round 1 game, a grand slam in round 2, and a game-tying HR in the regional final--totaling 5 HR and 10 RBI in the three games.  In 1934, Gehrig won the AL Triple Crown, he also led the league in both OBP and SLG, and of course he played every game--but he only finished 5th in the league MVP voting.  However, there can be no doubt that he was the MVP of Regional #97.

SUPER-REGIONAL E:  With 768 teams now having competed in regional action, that is the equivalent of 12 NCAA March Madness tournaments of 64 teams; I'm calling these groups of 64 "super-regionals".  Years ago I played out the first four of these super-regionals, with an eclectic group of winners that included two greats and two shockers:  the 1953 Dodgers, 1948 Indians, 1975 Giants, and 1971 Padres.  So now it's time for Super-Regional E, a matchup of 8 regional winners (Regionals 33 through 40) from a pool of 64 teams that originally included eight different pennant-winners.  Of those, only one survives; among the mighty squads that were eliminated in this group were the infamous 1927 Yankees, as well as the 1920 Indians, 1964 Cards, and 1980 Royals.   Note that the first round of the super-regional is the 4th game for these teams, meaning it's time to see just how deep their starting rotation is with their #4 starter on the mound.  To me, the obvious choice to win is the lone remaining pennant winner, the great 1931 A's; the ELO ranks agree, although they predict a challenging semifinal matchup for the A's against the 1950 Red Sox.  However, all of these teams have proven they can come through when necessary and it would be dangerous to underestimate any of them.   

Round 4 action:  

The 1983 Giants were a 79-83 team (ELO rank 1143) but they won three 1-run games to claim Regional #33, with their most impressive win involving a 4-3 victory over the 1975 Reds and the Big Red Machine, with Jeff Leonard, Chili Davis, and Joel Youngblood providing most of the offense.  Their 4th-round opponent was a near-contemporary, the 89-73 1982 Braves (ELO rank 1027), the NL West winner who had perhaps the toughest path to a regional victory as they defeated two pennant winners that included the legendary 1927 Yankees as well as the 1920 Indians to capture Regional #34, with 2 homers and 6 RBI from Dale Murphy leading the charge.  Starting pitchers Rick Camp for the Braves and SF's Mark Davis looked like the #4 starters that they were, and I think the ELO ranks accurately reflected that the two teams were more evenly matched than their W-L records would suggest.  The Giants quickly scout out the weak spots on Camp's card in the 2nd, when Leonard misses a HR split on Camp's 5-9 but doubles and then scores when Jack Clark finds a SI** result on Camp.  In the 3rd, Joel Youngblood finds his own solid HR result for a 2-run blast and it's 3-0 Giants, and Fulton County Stadium is eerily quiet, although the fans make some noise in the 4th when Claudell Washington finds Davis's solid 4-4 HR result to make it 3-1.  When Darrell Evans nails Camp's 5-10 solid HR result in the 6th, the Braves turn in desperation to Gene Garber to try to keep the game within reach, but the Giants get to Garber in the 7th when Chili Davis races home on a Lemaster single and it's now 5-1 Giants.  In the bottom of the 8th, it's Terry Harper's turn to find Davis's solid 4-4 HR to narrow the gap to 5-2 and with Gary Lavelle burned, the Giants nervously eye Greg Minton in the pen.  They let Davis begin the bottom of the 9th, but when with one out Chambliss hits a liner to left that Leonard can't reach, Minton is throwing hard in the pen.  However, Washington makes it moot by hitting into a double play to end the Braves run and wrap up the Giants 5-2 win with a 4-hitter by Mark Davis.

