ELO SEEDINGS:   Having now completed 100 regionals, I thought I'd tabulate how the ELO rankings were doing in predicting regional winners over these 100 brackets. Let's just say that your odds of winning are a lot better if you are the #1 seed than if you are the #8 seed, although #4 seed doesn't seem to be a bad place to be!

REGIONAL #100:  This regional represents a milestone marking that 800 different teams have tried their luck in this tournament.  This group of 8 featured two NL pennant winners, the 1993 Phillies and the 2013 Cardinals, and four other teams were within 5 years of a pennant, so it looked to be a competitive group--although I was wondering if my random team selector program was working properly when it chose 7 consecutive NL teams, finally sneaking the Indians in as the final selection.  I had no idea who to pick to win, but I went with the Cardinals over the 1964 Giants in the finals.  The ELO ranks were pretty similar to my guesses, as they also chose theCards over the Phillies in a final matching the two pennant-winners.

First round action:

It was the current vs. the former New York NL teams with the 90-win 1964 Giants against the 75-win 2002 Mets, 21-win Juan Marichal vs. Al Leiter on the mound.  The Giants start the scoring with a run in the 3rd on a Mays single, although Hal Lanier is thrown out at the plate trying to add another.  Lanier does score in the 5th on a Jay Alou DP ball, but that run is quickly recaptured when Mo Vaughn leads off the bottom of the inning with a blast that makes it 2-1 Giants.  When the Giants start the 7th with two quick singles, Leiter is pulled for Mark Guthrie, but Guthrie allows both runners to score on singles from Alou and Cepeda, although things could have been worse as the Giants leave the bases loaded.  Marichal is cruising until the bottom of the 9th, when with 1 out he allows a walk, a single, and then a 3-run HR to Jeromy Burnitz, and suddenly it's a tie game and we're heading for extra innings.  Mets closer Armando Benitez is given the challenge of holding the Giants at bay, but McCovey leads off the 11th by finding Benitez's HR result and it's 5-4 Giants.  However, with Marichal toasted after pitching 10 innings, the Giants must turn to a shaky bullpen to try to hold the lead, with elder statesman Billy Pierce given the job.  Wigginton singles and Alou's error sends him to second, Burnitz singles, and in comes the infield to try to keep the tying run from scoring.  A grounder moves Burnitz to second as the winning run, and #9 hitter but key defensive player Rey Ordonez is up, and the Mets let him bat.  He rolls the FLY-X to CF--it's Willie Mays, and it's game over as the Giants squeak by with the 5-4 extra inning victory.

The pennant-winning 97-win 1993 Phillies and Tommy Greene faced a HOFer in Pete Alexander and his mates on the 81-72 1924 Cubs in what looked to be the best matchup in the first round of this regional.  The Phils open the scoring in the bottom of the 2nd when John Kruk races (?) home on a 2-out double by Jim Eisenreich, but the Cubs take the lead 2-1 in the 4th on RBI singles from Gabby Hartnett and Hooks Cotter.  A solo shot from Hartnett in the 6th makes it 3-1 Cubs, and Alexander has settled into a groove that renders Veterans Stadium eerily quiet.  A leadoff walk and a double by Jigger Statz makes the Phillies look to the bullpen, but with Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams as the closer, the Phils take their chance with Greene and bring the infield in.  Sparky Adams responds with a gbA++, it's now 5-1, and the Phils try Larry Andersen on the mound.  But Andersen allows three straight hits, there's still nobody out and the score is now 7-1, and the Phils figure things can't get much worse so they try Wild Thing--who retires the side with no further damage.  The Cubs score another run in the 8th courtesy of a 3-base error by Pete Incaviglia.  The Phils finally get to Alexander in the bottom of the 9th for back-to-back solo HRs from Inky and Wes Chamberlain, but it's too little and too late as Alexander finishes up with a 5-hitter and the Cubs get the 8-3 upset win in convincing fashion; the Phils commit three errors to underscore a big weakness that forces them to join the list of pennant winners eliminated in the 1st round.

