REGIONAL #144:  This was an unusual draw, as for the first time in nearly a hundred regionals there weren’t any teams from this millennium involved.  This is particularly rare because many of the 20th century seasons have now been fully sampled, so the majority of remaining teams are from 2000 forward.  There was a pennant winner in the 1974 Dodgers, and the 1948 Dodgers won a pennant the year before and the year after, so Dodger Blue had a couple of strong representatives.  There were also two variants of Milwaukee teams, including a Braves squad that was a couple of seasons away from greatness.   I guessed that those Braves would meet the ‘74 version of the Dodgers in the final, with LA prevailing.  The ELO ranks agreed, identifying the ‘74 Dodgers among the 100 best teams of all time.

First round action

The 1990 Astros went 75-87, and among their biggest assets were an Astrodome-bolstered pitching staff fronted by scuffballer Mike Scott (9-13, 3.81) and a rarity, an A-stealing catcher by the name of Craig Biggio.  They faced the 85-69 NL runner-up 1955 Braves, who were powered by big years from Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron; the Braves selected Ray Crone (10-9, 3.46) to start but had a good number of options.  However, the favored Braves found themselves in a glen early when a Glenn Davis double and a Glenn Wilson 2-run single gives the Astros a 3-0 lead in the top of the 1st.  That lead proves to be very short-lived, as in the bottom of the inning a Mathews RBI single and a 3-run homer from George Crowe gives the Braves the lead, and it’s looking like a wild one.  Sure enough, Ken Caminiti ties it in the top of the 2nd with an RBI single, and the Astros retake the lead in the 3rd on a Rafael Ramirez fielders choice.  However, in the 4th Braves #9 hitter Danny O’Connell singles and Bobby Thomson (1-13) races home from second to tie the game once again.  The Astros are simply not to be denied, as Wilson leads off the 5th with a homer, and then an Eric Yelding triple and a Biggio double and Crone is yanked and in desperation the Braves insert Warren Spahn on the mound.  Spahn whiffs Casey Candaele to end the inning but it is now Houston 8, Milwaukee 5 and County Stadium is eerily quiet.  The Braves try to rally in the 6th with two hits, but PH Chuck Tanner hits into an inning-ending DP and Scott gets out of the inning unscathed.  A Biggio sac fly adds another run for the Astros in the 7th, and Scott just seems to get stronger as the game goes on, so the Astros wrap up the 9-5 upset win to move on.  However, Ramirez is injured in the 9th inning and he will miss the semifinal game, with Houston lacking much in the way of a viable replacement.  

The 76-76 1911 Yankees (really the Highlanders at the time), typical of a deadball team, didn’t have much power but nonetheless had some guys who could hit, including infamous player/manager Hal Chase, who presumably did most of his hitting when gamblers weren’t paying him not to.   The 1996 Brewers had a similarly mediocre record of 80-82, but got there with guys like Greg Vaughn and John Jaha hitting 30+ homers; however, an extremely shallow rotation that dropped off fast after Ben McDonald (12-10, 3.90) would put them at a disadvantage against New York ace Russ Ford (22-11, 2.27).  In the 3rd, an injury to Brewers CF Pat Listach knocks him out for the tournament, although they seemed to have numerous alternatives without a dropoff in performance.  Both pitchers are in charge until the top of the 6th, when John Jaha jacks a 2-run homer into the cow pasture beyond the Hilltop Park outfield, but at that point Chase apparently decides all bets are off as he leads off the bottom of the inning with a single, steals second, scores on a John Knight double, and then a Jeff Sweeney single serves to tie the game back up.  However, in the 7th injury replacement Matt Mieske delivers a 2-out double and then scores on a Fernando Vina single and the Brewers regain the lead.  New York continues to threaten against McDonald, but the Brewers aren’t wild about their bullpen options and with the prospects of some frightening starters in future rounds, decide to stick with McDonald, who rewards their confidence and closes out the 3-2 win to send the Brewers to the semis.

