IN MEMORIAM: As 2021 draws to a close, I want to acknowledge the loss of this team of players during the past year. Most if not all have made at least one appearance in my tournament and in countless other projects in the many years that I've been playing Strat. One of the things I love about the game is that I can always dive into the storage drawers and pull out these players in their prime, with their abilities preserved as if in amber, in the form of cardstock and dice rolls.
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| Almost a trio |
REGIONAL #124: This group promised to be a fun one, with an interesting collection of teams to play. There was the World Champion 1985 Royals, an outcome that Cardinals fans still swear was due solely to a call by Don Denkinger (conveniently forgetting John Tudor’s meltdown in Game 7). There was another version of the “Once Upon a Time in Queens” Mets, this one the season immediately after the infamous Bill Buckner boot. The sole entrant from the 21st century was a Rockies team from the height of the steroid era, who should be good for some offense. Finally, there was a ‘72 Tigers team that probably represented the last gasps of their great 1968 champs. Figuring that the umps were on their side, I picked the Royals over the Rockies in the finals. I was surprised to discover that the ELO ranks considered the ‘85 Royals to be only the 7th best team in baseball that season, with the ‘89 version of the Royals that was also in the regional being ranked almost as highly. The ELO favorite was the Mets, picked to beat the ‘89 Royals for the regional crown.
First round action
Although the ELO ranks indicated that the World Champion 1985 Royals were only the 7th best team that season, they won 91 games and the AL West, they had a strong starting rotation and their lineup looked pretty good with strong years from George Brett and Steve “Bye-Bye” Balboni. Now, when I looked up the ELO rank for the 70-83 1927 White Sox (which I only look up after I make my regional predictions), I discovered that their ranking was considerably better than I had guessed, as I figured they were in the midst of the post-Dead Sox tailspin that began 40 years in the wilderness. After setting their lineup, I decided I was right and the ELO ranks were wrong, as the Sox had no power at all, porous defense, and aside from a couple of good starters not much of a pitching staff. One of those good starters was HOFer Ted Lyons (22-14, 2.84), but it was even hard to consider that an advantage over the Royals Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen (20-6, 2.87). However, things don’t always play out as they look on cardstock, and the Sox score two in the 3rd on a Bill Barrett double and an RBI single from Adam Metzler, although Barrett (1-15) is cut down at the plate trying to add to the lead. Those runs look like they may be sufficient the way Lyons is pitching, but in the bottom of the 7th Jorge Orta delivers a pinch-hit RBI single that narrows the gap to 2-1. In the 8th Barrett hits his second double of the game and Metzler delivers another RBI single to extend the Chicago lead, but the Royals get the run back in the bottom of the inning on a Balboni sac fly and it’s 3-2 heading into the 9th. Saberhagen does his job, and it comes down to Ted Lyons in the bottom of the 9th. I then make two straight bad PH decisions. First, I bring in Pat Sheridan to hit for Omar Moreno, and roll an out on Sheridan that was a hit on Moreno. I then opt NOT to PH John Wathan for Buddy Biancalana, liking the walks on Buddy’s card, but no–out on Buddy, double for Wathan. Lyons then retires Willie Wilson without any help from my bad managing, and the Sox take the upset win over the pennant winner, 3-2, with both pitchers tossing six-hitters.
After setting the lineups for the 1987 Mets and the 1959 Phillies, I had a feeling that the Mets bench–which had three .300 hitters just counting guys whose last name started with “M”-- could probably beat the Philly starters. I suppose after their ‘86 Series win, going 92-60 to finish second in the NL West was a disappointment in Queens, but make no mistake–this was a formidable team that merited their status as a ELO favorite. In contrast, the 64-90 Phillies finished last in the NL and were the #8 seed in the regional, but they had a couple of good starters and in RF they had Dave Philley, for whom it was hard to determine whether he was playing for the name on the front or the back of his uniform. It would be Doc Gooden (15-7, 3.21), who wasn’t quite as sharp as he had been in years past, against Gene Conley (12-7, 3.00), who probably had a better card. Even so, the Mets begin the game with three straight hits against Conley and jump out to a 2-0 lead. However, at that point Conley stops allowing hits, and by the 5th inning the Phils come alive and put together a two out rally that includes a 2-run single by Richie Ashburn and a bases-loaded error by Keith Hernandez (shades of Bill Buckner?) that hands the Phillies a 3-2 lead. A fight immediately breaks out in the Mets dugout, which is more fight than they show on the field, as Conley keeps the Mets hitless after allowing 3 straight to start the game to close out the unexpected 3-2 win.
With a pennant-winning Royals team and the bracket favorite Mets team having gone down to upsets in the previous two games, it was only fitting that both would have a chance to atone for those embarrassments when the 1989 Royals faced the 1977 Mets. The Royals won 92 games and had an ELO rank that was almost as good as their pennant winners from four years earlier; although Brett wasn’t quite the same player he was in 1985, the Royals replaced Bye-Bye with Bo, they had a better bullpen, and there was one constant: Bret Saberhagen (23-6, 2.16), who again won the Cy Young Award just as he did in ‘85, and he was eager to avenge his defeat in the previous game. On the other hand, the Mets had only Lee Mazzilli in common with the good team from a decade later that had lost the previous game; they lost 98 games and their best starter was 20-game LOSER Jerry Koosman (8-20, 3.49). And Bo, who knows the tournament after having a big Regional #119, makes his presence known early with a 2-run homer in the 1st inning. The Mets strike back quickly in the top of the 2nd when Dave Kingman rips a single that Willie Wilson misplays, allowing John Milner to score to make it 2-1. The Royals want to keep the Mets out of striking distance, and in the 3rd they get two runs from a Jim Eisenreich RBI single and a fielder’s choice from Brett. From that point on, Koosman only allows one more hit, but the Mets can’t sustain anything against Saberhagen, who isn’t very dominating but manages to scatter nine hits and finish out the 4-1 complete game win.
