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.