REGIONAL #119:  Unlike the previous bracket that was comprised primarily of terrible teams, this regional looked to be stocked with some strong teams.  There were the 1955 Indians, one year after their all-time great 1954 squad; the 1960 Dodgers, one year after a Series championship; the ‘48 Cards, two years after their great 1946 champs, and also teams from the Royals, Giants, and Pirates that I thought might be pretty solid (okay, I was apparently one for three there).  Given the success of the ‘54 Indians in blowing through Regional #30, I had to go with the 1955 version over the Cards in the final.  The ELO rankings agreed with my guess for the finals, and when that happened two regionals ago we picked neither team correctly, so I’m not placing any bets.  

First round action

The 82-72 1960 Dodgers were in the midst of a transition from their great slugging squads of the mid-50s to the pitching/speed/defense teams of the mid-60s, and having elements of both pushed them to a Series win in the previous season but a more disappointing 4th place finish in 1960.  Still, this was a team with a decent lineup and 23-year old Don Drysdale on the mound.  They faced the 2018 Giants, a team that I thought would be better given their success earlier in the decade as well as in this past season, but many of their key players were a bit past their prime and their top starter, Madison Bumgarner, battled injuries much of the season, resulting in an anemic 73-89 record.  Still, in the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, anything can happen, and what happens first is that the Dodgers rap four straight hits off Bumgarner’s card in the 1st, including a 2-run Frank Howard single, for a quick LA lead.  Both pitchers then assert themselves, and there’s no scoring until Dodger defensive replacement Norm Sherry leads off the 8th with a double and Maury Wills singles him home to make it a three-run LA lead.  Meanwhile, the Giants just can’t dig in against Drysdale, and he finishes things out with a 2-hit shutout and the Dodgers move on to the second round with the 3-0 win.  

The 1955 Indians were coming off one of the greatest seasons in baseball history, and although they weren’t nearly as successful as they had been the previous year, they still went 93-61 to finish second in the AL, and sported a formidable pitching staff and lineup with big years from Larry Doby and Al Smith.  The 1990 Royals only won 75 games, but had a lineup fronted by George Brett and Bo Jackson, and a decent pitching staff that would send Kevin Appier up to face Early Wynn in this first round matchup.  The Indians move to a lead in the top of the 1st when Al Smith converts a TR 1-2 to drive in Ferris Fain, but the Royals dodge a bullet in the 3rd when Doby grounds into a bases-loaded DP to end the inning.  Appier hangs tough but puts two baserunners on to start the 8th inning, so Steve Farr is brought in to keep things close, and he shuts down the Indians with no damage.  The Royals celebrate in the bottom of the 8th when they finally get to Wynn, as Bo knows longball and crushes a 2-run homer into the fountains to put KC on top 2-1.  It’s then up to Farr, and he sets down two quickly to face aging Ralph Kiner, pinch-hitting as the final obstacle.  After a protracted battle, Kiner draws a walk and another PH, Hal Naragon, comes up as the potential winning run--but Naragon grounds out and the Royals take a comeback 2-1 win over the ELO regional favorites in a game where the two teams only combined for 11 hits.

The 1948 Cardinals had an all-time great squad two seasons prior, and although they were beginning to decline after Branch Rickey left for the Dodgers they still went 85-69, good for 2nd place in the NL, and they had an MVP-winning year from Stan Musial and a killer season from 20-game winner Harry Brecheen that earned him 5th place in the MVP voting.  This all added up to them being prohibitive favorites over the 71-88 1966 Senators, but the ‘67 Nats won regional #28 suggesting that this Washington team could have a few surprises in them; they were sending veteran Mike McCormick to the mound.  The Cards get a gift run in the top of the 1st when an Enos Slaughter double is followed by back-to-back errors by Ken McMullen and Ed Brinkman, and that lead holds for a while as Brecheen has a no-hitter going until McMullen breaks it up in the 6th--but is immediately eliminated by a DP.   In the 7th, Fred Valentine misses a HR 1-3/DO split, Don Lock heads for home (1-14) with the tying run--but is cut down at the plate; however, big Frank Howard singles Valentine home and it’s 1-1.  It stays that way through 9 innings, as neither team can sustain a rally against the starters, and McCormick walks the first two batters of the 10th but guts it out and completes his maximum 10 innings, allowing only 6 hits.  Brecheen similarly survives the bottom of the inning, and heading to the 11th the Senators are feeling pretty good about getting past Brecheen armed with a more modern, deep bullpen than the Cards.  That feeling doesn’t last long, as reliever Bob Humphreys is racked for 5 hits (4 off his card) and 5 runs, keyed by a Schoendienst bases-loaded double, and the Cards take a commanding lead into the bottom of the 11th.  They bring Jim Hearn in to mop up, and he does the job as the Cards survive a scare to move to the semis with a 6-1 win.

