REGIONAL #161:  This bracket draw included two pair, including two Phillies teams from adjacent years–the two immediately following their pennant in 1983.  The other duo involved the Brewers, one shortly after their one year as the Pilots and the other shortly before they jumped from the AL to the NL.   There was also the final tournament entry from the deadball 1911 season, an A’s team that was similar to one that exited quickly in the last regional, and Pirates and Padres representatives that I suspected were fairly undistinguished.  I predicted an all-Philly Phinal, with the ‘84 version of the Phils, being fresh off their pennant, would emerge on top.  The ELO rankings agreed with my estimation, and ranked those ‘84 Phillies as really the only good team in the group.

First round action

The 75-87 1985 Phillies had seriously declined from their ‘83 pennant, with an aging Mike Schmidt moving to first base but still their main offensive weapon, and Steve Carlton moving to irrelevance with Kevin Gross (15-13, 3.41) fronting a so-so rotation backed by a decent bullpen.  They were nonetheless ELO favorites over the 93-loss 1998 Pirates, who were entering years of ineptitude, here represented by their all-”4” DP combo that probably wouldn’t be much help to starter Francisco Cordova (13-14, 3.31).  The Phillies burst out quickly in the top of the 1st with Luis Aguayo leading off the game with a homer, and then a Schmidt double is followed by RBI singles from Ozzie Virgil and Rick Schu and it’s 3-0 Phils before the western Pennsylvanians can swing a bat.  Things don’t get better for the Pirates, as in the 3rd a couple of fielding mishaps by their SS-4 Lou Collier sets up an RBI single for Juan Samuel and a 2-run base hit for Schmidt, and Cordova is yanked for Jason Christiansen who retires the side but the Phils now lead 7-0.  After Christiansen holds the Phils in the top of the 4th, the Pirates take heart and get rolling in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run homer from DH Freddy Garcia, and Jason Kendall adds another 2-run shot in the 5th and it’s starting to look like a ballgame.  But Glenn Wilson finds a solid double on Christiansen’s card to begin the 6th and Virgil singles him home and the Phils extend their lead to 8-4.  Wilson then leads off the 8th with a homer against new Pirates reliever Ricardo Rincon, and then Rincon walks the bases loaded in the 9th to set up a 2-run single for Wilson while another run scores after C-2 Kendall drops a popup with two out.  Kendall atones somewhat with an RBI single in the bottom of the 9th but Gross is good enough to complete the game and preserve the pen as the Phils waltz to the easy 12-5 win.

Most of the Seattle Pilots were gone from the 91-loss 1972 Brewers, but they still reeked of expansion with a collection of has-beens, albeit having a not-terrible starting rotation with Jim Lonborg (14-12, 2.83) hoping to recapture past glories.  Fortunately for them, they faced the 74-88 1983 A’s, whose ELO ranking wasn’t much better, and much like the ‘82 that made a rapid exit in the previous regional they had a AAA Rickey Henderson at the top of order and not much after him.  Steve McCatty (6-9, 3.99) would get the starting nod but like most of the rest of the rotation, his control left something to be desired.  The pitchers are in control early, but in the 5th A’s RF-3 Mike Davis turns a Ron Theobald fly into a double, setting up an RBI single for Ellie Rodriguez and the Brewers move in front briefly until Dwayne Murphy leads off the bottom of the inning with a long homer that ties it back up.  In the 6th, the A’s take the lead when Henderson singles, steals his second base of the game, and Carney Lansford drives him in with a single and it’s 2-1 Oakland.  When Downtown Ollie Brown leads off the top of the 8th with a double, the A’s pull McCatty for Tom Burgmeier, who promptly allows two straight singles off his card, the second one an RBI for George Scott, and the game is tied once again.  But who should be leading off the bottom of the inning but Henderson, who singles, steals second, and scores on another Lansford hit, chasing Lonborg for Frank Linzy.   Linzy faces Davey Lopes, who manages to convert Linzy’s HR 1-5/flyB split and the A’s take charge.  It’s then just up to Burgmeier to escape the 9th, and he comes through unscathed and unlike two Henderson-led teams in the last regional, the A’s this time move on to the second round with a 5-2 victory.