The 53-64 1994 Rockies were a prime example of the Colorado teams of that era--imposing hitting and almost no credible starting pitching, further weakened by tournament IP restrictions because of the strike-shortened season.  They faced a pennant-winning 97-win team in the 2013 Cardinals, a well-balanced team who had solid starting pitching, a deep bullpen, and a strong lineup, albeit not quite comparable to the offensive capabilities of the Rockies.  The Cards had 19-game winner Adam Wainwright going against spot starter Marvin Freeman, by far the most effective Rockies starter.  Andres Galarraga puts the Rockies on top with a solo HR in the 2nd, converting a HR 1-4 split off Wainwright's card, but Colorado's Joe Girardi gets hurt in the 3rd and the Rockies have little backup at backstop.  The Cards can't get anything going against Freeman until the 5th, when a 2-out rally culminates in a 2-run double for Matt Carpenter, and the Cards now lead 2-1.  St. Louis breaks through in the 7th, loading the bases with nobody out and Allen Craig and Carlos Beltran take turns driving the runners in, and it's now 6-1.  Matt Holliday drives in an insurance run in the top of the 9th, but Wainwright doesn't need it and the Cards walk away with the 7-1 win, avoiding the 1st round jinx of the pennant winners to move to the regional semifinal.

The 1958 Indians had a mediocre 77-76 record with their awesome starting rotation from earlier in the decade largely gone, although they did have an imposing Rocky Colavito in the lineup.  Their opponent, the 73-89 2007 Nationals, had a much more shallow starting rotation than the Indians and fewer offensive weapons, but they took a 1-0 lead on a Cristian Guzman RBI single in the 3rd against Indians starter Gary Bell, who was fortunate it wasn't worse as the Nats left the bases loaded.  Nats CF Nook Logan (which sounds like a good deadball era name) drives in another run in the 4th to make it 2-0 Washington, but the Indians get the run back in the bottom of the inning when Vic Power records the first Cleveland hit of the game, a solo HR off the card of Nats starter Jason Bergmann.  Logan almost has another RBI single in the 6th, but Ryan Church is cut down at the plate to end the inning.  However, Dmitri Young's sac fly in the 7th does make it 3-1 Nationals, and the Indians are helpless against Bergmann; they don't get their second hit of the game until the bottom of the 9th when Minoso doubles, but it leads to nothing as the Nats put the Indians away with a 3-1 win and earn a matchup against a pennant-winner in the regional semifinal.

The survivors:

Both the 1924 Cubs and the 1964 Giants reached this semifinal courtesy of Hall of Fame starters on the mound; the Giants had yet another as their #2 starter in Gaylord Perry, while the Cubs would need to win with the more pedestrian 15-game winner Vic Keen.  And Keen allowed an RBI single to Mays and a 3-run HR to Jim Ray Hart before he got anybody out, and the Giants give Perry a quick 4-run pad in the 1st inning.  Keen settles down quickly and tosses 5 scoreless innings, but the Giants strike again in the 7th with a Jay Alou RBI single and a Cepeda 2-run shot that makes it 7-0.  Meanwhile, the Cubs are busy racking up injuries, losing Cutter and Statz with a very shallow bench unable to offer much help.  Regardless, none of the Cubs are able to solve Perry's mystery pitch, as he fans Gabby Harnett to end the game with a 4-hit shutout and the Giants cruise to the regional final with the 7-0 victory.

Moving into the semifinal round of the regional, going deeper into the starting rotation wasn't a problem for the pennant winning 2013 Cardinals with 15-game winner Shelby Miller, but the 2007 Nationals sent 7-game winner Matt Chico to the mound with considerable trepidation.  Their anxiety proved justified when the first batter of the game, Jon Jay, belted a HR off Chico's card, and Allen Craig added a 2-run shot that was also off Chico's card in the 4th.  A Beltran RBI single in the 5th makes it 4-0 Cards, and the Nationals decide they better call Saul Rivera out of the bullpen.  Saul manages to hold the fort until the 9th, when Matt Holliday singles in two runs to push the St. Louis lead to 6-0, but it doesn't really matter as Miller is killer and he ends up with a 4-hit CG shutout to propel the Cards to the final with the 6-0 win.