The 1948 Dodgers went 84-70 to finish 3rd in the NL, and were tweeners after winning in ‘47 and before winning in ‘49.  It was Jackie Robinson’s sophomore year and not a moment too soon, as he was pretty much the main weapon on the Brooklyn offense and they hoped that he and Preacher Roe (12-8, 2.63) would be able to handle the 1993 Twins.  Those Twins lost 91 games and although they might have had a little more offense than the Dodgers, their defense and starting pitching were rough, with Jim Deshaies (11-13, 4.41) looking like the best of some unattractive options.  However, the Twins strike big in the 2nd when LF Pedro Munoz crushes a 3-run homer, and then light-hitting SS Pat Meares goes back-to-back and Minnesota jumps to a four run lead.  Not to be outdone, the Dodgers go on a tear in the top of the 4th, racking up six hits against Deshaies and RBI by familiar names like Campanella, Furillo, Cox and Hodges serve to tie the game.  Undaunted, Munoz leads off the bottom of the inning by depositing Roe’s first pitch over the baggie covering the Metrodome outfield wall, and the Twins regain the lead.  In the 6th, Hodges misses a HR 1-13 split and gets stranded at second, and the Dodgers are having trouble getting anything going against Deshaies.  Nonetheless, the Twins are nervous about Deshaies’ gopher ball tendencies and eye their bullpen, but don’t like their options so they stick with their starter.   And Deshaies does his job–until there are two out in the 9th inning, and one pitch away from the win when Pee Wee Reese rolls the 6-9 that is a solid homer on Deshaies and the game is tied.  The Twins belatedly summon Larry Casian from the pen, and he gets Robinson for the third out, but Roe finds his second wind and blows through the Twins and we head to extra innings.  Casian sets down the Dodgers in the 10th, with Brooklyn DH Bruce Edwards injured on the last out of the inning.  In the bottom of the frame, Roe, in his last inning of eligibility, records two quick outs but then Dave Winfield singles to put the winning run on base with Brian Harper at the plate.   Roe delivers, Harper swings, and it’s gone–a 2-run walkoff homer and the Twins record a hard fought upset with the 7-5 victory.

The 1974 Dodgers won 102 games and the NL, and were an all-around pretty good team–hitting, pitching, and fielding.   Along with NL MVP Steve Garvey, they had an embarrassment of riches in the starting rotation, selecting Andy Messersmith (20-6, 2.59) for the start but with Tommy John and Don Sutton waiting in the wings, who were pretty much just as good.  They faced a punchless 74-72 1947 A’s team, and Connie Mack deserved the HOF just for getting these guys above .500; somehow Phil Marchildon (19-9, 3.22) won 19 games with a team that batted .252 with a collective 61 homers.  The Dodgers load the bases in the top of the 1st but Marchildon gets out of the jam with no damage; they then load the bases again in the top of the 2nd but this time Davey Lopes rolls a HR 1-12, misses the grand slam with a 13 roll, but clears the bases with the resulting double and the sparse Shibe Park crowd gets even quieter.  The Dodgers load the bases yet again in the 4th with two out, and then A’s SS-2 Eddie Joost allows an infield single to Willie Crawford to score one run, and then promptly commits a two-base error on a Joe Ferguson grounder to allow two more.  In the 5th, once again the Dodgers load the bases, and after Marchildon walks in a run, he throws a strike to Jimmy Wynn and the Toy Cannon launches a shot that bounces off the Ballantine Beer scoreboard in RF for a grand slam.  In the 6th, Marchildon is gone, Bob Savage is in, and the Dodgers begin wholesale substitutions to ward off unnecessary injury chances, but it doesn’t matter–LA loads the bases again, sub Tom Paciorek hits a bases clearing triple, and by the time Savage gets the 3rd out, it’s 16-0.  Messersmith is cruising until he loses his composure in the bottom of the 9th, allowing back to back doubles from Hank Majeski and Barney McCoskey, and then a 2-run homer to Sam Chapman off the pitcher’s card, but the Dodgers see no point in wasting a relief pitcher and Messersmith finishes it up with a 16-3 blowout win in which LA raps 16 hits and benefits from six errors by the A’s.

The survivors

The 1996 Brewers and the 1990 Astros were both upset winners in the first round, and although the Brewers were slight ELO favorites any such advantage was erased by going deeper in the rotation, as Houston’s Danny Darwin (11-4, 2.21) was miles better than Milwaukee’s Scott Karl (13-9, 4.86).  Craig Biggio gets it going in the top of the 1st with a leadoff single, steals second, and races home on a Casey Candaele single; the sequence repeats in the 3rd when Biggio walks, steals, and again scores on a Candaele single, except this time Candaele scores on a Glenn Davis double and it’s 3-0 Astros.  The Brewers strike back in the bottom of the 4th with a 2-run triple from Dave Nilsson, but in the top of the 5th an error by Brewer 3B-2 Jeff Cirillo sets up a 2-run Franklin Stubbs homer and Houston pads their advantage.  A leadoff single by Caminiti in the 6th and Karl is pulled in favor of Brewers closer Mike Fetters, but he only gets out of the inning untarnished because Caminiti is nailed trying to score on a Biggio single.  Meanwhile, Darwin cruises until the bottom of the 9th, when he allows two hits and a walk to load the bases with nobody out, and Dave Smith is summoned from the pen with the winning run at the plate in the form of injury replacement Matt Mieske.  Smith delivers, 1-6 roll on Mieske’s card, HR 1-17 and it’s gone–a walk-off grand slam that gives the Brewers the amazing come from behind 6-5 win and the Astros can only look on in disbelief.