Combine the mile-high altitude of Coors Field with the peak of the steroid era and you get an offensive juggernaut with terrible pitching: the 2000 Rockies whose 82-80 record reflected their near perfect balance between being winners and losers. It wasn’t just the power, it was the batting average that amazed me: they had 10 carded players hitting over .300, led by Todd Helton’s epic .372. Trouble is, the best pitcher they could muster was Julian Taverez (11-5, 4.43), with most of their rotation having ERAs well in excess of 5.00. They faced an 86-win 1972 Tigers team that won the AL East and had many of the parts of their earlier champs still in place, including names like Kaline, Cash, and Freehan, and they had big-boned Mickey Lolich (22-14, 2.50), third in the Cy Young voting, as a much better option than Taverez. However, both pitchers start out strong, and in the 4th the Tigers are dealt a big blow when Bill Freehan is injured for the remainder of the tournament with a “20” roll. Lolich is clearly rattled by losing his batterymate, and Jeff Cirillo takes advantage in the 5th with a 2-run double to put the Rockies on top. The Tigers begin to stir in the bottom of the 7th, when PH Frank Howard lofts a deep fly to Larry Walker in RF which Walker drops, and then the original ARod, Aurelio Rodriguez, doubles in the run, and Taverez exits in favor of the Rockies best reliever, Mike Myers. Myers gets the needed outs, and it’s 2-1 Rockies entering the 8th. In the 8th, Kaline misses a HR 1-12 split and gets stranded at second, and Myers is scary in the 9th, slashing the Tigers down 1-2-3 to earn the save in the 2-1 win. The vaunted Rockies hitters manage only 6 hits against Lolich but still manage to survive and move on.
The survivors
A semifinal matchup between the 1927 White Sox and the 1959 Phillies was hardly the one I expected, as both of these teams upset what I considered to be far superior squads in the first round. Both survivors did so on the arms of two outstanding starters, and both still had good options for their #2 pitchers, with the redundantly monikered Tommy Thomas (19-16, 2.97) going for the Sox and Jim Owens (12-12, 3.22) on the mound for the Phils. Things start out rough for Thomas in the bottom of the 1st when leadoff hitter Richie Ashburn triples, followed by a Dave Philley double, but Philley is later cut down trying to score and the Phils only leave the inning with a 1-0 lead. However, in the 5th the Phils give up the lead with some bad fielding by RF Wally Post and a triple by Bill Barrett and it’s 2-1 Sox. Owens only allows one more hit in the game, but the Phillies can’t get anything going against Thomas, and that’s how things end, with the Sox taking a 2-1 victory and squeaking into the finals with two tightly pitched wins.
The semifinal between the 1989 Royals and the 2000 Rockies contrasted pitching-rich KC with the formidable mile-high lineup of Colorado, and rather predictably the matchup of Mark Gubicza (15-11, 3.04) against Brian Bohanon (12-10, 4.68) favored the Royals. However, the Rockies begin with a 5-hit onslaught in the bottom of the 1st and take a 3-0 lead that could have been worse but Todd Hollandsworth (1-16) is cut down at the plate trying to score on a Neifi Perez double to end the rally. Hollandsworth atones somewhat in the 3rd with an RBI double, his third RBI of the game, and it’s now 4-0 and the Royals are struggling with rally-killing GIDPs from Brett and Bo Jackson. The Rockies threaten again in the 8th; Jeff Frye (1-14) gets cut down trying to score on a Jeff Cirillo single, but the Royals bring in closer Jeff Montgomery who allows a single to Shumpert and the Rockies finally get a running split and Shumpert (1-17) scores to make it 5-0 heading into the 9th. The Royals get a couple of baserunners but once again Bohanon gets the outs when he needs them, finishing up the 7-hit shutout to send the Rockies to the finals with a 5-0 win.
The regional final between the #5 seed 2000 Rockies and #6 seeded 1927 White Sox highlighted why neither of these teams did that well during their seasons–a rough back part of the starting rotation. Still, the Sox had to feel better about Sarge Connally (10-15, 4.09) than the Rockies did about Pedro Astacio (12-9, 5.27), who did manage to mix in some strikeouts amidst all the home runs he allowed. However, the Rockies now had a fully rested bullpen courtesy of Bohanan’s gem in the semifinals and they were ready to go to it at a moment’s notice. The Rockies go up 1-0 in the bottom of the 1st on a Jeffrey Hammonds RBI single, but they leave the bases loaded as Connally bears down to get the last out. However, a clutch 2-out double in the top of the 3rd by Adam Metzler scores two and the Sox take the lead. Astacio pitches well, but the Rockies can’t seem to score so in the 7th Colorado brings in Gabe White to try to keep the game within a run. White gets through the 7th, but in the 8th Bill Barrett brings one home on a fielder’s choice and it’s now 3-1 Sox and the Rockies only have six outs remaining. And Connally records those outs without incident, his teammates carry him off the field after his 7-hit performance, and the 1927 White Sox join 1954, 1961, 1978, and 2011 as south side regional winners. The Sox name Bill Barrett as their regional MVP, as he consistently managed to get on base, scoring almost half of the meager eight runs the Sox managed to score during the regional, and driving nearly the other half, with an RBI in each of the three games from the leadoff spot.