Matches 2 HOF teammates

The regional final paired two good teams, the 2013 Cardinals pennant winners against a good 1964 Giants team that boasted 5 HOFers on the roster, with Jack Sanford and Lance Lynn as the starters.  The Giants jump to a 2-0 lead in the 2nd when Harvey Kuenn converts a HR 1-5/flyB split off Lynn's card for a 2-run shot, and the Cards attempt to respond in the bottom of the inning falls short when Allen Craig is nailed at the plate for the final out.  SF adds two more in the 3rd with a leadoff HR by Cepeda, and Mays doubled and scored on a Hart single.  A 2-run blast from Tom Haller makes it 6-0 Giants in the 5th, and the Busch Stadium faithful that expected to celebrate the regional win have fallen deathly silent.  When Lynn allows two straight hits to begin the 7th, the Cards try Kevin Siegrist and his microscopic 0.45 ERA, and he retires the side with no damage.   The Cards then load the bases in the bottom of the inning but Cepeda turns a key double play to end the threat, and that was the high-water mark for St. Louis as Sanford wraps up the Giants second CG shutout in a row, and the regional title with the 6-0 victory.  This is the 8th regional win for the Giants franchise, although their first for a team from the 1960s.

Interesting card of Regional #100:  Although Willie Mays had a great card, I selected this particular card instead to illustrate the inconsistency as to how the game company lists sub-1.00 ERAs.  Sometimes there is a leading zero, sometimes not, but the omission used on this card makes me think of the pre-Astros team name for Houston more than an ERA value.   Regardless, it's quite a card for a reliever, with a remarkable H/IP ratio and decorated with plenty of K's.  2013 was Siegrist's first year in the majors, and of course from there his career ERA had nowhere to go but up; he had a good year in 2015 leading the NL in appearances, but never recaptured that 2013 dominance.  When he was sent to the minors after spring training to begin the 2018 season, Siegrist refused to report, and he never pitched again in the majors.

REGIONAL #99:  After a serious family medical emergency, things have settled down sufficiently to allow me to play Regional #99 in an attempt to try to distract me from my nursing duties.  Hopefully I can get in a few more regionals before the summer is over.

Regional #99 featured no pennant winners, but a bunch of teams on the verge of one:  the Rockies and the Giants would do so in the following year, while the Jays, Pirates, and Dodgers were all just a few years away.  However, I was picking the 1999 Mariners over the Jays to capture the regional, as I remembered some great Seattle teams from that vintage that simply couldn't get past the Yankees to reach the Series.  The ELO rankings suggested that, as usual, my memory was faulty; those rankings tapped the 2014 A's to win it all--a team I had absolutely no memories of.

First round action:

The 2006 Rockies did win the NL the following year, but they only went 76-86 and were hampered by poor pitching and porous defense.  Thus, it was a pretty even matchup against the 74-79 1958 Orioles who had solid pitching and defense, but not quite the offensive altitude of the Rockies lineup.  However, it was the starting pitchers, Colorado's Jason Jennings and O's Arnie Portocarrero, who controlled matters, as the game was a scoreless tie after 9 innings, with the two teams only combining for 5 hits in regulation.  In the top of the 10th, Jennings walks Woodling with two out and Brooks Robinson singles him to 3rd, so Colorado turns to closer Brian Fuentes and he fans Billy Gardner to end the threat.  In the 12th, Woodling again walks with 2 out and Robinson doubles, but Woodling is cut down at the plate trying to score a go-ahead run.  In the 14th, Fuentes has to give way to Ramirez on the mound, but the O's still can't score; in the bottom of the 14th, Hoyt Wilhelm has been cruising but a Helton single and a walk to Garrett Atkins leads to runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out.  Wilhelm delivers a knuckler to Brad Hawpe--single 1-13, the split roll is a 9 and the Rockies take the 1-0 14 inning marathon win to move on.

This 1st round matchup featured two teams that I didn't think looked as good as their records:  The 1989 Blue Jays won 89 games and the AL East, and had many good players but most of them had rather off years.  The 2014 A's won 88 games to finish 2nd in the AL West, although for all the hype about Billy Beane and "moneyball" I was surprised to see lousy OBP numbers on most of their lineup, and their all-"4" DP combo didn't impress me.  However, with two good #1 starters going in Dave Stieb and Jon Lester, the scoring drought that began in the previous game continued with no score through 6 innings, but when the Jays put two on in the 7th the A's turned to their deep pen and Fernando Abad, who keeps the Jays off the scoreboard.  But Stieb isn't showing any weakness, and for the second game in a row, after nine innings it's a scoreless tie, with only three hits between the two teams.  In the top of the 12th, Mookie Wilson gets a hit against the 3rd A's reliever, Luke Gregerson, and Moseby singles him home to give the Jays a 1-0 lead, and it's up to Tom Henke to preserve the game.  Henke records two quick outs, but then PH Adam Dunn singles, Craig Gentry pinch runs and steals second....and then Johnny Gomes hits Henke's killer 6 column and fans.  Game over, Jays win 1-0; Stieb goes 10 scoreless innings and allows only 1 hit, but Henke records the win with two scoreless relief innings.