As the only favorite that wasn’t upset in round one, the 1974 Dodgers were feeling pretty good about their chances for the regional, particularly with Tommy John (13-3, 2.59) matched against Kevin Tapani (12-15, 4.43) and the 91-loss 1993 Twins.  And most of the Dodger Stadium crowd hadn’t gotten to the park in time to see Jimmy Wynn and Willie Crawford both hit 2-run homers in the bottom of the 3rd to give LA a substantial lead.  The Twins had come from behind in the first round to beat a different Dodger squad, and Dave Winfield leads off the top of the 5th with a homer to serve notice that they don’t plan to go down quietly.  In the 8th, Wynn muffs a flyball from Twins PH Bernardo Brito and the run scores on an RBI single from Chip Hale, but the Dodgers more than get it back when 3B-4 Hale allows a 2-out double and then Kirby Puckett adds a two-base error and the Dodgers lead by four heading into the 9th.  John then sets the Twins down in order to complete the 5-hitter and the Dodgers march to the finals with the 6-2 win. 

The regional final matched the #1 seed 1974 Dodgers against #5 seeded 1996 Brewers, and the pitching matchup between Don Sutton (19-9, 3.23) and Milwaukee’s Angel Miranda (7-6, 4.94) was even more lopsided.  The Dodgers had outscored opponents 26-5 in getting this far, while the Brewers had survived two one-run games, getting outhit in both.  And the Dodgers start off the way they’d been playing all bracket, loading the bases with a two-out rally in the bottom of the first and having them cleared by a Joe Ferguson double, Bill Buckner adds another double, and it’s 4-0 LA after one.  Miranda walks the bases loaded in the 3rd but escapes with just one run scoring on a Steve Yeager fielder’s choice, although a Lopes leadoff homer in the 4th makes it 6-0 and the Brewers have few alternatives after burning their closer in round two.  Even so, a leadoff walk in the 6th is Miranda’s 8th of the game and the Brewers have seen enough, moving to Doug Jones, but Steve Garvey greets Jones with a double and the Dodgers get additional insurance on a Cey sac fly.  Sutton cruises and is ready to roll for the top of the 9th, but the Dodgers need to refresh themselves on the Brewers’ late inning heroics in this tournament.  Greg Vaughn leads off the inning with a homer, Jaha and Nilsson follow with hits, and then Jeff Cirillo brings them all in with a 3-run homer and suddenly it’s a three-run game and there is still nobody out.  The Dodgers finally have to admit that Sutton has nothing left and move to iron horse Mike Marshall out of the pen, and he does the job, wrapping up the 7-4 win and the regional title for the Dodgers.   ELO ranked among the top 100 of all time, the Dodgers were a well-balanced team, and cruised through this regional without much of a contribution from NL MVP Garvey, with guys like Wynn, Lopes, and Joe Ferguson leading the charge.

Interesting card of Regional #144:  In the 2021 season, Zack Wheeler of the Phillies led MLB with 213 innings pitched, assembled in 32 starts.  He was the only pitcher last season who had more innings than this RELIEF pitcher, the one-man bullpen for the regional winning 1974 Dodgers, Mike Marshall.   Marshall won the Cy Young Award as a reliever, appearing in 106 games, leading the NL in saves while also recording 15 wins.  No pitcher has come close to appearing in 106 games, not even in the 19th century, when pitchers were just 50 feet from home plate and throwing underhand.  Marshall began the 1974 season by pitching on five straight days, and beginning in June he appeared in 13 consecutive games; during the season, he pitched on consecutive days 53 times, and once in both games of a doubleheader.   Marshall had a history of being cut or traded from teams because of his opinionated views, many of which were about what was best for his career:  he was drafted as a shortstop but teams resisted his efforts to shift to pitching because of back problems; he was ordered to stop throwing his trademark pitch, the screwball, by several coaches, ironically because it would be hard on his arm.   Perhaps because of his Ph.D. in kinesthesiology, he seemed to know what worked best for him, as he had a long career that saw him lead the AL in saves with 90 appearances with the Twins at the age of 36.

REGIONAL #143:  My random team selector program apparently decided it was time to wrap up some old business by including the final tournament team from various old-school leagues in this bracket.  However, the main attention-getter here was the World Series Champion 2000 Yankees, a team that should be highly favored–but the Jeter-era Yanks were currently 0 for 5 in regional wins, so there seemed to be a monkey on their back.  There were plenty of contenders who might pull off an upset–teams from the Cubs and pre-miracle Mets that might be on the rise, teams like the Cardinals and Red Sox who were declining from pennants but probably still formidable, and the only other team from this century could also prove tough as they often do.  I figured that it was time for this version of the Yanks to cast off their curse as the 50s Yanks had done a few regionals back, guessing that they would best those 21st century A’s in the finals.   I was surprised to discover that the ELO rankings identified the 1949 Cardinals as the favorites, even though they didn’t win the NL, picking them to down the Yanks in the semis as well as the A’s in the final.