Interesting card of Regional #124: It seems like these great cards that I feature rarely do very much in the regional games, and this one was no exception, as Helton and his teammates just didn’t live up to their gaudy batting averages. Even so, it’s hard to argue against Helton’s card being the best in the regional. Yes, it was the height of the steroid era, and yes, it was done in the thin atmosphere of Coors Field, but this was a season for the ages. Consider this: Helton led the league in batting average; he led in RBI; he led in hits, doubles, OBP, SLG%, and of course OPS. The only triple crown category he didn’t lead the league in was homers, but 42 of those is nothing to sneeze at. However, Helton came in 5TH in the league MVP voting! He finished behind Jeff Kent, Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza, and Jim Edmonds. However, Helton played more games than any of those four, and he did better in virtually every offensive category than any of them, with the exception that Bonds hit more homers and drew more walks. The only category that Kent, the winner, led Helton was in SBs, 12 to 5. It is true that the other four played for teams that all made the postseason, but if you ask me who had the best Strat card in the 2000 NL, it was the Toddfather.
REGIONAL #123: For the second regional in a row, this one had a trio of teams from the same franchise, and these three Tigers were hoping they would fare better than the three Reds teams that were all eliminated in the first round in the prior bracket. It seemed to me that all of the Detroit squads would likely be decent, but the teams that caught my eye were a Brewers team that would win the AL the following year, and versions of the Giants and Red Sox that were both two years away from a pennant. I picked a 2011 Red Sox vs. 1960 Giants final, putting my money on the more modern team which has been the trend in five of the six most recent regionals. The ELO ranks agreed that the Red Sox were the favorites, but tapped the 2011 version of the Tigers as the runners-up, which would be some consolation as both other Detroit teams had terrible rankings.
First round action
The first and by far the best of the three Tigers representatives in the regional, the 2011 Tigers won 97 games, the AL Central, and came within two games in the ALCS of the pennant. Known for their Big 2 of Verlander and Scherzer, with Miguel Cabrera having a big year, their biggest weakness was a porous defense. They faced the 2017 Marlins, who only won 77 games and were known for one thing only–RF Giancarlo Stanton, the NL MVP who bashed 59 homers. The pitching matchup looked a bit lopsided, with Verlander (24-5, 2.40), who won both the Cy Young Award and the AL MVP, against Jose Urena (14-7, 3.82) who was by far the Marlins best starter. Stanton wins the first confrontation between the MVPs, converting a DO 1-3/flyB off Verlander’s card in the bottom of the 1st to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead. In the top of the 3rd, Austin Jackson gets the first hit off Urena, and it’s Urena’s solid 6-5 HR result to tie the game. Verlander whiffs Stanton in their second meeting, and in their third Stanton reaches on an error by Jhonny Peralta, but gets stranded and the score remains deadlocked at 1-1. Stanton singles in his 4th AB in the 8th, but goes nowhere and the game enters the 9th still tied, with both starting pitchers going strong. Urena retires the side in the top of the 9th successfully, so it’s up to Verlander, who strikes out Justin Bour to begin the inning. Catcher JT Realmuto then steps up, converts a HR 1-11 on his own card, and Miami gets the walk-off homer to prevail against the MVP with an upset 2-1 victory.
The 1960 Giants had many of the key pieces in place that would make them a dominant team throughout the 60s, such as Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, although after those three the lineup dropped off considerably and the team was barely over .500 at 79-75. They still compared favorably to the 60-94 1953 Tigers, whose combination of bad defense and pitching spelled trouble. The Tigers figured that swingman Ralph Branca (4-7, 4.15) was their best option although he was still not over 1951; the Giants had much better choices and went with Mike McCormick (15-12, 2.70). Neither team can get a hit until the 4th, with the Giants managing a run on the Tigers second 2-base error of the game followed by a Felipe Alou single. The Tigers 4th error of the game, in the 7th, sets up a Cepeda RBI single, and McCormick is cruising. However, when the Tigers get two straight singles with one out in the top of the 9th, the Giants decide to replace McCormick with young phenom Juan Marichal. Marichal promptly walks Bob Nieman to load the bases, and then faces CF Jim Delsing with the infield back hoping for the game-ending DP. Instead, Delsing converts a HR 1-10 on his card for a grand slam that puts a further chill on the Candlestick Park crowd. Branca is thus armed with a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th, but he allows two straight singles and he now faces the meat of the Giants order–their Big 3. However, with a truly frightening bullpen (such as Dick Weik and his 13.97 ERA), the Tigers stick with Branca, and Cepeda doubles to score both runners and the game is tied with nobody out. Next up, Willie Mays–another double, Cepeda scores, and the Giants record the second straight walk-off win in the regional by a 5-4 margin. Marichal gets credit for the win despite a 26.87 ERA in his brief appearance.