Neither the 88-win 2009 Giants nor the 79-win 1999 Mariners looked quite like what I expected; the Giants surprised me with a pretty good pitching staff but a rather lackluster offense, while the Mariners had the fearsome heart of the lineup in Griffey Jr., ARod, and E. Martinez that I anticipated--and not much else, hitting or pitching-wise.  RBI singles in the bottom of the 1st by Martinez and Russ Davis give the Mariners a 2-0 lead, marking the first runs scored in regulation innings in this regional.  An Andres Torres solo shot in the 2nd makes it 2-1, but ARod doubles in Brian Hunter to push the Seattle lead to 3-1.  When Giants starter Tim Lincecum walks the first two batters of the 4th and then is tagged for the 3-run homer by Griffey Jr., the Giants try Jeremy Affeldt and his 1.73 ERA out of the pen, and he and his successor Brian Wilson hold Seattle scoreless for the remainder of the game.  However, the Giants just can't solve M's starter Freddy Garcia, who stays strong until the Giants mount a 2-out rally in the 9th, but they can only score one when Freddy Sanchez singles home Aaron Rowand.  The game thus ends with a 6-2 win for the Mariners on a strong showing from Garcia, who scatters nine hits, and the big three in the Seattle lineup.

Both the 92-win NL East champ 1975 Pirates and the 95-win NL West champ 1985 Dodgers impressed me as nicely balanced teams that seemed quite capable of taking this regional, and the pitching matchup of 19-3 Orel Hershiser against a sneaky good John Candelaria had the makings of a tight one.  The Pirates score a run in the top of the 2nd when they manage to nail two hits off Hershiser's ungenerous card, and a Stargell sac fly in the 3rd makes it 2-0.  That lead is short-lived, as Pedro Guerrero blasts a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to narrow it to 2-1, and then Enos Cabell finds Candelaria's HR result in the 4th for a 2-run shot that gives the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.  In the 5th, Al Oliver is hurt and has to leave the game, and the next batter, Dave Parker, launches a prodigious homer into the right field pavilion of Dodger Stadium to put the Pirates back on top 4-3, and it's clear that neither of these teams is going down easily.  When the Dodgers put men on 1st and 3rd with nobody out in the 6th, the Pirates eye the bullpen but leave Candelaria in and bring in the infield--and Mike Scioscia rips it through the infield with the gbA++ to tie the game.  The Pirates reverse that strategy, bringing in Tekulve and pushing the infield back--and Greg Brock's fielders choice gives the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.  Hershiser takes command until the top of the 9th, when he walks Sanguillen and has to face Parker with two out--Parker rolls a HR 1-2/DO, gets a 3 split, but Sanguillen races home on the double with the tying run, and the Dodger must now try to score with a lineup of defensive replacements.  However, Tekulve allows two hits to lead off the bottom of the 9th, and now faces defensive rep Bob Bailor with runners on 1st and 3rd and the infield in.  The roll: 4-6 on Tekulve, DO 1-2/SI**, and Bailor is mobbed by his teammates to celebrate the epic 6-5 Dodger win.

The survivors

The semifinal between the 2006 Rockies and the 1989 Blue Jays featured two teams that took a combined 26 innings to score two runs between them, which is a first for this tournament.  For the superstitious, the pitching matchup featured two 13-game winners in Jimmy Key (TOA) and Jeff Francis (CON), neither to be confused with Cy Young.  The Rockies score two in the 3rd led by Matt Holliday's triple; the Jays don't get a hit against Francis until the 6th, but they then load the bases and a Kelly Gruber single drives in two to tie the game at 2-2.  Rockies low AB wonder Jeff Baker, coming in for late innings, does his job and belts a solo HR in the 7th to put Colorado up 3-2, with Henke relieving Key to end the inning without further damage.  Francis allows 2 hits in the bottom of the 7th, but with their closer burnt in the previous marathon game, the Rockies stick with him and he gets out of the jam unscathed--but when the first two batters of the 8th get on, Ramon Ramirez is summoned from the pen, and although he allows no hits an Ernie Whitt sac fly ties the game at 3-3.  With Henke burnt, Duane Ward comes in for the top of the 9th and retires the heart of the Rockies lineup in order, so it's up to Ramirez to hold the Jays, and he doesn't--he fails to record an out, allows three straight hits, and the last one, a Mookie Wilson single, gives the Jays the 4-3 come from behind win and a berth in the finals.

