REGIONAL #129:  This bracket promised to be an interesting mix of teams, with the feature attraction being the 1992 Blue Jays, a pennant-winner and WS champs.  Plus, if they were to be upset, there was backup, because the 1994 Jays were also here–from a season in which there was no Series.  There was also a Royals team that had won a pennant a few seasons earlier, versions of the Orioles and Yankees that were in-between pennant runs, Angels and Cubs squads that were probably decent, and a bad 1968 Yankees team from their CBS years in the wilderness.  Other than those Yanks, I thought that anyone could win this, but I took the easy way out and picked the champion ‘92 Jays over the Orioles in the finals.  For the first time in a while, the ELO numbers agreed with my picks, although I found it interesting that the ‘92 Jays were only ranked as the 5th best team that season.

First round action  

The matchup between the 2017 Royals and the 1994 Blue Jays featured two teams in decline after having won pennants two years prior.  The Royals went a mediocre 80-82 and although they still had some weapons, their starting rotation was not what it had been, with Jason Vargas (18-11, 4.16) getting the #1 starting role.  The Blue Jays went a similar 55-60; at the plate they were still led by Joe Carter, and Pat Hentgen (13-8, 3.40) was on the mound, but he had a rough introduction as the Royals 1 and 3 hitters, Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas, both hit solo HRs in the top of the 1st to give KC a quick 2-0 lead.  That lead evaporates in the bottom of the inning as the Jays rap three hits, including a leadoff triple by Mike Huff, and CF-2 Cain makes a two-base error, and the game is tied up 2-2.  Things stay that way until the 5th, when Paul Molitor finds Vargas’ solid 5-9 HR result; Vargas stays in until the 6th when a LF-4 Melky Cabrera error puts two Jays in scoring position, but Mike Minor comes in to a similar RF-4 Jorge Bonifacio error, and Minor simply loses it as the Jays bat around and leave the inning with a 9-2 lead.   It ends that way as Hentgen recovers from his first inning beating to hold the Royals to three hits the rest of the way.

The 1976 Orioles won 88 games to finish in the AL East; they had two 20-game winners and Reggie Jackson–who I had forgotten made a brief stop in Baltimore between the A’s and the Yanks– so you’d think they’d be a pretty good team, but it was testimony to the dropoff in their lineup that good field/no hit SS Mark Belanger actually had the 3rd highest batting average on the team.  The 1991 Yankees, on the other hand, lost 91 games and they had one decent starting pitcher, Scott Sanderson (16-10, 3.81) who nonetheless did not compare favorably to the O’s Jim Palmer (22-13, 2.51).   The bottom of the 1st has both good news and bad news for the Yanks, as Steve Sax and Mel Hall both hit doubles off Palmer’s very good card to give NY a 1-0 lead, but they lose cleanup hitter Matt Nokes to injury for the rest of the regional.  Meanwhile, Sanderson is perfect until a walk to Ken Singleton in the 5th, but that leads to nothing and then a Pat Kelly solo HR, again off Palmer’s card, makes it 2-0 in the bottom of the inning.  In the 7th, Singleton misses a SI* 1-16 split with a 19 roll, and the no-hitter persists.  In the bottom of the 7th, Jesse Barfield crushes a moon shot to lead off the inning, and the Yanks put in all the defensive hands they can muster to try to support Sanderson.  He puts the O’s down 1-2-3 in the 8th, and so in the 9th it’s the heart of the Baltimore order standing in the way of the tournament’s first gem.  Belanger goes down; Reggie whiffs in spectacular fashion, and the last remaining obstacle is Lee May:  the roll, 3-11, another whiff and Scott Sanderson becomes the first pitcher in tournament history, after more than 800 games and 1000 different teams played, to pitch a NO-HITTER.  He allows only three baserunners on walks, and the Yanks move on with a landmark 3-0 win.