With the Tigers zero for two in the prior regional games, the last Detroit entry in the bracket, the 1989 Tigers, didn’t look likely to get very far either, as with bad pitching and limited offensive punch it was hard to believe that this 103-loss outfit had been a great team earlier that decade. The 1981 Brewers were largely the same team that would storm to the AL pennant the next season, finishing 62-47 in that strike year for the best record in the AL East and a brief postseason appearance. However, they had yet to hire manager Harvey Kuenn, who they apparently scouted when he batted leadoff for the ‘53 Tigers that had lost the previous game. It was Pete Vuckovich (14-4, 3.54) for the Brewers against Frank Tanana (10-14, 3.58), and Vuckocich suddenly lost control in the 3rd, walking the bases loaded and then giving up his first hit of the game to Lou Whitaker, which makes it 2-0 Tigers. Vuckovich’s woes continue in the 4th, when he makes an error that sets up a three-run homer from Tigers #9 hitter Rick Schu, although the Brewers get on the board in the bottom of the 5th with a Gorman Thomas RBI single to make it 5-1. Vuckovich then settles down, but the Brewers just can’t sustain a rally against Tanana, and the game ends at that 5-1 score as the Tigers finally get a win despite only managing 5 hits against Vuckovich.
With all of the first round games being ELO-rank mismatches (but with upsets in 2 of 3 so far), the matchup between the 2011 Red Sox and the 1968 Senators was the most lopsided. The Red Sox were the ELO regional favorite, winning 90 games and having a killer lineup, headed by DH David Ortiz, in which all nine had a SLG% over .400. That was not going to be happening for a 1968 team, and certainly not for the last-place Senators, who lost 96 games and had exactly one position player with a SLG% over .400. That one player was Frank Howard, who made Ortiz look like Little Papi by slugging 44 homers in the Year of the Pitcher. It was the Nats’ Camilo Pascual (13-12, 2.69) against Josh Beckett (13-7, 2.89), and the Bosox put up a run in the top of the 1st when Ortiz hits into a DP, which kills the rally but scores Pedroia from third. They add another when Kevin Youkilis leads off the 2nd with a homer, and two more in the 3rd on an Adrian Gonzalez RBI single and a Mike Epstein error make it 4-0. Boston is starting to feel pretty cocky, but a 3-run homer by Ken McMullen in the bottom of the 3rd makes it a ballgame. Pascual then holds the Sox scoreless in the top of the 4th, and in the bottom of the inning Epstein atones for his error, missing a HR 1-15 split on Beckett’s card but driving in two on the resulting double and the Senators lead 5-4. Boston ties it in the 6th when Howard manages to turn a Carl Crawford flyball into a 3-base error, and Pedroia drives in Crawford with a single; however, Pedroia (1-16) is later cut down trying to score with a 17 roll. The Red Sox lose RF Josh Reddick to injury in the 8th, and with things not going their way they bring in closer Jonathan Papelbon when Beckett walks the leadoff batter in the bottom of the inning. He burns through the bottom of the Washington order, and when Pascual starts the 9th with a single to Crawford, the Nats have no comparable bullpen ace and stick with Camilo. That works, courtesy of another Ortiz GIDP, and Papelbon again goes 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th and we head to extra innings. Pascual gets in trouble immediately in the 10th with a single and a walk; injury replacement JD Drew then singles but Gonzalez is cut down at the plate trying to put the Sox ahead. Papelbon again sets the Senators down in order, and we head to the 11th with Washington forced to bring in Denny Higgins out of the pen to relieve the burnt Pascual. He allows 2 hits but the Sox can’t convert, so it’s Daniel Bard out of the bullpen to begin the bottom of the 11th. Bard records two straight outs off his card on a HR 1-4/flyB split and a TR 1-8/flyB split, bringing up Del Unser, hitting .230 with 1 HR. It’s that HR 1-4/flyB split again, split roll…1. Game over, the third walk-off game in this regional, and the Senators get the big upset win in 11 innings, 6–5.
The survivors
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| Gem interrupted |
The second semifinal matched a 103-loss 1989 Tigers team against the 96-loss 1968 Senators, an improbable if not balanced pairing. The Tigers were hoping that the Senators might confuse Paul Gibson (4-8, 4.64) with Bob, while Washington’s Joe Coleman (12-16, 3.27) enjoyed the benefits of the Year of the Pitcher. The Senators take a 1-0 lead in the 2nd on a Bernie Allen sac fly, but that lead proves very short-lived when in the top of the 3rd a Pat Sheridan RBI single is followed by a 3-run homer from Fred Lynn. The Nats immediately counterpunch in the bottom of the inning, with Ed Stroud converting a 2-run blast off Gibson’s card, and in the 5th Mike Epstein ties it with a clutch two-out RBI single. However, in the 8th Coleman begins the inning by dropping a grounder, then issues two walks, but the Washington pen is bad and they let him pitch to Chet Lemon. Lemon nails a bases-clearing double off Coleman’s card, and then Coleman walks another and, determined to get the ball over the plate, promptly grooves one to Mike Heath for a 3-run HR that makes it 10-4 Tigers. The Senators yank Coleman at that point out of mercy, but by then it doesn’t matter as Gibson closes out the 10-4 win to send the Tigers into the finals as a considerable underdog.