Tim:  Walk this guy

For the 4th round matchup between the 1977 Royals (ELO rank 213) and the 1961 White Sox (ELO rank 864), I had to invite my longtime leaguemate Tim to roll on behalf of the Royals, as it was his favorite team from his childhood, and the White Sox of that era were mine, with Luis Aparicio being my favorite player as a kid.  So, Tim and I connect over Zoom and set our lineups for this grudge match; being round 4 we're down to the #4 starters, Billy Pierce (who allowed too many hits) against Marty Pattin (who allowed too many homers).  But these are two very good teams; the Royals went 102-60 to win the AL West but famously lost to the Yankees in the final game of the ALCS when Larry Gura and Mark Littell couldn't hold a 3-2  Royals lead entering the 9th inning.  The 1961 White Sox went 86-76, but were just two years removed from winning the AL pennant and they had uncharacteristic (for the Sox of that era) expansion-year power, with Roy Sievers, Al Smith, and Jim Landis all knocking more than 20 homers.  The Sox go down quietly in the top of the 1st, and in the bottom of the frame Pierce is looking shaky, as he loads up the bases with a Brett hit and a couple of walks, but escapes with no damage.  However, the Royals come through with two more hits in the 2nd, one an Amos Otis RBI single driving in Patek, and it's 1-0 Royals.   Pierce is raked for three more hits in the 3rd (two off his own card), Darrell Porter and John Mayberry (both long-time Trash players) drive in runs, and it's 3-0 Royals, and Pattin seems to be settling in nicely, tossing 6 shutout innings.  Things get a little more interesting when Jim Rivera finally leads off the top of the 7th with a solo HR, and then get a lot more interesting in the 8th when Pattin allows a leadoff double to Aparicio and Robinson singles him home. At that point, Tim has seen enough and summons Gura from the pen.  But Gura allows two hits, and Mingori has to come in to close out the inning, but the Royals' lead is narrowed to 3-2.  When Mingori allows a hit and a walk in the 9th to put the tying run in scoring position, Tim summons Littell from the bullpen, who promptly walks three consecutive Sox batters--the last two of them with the bases loaded.  Littell is yanked and Doug Bird ends the inning, but the Sox take a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the 9th.  An exhausted Pierce starts the inning, but he issues his 6th walk of the game to leadoff hitter Brett and then Nellie Fox boots a Hal McRae grounder, and it's time for Turk Lown to come to try to preserve the win.  Porter flies out, and the Royals bring in John Wathan to pinch hit--and he does his job, lacing a single into CF.  The 3rd base coach furiously motions Brett to go home with the tying run, and he's safe, and then sends McRae to third--but Lollar snaps a strike to Carey and McRae is out by a step.  Fox then commits his second error of the inning and the Royals have men on 1st and 3rd, but Lown gets Frank White to pop out and we head to extra innings.  In the 10th, Bird records two quick outs and then yields two singles to the bottom of the Sox lineup, but Aparicio flies out to end the threat.  The Royals begin their half of the inning with Patek pulling a hamstring trying to run out a grounder, and he's gone for at least the next few games; Lown then quickly dispatches Otis and Cowens and it's on to the 11th.  Fox leads off the inning with a single in an attempt to atone for his horrible fielding miscues in the 9th, and a Robinson groundout moves Fox to 2nd.  With powerful Roy Sievers up and 1st base open, Tim elects to pitch to Sievers and.....big mistake.  2-9 roll, and Sievers puts it into the fountains at Kauffman Stadium; the Sox take the lead 6-4.  A Landis single and Tim is looking down at a nearly empty bullpen, but Bird recovers and ends the inning without further incident.  So it's down to Lown and the heart of the Royals order:  Brett/McRae/Porter, but two quick groundouts and then there is no joy in Royalville as Darrell Porter has struck out.  Final score:  White Sox 6, Royals 4; the Sox move to the super-regional final four, and the Royals go home.

The 1931 A's won 107 games and the ELO ranking list them as the 25th best team of all time; they cruised through their regional outscoring their opposition 16-4 with Al Simmons knocking in 5 of those runs.  However, if this team had an Achilles heel, it was their #4 starter, and after much deliberation Connie Mack decided to go with Eddie Rommel for the start.  The 1972 Astros went 84-69 (ELO rank 836) and had an Astrodome-enhanced pitching staff coupled with a lineup boasting Wynn, Cedeno, Bob Watson, and Lee May, although unsung DH Norm Miller had been pivotal in the regional with 2 HR and 5 RBI.  Things don't start well for Houston starter Ken Forsch when Max Bishop walks, Cochrane singles him to 3rd, and then Jimmie Foxx crushes one into the depths of the 'dome to give the A's a 3-0 lead.   The Astros had never trailed in any of their regional games, and their hurdle got larger in the 4th when the A's rattle off another four runs, two on a Cochrane triple.  When Mule Haas leads off the 5th with a solo HR, the Astros try Fred Gladding on the mound to see if that can change their fortunes, and he does a fine job, throwing four hitless innings against the powerful A's.  Houston finally converts a run on a Cedeno single in the 8th, but the A's rake over Gladding's replacement, George Culver, for three more runs in the top of the 9th and the Astros face an 11-1 deficit going into the bottom of the 9th.  Rommel sets the Astros down in order, and the A's move on to round 5 in impressive fashion.