The 1984 Phillies were a better team than the ‘85 version that was still alive in the top half of this bracket, with their 81-81 record a six game improvement and sporting a viable Steve Carlton, although they opted to go with John Denny (7-7, 2.45) for their first round matchup against the 1911 Indians.  The Indians would be the final 1911 season team to enter the tournament, and only one–the Senators–had captured a regional, with most of the deadball era teams simply being outgunned by more modern squads.  Despite being ELO underdogs to the Phils, the Indians had a better record at 80-73 and had a top part of the order that boasted Shoeless Joe (4th in the MVP balloting) as well as Nap Lajoie, who was so important to the team that their nickname was actually the Naps rather than the Indians at the time.  Furthermore, the Naps had Vean Gregg (23-7, 1.80) on the mound, a rookie who led the AL in ERA and could have won the Cy Young Award, except for the fact that the 44-year old Young was still pitching for the team and would be available out of the bullpen.  Both pitchers begin the game in fine form, and there is no score until the bottom of the 5th when Ivy Olson singles and Cleveland plays 1911 smallball, sacrificing him to 2nd from where he scores on a 2-out Lajoie base hit.  However, in the 6th the Phils decide they can play that game, and when PH Jeff Stone walks, he steals second and scores on a 2-out Mike Schmidt single and the game is tied.  Then, in the 7th Sixto Lezcano gets a hold of a Gregg fastball that goes into hitherto unknown parts of League Park, and that solo shot puts the Phils up 2-1.  Smallball fails the Naps in the bottom of the inning when Olson is caught stealing on a botched hit and run, and the Phils threaten to blow it open in the top of the 8th loading up the bases, but Lezcano flies out to end the inning with no additional insurance, so they bring in the defensive replacements to support Denny.  In the bottom of the 9th, Terry Turner leads off with a single and advances to second on the hit and run, and gets to third on a groundout by PH Syd Smith.   That brings up Jack Graney with the tying run on 3rd, and the Phils eye their bullpen but stick with Denny, and Graney rolls a SI 1-2/lo on Denny’s card; the split die teeters on a “1” but comes to rest on the 7 and the Phils survive the 2-1 duel to advance to the semifinals.  

The second Milwaukee team in the regional was a little bit better than the other entrant from 25 years earlier, as the 1997 Brewers went 78-83 aided by some steroid-era power, although their pitching staff after Ben McDonald (8-7, 4.06) was frightening.  They were also slight ELO favorites over a 76-86 2013 Padres team that had a rather nondescript lineup, although Andrew Cashner (10-9, 3.09) had a strong card as their round one starter.  The game remains scoreless until the bottom of the 4th, when Will Venable leads off by finding and converting McDonald’s HR split, although John Jaha returns the favor with a HR off Cashner in the 6th and the game is tied.  Jeromy Burnitz then crushes a two-run shot in the 8th to put the Brewers up for the first time in the game, and armed with the lead they bring in closer Doug Jones to pitch the last two innings.  In the 8th, the Padres lose their top hitter Carlos Quentin to a 15 game injury, and Jones holds San Diego scoreless for his two innings to send the Brewers to the semis with a 3-1 win, despite a 6-hitter from Cashner.  

The survivors

This semifinal matched near-contemporaries in the #2 seed 1985 Phillies against the #7 seeded 1984 A’s, although their ELO ranks were not as different as the seeding might suggest.  The Phils tapped Shane Rawley (13-8, 3.31) for the start, although like pretty much all of the Philadelphia rotation, his card was not as good as his stats might suggest.  The A’s went with Chris Codoroli (12-12, 4.46), mainly because the rest of the rotation couldn’t seem to throw strikes as the team was the second worst in the AL in walks allowed.   Things are quiet until the top of the 5th, when Garry Maddox finds and converts the HR split on Codoroli for a 2-run shot, and when in the 6th Von Hayes singles and then PH Alan Knicely delivers a double to put two runners in scoring position, the A’s opt for Tom Burgmeier again out of the pen.  Tom Foley greets Burgmeier with a single that scores Hayes, but 1-17 PR Jeff Stone is out at the plate trying to score a second run.  However, Foley eventually scores on a Luis Aguayo RBI single, and then an error by A’s 3B-3 Carney Lansford loads up the bases for Mike Schmidt; Burgmeier is overcautious and walks in a run, and then is undercautious to Glenn Wilson who puts it in the corner for a bases-clearing triple that chases Burgmeier for Gorman Heimueller.  He records the final out but the Phils now lead 8-0 and wholesale defensive substitution ensues.  Davey Lopes gets the A’s on the board in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff homer, but that is the last hit Rawley allows as he closes out a 6-hitter and the Phils move to the finals with the easy 8-1 win and must wait to see if they will face their ‘84 selves for the regional title.

