IN MEMORIAM:  As has become a tradition as the year draws to a close, I would like to pay tribute to the team of players that we have lost in the past year.  For those with keen visual acuity, I’ve included some images of ancient cardstock just to underscore how long these players have been a part of my life through Strat.  There are some favorites here:  Brooskie, Hondo, Yo-Yo, even Joe Pepitone and his infamous rug.  Every one of these players have made multiple appearances in my endless tournament, and they make up a pretty good squad that could compete with anybody.  They will be missed by their families, friends, and fans, but their baseball skills–both strengths and weaknesses–will live on, immortalized on cardstock as long as we Strat enthusiasts are able to keep rolling those dice.  

REGIONAL #216:  This bracket was dealt a hand with three pair, sporting multiple entries from the Dodgers, Padres, and Cubs.  Only of those had won a pennant, the Padres from ‘84, but there was a Cubs team that was two years away from winning the NL in 1929, and both of the remaining two entries, the Indians and the Yankees, had won pennants two years prior.  I was really uncertain about a favorite in this group, as I suspected the ‘84 Padres faced tough competition against the 2011 Yankees in the first round, although by my calculations the latter was a Jeter-led squad and those have specialized in first-round exits in this tournament.  My recollection was that ‘84 San Diego was not that great a team, getting demolished by the Tigers in the Series,, and so I predicted that the run of bad luck for the Jeters would finally end and the Yanks would prevail over the Indians in the finals.   I was amazed to discover that the ELO rankings made an identical prediction, listing the Yankees as one of the 100 best teams of all-time. 

First round action

The 2008 Padres lost 99 games with shoddy defense and lackluster offense aside from Adrian Gonzalez, who did get a few MVP votes as the only credible star in the lineup; however, Jake Peavy (10-11, 2.85) was a good #1 starter who deserved better.  A ways up the coast, the 1996 Dodgers won 90 games and made a brief postseason appearance as as wild card, courtesy of 30+ HR seasons from MVP runner-up Mike Piazza and Eric Karros and a solid rotation fronted by Hideo Nomo (16-11, 3.19), who was 4th in the Cy Young sweepstakes.  However, it’s the Padres who jump to the early lead in the top of the 3rd when Brian Giles converts his HR split for a 2-run shot, and things could have been much worse if Dodgers CF-4 Roger Cedeno hadn’t hauled in a two-out flyball with runners in scoring position.  The Dodgers load the bases in the bottom of the inning but Peavy strands them all, although Jake’s luck runs out in the 5th when Dodgers DH Billy Ashley crushes a 3-run homer deep into the Ravine to put LA up by a run.  That lead proves to be short-lived as Scott Hairston counters with a 2-out 2-run homer in the top of the 6th to put the Padres back on top, and when Giles rolls his HR result again leading off the 8th but missing it for a double, Nomo is gone for Mark Guthrie, who promptly allows a single off his card to Jody Gerut that drives in the run.  Armed with that insurance, Peavy finishes out the game with three hitless innings and the Padres pull off the 5-3 upset to earn a trip to the semifinals.

This first round matchup paired two teams that were within two years of winning a pennant.  The 1927 Cubs went 85-68 behind MVP vote-getters Gabby Hartnett, Riggs Stephenson and Hack Wilson, and Charlie Root (26-15, 3.76) was actually their top MVP vote-getter, leading all other pitchers in those pre-Cy Young Award days.  The 1999 Indians won 97 games and the AL Central, but were eliminated in the ALDS probably due to a weak rotation after big Bartolo Colon (16-5, 3.95) who finished 4th in the Cy Young votes; certainly the offense was imposing, with Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez 3 & 4 for the MVP not to mention strong years from HOFers Harold Baines and Jim Thome.  For all of the Tribe’s power threats, it’s the Cubs who create fireworks in the 3rd with solo homers from Stephenson and Wilson for an early 2-0 lead. Hartnett completes the MVP triumvirat by leading off the 4th with a longball, while the Indians keep stranding runners in scoring position.  Finally, in the bottom of the 5th Roberto Alomar crushes a 2-run homer to make it a one-run game, but in the 8th Stephenson rolls his HR split again, and although he misses the split roll it’s still an RBI double to pad the Cubs lead a little.  When Pete Scott follows with another RBI double, Colon is drained and Mike Jackson comes in to tell Wilson to Beat It with a strikeout, but the Cubs nonetheless now lead by three.  Root retires the last nine Indians in a row and the old-school Cubs prevail, 5-2. 