A super-regional Battle of the Soxes matched the 1950 Red Sox (ELO rank 86) against the 1978 White Sox (ELO rank 1708).  On cardstock the matchup looked lopsided:  Boston won 94 games and had a killer lineup, with 7 hitters batting over .300 (the lowest BA in the lineup:  Bobby Doerr at .294) and Doerr, Ted Williams, Walt Dropo and Vern Stephens all with over 25 HR.  In contrast, the White Sox lost 90 games and had a lackluster lineup that still managed to win three straight games against teams with much better records in their regional.  With Chicago throwing 16-game loser Ken Kravec against Boston's Chuck Stobbs and his 5.10 ERA, the fans at Fenway were expecting offensive fireworks, and they erupted quickly when in the top of the 1st Stobbs allows doubles to Garr, Soderholm and Nordhagen before he can record an out, and Chicago leads 4-0 before the Red Sox have swung a bat.  The White Sox add two more in the 3rd on a 2-run shot from Nordhagen off Stobb's card, but there may not be a worse bullpen than that of Boston's and it looks like Stobbs is in for the long haul.  When Ted Williams leads off the bottom of the 4th with a HR, Kravec is badly rattled and the Red Sox bat around to narrow the score to 6-5.  A Birdie Tebbetts single ties it in the 5th, and Chicago isn't wild about its bullpen options either, but when Kravec puts the first two men on the 6th they summon Lerrin LaGrow to try to slow the bleeding, and he sets Boston down in order--including a 5-4 roll that would have been a solid HR on Kravec's card.  Buoyed by LaGrow's success, the Sox get their first two men on in the 7th, but Nordhagen hits into a double play to end that threat.  Then Goodman leads off the bottom of the 7th with a HR off LaGrow's solid 6-10 HR result, and back-to-back doubles from Dom Dimaggio and Williams add two more runs, and it's 9-6 Boston and Stobbs need to just last two more innings to secure the win.  The Red Sox batter LaGrow for another 4 runs in the 8th, Stobbs sets Chicago down in order in the 9th, and the Red Sox move on with a 13-6 mauling of the Chisox.

Super-Regional Semifinals:

In setting up the round 5 matchup between the 1983 Giants against the 1961 White Sox, I discovered that in the distant past I had elected to start the Sox #4 starter, Ray Herbert, in the first round, presumably because they had an easy opponent and difficult projected later matches in the regional.  The downside to that strategy is that here in round 5 Herbert is matched against Fred Breining, the Giants #1 starter, and Sox closer Turk Lown was burnt in the previous round's extra inning thriller.  The White Sox score a run in the 1st and the 5th, both on RBI singles past the glove of the Giants' 2B-4 Joel Youngblood, and in the 7th Nellie Fox hits an improbable HR off Breining's card, so Gary Lavelle comes in from the pen to try to keep it close.  And the Giants come alive in the 8th, as Brenly leads off with a HR and Youngblood drives in Lemaster to make it 3-2, so the Sox bring in Russ Kemmerer to try to save the lead.  However, Jack Clark opens the top of the 9th with a 1-7 roll:  HR 1-19 DO....and rolls a 20 on the split.  However, the next batter, Chili Davis, singles off Kemmerer's card, Clark scores, and we enter the bottom of the 9th with a tie game.  With one out, Sox #9 hitter Andy Carey singles, Aparicio grounds him to 2nd, and it's up to Nellie Fox, with 2 RBI in the game already, to try to win the game.  The roll: 6-5 on Lavelle, DO 1-6/SI**, and the Sox get the walk-off win 4-3 to reach the Super-regional finals.

10 innings, no problem

The 1950 Red Sox had averaged 11 runs in their 4 games in this tournament, boasting one of the best top-to-bottom offensive lineups I've seen.  However, in round 5 they face 31-game winner Lefty Grove and the 1931 A's, who have a few hitters themselves, meaning that this matchup looked to be one of the most interesting in recent memory.  A Mickey Cochrane single drives in Bishop in the top of the 1st to give the A's a 1-0 lead, and they add another in the 5th when Todt doubles and Bishop singles him home.  But Boston starter Mel Parnell is keeping the Red Sox within range, and in the 6th they finally get to Grove, with doubles from Zarilla and Dropo tying the score at 2-2.   From there, both Grove and Parnell are in command and after 9 innings the score remains tied 2-2, with neither team eager to go to their bullpen with their #1 starters in.  So Parnell goes out to start the top of the 10th, and the A's rake him for 4 hits and 3 runs, only avoiding another when Cochrane is cut down trying to score on a Haas single.  Thus the A's are up 5-2, and Grove has one more inning in him by tournament rules:  he allows a Goodman single and a walk, and with two out it's Al Zarilla (.915 OPS) at the plate as the tying run and Ted Williams staring at Grove from the on-deck circle.  But Grove strikes out Zarilla, sealing the 5-2 A's win and putting them into the super-regional final, where they will attempt to be the 3rd Old-Timer team to win a super-regional in 5 tries.