With respect to the regional ELO seedings, the final between the 1960 Giants and the 1989 Tigers looked fairly balanced, pitting the #4 seed against #6, but this masked a large gulf between the actual rankings that had the Giants as a “good” team (one of the top 1000 ever) and the Tigers as “bad” one (not in the top 2000). The Giants had a deep rotation, and with three decent options tapped Jack Sanford (12-14, 3.82); the Tigers had only two choices and had to go with a bad Doyle Alexander (6-18, 4.44) over an even worse Jack Morris. And the Giants give Alexander a strong case of the Willies in the top of the 1st, with a Willie Mays triple followed by a Willie McCovey homer that makes it 3-0 Giants before Sanford has thrown a pitch. However, these Tigers didn’t get this far for nothing, and their leadoff hitter Gary Pettis converts a SI 1-3, steals second, and then scores on a Chet Lemon single to signal that they don’t intend to go down without a fight. However, at that point both starters get in a groove, until in the 8th Alexander allows a single and a walk and the Tigers call in Frank Williams from the pen to try to keep the game within reach. Although Williams allows nobody on base, the Giants do get a run on a sac fly from yet another Willie, Kirkland, and the score is now 4-1. Sanford is on cruise control until the bottom of the 9th, when he gets two quick outs but then walks Dave Bergman. Pat Sheridan then hits a lazy flyball that CF-1 Willie Mays inexplicably drops, and the tying run is now at the plate in the form of Fred Lynn. Sanford bears down, strikes Lynn out, and the Giants capture their 9th regional title with the 6-hitter from Sanford. The Big 3 of Cepeda, Mays, and McCovey share regional MVP honors, as they collectively drove in 11 of the 14 runs scored by the Giants in the bracket.
REGIONAL #122: This seemed to be the regional of the Reds, with three representatives from three different decades selected for the bracket. However, I didn’t remember any of them as great teams, although the ‘67 version was only a few years away from the beginning of a dynasty. Instead, teams that caught my eye were the ‘85 Padres, a year after winning the NL and putting the Cubs away, and the 2012 Mets that were a few years away from an NL pennant. I decided to go with the trend of more modern teams doing well, and picked the Mets over the Padres, and I was unsure if the latter would survive against the most modern team in the bracket, the A’s. The ELO ranks selected the 2018 A’s, the only postseason team in this collection, over the ‘50 Braves (who had won the NL just two seasons prior) in the finals--both teams that I had overlooked.
First round action
I had overlooked the 1950 Braves in thinking about regional favorites, but the ELO ranks recognized that this was the “Spahn, Sain, and a day of rain” era Braves that had won the NL two years prior, and both of those pitchers won 20 this season to lead the team to an 83-71 record. Even so, they would only be considered slight favorites over the 87-75 1967 Reds, who were an enlarging Red Machine with many of the cogs in place, albeit not fully developed (e.g., a young Johnny Bench hitting .163). The matchup of Spahn (21-17, 3.16) against Mel Queen (14-8, 2.76) looked like a good one, but the Reds get to Spahn immediately in the top of the 1st when a Tony Perez sac fly scores Pete Rose. Spahn is not sharp and walks the bases loaded in the 3rd but whiffs Lee May to end the inning unscathed, which seems to buoy the Braves who then torch Queen for four hits in the bottom of the inning for three runs. The Braves add another run in the 5th on a Bob Elliott fielder’s choice, which looks necessary as Spahn continues to struggle, allowing three straight singles to open the 6th. However, the Reds only convert those into one run on a Rose sac fly, Spahn clings to the 4-2 lead, and to begin the 7th the Braves summon some defensive replacements to shore up their terrible fielding to try to support their ace. Spahn does seem to settle down, recording his first 1-2-3 inning in the 8th, and Bob Elliott finds Queen’s HR result in the bottom of the inning to provide some insurance and a 5-2 lead. That insurance seems badly needed, as two quick singles by Rose and Perez bring up Lee May as the potential tying run at the plate with one out. May singles, scoring Rose, but Spahn again gets out of the jam without further damage and the Braves outlast the Reds 5-3, getting the win despite only managing six hits.
After the ELO rankings suggested that my blind pick of the 2012 Mets was ill-informed, I was interested to see what I had selected, and although they lost 88 games they looked like a decent team to me, with David Wright (who has been money for other Mets teams in this tourney) having a strong year. They were still underdogs to the 80-82 2005 Blue Jays, and the pitching matchup was a good one with Jays ace Roy Halladay (12-4, 2.41) against 20-game winner RA Dickey (20-6, 2.73). Things start out ominously for the Jays when their 2B-1 Orlando Hudson drops the first ball of the game, but that runner is erased trying for third on a Daniel Murphy single and Halladay fans Wright to keep the Mets off the board. The Jays ride that momentum in the bottom of the inning as Aaron Hill doubles and Frank Catalanotto singles him home to give Toronto the early 1-0 lead. The Jays score two more in the 3rd, courtesy of a Catalanotto double on a missed HR split, and Halladay keeps getting out of jams caused primarily by poor Toronto defense. In the 7th, Dickey commits a 2-base error to start the inning, and the Mets bring in Matt Harvey, but Vernon Wells singles in the unearned run and the Jays lead extends to 4-0. That’s all Halladay needs, as he finishes up a 5-hitter sustaining the shutout despite three Toronto errors, and the Jays move on to the semis.
The 1985 Padres were coming off their first NL pennant in franchise history, and although they slipped to an 83-79 record they still had players like Gwynn, Garvey, and Gossage that got them to the Series the previous year. Their opponents, the 1927 Reds, may have come from the Year of the Babe but they had absolutely no power, with their top HR hitter managing only 6 HRs, but they still managed to go 75-78 with the help of some decent pitchers. The Padres tapped Dave Dravecky (13-11, 2.93) to go against the Reds’ Dolf Luque (13-12, 3.19). The Padres get lucky against Luque in the 3rd, when doubles by Garry Templeton and Bruce Bochy produce a 2-0 lead, but their luck runs dry in the 4th when runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out fail to score. The Reds similarly get a triplefrom Red Lucas to lead off the bottom of the inning, but he gets stranded when Padres SS-1 Templeton turns a highlight reel DP to end the inning. The Reds finally mount a threat against Dravecky in the bottom of the 7th, leading off with two straight hard singles, and the Padres turn to relief ace Goose Gossage to try to preserve the lead. However, one run scores on a Tim Flannery error, and the game heads to the 8th with San Diego clinging to a 2-1 lead. The Padres get some insurance runs courtesy of a 2-base error by Reds RF-2 Curt Walker, although Gwynn gets knocked out of the game with a minor injury which doesn’t help the Padres own RF fielding situation. Eager to preserve Gossage for later rounds, the Padres bring in Craig Lefferts to pitch the 9th, and he does the job, only allowing a harmless single by Hughie Critz, and the Padres move to the semifinals with the 4-1 win.