First round action

The 1949 Cardinals won 96 games to finish one game behind the Dodgers for the NL pennant, but the ELO rankings had them as the favorite in this bracket, with an excellent starting rotation and Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter on hand to provide the offense.  After a solid performance from the ‘63 Cubs in the prior regional, I had thought that the 1966 Cubs would be even better, but that was definitely not the case, as this team lost 103 games to finish last in the NL, giving the Mets a chance to finally escape the cellar.  The team still had the Santo/Williams/Banks core, but Dick Ellsworth lost 22 games after winning 20 in ‘63, so the Cubs instead decided to try out 23-year old Canadian Fergie Jenkins (6-8, 3.32) to go against Cards ace Howie Pollet (20-9, 2.77).  It was looking like things weren’t in the cards for the Cards in the top of the 1st, when an error by 2B-1 Red Schoendienst set up a Billy Williams RBI single to give the Cubs the lead.  That lead proves to be shortlived as Stan Musial whallops a 2-run blast into the nether reaches of Sportsman’s Park in the bottom of the inning, and the Cards get another in the 2nd as an error by Cubs SS-3 Don Kessinger sets up a two-out Del Rice flyball that LF-4 Byron Browne manages to turn into a triple.  Things are quiet until the 7th, when the Cubs lead off with three straight singles, and convert them into two runs on a Beckert FC and a Williams sac fly, so the game is tied for the 7th inning stretch.  When Tommy Glaviano leads off the bottom of the 8th by converting a split single, the Cubs look in their bullpen and see nothing but disaster, so Jenkins remains in to pitch to Musial–-and it doesn’t matter who was pitching, it’s another 1-4 roll and another 2-run homer for Stan the Man.  The porous Cubs defense then allows more hits and the Cards ultimately wrap up the 8th with a four run lead, and although the Cubs come out fighting in the 9th with a Beckert triple leading to two runs, it was not enough and the Cards survive a dogfight to move on with the 7-5 win.

The 2000 Yankees did win the AL and the Series, although they only went 87-74 in the regular season; they had a killer offense in the midst of the steroid era but a so-so rotation and some defensive holes such as Chuck Knoblauch’s “5” rating at 2B.    Speaking of steroids, it would be Roger Clemens (13-8, 3.70) on the mound in a subway series of sorts against the 1938 Dodgers and Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons (11-8, 3.02).  The Dodgers were a 69-80 team and might not have had a starting player that could have cracked the Yankees lineup, but they had a couple of supersubs who could make things interesting after the 5th inning.  In the top of the 2nd, Dodgers DH Buddy Hassett finds Clemens’ HR result for a 1-0 lead, but in the 3rd their cleanup hitter and catcher Babe Phelps is knocked out of the game with an injury.  Johnny Hudson’s fielders choice makes it 2-0 in the 4th, and meanwhile the Yanks are getting runners into scoring position but are not able to convert.   The Dodgers then come up with a three-run outburst in the 5th, with the last out coming on a 1-13 runner nailed at the plate, and Clemens is yanked for Jeff Nelson with the Bombers in a deep hole.  The Yankees can’t do anything against Fitzsimmons until the 9th, when Bernie Williams leads off with a single and then two straight walks brings up home run monster Glenallen Hill with the bases loaded and nobody out.  But Hill misses a SI 1-10, Paul O’Neill hits a fielders choice that scores a run but costs an out, and Tino Martinez pops out, and another Jeter-era Yankees pennant winner bites the dust in round one as the Dodgers move on with a 5-1 victory.

The 1986 Rangers were not a bad team, winning 87 games to finish 2nd in the AL West and boasting a lineup with some power, although after knuckleballer Charlie Hough (17-10, 3.79) the rotation got bad quickly.  They were nonetheless underdogs to the 94-win AL West champion 2012 A’s, a team with big ups (the heart of the order, the deep bullpen) and downs (the bottom of the order, the back end of the starting rotation), with Jarrod Parker (13-8, 3.47) getting the game one start.   A Larry Parrish sac fly puts the Rangers up in the top of the 1st, but in the bottom of the inning Younis Cespedes gets hold of a knuckler that doesn’t and deposits it in the cheap seats for a 3-run blast.  However, Texas ties it before Parker can record an out in the 2nd courtesy of a Ruben Sierra triple, but in the 4th Coco Crisp singles, gets his second stolen base of the game, and scores on a Cespedes single and the A’s regain a 4-3 lead.  Once again, the Rangers strike back to take the lead on a Toby Harrah RBI single and a Scott Fletcher fielders choice, and the A’s decide it’s time to explore their vaunted bullpen and pull Parker for Sean Doolittle.  He does his job, and Grant Balfour relieves him in the 5th.  In the 7th, the Rangers put in their defensive replacements and eye Hough’s gopher ball results nervously, but Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams isn’t inspiring much confidence in the bullpen so they stick with Hough.  Of course, Kurt Suzuki promptly finds one of Hough’s longball results and the game is tied.  Meanwhile, Balfour finishes up two perfect innings and gives way to Evan Scribner, but when the Rangers lead off the 9th with a walk followed by a double from defensive replacement Steve Buechele to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, the A’s bring in Pat Neshek and his 1.37 ERA, with nary a hit on his card.  Neshek comes through in flying colors, preventing any runs, and now it’s Texas’ turn to hold ‘em–and Hough does exactly that, so we head to extra innings.  Neshek dominates the top of the 10th, while Hough, in his final inning of eligibility, walks the first two A’s but Buechele expertly turns a double play to end the inning and the game continues.  Wanting to preserve Neshek’s eligibility, the A’s move to Ryan Cook for the top of the 11th; he does his job, and now it’s Greg Harris’ turn to face the A’s in the bottom of the inning.  He faces exactly one batter, Josh Reddick, who wraps a shot around the foul pole for a walk-off homer in the 11th that gives the A’s, who used six pitchers, the 6-5 win.  