The 1992 Blue Jays were the lone pennant winner in the bracket, but although they won 96 games and the Series, the ELO ranks listed them as only the 5th best team in baseball that season–far behind the Braves team that they defeated in six games in the WS.  They had a solid rotation, and gave the start to Juan Guzman (16-5, 2.64).   The Jays would face Greg Maddux (18-8, 3.18) and the 77-85 1988 Cubs, but Maddux has a rocky 3rd inning when RBI doubles from John Olderud and Dave Winfield, and a 2-run single by Joe Carter, make it 4-0 Jays.   They add another run in the 7th when Roberto Alomar singles, steals second, and scores on an Olerud single, but the Cubs get that one back in the 8th with a leadoff triple from Ryne Sandberg, who scores on a Vance Law single that makes it 5-1.  However, the Jays then pour it on in the bottom of the inning, including a 2-run Kelly Gruber triple, and by the time the inning is over Goose Gossage is on the mound struggling to end the inning and the Jays lead 9-1.  The Cubs go down meekly in the 9th and head back to storage as a second Jays team reaches the regional semifinal with Guzman’s 3-hit, 9-1 win.

The 2012 Angels went 89-73, but they looked like a better team to me, paced by a remarkable 20-year-old rookie named Mike Trout and able to send Jered Weaver (20-5, 2.61), who finished third in the AL Cy Young balloting, to the mound in the first round.  Their opponent was the 1968 Yankees, whose 83-79 record was better than I remembered, and after looking at their punchless Year of the Pitcher lineup, probably better than they deserved.  However, given the year it’s not surprising that Mel Stottlemyre (21-12, 2.45) was a plenty capable starter, who in fact finished 10th in the MVP voting.  The Yanks manufacture a run in the 4th when Mickey Mantle walks, takes third on a Joe Pepitone single, and then scores on a sac fly from Andy Kosco.  They get another in the 6th from a Roy White triple followed by an error from Angels’ SS-2 Eric Aybar, but the Angels get that one back when Trout walks, goes to 3rd on a Pujols single, and scores on a Mark Trumbo sac fly.  However, a developing rally is killed by a Howie Kendrick gbA, and the Yanks cling to a 2-1 lead after six.  On a whim, the Yanks decide to pinch hit for Jake Gibbs with aging slugger Rocky Colavito, ineligible to start with only 91 ABs, but Rocco makes Ralph Houk look like a genius with a soaring solo blast to give NY some padding.  It immediately looks like it will be needed, as in the bottom of the inning the Angels load the bases on 2 singles and a walk; Aybar hits a fielders’ choice to score a run, and then with two outs Pujols crushes a double off the top of the wall and two more runs score to give the Angels their first lead at 4-3.  When Weaver walks Roy White to lead off the 8th, the Angels take no chances and bring in closer Ernesto Frieri to try to finish things out.  Frieri whiffs Mantle, but then grooves one to Joe Pepitone, who crushes it for a 2-run homer and the Yanks regain the lead.  In the 9th, a Frieri error and a Horace Clarke single give NY another run, so the Angels come up in the bottom of the 9th down two with the top of the order up and Stottlemyre trying to finish what he started.    He does so, setting down the Angels in order for the 6-4 win, and sends another Yankee team to the semis, where they will each wrestle with Blue Jays teams to see if one franchise can score a regional sweep.

The survivors

The first of the two New York-Toronto semifinals featured the 1994 Blue Jays against the 1991 Yankees.  The Yanks were trying to figure out how to follow-up on their first round no-hitter, but the dropoff in their rotation was substantial and it seemed like swingman Greg Cadaret (8-6, 3.62) would give them their best shot at the finals.  The Jays decided to go with a “like father, like son” theme, starting Todd Stottlemyre (7-7, 4.22) whose dad had won for the other Yankee team in the first round.  However, Todd does something in the bottom of the 1st that his father didn’t do in his game:  allow a home run, a 2-run blast by Mel Hall and the Yanks grab an early lead.  Caderet’s wildness loads up the bases for the Jays in the 2nd, and another walk and a squib single by Mike Huff quickly ties the game back up.  NY puts together a rally in the 5th and RBI singles from Hall and Roberto Kelly give them a 4-2 lead, and Cadaret just gets better and better, not allowing a hit after that second inning.  However, when he walks Joe Carter to lead off the 9th, the Yankees move to their erratic closer Steve Howe, and he sets the Jays down 1-2-3 to clinch the 4-2 win for the Yanks and an unexpected trip to the finals after two upset wins.