Super-Regional E Final:

The excitement was palpable at Shibe Park for the Super-regional final between the 1931 A's and George Walberg against the 1961 White Sox and HOFer Early Wynn.  The A's had outscored their opposition in the first five rounds 29 to 7; the Sox margin was 23 to 14 with multiple close calls.  In the top of the 1st Walberg walks three to load the bases but the Sox can't push any runs across; in the bottom of the 3rd, Jimmy Dykes misses a HR 1-2/DO split by rolling a 3, and Wynn strands him at 2nd to keep the game a scoreless tie.  Al Simmons breaks the ice in the 4th with a solo HR, and the A's add another in the 5th when Dykes hits his second double of the game and Todt singles him in.  The Sox miss a chance to score when Floyd Robinson (1-14) is cut down at the plate, which seems to take the wind out of Wynn's sails as he allows four straight hits to open the 6th, and the A's move out to a 5-0 lead.  Al Simmons adds his second HR of the game in the 7th, a 2-run blast, to make it 7-0, and the clutch hitting that the Sox had displayed throughout the tournament is stymied by the excellent A's defense.  Walberg retires Aparicio in the 9th to seal a 7-hit shutout and the 7-0 win, and the 1931 A's stand alone as the sole survivors of 64-team Super-regional E.

Interesting card of Super-Regional E:  As the long-time Strat players on this forum probably know, the original Old-Timer teams came in a variety of colors and sizes before the modern perforated abominations took over.  Over the more than 50 years that I've been accumulating Strat cards, I've ended up with versions of those original die-cut Old-Timers that have blue ink, red ink, blue ink on yellow cards (a favorite of mine), but the VERY original Old-Timers were just the same as the then-current season cards--black ink on cream-colored cardstock.  That was the version that I used here to roll the 1931 A's to the Super-regional title.  As you can see from the condition of these cards, this wasn't Al's first rodeo--my buddies and I played the heck out of these Old-timers when we were kids, and it's nicely satisfying to take these guys out of the storage drawers, set that lineup once again, and watch them still be just as awesome as they were for us, a half-century ago.

REGIONAL #96:  This regional marks an important waypoint in this tournament, wrapping up a third grouping of 256 teams that have played after this regional (768 teams in total thus far).   And it looks like a good one, with two pennant winners in the Royals and the Rockies, other contenders including another good Royals team from a different era as well as Pirates and Yankees squads that likely bring some weapons to the table.  My hunch was that the pitching of the 2015 Royals would carry them past the Rockies and that they'd handle the Yankees in the finals; the ELO rankings predicted the same teams in the finals, but the prorated score for the Yanks put them among the top 50 teams of all time and thus New York was the ELO favorite.  It was interesting to note that although the Rockies won the NL pennant in 2007, the ELO rankings ranked five AL teams as better than them.  

First round action:  

According to the ELO ranks, the 90-win pennant-winning 2007 Rockies team was the best squad in franchise history, with a power-packed lineup and good defense but limited by pitchers struggling to deal with the HR-friendly conditions that exist a mile above sea level.  In contrast, the 99-loss 1934 Reds finished last in the NL and were ranked as one of the 100 worst teams of all time, although they had a young nucleus of players like Ernie Lombardi, Paul Derringer, and Frank McCormick who would go on to win a pennant some years later.  Derringer, one of two 20-game losers on the Reds staff, got the task of attempting to keep the Rockies in check, and check he did, allowing only two hits and no runs through 7 innings.  In the meantime, the Reds climbed out to a 6-0 lead on two Chick Hafey homers and RBI singles from Pool and Piet, chasing 17-game winner Jeff Francis after only 4.1 innings in which he allowed 10 hits.   The Rockies finally knock three hits in the 8th, but coupled with a Derringer error it only amounts to one run with a rally-killing DP ending the threat.  Derringer retires the side in order in the 9th, and the Reds easily pull off the upset 6-1 win over a stunned Colorado team, with Derringer tossing a 5-hit complete game.