I had somewhat misremembered the two teams in this first round matchup, with the 58-86 1995 Pirates having declined further that I thought from the Bonds/Bonilla (both gone by then) squad of a few years earlier, and the 79-win 2011 White Sox were not quite as bad as I expected; they still sported a few useful remnants from their 2005 champions and fortunately they would not be forced to play the truly dreadful Adam Dunn, who was indeed done by then.  Pittsburgh sent Denny Neagle against Gavin Floyd for the Sox, and the Sox get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the 2nd when Alexei Ramirez misses a HR 1-8/DO split, but ultimately scores anyway on an Alex Rios sac fly.   Neagle starts to lose his grip in the 5th, allowing 4 hits that the Sox turn into two runs, but it could have been worse as he does retire AJ Pierzynski with the bases loaded to end the inning.  However, when Brent Morel converts a TR 1-3 off Neagle’s card in the 6th, the Pirates bring in Dan Plesac to try to keep things within reach, but another Brent, this one Lillibridge pinch-hitting for Rios, brings him home on a sac fly and the Sox lead 4-0.  The Pirates rally in the 7th, courtesy of errors by Ramirez and Pierzynski that set up an RBI single for Orlando Merced, but Jeff King misses a SI 1-11 split to end the inning stranding the bases loaded.   When Al Martin leads off the 8th with a double, the Sox yank Floyd for a hotshot young reliever named Chris Sale, who sets the Pirates down in order.  However, in the 9th Sale gets two outs but walks Steve Pegues to bring up Merced, who puts it in the New Comiskey grandstands and makes it a one-run game.  But Sale gets Jeff King to ground weakly to short, and the Sox survive with a 4-3 win and a date with the Cardinals in the semifinals.  Meanwhile, Dan Plesac did not manage to earn the win, but he did pop up in my feed as a Facebook friend suggestion.

The survivors

Bo brings boom

The 1990 Royals upset the regional favorites and Early Wynn with a single swing from Bo Jackson, and now they were facing their second Hall of Fame starting pitcher in a row in Sandy Koufax and the 1960 Dodgers.  The Royals decided to counter the still-wild Koufax with control-pitcher Bret Saberhagen, and it looks to be an interesting matchup when five of the six outs in the first inning are strikeouts.  The suspect KC defense lets Saberhagen down in the 2nd when errors by Brett and Kevin Seitzer set up a 2-run double for Charley Neal, but the Royals get one of those back in the bottom of the inning when Danny Tartabull leads off with a colossal homer.  However, the Dodgers respond in the 3rd with a two-out rally involving four straight hits, with RBI singles from Neal and Norm Larker, and it’s 4-1 LA.  In the 6th, three more hits for the Dodgers, including a Frank Howard RBI single, chase Saberhagen and Jeff Montgomery ends the inning without further damage, and KC gets the run back when Bo goes deep for a solo shot that makes it 5-2.  In the 7th, a two-out double by Gilliam scores defensive replacement Demeter for another run, but the Royals get things going in the bottom of the 7th when Koufax walks the first two batters of the inning, Willie Wilson delivers as PH single, and then Jim Eisenreich singles home two, Brett doubles another one in, and Tartabull rips a 2-RBI single past Maury Wills, and suddenly the Royals lead 7-6 and the Dodgers won’t pull the trigger on a bad bullpen.  As is often the case in the semifinal games, neither team is willing to give up, and the Dodgers put up two straight singles to start the 8th, and then Demeter rips a double that scores both baserunners and the Dodgers reclaim the lead.  In the bottom of the inning, a double and two more Koufax walks and the bases are loaded with one out, but Koufax fans Eisenreich and Brett for strikeouts number 11 and 12 and LA heads into the 9th clinging to a one-run lead.  Montgomery holds in the top of the 9th; in the bottom, Koufax fans Bo, but walks Danny Tartabull.  Brian McRae then converts a TR 1-2 to tie the game, and Mike MacFarlane is up with the winning run on 3rd and the infield in.  Koufax delivers, and MacFarlane smacks a deep fly to CF, McRae tags and scores easily, and the Royals stage their second straight upset with a comeback 9-8 win to push them into the regional final.  