It’s now the second of the two New York-Toronto semifinals, and the 1968 Yankees are once again underdogs to the top-seeded, pennant winning 1992 Blue Jays, although a very different Yankee team upset a very similar Jays squad in the other semi.  The Jays had Jack Morris (21-6, 4.04), 5th in the Cy Young voting at age 37, on the mound but NY’s Stan Bahnsen (17-12, 2.06) probably had the better card.  And the Yanks find some of the problems with Morris’s card in the bottom of the 1st, rapping 5 hits, including a 2-run homer by Mickey Mantle and an RBI triple from Bill Robinson, and the upstart New Yorkers jump to a 4-0 lead.  The Jays finally get something going in the 5th, and Roberto Alomar’s 2-run triple narrows the NY lead to 4-2.  In the top of the 7th, Pat Borders misses a HR 1-13/DO split but scores on a Manuel Lee single, but the Yankees increase the gap with a 2-run blast from Andy Kosco in the 8th that chases Morris.  The Bahnsen Burner then puts the Jays down quietly in the 9th, and the Yanks win 6-3 to go on to a final that is all New York, New York.

The list of Yankee pennant winners who failed to capture their regional is lengthy, and includes some of their most famous teams, such 1927, 1936, 1961, and virtually all of the pennant winners from the 50s and the Jeter years.  Given their history of success, their opportunities for disappointment are also extensive, but this regional suggests that maybe the secret for tournament success isn’t in their great teams, but in their mediocre ones.  And so it is that the regional final pits the #5 seed 1968 Yankees against the #8 seed 1991 Yankees.  Given than the ‘91 team had only allowed a total of 3 hits in the two previous games, it might be difficult to believe that their bad pitching earned them their low ranking–but by the time they get to a third starter, with Eric Plunk (2-5, 4.76) chosen, the options are not good.  In contrast, the ‘68 team has a deep rotation, with Fritz Peterson (12-11, 2.63) better than many #1 starters in recent regionals.  Things are quiet until the bottom of the 4th, when Joe Pepitone leads off with a long homer, and Bill Robinson later adds his second RBI triple of the regional and the ‘68s take a 3-0 lead.  A 2-run blast from Mickey Mantle makes it 5-0 and chases Plunk in favor of John Habyan, who slows down the ‘68s for a while, at least until the 7th when back to back doubles from Andy Kosco and Robinson, and a 2-run homer from backup catcher Frank Fernandez, and it’s now 9-0 in favor of the ‘68s.  Peterson loses his shutout in the 8th when he drops a 2-out Mel Hall grounder that opens the door for a 2-run Roberto Kelly homer, but that all the ‘91s can do as the 1968 Yankees win 9-2 and capture the regional as the team I had singled out as LEAST likely to do so.  The Yanks award the MVP to Mickey Mantle for his pair of two-run homers in the regional, perhaps out of sentiment for his final season, but arguably Pepitone and Kosco were equally deserving.

Interesting card of Regional #129:  In July 2000, I went to a Rockies-Dodgers day game at Coors Field with my dad, my brother (both sadly now gone), and my oldest son.  We had pretty good seats, maybe 15 rows from the field down the right field line, and although I was by far the biggest baseball fan in the group, everyone was enjoying the festivities as it was an unusual Thursday day game on a beautiful clear day.  My son, who was probably about 13 or 14 at the time, decided he wanted to visit concessions and was walking down a large aisle parallel to the field, with his back to home plate–where Shawn Green of the Dodgers was at bat.  Green promptly rips a screaming liner into the stands in our area, where it clocks some poor woman, ricochets high into the air, and drops neatly into the hands of my surprised son, who after all was a Little League first baseman.  He’s about 20 feet away, and turns to us waving the ball triumphantly, while behind him Coors Field medical staff is helping the woman to the infirmary.  To this day, I’ve never landed a ball from an MLB game, and this ball (pictured) is the only one that anybody going with me has ever snagged.  I hope the woman who got the assist was and is okay; I will say that she probably would have been a lot safer if this Shawn Green card, his first, was at bat that day.  Although you wouldn’t guess it from this card, Green turned out to be a very good hitter, retiring with a career .850 OPS–quite a bit better than the .239 OPS he put up in 1994.