With one representative already out, the 2010 Dodgers now carried the hopes for the franchise, and although they sported a poorer 80-82 record a 22-year old Clayton Kershaw (13-10, 2.91) should give them a fighting chance against anyone.  The 1994 Cubs were seeking to duplicate the success of their franchise in the previous game, but this was also the weaker of their two entries going 49-64 in that strike year with Sammy Sosa as the main weapon to support swingman Jim Bullinger (6-2, 3.60).   It’s the Cubs who strike first with Eddie Zambrano poking a solo shot that barely clears the wall in the top of the 1st, although Kershaw strikes out the other three batters to make a statement.  Zambrano is denied another RBI in the 3rd when he singles but Rey Sanchez (1-12) is nailed at the plate, and the Dodgers take advantage in the 4th to tie the game when Manny Ramirez cracks a leadoff double and scores on a single from Andre Ethier.  Back to back doubles from James Loney and Russell Martin score two more and LA now leads 3-1.  However, Glenallen Hill leads off the 7th with a double and scores on a single from Shawon Dunston off Kershaw’s card, so with nobody out and the lead down to a run the Dodgers feel the need for Hong-Chih Kuo and his 1.20 ERA, with no hits on his card, and he strikes out the side to quell the threat.  A leadoff single by Loney in the bottom of the inning and it’s the Cubs turn for bullpen help, with Kevin Foster able to induce an inning-ending DP out of PH Jay Gibbons to do his job.  In the top of the 8th, Sosa converts a HR 1-9/flyB split for a 2-run blast and a Cubs lead.  Foster takes that lead into the bottom of the 9th, but the Dodgers lead off with an Ethier single and he dashes to 3rd successfully on a Matt Kemp hit that puts the tying run 90 feet away and the winning run, held on 1st.  Foster whiffs Casey Blake for one out, and the Cubs have the infield at double play depth with slow PH AJ Ellis at bat.  Foster whiffs Ellis to bring up Loney, who lofts a deep fly to RF-3 Zambrano, and he makes a running catch to seal the Cubs 4-3 win.

As the lone pennant-winner in the bracket, it was unusual that the 1984 Padres were pretty big underdogs in their first round matchup.  They were nonetheless a good team, winning 92 games and having Tony Gwynn lead the NL in hitting while finishing 3rd in the MVP sweepstakes, while Dave Dravecky (9-8, 2.93) was selected from a strong rotation that had 5th place Cy Young vote getter Goose Gossage ready for support.  However, the ELO ranks had the 2011 Yankees as a top 100 team, as they won 97 games and the AL East but fell quickly in the post-season.  This team had Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano finishing 4th and 6th in the MVP votes and CC Sabathia (19-8, 3.00) was 4th in the Cy Young with relievers Mariano Rivera and David Robertson also getting votes to head a killer bullpen.  The Padres produce a hit parade in the top of the 2nd with RBI singles by Garry Templeton and Tim Flannery providing an early lead, but the Yanks make it a one-run game in the 4th on back to back doubles from Granderson and Cano.  The Padres attempt to quickly respond as Alan Wiggins leads off the 5th with a walk and a stolen base, and Gwynn singles with the 1-17 Wiggins heading for home, but he’s out with a 20 split and Sabathia escapes any damage.  In the bottom of the inning, Russell Martin misses a HR 1-10/DO split with an 11 roll, but with two out Jeter comes through with the clutch single to score Martin and tie the game after five.  With two strong pens, both starters are on short leashes and when Jeter commits a 2-base error to lead off the 6th the Yanks waste no time in summoning Robertson’s 1.08 ERA out of the pen.  He scares the home crowd with two walks but managed to get out of the jam without anyone crossing the plate, and he’s perfect in the 7th but with the score still tied the Yanks move to Rivera to begin the 8th.  He sets the Padres down in order in the top of the 8th, and in the bottom of the inning it’s leadoff hitter Jeter converting Dravecky’s HR split for a Yankees lead and a call to the pen for the Goose.  But it’s now up to Rivera in the 9th and he blows through the Padres, whiffing Wiggins for the final out in the Yanks 3-2 win, and it was the Captain Jeter, who has been oft maligned in this tournament, leading his squad to the semifinals.

