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.

Fear the Foli

The 1976 Expos lost 107 games, nearly as many as when the franchise began in 1969, although they were beginning to assemble some young pieces that would make them competitive in the near future.  The 77-win 2000 Royals were a product of the steroid era, with much better offense than the Expos but terrible pitching--although they had strong defense, with an all-”2” infield to back up starter Makoto Suzuki (8-10, 4.34).  By contrast, the Expos’ Steve Rogers (7-17, 3.21) had a much better card despite his gruesome W-L record, and Montreal gives Capt. America a lead to work with when DH Jose Morales finds Suzuki’s HR result in the bottom of the 1st for a 2-run blast.  However, Rogers’ defense lets him down in the 3rd as the Royal poke three singles past bad Expo fielders to tie the game, but in the bottom of the inning two Suzuki walks lead to a Tim Foli sac fly and Montreal regains the lead, 3-2.  In the 4th with two on, KC LF Bombo Rivera misses a HR 1-3 result with a 4 split, and Ellis Valentine and his 1-16 speed tries to score on the resulting double and the 18 split roll adds insult to injury, but the Expos do now lead 4-2.  The Royals respond immediately in the 5th as Dave McCarty delivers a clutch 2-out single that scores two and ties the game once again.  In the 6th, the Royals take advantage of an error by Montreal C Barry Foote to pour on two more runs on RBI singles from Mike Sweeney and Johnny Damon, and Rogers is struggling but there is little help in the Expos bullpen.  But les Expos aren’t done yet, and two walks and doubles by Earl Williams and Foli lead to three runs to give them the lead 7-6 after seven.  However, when Rogers starts the 8th with a single and a walk allowed, the Expos have to try someone different, and Dale Murray gets the responsibility to try to preserve the lead.  That goes badly, with two straight singles off Murray’s card scoring both inherited baserunners, and the Royals regain the lead 8-7.  The game then heads to the 9th, and Murray sets down the Royals, so it’s up to Suzuki to try to hang on--but he walks Morales and then Earl Williams doubles, so it’s the tying and winning run both in scoring position with nobody out, and the Royals also have to try something different, so Ricky Bottalico comes in to try to get out of a terrible jam.  The infield comes in for Larry Parrish--but Bottalico fans him on three pitches.  Next up is Del Unser, infield still in...whiff.  It’s now up to Tim Foli, with two RBI already in the game, and--the roll is 1-5, SI**, and Foli is mobbed as the Expos survive with a wild walk-off 9-8 win that saw six lead changes.  

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.

Interesting card of Regional #121:  So he managed to lose the game and get his team eliminated in the first round, but this feature is about interesting cards, not great performances.  For one thing, this allows me to show off a nice red-print Old Timer team card that I’ve held onto since my childhood.  Second, it allows me to show remarkable bookends to a lengthy and successful career as a reliever.  The card on the left is that of a 27-year old rookie who had little success in the minors as a starter, but showed promise as a reliever and found himself brought up at the end of June to serve as the closer for a pennant contender--pitching five scoreless innings in three games in relief during the Braves World Series win over the Yanks.   The card on the right is McMahon as he appeared in this regional at age 43; that season he was the Giants’ pitching coach but as their bullpen fell apart, in desperation McMahon was activated, once again at the end of June, and once again with quite similar success.  After he retired the next year, McMahon continued to coach; in 1987, he was pitching batting practice for the Dodgers and suffered a heart attack on the mound, dying a few hours later.  I’m betting he was hard to hit even at the very end.