With two of the three Reds squads in this regional already eliminated in the first round, it was up to the 1950 Reds to try to carry the standard, and although they only managed 66 wins, they had an imposing weapon in Ted Kluzewski and an outstanding #1 pitcher in Ewell Blackwell (17-15, 2.97) who finished 11th in the MVP voting. He would need to be at his best against the offensive might of the 2018 A’s, led by Khris Davis’s 48 HR. The A’s won 97 games and made a brief postseason appearance as a wild-card team, leading me to think that their season-ending ELO rating seriously underestimated them; they were sending Sean Manaea (12-9, 3.59) to the mound. The game is scoreless until the 4th, when Davis crushes a 2-run blast; Matt Olson leads off the 7th with another longball, and it’s 3-0 with Manaea settling in after getting out of early jams. Manaea finally loses the shutout in the 9th when Connie Ryan pushes a 2-out single past A’s SS-3 Marcus Semien, and when PH Bob Scheffing singles to bring up Big Klu as the potential winning run, the A’s take no chances and bring in killer closer Blake Treinen, who records the one-pitch save as Klu flies out. The A’s move on with a tight 3-1 win, and the Reds go zero-for-three in the first round of this regional.
The survivors
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| His name barely fits on card |
The semifinal between the 2018 A’s and the 1985 Padres paired the #1 and #3 seeds in the regional. There were two capable starters on the mound in San Diego’s Andy Hawkins (18-8, 3.15) against Trevor Cahill (7-4, 3.76), and although both teams had to use their excellent closers in round one, both would available for limited duty in this game. Ralph Laureano kicks off things for the A’s in the bottom of the 1st with a leadoff homer, but things get quiet as both starters settle in. However, in the top of the 6th the Padres lead off the inning with two straight hard singles, and the A’s sense that the game may be on the line and turn to their closer extraordinaire Blake Treinen to try to preserve the lead with the tying run on 3rd and nobody out. The A’s keep the infield back, and Garvey hits a grounder to Jed Lawrie, who converts the DP but Gwynn scores to tie the game at 1-1. However, in the bottom of the inning Matt Olson hits his second solo shot of the regional and the A’s regain the lead, and with a deep bullpen they decide to preserve Treinen and put in Santiago Casilla to begin the 7th. Casilla tosses two hitless innings, and to begin the 9th the A’s summon Jeurys Familia to try to get the final three outs. He does exactly that, with Marcus Semien converting a game-ending DP, and the A’s stellar bullpen hangs on to push them into the finals winning the 2-1 duel despite recording only 5 hits off Hawkins. However, they lose RF Steven Piscotty to injury for the finals and beyond.
The final matchup between the 2005 Blue Jays and the 2019 A’s was between the top-seeded A’s and the #5 seed Jays, who scored twice as many runs as the A’s in their first two rounds but faced an A’s pitching staff that had only allowed 1 run per game. Both teams were nervous about their starting pitchers, with the Jays sending out Josh Towers (13-12, 3.71) against a gopher-ball prone Mike Fiers (12-8, 3.56), but the A’s were confident in their outstanding bullpen. Doubles by Matt Olson and Marcus Semien in the bottom of the 2nd put the A’s up early, 1-0, and Fiers only allows one hit in 5 innings, but the narrow lead and Fiers tendency to allow the longball prompt the A’s to turn to their pen to begin the 6th, with Chris Bassitt making his first appearance in the regional. However, that doesn’t work as planned when Russ Adams gets a 2-out double on a missed HR split and Aaron Hill singles him home to tie the game. Things remained deadlocked entering the 9th, and the A’s go deeper in their pen to Ryan Buchter, who sets the Jays down in order and the A’s enter the bottom of the 9th looking for walk-off heroics. Towers gets the first two quickly, but then two walks and a Hill error loads the bases, and the Jays bring in Justin Speier to get the last out and send the game to extra innings. The A’s respond by pinch-hitting Chad Pinder for Jonathan Lucroy, but he grounds out and the game heads to the 10th. The Jays get a 2-out double from Reed Johnson in the top of the frame, and the A’s summon Santiago Casilla who retires Orlando Hudson to end the threat. However, in the top of the 12th, Vernon Wells finally connects for the Jays, blasting a solo shot to give the Jays their first lead, and Speier hangs on in the bottom of the inning, recording the final out against Khris Davis as the Jays capture their third regional with a 2-1 extra inning win.
Interesting card of Regional #122: I must confess that it has been years since I played in a Strat league that used contemporary players, and although I buy the new season every year I typically just separate the teams and send them straight into their storage drawers with little more than a glance at most of the cards. It’s really only through this tournament that I discover some gems, like this relief pitcher who was the cream of a really good crop of 2018 A’s relievers. Treinen came in 6th in voting for the Cy Young Award, the top vote-getter among relievers, even though he finished nearly 20 saves behind the league leader in that category. Apparently the voters recognized that Treinen was virtually unhittable, as he was in this regional although other members of the A’s pen faltered in extra innings to lose in the finals. Treinen subsequently became quite hittable in 2019, after which he was traded to the Dodgers where he has been pretty good. However, it seems to me that we don’t see too many relievers anymore who are great year in and year out, for years on end. I wonder if the three-batter minimum rule will increase the chances of seeing the next Mariano Rivera, albeit probably not the next Mike Marshall.