The 1948 Cardinals survived an extra inning scare against a weak team in round one, and they were now facing a better team in the 2011 White Sox, and the Cards weren’t taking any chances with swingman Ted Wilks getting the nod against Chicago’s Phil Humber.   Humber gets himself in trouble in the 2nd, walking the first two batters and then allowing a 2-out RBI single to Marty Marion to give the Cards a 1-0 lead.  However, in the bottom of the inning Wilks loads the bases on two singles and a walk, and then Alex Rios misses a HR 1-7 split but still drives in two on the resulting double.   A squib single by Gordan Beckham and a 2-run triple from De Aza, and the Sox lead 5-1 after two and the St. Louis manager is trying to piece Wilks back together because unfortunately he is also the team’s best reliever.  Wilks does settle down, and a Musial RBI single in the 8th chases Humber for Sergio Santos, who gets the inning-ending DP ball from Ron Northey, and the score is 5-2 Chicago heading into the 9th.  Santos makes things interesting in the 9th by committing a 2-base error on a Schoendienst grounder, but he then whiffs PH Whitey Kurowski for the final out to earn the save, and the Sox head to the finals attempting to be the first Chisox squad since 1978 to win a regional.

By the ELO ranks, the regional final between the 1990 Royals and the 2011 White Sox matched #4 and #5 seeds, with the Sox tapping veteran Mark Buehrle to go against KC’s Storm Davis.  Buehrle gets lucky in the top of the 1st, allowing two hits and a Konerko error, but no runs score mainly because (a) Eisenreich misses Buehrle’s HR 1-13/DO split, and (2) Eisenreich is then cut down at the plate trying to score on a Brett single.   Things go further south for the Royals in the bottom of the inning, as three Sox hits off Davis’s card and a Kevin Seitzer error lead to four Chicago runs--and it could have been worse as Pierzynski missed Davis’s HR 1-12 split.   In the 4th, RBI singles from Juan Pierre and Paulie Konerko chase Davis for game 1 winner Steve Farr, but Farr promptly allows another RBI single off his own card to Carlos Quentin, and although the Royals have come from behind in every game in the regional thus far, the 7-0 Sox lead looked pretty daunting.   KC starts to chip away in the 6th by opening the inning with three straight hits, including a Danny Tartabull RBI single, but Brent Morel turns a key DP for the Sox to end the inning with the score 7-1.  Morel then doubles and scores on a fielder’s choice in the 7th to provide additional insurance, although the Royals get that run back in the 8th on a Bo Jackson solo shot, his 3rd homer of the regional.   PH Terry Shumpert adds a solo HR off Buerle’s card in the 9th, but that’s not enough and the Sox take their fourth regional title with an 8-3 win, joining the 1954, 1961, and 1978 teams.  No regional MVP is awarded as the win was very much a team effort, but the “2” defensive infielders at 3rd (Morel), ss (Ramirez), and 2b (Beckham) were instrumental in bailing out the Sox starters on many occasions.

Interesting card of Regional #119:   He was the NL MVP in 1948, but Stan Musial couldn’t lead his team to the regional finals, contributing a lone RBI in their two games despite this imposing card.   However, this isn’t the only 1948 Musial in my collection.  I also present my well-worn example of Musial as included in Hall of Fame “Series A”--although when I purchased these as a kid, there was only one such “series”.  These are the original HOF cards that had the player’s best year (Basic) on one side, and a card based upon their entire career stats (also Basic) on the other, and I believe that they are still available from the game company very cheaply (unfortunately, perforated cardstock only).   The HOF card uses Musial’s 1948 season as his best, and it may just be nostalgia but I remember that card, which I probably bought in the early 1970s, doing a lot better for me than the ‘48 season version (printed in 2005) did in this regional.  Thus, although the more modern card might actually be better (it certainly is in the fielding department), as I put the eliminated ‘48 Cardinals back into their storage drawer I can cling to the belief that they would have won the regional if I could have just used Musial’s original HOF card--based on the same season--instead.