The top seeded 1984 Phillies decided to place their chances to make the final on the strong left arm of Hall of Famer Steve Carlton (13-7, 3.58), as they were a little nervous after scoring only two runs in the opener.  For the 1997 Brewers, it was Jose Mercedes (7-10, 3.79) on the mound for a team that had only put up three runs themselves, so both offenses were looking to break out this game.  It was the Brewers who fired the first shot, as Carlton walks Jeff Cirillo in the bottom of the 1st and he races home on a Jeromy Burnitz double to make it 1-0.  That doesn’t last long, as Phils DH Tim Corcoran blasts a leadoff HR off Mercedes’ card in the top of the 2nd, and in the 4th Mike Schmidt hits a tape measure shot with the bases empty to give the Phils the lead.  In the bottom of the 5th the Philly defense comes up short, with LF-3 Glenn Wilson allowing a double and then an error by 2b-4 Juan Samuel sets up an RBI on a fielder’s choice for Marc Newfield.  However, Brewers SS Jose Valentin gets injured for 7 games, and the game remains tied when the inning ends with Mike Matheny (1-13) getting nailed at the plate trying to score the go-ahead run on a single.  Both starters remain in control until the 9th, when a Corcoran single is followed by Ozzie Virgil missing a HR 1-14/DO split, but the 1-11 Corcoran is barely safe at home for a Phils lead.  The Brewers have then seen too many Mercedes bends, and Doug Jones comes in to retire the side.  It’s then up to Carlton in the bottom of the 9th, but Dave Nilsson singles, and pinch runner Chuck Carr races to third on another single by injury replacement Mark Loretta, so the winning run is aboard.  The Phils bring the infield in and decide to let Lefty try to work out of his jam, but Gerald Williams singles off Carlton’s card and the game is tied with one out and the winning run 90 feet away.  The Brewers send up PH Jesse Levis to face Carlton, who refuses to come out of the game, and Levis calmly lines a single into the gap and it’s game over, with the Brewers winning a wild come from behind walk-off 4-3 victory–dashing the hopes of the City of Brotherly Love for a monopoly on the finals. 

The regional final matched the #2 seed 1985 Phillies, who had outscored the opposition 20-6 in the first two rounds, against the #4 seeded 1997 Brewers, who squeaked into the final with a 7-4 run differential.  Not only were the Brewers ELO underdogs, but they would not have their starting shortstop to support the shaky arm of Scott Karl (10-13, 4.47), their best of bad options, while the Phils went with Charles Hudson (8-13, 3.78) who had better stats but that wasn’t entirely evident in his card.  The fireworks start in the bottom of the 1st when John Jaha jacks a 2-out 2-run homer to put the Brewers up, but Von Hayes narrows the gap in the top of the 2nd with an RBI single.  Milwaukee gets the run back in the bottom of the inning when Jeff Cirillo finds Hudson’s solid 6-4 HR result for a 2-out solo shot, and when Phils SS-2 Tom Foley makes an error in the 3rd and Mike Matheny gets a gbA+ with a held runner for an RBI single, Hudson loses it, grooving one to #9 hitter Marc Newfield who deposits it in the stands for a 3-run shot that blows the game open.  A double by Julio Franco and Hudson is gone, with Don Carman coming in to get the final out, but the Brewers lead is now 7-1.  The Phils get a run in the 4th but it comes when Rick Schu hits into a DP, and although Carman gives them four no-hit innings, their offense is having no success closing the gap against Karl.  With Carman spent in the 7th, the Phils bring in aging Steve Carlton to see if he can atone for the 9th inning loss his younger self earned against these same Brewers in the second round, and he holds the Brewers, with the last Milwaukee hitter of the game, C Mike Matheny, getting injured for 4 games.  But it is to no avail as Karl finishes out a 7-hitter and the Brewers roll to the 7-2 win and the regional crown, the 4th such accomplishment for the franchise joining 1987, 1990, and 2003.  However, they will face some future challenges, as they will be missing their starting catcher and shortstop when they enter super-regional play as a sub-.500 team.

Interesting card(s) of Regional #161:  I’ve never selected three cards for this feature before, but this situation struck me as an oddity.  According to tournament rules, the starters for the game (who must play for at least 5 innings) will be the players with the most ABs at their primary position; for left field on the 1984 Phillies, that was Glenn Wilson, who hit .240 with 6 HR in 341 AB.  What was odd about this situation was that the Phils had THREE players, all with LF as their primary position, who were FAR better than Wilson, and this was back when the company printed only 24 players (including extras) per team.   Has there ever been another team with as much bench strength in left field?? Even after all these years, I remembered Stone’s card as a one-year wonder once I saw it, but I’d forgotten about the other two; Corcoran’s card in particular is killer, and he was selected for team DH honors in this tournament.  This was Stone’s rookie season, and he actually came in 7th in the Rookie of the Year balloting despite his limited ABs; however, it was Gross, with the least impressive card of the three, that had the most successful career.  Unfortunately, these Phillies didn’t last very long in the tournament, mainly because they couldn’t seem to put up many runs; perhaps they would have gone further if there had been some plausible way to get all three of these guys in the lineup for the entire game.