REGIONAL #121: I didn’t think there were any great teams in this group, but I thought that there might be a number of fun ones. I always enjoy teams from the 1970s, and there were representatives from the Indians, Giants, and Expos in this batch. The 1949 Phillies would amaze everyone in the following season by capturing the NL pennant. The 2011 White Sox had just won Regional #119, and their 2010 version was here to try to make it a dynasty. The Braves had just finished winning the Series at the time of this writing, so their team from two years ago probably wasn’t too bad, either. My hunch was that those latter two teams, the White Sox and the Braves, would prevail against the older-school squads, and I had to go with the Sox given their success just two regionals ago, as the prior regional showed that certain runs of teams just seem to have replicable success in this tournament. The ELO rankings predicted the same two teams in the finals but selected the Braves as the regional favorites.
First round action
The first game of the regional featured the oldest team in the group against the newest, and it was hard to imagine that the 64-86 1911 Dodgers would stand much of a chance against the 97-win NL East champ 2019 Braves. For example, everyone in the Braves lineup had a SLG% over .400, and five of them exceeded .500. For the deadball Dodgers, only two players reached .400 (one of them HOFer Zack Wheat), and their starting catcher, Bill Bergen, didn’t even have an OPS that reached .400! Brooklyn did have the capable Nap Rucker (22-18, 2.74) on the mound, but Braves starter Mike Soroka (13-4, 2.68) looked every bit as good, so it looked like an uphill battle for the Dodgers. The game develops into a pitcher’s duel, which is just what Brooklyn wanted, and finally in the 6th the Dodgers load the bases, assisted by a Josh Donaldson error that extends the inning, and Bob Coulson delivers a two-out double that clears the bases and gives the Bums a 3-0 lead, quickly shutting down the tomahawk-chopping crowd. They recover slightly in the bottom of the inning when Ronald Acuna misses a HR 1-7 split but the double scores Adam Duvall, but Acuna is left stranded at second and it’s a 3-1 game heading into the 7th. Two Dodger hits in the 8th chase Soroka, and Jason Webb comes in to face Zack Wheat to try to keep the Braves’ fading hopes alive, and he does his job. This recharges the Braves, who get a run on a sac fly from Donaldson after missing a HR 1/flyB result, and then Acuna laces a double and Duvall heads home with the tying run with only a 1-12 running rating--and of course he’s nailed. But wait, that’s only two outs, and the next batter, Austin Riley, converts a DO 1-11/flyB to score Acuna and the game is tied heading into an uneventful 9th inning, so we head to extra innings. The Braves bring in closer Shane Greene to start the 10th, and things immediately begin to go south. Bergen leads off with a grounder that Donaldson (3B-1) drops for his second error of the game; John Hummell singles to bring up Jake Daubert, who finds and converts Greene’s generous HR split for a three-run blast. It then heads to the bottom of the 10th with Rucker having one inning left in him, but he immediately loads the bases on two squib singles and a walk. He whiffs PH Inciarte for one out, and the Braves then pinch hit for defensive replacement catcher John Ryan Murphy with Tyler Flowers and his better OBP. Big mistake: the roll is a 3-9, whiff on Flowers--solid HR on Murphy, Rucker then retires Albies and it’s game over, Dodgers win 6-3. Credit my boneheaded managing with the loss, as the decisions to pull Webb and Murphy both led to a quick tournament exit for the Braves.
After setting the lineups for the 1970 Indians and the 1973 Giants, I felt that the matchup between the two teams was closer than their records suggested. The Indians may have gone 76-86, but they had some pop up and down the lineup and Sudden Sam McDowell (20-12, 2.92) finished 3rd in the Cy Young balloting. Similarly, the 88-74 Giants also had weapons in the form of Bonds and McCovey, and they also had the 3rd place finisher for the Cy Young award, Ron Bryant (24-12, 3.53) having his career year. McDowell starts out shaky, escaping a jam in the 1st but unable to do so in the 2nd when Dave Kingman scores on a Chris Speier fielder's choice. In the 3rd, the Giants have two consecutive Gar(r)y M.’s (Maddox and Matthews) hit McDowell’s HR 1-10 split consecutively, and both miss it consecutively, leading to two consecutive doubles that put them up 2-0. The Indians don’t get a baserunner until Bryant makes an error in the 4th, and he loses the no-hitter in the 5th with two-out when Ted Uhlaender hits Bryant’s HR 1-13/DO result. Although Uhlaender fails to convert the split, the Indians proceed to rip four more straight hits to tie the game, but Ray Fosse leaves the bases loaded to end the inning. The Giants retake the lead in the 6th when McDowell walks Bonds and McCovey to start the inning, and then with two out Speier brings both of them home with a long single. However, Fosse comes through in the bottom of the 7th with a 2-run homer that chases Bryant, and the Giants turn to 43 year old Don McMahon and his 1.50 ERA to shut down the pesky Indians, and the game remains deadlocked going into the 9th. McDowell sets the Giants down in order, so McMahon is on the spot. He walks Chuck Hinton to begin the inning, strikes out Fosse, but then Roy Foster singles and the Indians send Hinton (1-14) to 3rd, which he actually makes. With runners on the corners, the Giants bring the infield in, but Tony Horton sends a flyball to CF that’s deep enough for Hinton to tag up and score easily, and the Indians secure their first lead of the game in the form of a walk-off 5-4 win.