The survivors

Although both teams had pulled off upsets in the first round by ELO metrics, the 1927 Cubs were nonetheless huge favorites over the 2008 Padres, and their pitching options were better with the Cubs sending Guy Bush (10-10, 3.03) against a San Diego team that traded away two key members of their rotation in mid-season, leaving Chris Young (7-6, 3.96) as the only decent remaining option.  An error in the bottom of the 1st by Padres SS-3 Khalil Greene sets up a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Earl Webb and the Cubs take a lead without recording a hit.   That lead doesn’t hold as the Padres exploit the weaknesses on Bush’s card and an RBI single from Edgar Gonzalez and a fielder’s choice from Nick Hundley push SD to a 2-1 lead.   It takes the Cubs until the bottom of the 6th to mount a response, but a 2-out RBI single (on a missed DO 1-18) from Jolly Charlie Grimm ties the game although the missed double ends up costing the Cubs a lead as Grimm is stranded on 3rd.  When SS-3 Greene drops another grounder to put the leadoff runner on in the bottom of the 7th, the Padres summon reliever Mike Adams to cut off a rally, and he quickly dispatches the Cubs to maintain the tie.  In the 8th, Padres CF Jody Gerut barely misses his homer result while hitting his injury, and he’s out for the rest of the regional, but the Padres do survive errors from P-3 Adams and defensive replacement 2B-2 Tadahito Iguchi in the bottom of the inning without allowing any runs.  Thus the game heads to the 9th still deadlocked, and Bush and Adams both set their opposition down in order to push the game to extra innings, with the 10th being the final inning of eligibility for both pitchers.  They both do their job, so for the Cubs it’s reliever Luther Roy to begin the 11th, and the Wrigley faithful watch in horror as the second batter he faces, Adrian Gonzalez, deposits a solo shot into the bleachers.  So it’s now up to closer Trevor Hoffman for the Padres, and he goes through the Cubs in order to save the 3-2 victory for the upstart Padres, who record almost as many errors (4) as hits (6) but still head to the finals as the bottom seed in the regional.

In this second round matchup, the top-seeded 2011 Yankees were prohibitive favorites against the #7 seed 1994 Cubs, who were hoping to avenge their 1927 brethren from the prior semifinal.  After surviving tightly contested games in round one, both squads were hoping that their starters, Ivan Nova (16-4, 3.70) for the Yanks and Steve Trachsel (9-7, 3.21) for the Cubs, could go deep in the game to rest up their bullpens.  In the top of the 2nd, an error by C-2 Russell Martin and a single past LF-2 Brett Gardner sets up the Cubs Rich Wilkins, who misses a HR split on Nova’s card; one runner scores on the resulting double but 1-10 Steve Buchele is cut down at the plate with an 11 split.  Meanwhile, the Yankees can’t buy a hit, but lose ARod for the remainder of the regional in the 4th to further subdue the Bronx crowd.  They finally get their first hit of the game in the bottom of the 5th when Mark Teixeira finds Trachsel’s solid HR result for a solo shot that ties the game.  In the 6th, Curtis Granderson crushes a 2-run shot off his own card, and even though Trachsel has allowed only three hits, the fact that two of them were homers means that closer Randy Myers is coming in for the duration.  Myers gets in trouble but is bailed out when 1-12+2 Teixeira is nailed at the plate for the final out of the 6th.  Nova then allows three straight singles off his card in the 7th and the NY hope for a rested pen is dashed as David Robertson is summoned to try to preserve the lead, and he records two straight strikeouts to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.  In the bottom of the inning, two walks and an error by 2B-2 Rey Sanchez give the Yankees their turn with the bases loaded, and unlike the Cubs they take full advantage as a two-out homer from Robinson Cano is good for the grand slam and blows the game open.  With a hefty lead in the bottom of the 9th and Robertson now burned for the regional, the Yanks save Rivera and bring in Luis Ayala, who promptly surrenders three straight hits for two runs but he finally records the third out for a 7-3 Yankees win that sends them to the finals.  