All of the first round games in this bracket had a clear favorite, and in this matchup that favorite was the 1970 Red Sox, who won 87 games to finish 3rd in the AL East but had a strong lineup with big years from Yaz and Reggie Smith, and a capable rotation fronted by Ray Culp (17-14, 3.05).   They faced the 101-loss, last place 1967 Mets, who were just beginning to assemble the pieces for their miracle, with a big one being Rookie of the Year Tom Seaver (16-13, 2.76).   Both pitchers start the game in control, and nothing crosses the plate until Mets 2B Jerry Buchek unexpectedly knocks one over the Green Monster in the 7th to give the Mets a lead, so the game now rests on young Tom Terrific’s shoulders.  And he comes up big, mowing down the heart of the Boston order in the bottom of the 9th to give the Mets the upset 1-0 win in a great pitching duel, with both pitchers tossing three-hitters.

The survivors

The 1938 Dodgers had pulled off a big upset in the first round, but they were going into the semifinals without their cleanup hitter Babe Phelps and facing a steady dropoff in the quality of their rotation, particularly after Luke Hamlin (12-15, 3.68).  They would need another upset against regional favorite 1949 Cardinals, who were sending Gerry Staley (10-10, 2.73) to the mound as one of a number of decent options.  In the bottom of the 1st Dodger CF Ernie Koy, moved into the cleanup spot because of the Phelps injury, justifies that move with a 2-run homer for a quick Brooklyn lead.  The Cards load the bases up in the 5th, and DH Eddie Kazak hits a sac fly that scores Slaughter but also somehow manages to cripple Hamlin for an ugly 10 game injury, and the Dodgers have to turn to Fred Frankhouse as the only not-horrible bullpen option.  However, in the 5th Tommy Glaviano converts Frankhouse’s HR result to tie the game, but in the 6th the Dodgers load the bases and get a run on PH Fred Sington’s sac fly to regain the lead.  That lead doesn’t last long, as the Cards rack Frankhouse for four runs in the 7th, including a 2-run 2-out single for Slaughter, but a 2-out double from Cookie Lavagetto gets a run back for the Dodgers.  However, Frankhouse just can’t get it done and two more Cardinal runs in the 8th and a Musial RBI single in the 9th against new Brooklyn pitcher Lee Rogers spell doom for the plucky Dodgers and the Cards head to the finals with a 9-4 victory.  They win despite three errors, one from their CF-1 Diering and two from their SS-2 Marion. 

After their extra-inning battle in the first round, the 2012 A’s were hoping that swingman Travis Blackley (6-4, 4.10) might be able to give their bullpen a rest, as pretty much any reliever used here would be burnt for a possible regional final.   And, the A’s were reasonably confident against the 101-loss 1967 Mets, who had Don Cardwell (5-9, 3.58) trying to follow Tom Seaver’s tremendous opening act.  But Cardwell allows more runs than Seaver after three batters, when Brandon Moss triples in Johnny Gomes and then a Yoenis Cespedes sac fly gives the A’s the immediate 2-0 edge.  In the 2nd, A’s 2B Jemile Weeks comes up strong with a solo homer off Cardwell to extend the lead, but Mets’ game one offense Jerry Buchek matches that in the bottom of the inning to narrow the gap to 3-1.   Back to back doubles from Kurt Suzuki and Coco Crisp set up two more runs for the A’s in the 5th, and then two A’s singles to open the 8th and Cardwell yields to Ron Taylor, who is victimized by a bad play from Mets CF-4 Cleon Jones for another run.   Meanwhile, Blackley does just what the doctor ordered, finishing with a 5-hit complete game to rest the pen and send the A’s to the finals at full strength with a 6-1 win.

This was the regional final predicted by the ELO ranks, with the top-ranked 1949 Cardinals facing the division-winning 2012 A’s for the blue ribbon.  The Cards and their deep rotation had Harry Brecheen (14-11, 3.35) ready to go against the A’s Brandon McCarthy (8-6, 3.24), who was charged with getting the game to the A’s talented bullpen.  That meant that St. Louis was looking for a quick start, and they got it, reeling off seven hits against McCarthy in the top of the 1st and he only records one out before letting up his requisite five runs to give way to Ryan Cook.   Cook finally gets Cards leadoff hitter Red Schoendienst to hit into a DP (meaning that he accounted for all three outs in the inning) but it’s 6-0 before the A’s get a chance to bat.  A succession of A’s relievers hold the Cards in check, but Brecheen doesn’t allow his second hit of the game until Brandon Moss leads off the 7th with a homer.  The A’s add a sac fly by Josh Reddick in the bottom of the 9th but it’s not enough as the Cards take the 6-2 win and the regional.  Brecheen finishes with a 5-hitter, while the Cards amassed 10 hits–eight of them in the first inning.  