The 2015 Royals won 95 games, the AL, and the World Series with a solid if not spectacular lineup and some strong arms in the bullpen, although their starting pitching was not as good as I remembered it being.  However, it was still miles better than that of the 2000 Rays, who lost 92 games and had dreadful steroid-era pitching without the benefit of huge steroid-fueled power in their lineup.  The Royals started off auspiciously, with leadoff hitter Lorenzo Cain rolling Tampa starter Albie Lopez' HR result, but missing the 1-15 split and then getting stranded at second.  Cain hits another double in the 3rd with no out, but again gets stranded at second and it's beginning to look like the Royals are struggling to find a clutch hitter.  Finally, in the 5th inning the Royals score three, courtesy of two Tampa errors and a key Ben Zobrist single, and KC looks to their starter Chris Young to hold off the Rays long enough to get it to their bullpen.  However, a Felix Martinez triple and a Miguel Cairo double make it 3-1, and two Young walks load the bases with one out and the Royals are forced to turn to their killer closer, Wade Davis, to try to staunch the bleeding.  Davis comes through, recording a whiff and a popout, and it's still 3-1 KC after six, with the Royals hoping for some insurance runs so that they can pull Davis and preserve him for later rounds.  They add one in the 7th after the 4th Tampa error of the game, and promptly replace Davis with Kelvin Herrera and crossed fingers.  Herrera is torched for a solo HR by Jose Guillen in the bottom of the 9th, and the Rays turn to their PH extraordinaire Ozzie Timmons and his .707 SLG% to try to pull the game out, but Timmons whiffs and the Royals survive with a 4-2 win and move on.

Both the 1975 Royals and the 1967 Pirates struck me as good teams--the Royals won 91 games and were every bit as strong as the pennant-winners who played in the prior game, and although the Pirates only went 81-81, they had four .300 hitters in the lineup along with mashers like Stargell and Clendenon.  On paper the Royals looked to have the better starting pitching, but that wasn't evident early as the Pirates mauled Marty Pattin for 4 runs in the 1st (including a Stargell 3-run homer) and another 4 runs in the 2nd (courtesy of a Clemente grand slam), with Pattin leaving the game with a 1.1 IP, 7HA, 8RA pitching line.  The Royals get on the board against Tommie Sisk in the 5th when a George Brett fielders choice scores a run, but the Pirates match it in the 7th when Maury Wills walks, steals second, and Mazeroski doubles him home.  The Royals can't solve Sisk, who ends with a 6-hit CG and the Pirates coast into the semifinals with an impressive 9-1 win.

The 2019 Yankees won 103 games, but I was surprised to find that their ELO ranking would put them among the 50 best teams of all time--until I set their lineup.  With 9 players having a SLG% over .500 and a killer group in the bullpen, it seemed to me that their only weaknesses were rather mediocre starting pitching and a host of frightening injury results on their cards.  In contrast, the 82-80 1993 Mariners had exactly two weapons:  Ken Griffey Jr., and Randy Johnson.  Despite a great card, Johnson looked mortal when Gary Sanchez hits a solo blast in the 2nd and Gleybar Torres adds an RBI single in the 3rd.  However, the Mariners then find the weaknesses on Yankee starter James Paxton's card, with Rich Amaral finding Paxton's HR result for a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 3rd and Omar Vizquel finding it again for a solo shot in the 5th, and the Mariners lead 3-2.  When Paxton allows a single in the 6th the Yanks have seen enough and turn it over to their bullpen--and they do their job, but Johnson is shackling the Yanks.  The game enters the 9th with the M's still up 3-2; Johnson quickly retires two batters to begin the top of the 9th, and with the Mariners one out away from the upset, Brett Gardner hits a game-tying blast that leaves the Seattle crowd stunned.  Zack Britton retires the Mariners in order in the bottom of the frame and the game heads to extra innings.  Johnson stays in the game and sets down the Yanks in the 10th, and in the bottom of the 10th, another Tino Martinez error, a hit and a Britton walk loads the bases with one out for Griffey Jr.; and the Yanks summon their closer Aroldis Chapman to try to hang onto the game.  With the infield in, Griffey hits the gbA for the force play at the plate, and then Chapman strikes out Jay Buhner to send the game to the 11th.  Norm Charlton has to come in to relieve the exhausted Johnson, and Charlton grooves one to late-inning DH replacement Giancarlo Stanton; it's gone, and the Yanks lead 4-3.  Chapman shuts down the M's in order in the bottom of the 11th, and the Yanks survive a serious scare to move on to the semifinals.