The matchup for the regional final looked pretty lopsided, with the top seeded 2011 Yankees facing the bottom seeded 2008 Padres, although neither team would be playing at full strength.  Both bullpens showed signs of wear, and each team lost a key component in their offense to injury, with ARod still out for the Yanks and CF Jody Gerut sidelined for San Diego.  The pitching assignments certainly favored the New Yorkers, with Freddy Garcia (12-8, 3.62) considerably better than the lone remaining option for the Padres, one Cha Seung Baek (6-10, 4.79).  However, the curse of the Jeter-era Yanks quickly sets in as Adrian Gonzales nails a 2-out RBI double in the top of the 3rd, and then Scott Hairston follows that with a homer for a 3-0 Padres lead.  In the bottom of the inning Jeter pops out with two runners in scoring position, but then Nick Swisher hits one and it’s Baek, Baek, Baek, and gone for a 3-run homer that ties the game.  However, the Pads respond immediately in the top of the 4th, with consecutive singles off Garcia’s 5-7 roll followed by a Nick Hundley single that gets past CF-2 Curtis Granderson, and when Khalil Greene drives in two more by converting a TR 1-2 Garcia has to go, having not recorded an out in the inning.  The Yanks turn to a rested Mariano Rivera in hopes they can still pull this one out, but Greene scores on a sac fly and SD now leads 7-3.  In the 5th, injury replacement Eric Chavez leads off by converting Baek’s HR 1-19 split with a 19 roll, and Robinson Cano singles in another run although 1-16+2 Granderson is cut down trying for the extra base with yet another 19 roll, but the lead is now down to two.  The Padres pull Baek and move to Heath Bell to begin the 6th, and he handles the Yanks, while Rivera does his job but is burnt by the 8th, so Luis Ayala gets the call in the pen.   Ayala does his job in this outing, but the Padres are letting Bell ring for his final inning of eligibility in the bottom of the 9th, and he gets two quick outs to face Jeter, the face of the failures of this “dynasty” in this tournament.  And Jeter grounds harmlessly to 3rd as another of his teams heads back to the storage drawers, with the unlikely #8 seed Padres taking the regional with the 7-5 win, only the 5th San Diego squad to win a bracket and the first from this millennium.

Interesting card of Regional #216: I haven’t made an exhaustive search, but I can’t remember too many bullpen set-up men who have received votes for both the Cy Young Award and the MVP while serving in that role.  For a number of years, Robertson was second banana in the Yankee bullpen to Mariano Rivera, but for this season at least it was the set-up man who had the better card.  Robertson continued in this role until Rivera retired, and then he spent one year as the Yankees closer before going to the White Sox as a free agent–often a career-killing move.  He did survive that experience but since then he has bounced around both leagues, nearly always putting up decent numbers but never quite reaching the heights of his 2011 season.  As of this writing, he’s still active, finishing 2023 with a 3.03 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP at age 38.  In this tournament, he was the MVP for the Yankees, who fell behind in both the first and second round and relied upon Robertson to toss two hitless innings in each game, allowing the Yanks to score and making his record 2-0 in his two appearances.   Alas, that used up his eligible innings before the final, and without him the Yanks were unable to catch up once again after falling behind to the bottom seed in the bracket, and were eliminated from the tournament.