Interesting card of Regional #143:  Typically I wouldn’t highlight a player from a team that had been eliminated in the first round, and especially a card that by tournament rules wasn’t eligible.  See, in 2000 Glenallen Hill got both a Yankee-only and a combined card; my guidelines mandate that the card with the most AB/IP has to be used in the game, and this card is his Yankee-only version, meaning that his other card (which was also imposing) was used in the Yankees first round loss.  However, I feel obligated to spotlight Mr. Hill’s card here because I made fun of his 2001 card in Regional #81 as the worst DH card I had ever seen.  That 2001 card represented an OPS of .318, a bit of a dropoff from the 1.112 portrayed here.  I challenge anyone to find a player who had two more different Strat cards in consecutive seasons.

REGIONAL #142:  No pennant winners in this batch, although there were a couple that were close.  For example, the ‘85 Tigers had captured the flag as a great team the season before, although that team had been upset in the finals of Regional #50.  Among the rest, I knew that the 2000 Mariners would have a record-setting season the following year, although even the 2001 team couldn’t win the pennant.  There was the second 2021 team to enter the tournament, but I didn’t think it would be a very good one; I thought that maybe ‘24 Browns or the ‘51 Red Sox would emerge from the lower half of the bracket.  Ultimately my prediction was for the Tigers to take the Red Sox in the final;  the ELO rankings suggested that my short term memory may be shot (or perhaps I simply wasn’t paying much attention last season), as it picked the 2021 Blue Jays as the best team in the group, forecasting a win for them over the Tigers in the final.

First round action

In the years since the 1924 White Sox played, the franchise has seen exactly one Series winner, and that team got embarrassed in the first round in the previous regional, so perhaps this 1924 Sox team can make up for it.  Unfortunately for them, they were busy atoning for the Black Sox scandal that resulted in many of their best players having recently been banned from baseball, and they went 66-87 to finish last in the AL, but they had some good players and a 20-game winner in Sloppy Thurston (20-14, 3.80) ready to go on the mound.  However, they were marked underdogs to the 2000 Mariners, a 91-win team that came within two ALCS games of the AL pennant–and the next season they would win 116.   The Mariners had a frightening core of the order anchored by ARod and Edgar Martinez, but their starting rotation was as expected from a steroid-era team, with Paul Abbott (9-7, 4.22) handed the first round start.  The Sox draw first blood with a run in the top of the 1st on a Bibb Falk sac fly, and in the 3rd the M’s lose 3B David Bell for four games to injury; although Bell isn’t a prominent part of the Seattle offense, he’s the only third baseman on the team that isn’t a 5 so that would likely come back to haunt them.  In the 5th Falk come up for the Sox with 2 out and 2 on, and he rolls Abbott’s HR 1-16/DO result, misses the split with an 18, and then Buck Crouse (1-12) is nailed at the plate with a 17 split, so the Sox get one but the split die costs them two more.  The Mariners then respond in the bottom of the inning with a two-out rally keyed by a Mark McLemore RBI double, and the game is tied.  When Willie Kamm leads off the 7th with a double off Abbott’s card, the Mariners decide it’s time for the pen and Arthur Rhodes comes in, but Sox PH Roy Elsh singles and Kamm races home to give the Sox the lead.  The next batter, DH Maurice Archdeacon, lofts a fly ball to RF that Jay Buhner turns into a double, and that brings up Eddie Collins, who rips a grounder to injury replacement 3B-5 Carlos Guillen.  Of course, Guillen drops it, another run comes in, Collins steals second, and Bibb Falk doubles to pick up RBI numbers three and four and Rhodes is a goner after recording just one out and the Sox end the inning leading 7-2.  Trying to get back into the game, EMart leads off the 8th with a double and ARod walks to bring up Buhner–who promptly hits a LOMAX for the triple play and the remaining fans at Safeco head for the exits.  However, they should have stayed put, as in the bottom of the 9th Thurston gets two straight outs, but then Widger and Guillen hit back to back doubles, McLemore walks, and Mike Cameron blasts a three-run homer to make it a one run game.  EMart then singles to bring up ARod as the winning run, and the Sox have no bullpen so it’s up to Sloppy.  And he lives up to his name as ARod flies out and the Sox record a Sloppy 7-6 win to move to the second round.