The survivors:

The 1934 Reds had defeated a pennant winner in round one and had their sights on another in the semifinal in the form of the 2015 Royals, but that dream proved to be short-lived when the second Royal batter, Eric Hosmer, converted a HR 1-2 split off Reds' starter Bennie Frey's card, and Frey absolutely lost it.  Frey was mercifully pulled with one out in the second inning, after allowing 10 runs on 11 hits, and although some bad Reds bullpen pitchers did an admirable job for the remainder of the game, things were already far out of reach.  Gordon Slade was able to contribute a couple of RBI singles to narrow the gap slightly, but with the big lead KC starter Edinson Volquez was able to run on cruise control and the Royals coast to the 10-3 win.  The good news for the Royals was that the blowout enabled them to rest a bullpen that was taxed in the first round; the bad news was that DH Kendrys Morales was injured for 5 games, and the squad really doesn't have a bat on the bench that can provide a capable replacement.

The historical documents after 96 regionals

Despite being ELO favorites, the 2019 Yankees barely survived the 1st round and were now facing a more formidable opponent in the 1967 Pirates, with Masahiro Tanaka on the mound against Steve Blass (before he would go on to develop the disease that bears his name).  The Pirates had started fast in their 1st round game, and when Yank SS Gleyber Torres fielded a grounder from leadoff hitter Matty Alou and threw it into the Pirates dugout for a 2-base error, the groans from the fans could be heard in Staten Island.  However, Tanaka managed to strand Alou at 2nd, and then in the bottom of the 1st the Pirates return the favor when Manny Mota misplays a Brett Gardner fly to open a door that Blass can't close, with the Yanks scoring three runs--two on an Edwin Encarnacion HR.  The Pirates threaten in the 2nd but Mazeroski is cut down at the plate to end the inning.  Encarnacion's second 2-run HR in the 3rd makes it 5-0, and a Torres solo shot in the 7th pushes the lead to 6-0.  The Pirates can't figure out Tanaka, with at least four rolls on either side of his solid 4-9 HR reading, and Tanaka finishes with an 8-hit CG shutout, resting the depleted Yankee bullpen for a finals showdown against the Royals.

A milestone regional gets to wrap up with two very good squads, a World Champion 2015 Royals team against the AL runner-up 2019 Yanks.  Having played both teams for a couple of games, the Yankees were flat out impressive, an offensive juggernaut with a bullpen capable of bailing out suspect starting pitching.  The Royals were also coming into the game minus their DH Kendrys Morales; worthy of note, the Yankees had their own version of Kendrys that they would have been glad to loan the Royals, as the 2019 Morales seemed like he was about the 8th best DH on the powerful Yankees team.  The Yanks power is hinted at in the 1st when Urshela misses a HR split on Royals' starter Yordano Ventura's card, but he drives in Tauchman with the resulting double.  A solo shot from Gleyber Torres in the 2nd, another from Gary Sanchez in the 4th, and a third from Urshela in the 8th seems to provide Yanks starter Domingo German with all the support he needs.  However, when slap hitter Omar Infante finds German's solid HR result at 6-9 in the 6th inning, the Yanks turn it over to their bullpen, and Ottavino and Britton do the job to preserve the 4-1 victory and the regional win.  Despite their great history, this is only the 3rd Yankee team to win a regional, joining the 1960 and 1979 squads.

Interesting card of Regional #96:  I sort of hate to select a 2019 card for this feature because most people will be familiar with such recent seasons, but the 2019 Yanks did win the regional and it is only fitting to highlight one of their players.  However, rather than selecting one of the numerous imposing sluggers in the Yankee lineup, I picked a low IP starting pitcher who only made one appearance in the regional--in relief, as according to tournament rules he has too few IP to use as a starter but can be used in relief, and he tossed two important shutout innings in NY's 1st round extra-inning win.  Severino had won 19 games for the Yanks in 2018 at the age of 24, but like so many players on the Yankees, he battled various injuries in 2019 and didn't pitch at all until September--and afterwards missed all of 2020 following Tommy John surgery.  I highlight Severino because the primary weakness of this squad (aside from some frightening injury results) was their starting pitching, and I just wonder how many games the Yankees--with 103 wins as it was--would have won if everyone, including Severino, was healthy all year.  I was initially surprised to discover that the ELO ranks placed the 2019 Yanks among the 50 greatest teams of all time; after watching them charge through this regional, I think that if this Severino card had 212 IP rather than 12, the team might belong in the top 25.