Their 2011 team took the regional before last, and the 88-win 2010 White Sox were a more successful team and had to be considered contenders in this one. Meanwhile, the 1949 Phillies had been mired in mediocrity for decades, but had an impressive turnaround by going 81-73 giving some inkling that these Whiz Kids would capture the flag the next season. The Phillies had some solid offensive weapons, and were able to get Eddie Waitkus into the lineup through the DH rule even though Waitkus had missed more than half of the season after getting shot by an obsessed 19-year old girl in June. On the mound were staff aces Russ Meyer (17-8, 3.08) for the Phils against the Sox and John Danks (15-11, 3.72), and Meyer blinks first when Gordon Beckham converts Meyer’s HR 1-7 split to lead off the 3rd inning. Danks is in control, but when Waitkus leads off the 7th with a double, the Sox take no chances with the slim lead and bring in Matt Thornton, even though Danks has only allowed 2 hits--both by Waitkus. Thornton strikes out Del Ennis but then grooves one to Andy Seminick, who puts it in the cheap seats of New Comiskey and the Whiz Kids lead 2-1. Thornton allows 3 more hits and 2 more runs in the 8th and he’s gone, but the Phils now hold a 4-1 lead and Meyer hasn’t allowed a hit in three innings. The Phils try to add an insurance run in the 9th but Bill Nicholson is cut down at the plate to end the inning, but it proves unnecessary as Meyer has the Sox on lockdown and he closes out the 5-hitter to propel the Phillies to the semifinals.
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| Fear the Foli |
The survivors
The semifinal matchup between the 1911 Dodgers and 1970 Indians featured two underdog winners from round one, and the Dodgers were hoping that I would continue to make the boneheaded managerial decisions that led them to victory in that round. Although both squads had losing records, both were able to send solid swingmen to the mound in the second round, with Brooklyn’s Elmer Steele (9-9, 2.67) against the Indians and Steve Hargan (11-3, 2.90). The Dodgers strike first when their terrible bottom of the order offense generates a run deadball style, courtesy of a bunt that is beat out and a sac fly from SS Bert Tooley, and they add a second run in the 3rd when 2B John Hummell leads off the inning by finding Hargan’s HR result. The Indians, who had come back from two different two-run deficits in their first game, counter with a run on a Ted Uhlander double and a Jack Heideman sac fly, but in the 5th the Dodgers take a 4-1 lead on a bases-loaded walk to Tex Erwin and a sac fly by Zack Wheat. That is all they would need, as Steele is in command and sends Cleveland back into storage by completing a 3-hitter and the Dodgers make an unlikely trip to the finals seeking to become only the third deadball era team to win a regional.
This semifinal matched the Whiz Kids 1949 Phillies against a bad 1976 Expos team that showed a lot of grit in their first round comeback win, and both squads had serviceable #2 starters on the mound in Phils Ken Heintzelman (17-10, 3.02) against Woodie Fryman (13-13, 3.38). The plucky Expos put up a run in the bottom of the 1st when Phils catcher Andy Seminick (C-1) commits a two out passed ball with Jose Morales on third, and a clutch 2-out Tim Foli RBI double in the 4th makes it 2-0. Meanwhile, the Phils cannot touch Fryman, and he heads into the top of the 9th carrying a shutout. The 9th begins with a single by Waitkus, his 3rd hit of the game, and then Del Ennis doubles and the tying run is in scoring position with nobody out. The Expos consider Murray out of the pen but stick with Fryman, who mows down the next three Phils in order to preserve the shutout and the 2-0 victory. Fryman allows only 5 hits, three by Waitkus; Heintzelman only allows 6 hits but the Expos move on with a chance to be only the second Montreal regional winner--as a 107 loss team.
This regional final involved an extremely unlikely pairing of the two worst-rated teams in the group, the 1911 Dodgers and the 1976 Expos, with either one on the verge of becoming one of the worst teams ever to win a regional--although neither quite stood to “best” the worst team, the 1957 A’s (ELO rank 2246), for that honor. The Expos would have C Barry Foote back from injury for the game, while Brooklyn 2B John Hummel was still out after being injured late in the second round game. On the mound were Expo Don Stanhouse (9-12, 3.77) and Dodger Elmer Knetzer (11-12, 3.49), both hittable but not bad #3 options for two bad teams. However, Knetzer comes unglued in the 2nd after two of the best fielders on the Dodgers, C Bergen and 3B Zimmerman, make back to back errors, and three hits, a couple of walks, and a bases-loaded double from Bombo Rivera later, it’s 6-0 Expos and the sparse crowd at les Stade Olympique est tres excité. Brooklyn does strike back in the 3rd, scoring a run on an RBI single from Hummel’s replacement, Dolly Stark, but Stanhouse regains composure and begins setting down the Dodgers with little trouble. A double from Jose Morales in the 8th pushes the Expos lead to 8-1, and that’s far more than is needed by Stan the Man Unusual as he finished out a 5-hitter to give Montreal only its second regional winner, with the 107-loss 1976 team joining the 90-loss 1991 squad as bad teams that nonetheless refuse to lose. The Expos designate SS-2 Tim Foli as their MVP, with 6 RBI including at least one in every game, and numerous clutch defensive plays as the only non-”4” starting infielder on the team.