The 1999 Mariners were hoping that their big 3 of ARod, Griffey, and EMartinez could lead them to the first regional title in franchise history, but they faced a big obstacle in Fernando Valenzuela and the 1985 Dodgers.  Things got off to a rough start for M's starter John Halama when Bill Madlock found his HR result for a solo shot in the 1st, which rattled Halama and he loaded up the bases but managed to pitch out of the jam with no further damage.  However, Halama allows 4 straight hits to open the 2nd, including a 2-run Madlock double, and it's now 4-0.  In the 3rd, Seattle loads the bases against Valenzuela, and he then walks Russ Davis to make it 4-1, but Fernando recovers his control and ends the threat.  Another Dodger 2-run double, this one from Mike Marshall in the 4th, chases Halama (3+ IP, 10 HA) for Gil Meche, and it's LA 6-1.  Doubles from Landreux and Sax in the 5th make it 8-1 Dodgers, and the Mariners try Paul Abbott on the mound to try to stop the bleeding while the Dodgers are putting in defensive replacements, mainly to reduce injury risks that might hamper later rounds.  Abbott handles the Dodger bench, but the Mariners can't get to Valenzuela until the top of the 9th, when they load the bases with 1 out and ARod at the plate.  It's a GBX to scrub 2b Dave Anderson, who converts the DP and the Dodgers win 8-1, Valenzuela with a 6-hit complete game to push the Dodgers into the finals.

Mariners get mania'd

The regional finals paired two division winners from the 80's, the 1985 Dodgers and the 1989 Blue Jays, with the ELO rankings indicating that the two teams were quite evenly matched.  However, the Dodgers bullpen was fully rested and the Jays pen taxed after two tight games, and LA's Bob Welch seemed to have the advantage over Jays John Cerutti as starting pitcher, so the Dodgers looked to be well positioned for a 7th regional win for the franchise.  LA strikes first in the bottom of the first, when Bill Madlock hits a solo shot that would have been a 2-run HR except Steve Sax had been caught stealing.  The Dodgers get that second run in the 2nd on a Landreaux sac fly, but Mookie Wilson gets the Jays first hit in the 4th and scores on a Moseby double to make it 2-1.  An Enos Cabell sac fly in the bottom of the 4th pushes the Dodger lead to 3-1, but Junior Felix hits a solo blast to lead off the top of the 5th to get the run back. Mike Marshall takes Cerutti deep to lead off the bottom of the 6th, and Cerutti is injured on the very next batter, replaced by a young David Wells.  When George Bell hits a 2-out solo shot in the 8th, the Dodgers replace Welch with Tom Niedenfuer.  In the top of the 9th, Pedro Guerrero misplays a Junior Felix hit to send Felix to 2nd, but Niedenfuer needs just one out to clinch the regional--and he doesn't get it.  Tony Fernandez doubles to tie the game, and then Mookie Wilson singles home Fernandez and the Jays lead for the first time in the game, 5-4.  Wells holds the Dodgers in the bottom of the 9th, and the Blue Jays take the come-from-behind 5-4 win and the regional title--only the second (with 1985) regional win for the Jays.

Interesting card of Regional #99:  This selection wasn't determined until the late innings of the regional final, as I was digging through the Jays' depleted bullpen for help and was somewhat surprised to run across this guy.  If you're like me, you remember David Wells as a portly but effective workhorse starter, mainly with the Jays and the Yankees, but I did not remember that he began his career as a relief pitcher.  This 1989 card was his final season as a full-time reliever, and it's quite good, although somewhat lost in an excellent bullpen that also featured Tom Henke, Duane Ward, and Jim Acker.  But Wells was the one who stepped in for the injured John Cerutti and held the Dodgers scoreless while the Jays clawed back, earning the win in the regional final.  He also had a colorful career that was lubricated by an abiding affection for beer, pitching a perfect game at age 34 in which he claimed he was 'half-drunk, with bloodshot eyes, monster breath, and a raging, skull-rattling hangover,' having gone to bed at 5 a.m. and gotten just an hour of sleep.