REGIONAL #102:   This group of eight included no pennant winners, although two teams--the 1960 Reds and the 1911 Red Sox--did win a flag in their next season.  I figured that the Reds would fare better than the deadball Red Sox and picked them over the ‘82 Twins in the finals, although the Reds would need to get past what I figured might be a tough ‘64 Braves squad in the first round.  The ELO ranks basically laughed at my selections, tapping the 1941 Pirates to win out over the ‘64 Braves in the final.

First round action

The 67-win 1960 Reds team were not a terrible team, but their 6th place finish clearly fell short of the NL pennant winners they would become in the following year.  In contrast, the 1964 Braves won 88 games and boasted a formidable lineup that included big years from Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, Rico Carty, and Eddie Mathews; with the starters of Tony Cloninger for the Braves and Jim O’Toole for the Reds being essentially a push, that imposing Braves lineup was sufficient to make Milwaukee the comfortable favorite.  However, it was the Reds who jumped out to the lead in the bottom of the 1st on a 2-run double by Wally Post.  Another Post double scores a run in the 3rd that makes it 3-0, although Post himself is cut down trying to score on a Gus Bell single.  The Braves get on the board in the 5th, when Frank Bolling beats out a sac bunt and then Ty Cline and Denis Menke keep the rally going to narrow the lead to 3-2.  The Braves are dealt a big blow when Joe Torre has to leave the game with an injury in the 6th; he is replaced by Ed Bailey, who happened to also be the starting catcher for the Reds.  Both starting pitchers then hold the fort until Cloninger walks two straight to lead off the 8th, and the Braves turn to their closer Bob Tiefenauer to try to keep the game within reach, but Post eventually scores on a fielder’s choice to make it 4-2 Reds entering the 9th.  O’Toole then sets down the Braves to secure the complete game win, scattering 8 hits to propel the Reds into the semis.

The 1949 White Sox won only 63 games, as although they had a decent starting rotation, they had absolutely no power as they didn’t have a single hitter in their lineup that was in double digits in homers. They faced their polar opposite in the 83-win 2007 Brewers, who had every position player in HR double digits (including Prince Fielder’s 50) but basically one good starter--Ben Sheets, who looked plenty good enough to handle the Sox offense.  But it was those Sox who broke the game open in the 4th on two bad Brewer fielding plays, a gbA++ with a held runner, and a bases-clearing double by Luke Appling that gave Chicago the 5-0 lead, and it’s up to Randy Gumpert to try to hang onto it.  The Brewers immediately begin whittling at the lead when Prince Fielder leads off the bottom of the inning with a blast, but that doesn’t rattle Gumpert as he finishes out the game allowing only two more hits, completing a 5-hitter and sending the Sox to the semis with the upset 5-1 win.   And, for the second game in a row, a favored team from Milwaukee goes back into storage.

My initial, solely from memory, take on this first round game was that I thought the Twins of the 80’s were pretty good and the Pirates of the 40’s were pretty bad.  Turns out I was incorrect on both counts, with the 1941 Pirates (who went 81-73...and 2 ties!) having a solid all-around lineup keyed by Arky Vaughn, Elbie Fletcher, and the third Dimaggio brother, Vince, a CF-1 with 21 HR.   On the other hand, the 1982 Twins lost 102 games and, although Kent Hrbek and Tom Brunansky provided some pop, their pitching staff was a minefield and swing starter Jack O’Connor seemed to be their best option against Pittsburgh’s Rip Sewell.   Two walks and a single off O’Connor and the Pirates quickly jump to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st, and a solo shot from Dimaggio pushes the lead to 2-0 in the 3rd.  A Fletcher triple in the 5th leads to two more runs, but the Twins finally get on the board in the bottom of the inning with a Tim Laudner solo shot--only the second Minnesota hit of the game.   When O’Connor loads up the bases in the top of the 6th, the Twins hand the ball to Ron Davis, and Elbie Fletcher immediately nails a grand slam off Davis’s card that sends the few fans in the Metrodome streaming for the exits.   The Twins scratch out another run on a Gary Ward fielders’ choice but that’s all, folks, for the Twins, as the Pirates move on to the semis with the easy 8-2 victory.