The 1985 Tigers were a year removed from a World Series championship, but although they fielded essentially the same team  as those victors, they only managed an 84-77 performance.  Still, they were light years better on paper than the 98-loss 1993 Marlins, as about the best that could be said about them was that they had some good arms in the bullpen.  Still, to avoid being overconfident, the Tigers tapped their ace Jack Morris (16-11, 3.33) to start against knuckleballer Charlie Hough (9-16, 4.27).  The Tigers take a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a long solo shot from their second batter, Lou Whitaker, and Darrell Evans leads off the 4th with another blast to make it a two run lead.  Meanwhile, the Marlins hit into three DPs in their first five innings to make Morris’ job easier, but in the 6th they lead off with two straight hits and, after Gary Sheffield whiffs, DH Orestes Destrade doubles to score one, but the Marlins put the brakes on 1-9 Dave Madagan and then he gets stranded as Morris strikes out two in a row and it’s a one-run game.  When Chet Lemon leads off the bottom of the 6th with a single, the Marlins figure that it’s time to take advantage of their strong bullpen and summon Chris Carpenter to the mound, but he allows a few hits including an RBI single to Alan Trammell, and the Marlins are lucky to escape with just that as 1B-3 Jeff Conine converts a tough play to end the inning with the bases loaded.   When Carpenter puts two more on in the bottom of the 7th it’s time for closer Bryan Harvey, who not only gets the third out but makes the play himself.  However, it’s for naught as Morris closes out the 7-hitter and the Tigers move on with a 3-1 win.

The 1951 Red Sox had some imposing offensive weapons, led by the Splendid Splinter, that pushed them to an 87-67 record, but the rotation was mediocre, the team was slow and their defense was porous.  Deciding to save swingman Ellis Kinder for their shallow bullpen, the Sox went with the capable Mel Parnell (18-11, 3.26) against a 74-78 1924 Browns team that had George Sisler, Ken Williams, and Baby Doll Jacobson but a similarly unimpressive rotation fronted by Ernie Wingard (13-12, 3.51).  The Browns grab the lead in the 3rd when Jack Tobin hits a 2-out double and Marty McManus singles him home with the clutch hit, but in the bottom of the 4th Ted Williams, Vern Stephens, and Lou Boudreau all rap doubles and the Red Sox take a 3-1 lead.  That only lasts until the 6th, when Baby Doll hits a 2-run double that is followed by a 2-run homer from Gene Robertson and the Browns now lead 5-3.  In the bottom of the 7th, Buddy Rosar, who had been brought in for his defense back when Boston had a lead, smacks a leadoff triple, and he scores when Bobby Doerr raps a single through a drawn-in infield that makes it a one-run game, although the rally ends when Williams hits into Boston’s fourth DP of the game.  When Hank Severeid leads off the top of the 9th with a double, the Sox finally move to Kinder out of the pen, but although he gets two quick outs McManus delivers once again with a 2-out RBI single to give the Browns a little padding. That leaves it up to Wingard, and he records two outs but then Rosar singles and C-4 Pat Collins drops a popup to bring up Doerr as the winning run, with Williams on deck.  But Doerr flies out and the Browns notch a 6-4 win, the second upset of the regional for these gritty 1924 teams.  

I apparently overlooked the 2021 Blue Jays in predicting the bracket, perhaps because although they were a 4th place team in their division, they still won 91 games.  I could see how they would get the top ELO ranking in the regional–a very good rotation led by Cy Young winner Robbie Ray (13-7, 2.84), strong arms in the pen, and a power packed lineup led by famous offspring with names such as Biggio, Guerrero, and Bichette.  However, they had their weaknesses; Ray had a tendency to throw gopher balls and the three aforementioned kids apparently never learned how to field from their fathers, as all three were “4”s at their position.  However, the 1963 Cubs were also better than I had given them credit for, going 82-80 with a solid core in Santo/Williams/Banks and I was surprised to find an outstanding starter, Dick Ellsworth (22-10, 2.10), who received some MVP votes and who I thought had a better card than Ray’s.   The Jays grab the lead in the 2nd when Teoscar Hernandez leads off by crushing one onto Waveland Avenue, but Billy Williams blasts his own leadoff shot in the bottom of the 4th to tie it up.    Randal Grichuk drives in Hernandez with a sac fly in the 7th to give the Jays the edge and the defensive replacements start coming in, and Ray is dominant until the bottom of the 9th, when with one out Ken Hubbs finds one of Ray’s HR results to tie the game.  When Andre Rogers follows with a single that’s it for Ray, and Adam Cimber (with no HR chances on his card) comes in with the winning run on board.  Nevertheless, his first pitch to pinch hitter Jimmie Schaffer gets deposited in the bleachers and Wrigley erupts as Cubs win, Cubs win, 4-2 in walkoff style, as Ellsworth gets his win with a nifty 4-hitter.