The 78-75 1911 Red Sox were led by Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper, and they sent 23-game winner Joe Wood to the mound to face a team from nearly a century later:  the 89-win 2007 Padres, who countered with 19-game winner Jake Peavy and a lineup where 2/3rds of the hitters out-homered Speaker, the top Boston slugger.  But it was the Red Sox who displayed some punch when cleanup hitter Duffy Lewis smacked a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 1st to give Boston the quick lead, and a Les Nunamaker sac fly made it 3-0 in the 2nd.  RBI singles from Milton Bradley and Adrian Gonzalez narrow the lead to 3-2 in the 3rd, and in the 5th Mike Cameron doubles in Marcus Giles and he later scores on a Gonzalez sac fly, and the Padres take a 4-3 lead.  The Red Sox roar back in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with no outs against Peavy, but only convert one run on a Lewis sac fly and the game is tied at 4 apiece after five.  When Boston gets two squib singles against Peavy in the 6th, the Padres eye their deep bullpen but decide to stick with their staff ace, and the next batter Larry Garder nails the only complete hit on Peavy’s card to put the Red Sox ahead.  Not to be outdone, the Padres load the bases against Wood with no out in the 7th, and Gonzalez rips a single that scores Brian Giles but Cameron (1-16) is nailed at the plate.  Khalil Greene adds a sac fly, and the Padres retake the lead, 6-5, with neither team showing any signs of giving up.  Sure enough, Boston ties the game in the 8th when Peavy commits a 2-base error and Gardner singles him home, but Milton Bradley responds with a solo shot in the top of the 9th that puts the Padres up 7-6.  So, it’s up to Peavy, and he fans Harry Hooper but Speaker doubles into the LF corner, and the Padres summon Heath Bell to try to close things out--but the first batter he faces, Duffy Lewis, singles for his 4th RBI of the game and it’s tied once again.  Bell tries to recover his form, but the next two batters both single, with Steve Yerkes’s hit scoring Lewis for the walk-off 8-7 win.  Bell earns the loss by failing to retire a single batter, with Wood completing a sloppy win in which he allows 12 hits.

The survivors

It was 17-game winner Bob Purkey for the 1960 Reds against 15-game loser Billy Pierce for the 1949 White Sox in a semifinal matchup of first round upset victors.  And it was the White Sox looking to continue the trend of success for the underdogs, as they strike for 5 runs in the 1st courtesy of some sloppy Reds fielding and a 3-run HR by Chuck Kress off Purkey’s card.  The Reds get on the board in the 3rd when a Roy McMillan single is followed by 3 straight walks from Pierce, but the Sox get the run back when Kress again rolls Purkey’s HR split, misses it for the double, but scores on a Metkovich single that makes it 6-1.  Two straight hits for the Sox to lead off the 5th and the Reds aren’t going to let Purkey pitch to Kress; Jim Brosnan comes in and induces a DP ball to 3rd that Kasko boots, and after the dust settles it’s now 8-1 Sox.  The Reds come back with 2 runs in the 7th with a Pinson RBI double, but Don Wheeler drives in a run in the 8th to provide the Sox with additional insurance and the 9-3 lead.  The Reds get a couple of runners on in the 9th, but Pierce retires Wally Post to end the threat and the game, and the 91-loss White Sox earn an improbable berth in the regional final.

Lanning owns Boston

As the only ELO favorite to have won a game thus far in the regional, the 1941 Pirates were not taking the 1911 Red Sox lightly given Boston’s tenacity in coming from behind multiple times in their first round win.  The Bucs start off hot with a solo HR from their second batter, Arky Vaughn, and they were on their way to score more when Elbie Fletcher was cut down at the plate to record the final out of the 1st inning.  The Red Sox promptly load the bases in the bottom of the 1st, but Pirates starter Johnny Lanning artfully gets out of the jam unscathed.  A Bob Elliott sac fly in the 2nd makes it 2-0 Pirates, but after that Boston starter Larry Pape settles down, getting out of a bases loaded jam himself in the 7th to keep the score within reach.  A Stu Martin sac fly in the 8th does provide the Pirates with an insurance run, and the Red Sox never can solve Lanning as he completes the 5-hit shutout to send the Pirates to the regional finals with the 3-0 win.

The 1949 White Sox got to the regional final by winning every game as an underdog, while the 1941 Pirates did so by winning every game as a favorite, so something would have to give in this game that matched Pittsburgh’s Max Butcher against Chicago’s Bill Wight.   The Pirates began the game in the bottom of the 1st with a single, a triple, and an Elbie Fletcher HR and it was 3-0 before Wight recorded an out.  Wight then walks the bases full in the 3rd and the Pirates punish him for it, pushing across five more runs to make it 8-0 after three innings and the rout is on.  Two more walks by Wight in the 4th and the Sox finally throw in the towel on Wight and try Max Surkont and his 4.78 ERA, and although he immediately issues a walk to load the bases, the Sox turn a DP to get out of the inning without further damage.  The Sox finally push across a run in the 8th on a Bud Souchock triple, but Pirate 3b Lee Handley homers and that’s more than Butcher needs as he closes out the 10-1 blowout with a 6-hitter as the Pirates claim only their third regional title, with 1941 joining 1956 and 1960 as regional winners.

Interesting card of Regional #102:  With two homers and 7 RBI in the three games of the regional, Elbie Fletcher was the offensive catalyst for the regional-winning Pirates, but he is hardly a household name in baseball lore after a career as a solid player on losing teams, so I thought he was deserving of this feature.  A “Moneyball” player before such a thing was contemplated, he led the NL in OBP three years in a row, including the 1941 season represented here, and he coupled this with a nice collection of extra base hits that made him a threat to hit for the cycle in every game.    Fletcher’s season did get him votes for NL MVP in 1941, finishing in 14th place in that vote, but his performance in this tournament earned him the distinction as MVP of Regional #102.