The survivors

The first round of the regional involved four games with clear favorites, but only one of those four actually survived:  the 1985 Tigers, who were counting on Dan Petry (15-13, 3.36) to lead them past the upstart 1924 White Sox and Hall of Famer Red Faber (9-11, 3.85).  The Sox scrape up a run in the top of the 1st on a Harry Hooper fielder’s choice, but an error by Sox 2b-2 Eddie Collins allows the Tigers to plate a similar run in the 2nd without recording a hit.  The Sox run themselves out of a run when Collins is caught stealing in the 6th and Bibb Falk follows with a double that almost certainly would have scored Collins from first, with Falk getting stranded at second.  Lance Parrish, pumped after nailing AA Collins in the top half of the inning, leads off the bottom half with a long blast to give Detroit a lead.  And from there Petry is in control, finishing off the 5-hitter for the 2-1 win to send the Tigers to the final, despite a line score for the game that reads 2 hits, 2 runs, and 2 errors.

Two upset winners from the first round pair off in this semifinal game, the 1924 Browns and the 1963 Cubs, with the Cubs tapping swingman Paul Toth (5-9, 3.09) to go against the Browns and   Dixie Davis (11-13, 4.10).  Both teams are starting a very good Williams in LF, and it’s the Browns version, Ken Williams, who makes the first impact, crushing a 3-run homer into the Wrigley bleachers in the top of the 1st, and that’s only the beginning as the Browns bat around with 6 hits leading to a 6-0 lead before the Cubs can bat.  Toth settles down after that, but when Baby Doll Jacobson leads off the 5th with a solid double and Gene Robertson singles to drive him home, Toth is out and Lindy McDaniel tries his hand, but the hits keep coming and the Browns lead expands to 9-0 and they starting putting in replacements as insurance against injuries.  Those subs don’t let up and they score another two in the 6th, although the Cubs finally get on the board in the bottom of the inning on a solo homer from soon-to-be-traded Lou Brock.  Two straight hits to lead off the Browns’ 7th and McDaniel is gone for Don Elston, but that doesn’t help much as Marty McManus’s RBI on a fielder’s choice makes him the 9th Brown in the starting lineup to drive in a run.  In the 8th, the hero of the Cubs round one game, Jimmie Schaeffer, does it again and hits a PH solo homer to give the few remaining Cubs fans something to cheer, but he comes up again in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded and runs out of heroics as the Browns seal the 13-2 blowout (outhitting the Cubs 20 to 6) and a berth in the finals.

In ten previous chances, no Browns team had ever captured a regional, and they had only made the finals once before, with the 1930 team crushed in the final of Regional #40.  Thus, the 1924 Browns, the #5 seed in this regional, carry the hopes of the brand against the #3 seeded 1985 Tigers.   For a final, it was a pretty good pitching matchup with Walt Terrell (15-10, 3.85) facing Urban Shocker (18-13, 4.20), and it would be particularly interesting to see how the Browns bats, who had 33 hits and 19 runs in their first two games, would fare against the Tigers pitching and defense, which had allowed only 2 runs total in their games.  The answer seems to come quickly in the bottom of the 2nd when the Browns lead off with four straight hits and end the rally holding a 3-0 lead.  The Tigers waste no time in chipping away at that lead as Chet Lemon leads off the 3rd with a homer, but Ken Williams retaliates with a solo blast of his own in the bottom of the inning and it’s 4-1 Browns.  In the 4th, Browns RF-2 Jack Tobin muffs a Lou Whitaker flyball and Lance Parrish doubles Lou home to narrow the gap, but George Sisler leads off the bottom of the inning with a double on a missed HR split and scores on a Norm McMillan single…but Browns SS Wally Gerber ends the inning by getting injured and the only replacements available are SS-5.  A leadoff walk in the 7th chases Terrell, but Willie Hernandez comes in only to be greeted by Marty McManus rolling a 4-4, solid homer on Willie, Gene Robertson later adds an RBI single, and there is dancing in the streets in St. Louis.  However, the mood gets more subdued when Darrell Evans crushes one with Trammell and Whitaker aboard, and it’s now 8-5 entering the 9th, Shocker showing signs of tiring, and nobody in the Browns pen worth mentioning.  But Urban sets the Tigers down in order with two of them being strikeouts, and the St. Louis Browns capture their first regional with the 8-5 win.

Interesting card of Regional #142:  It seemed only fitting to feature the primary weapon of the Browns given that they won their first (and probably last) regional, especially because Ken Williams is among the most overlooked players in baseball history.  Why is that?  Perhaps it’s because he might only be the third best Williams to play left field; perhaps it’s because people confuse him with the guy who made all those bad decisions as White Sox GM.  But he was relatively anonymous even at the time; apparently a St. Louis photographer was sent to the park to get a picture of Williams after he had a three-homer game, and the photographer mistakenly took a shot of Baby Doll Jacobson instead.  Williams was one of only two guys not named Babe Ruth to lead the American League in homers during the 1920s, and any Strat fan who loved the Old Timer teams should celebrate the 100th anniversary of his great card for the 1922 Browns.  In an era where the game was transitioning from one of speed to one of power, Williams was one of the few who could offer both; ending with a career batting average of .319, he was one of the greats of his time and unlike many other greats in this tournament, he came through to lead his team to the regional win.