REGIONAL #215:  No pennant winners in this draw, but it was a nice eclectic mix of teams with several that were within a few seasons of capturing one.  For example, there were two Giants teams that were both two years away from different pennants; an Indians team two seasons after the great ‘48 team and four years before the even greater ‘54 squad; and a Tigers team a few years after their 1984 triumph.  There were entries from the Reds and Orioles that I thought might not be terrible, and some old school White Sox and Senators teams that I thought probably were terrible.  My hunch was that we would see an all-Giants final, and given that the 2004 Giants would have a formidable if nameless player in their lineup, coupled with the success that more modern teams tend to have against older squads, I figured they would take the honors.  The ELO ratings indicated that the three best teams in the group were in the lower portion of the bracket, with the old-school Indians picked as the favorite over the ‘87 version of the Giants in the final.

First round action

The 1987 Giants won 90 games and the NL West, losing the NLCS to the Cards in 7 games, and they had a lineup with seven hitters with double digit homers led by Will Clark’s 5th place MVP finish, and a solid rotation buoyed by late-season pickup Rick Reuschel (13-9, 3.09).  They faced a 67-87 1950 Senators team that managed to finish 5th in the AL, making me wonder just how bad the three teams below them must have been because the team had nobody that reached 15 homers and nobody on the pitching staff had an ERA below four, with Sandy Consuegra (7-8, 4.40) slightly less bad than his rotation-mates.  However, it’s the Senators who take the early lead in the bottom of the 1st when Mickey Vernon pokes a double past LF-2 Jeff Leonard to set up an Irv Noren sac fly, and they make it 3-0 in the 3rd on a 2-out 2-run double by Sam Mele.  Meanwhile, the Giants hit into three DP in the first five innings, but finally get on the board in the 5th with a solo HR from Chili Davis (hit immediately after a baserunner had been wiped out on a DP).  They continue to struggle but seem to wake up in the top of the 9th for their last chance, as a single and walk put the tying runs on with nobody out.  Consuegra is on his own with nobody decent in the pen, and he bears down to get two harmless outs, but Rob Thompson doubles to keep the Giants hopes alive, with the tying run now at third and the go-ahead counter at second.  That brings up Chili, but the 3-7 roll is a strikeout nestled next to a complete HR, and the Washington 3-2 win provides this version of the Giants with a quick tournament exit.

Taking hope from the win in the previous game by the worst team in the group, two more of the bottom ranked squads faced off in this first round game.  The #7 seeded 2015 Reds lost 98 games but they should be helped by being the most modern team in this regional, as those teams seem to fare better in this tournament, and they also had an all-”1” DP combo, three sluggers with over 25 homers, and a very good starter in Johnny Cueto (7-6, 2.62) although the rotation got ugly quickly after him.  The 70-84 1947 White Sox were built very differently, with only Rudy York having double digit homers with 21, but their rotation fronted by Eddie Lopat (16-13, 2.81) was aided by spacious Comiskey Park, site of this matchup.  In the top of the 3rd, sliding Billy Hamilton tries to slide into first and leaves the game with an injury, and then in the bottom of the inning Taffy Wright leads off by missing a HR split but York follows by converting a HR split for a 2-run homer to put the Sox ahead.   The Sox load the bases in the 5th with a couple of walks and a bloop single, and then Bob Kennedy rips a double that scores them all and the Chicago lead is substantial.   It quickly becomes less so, as in the top of the 6th Todd Frazier knocks a 2-out RBI double and that’s followed by a 2-run single from Eugenio Suarez and the Sox lead dwindles to 5-3.  Wright leads off the bottom of the 7th by converting the Cueto HR split that he missed previously, and the Reds summon closer Aroldis Chapman to try to keep them in the game; not only does he end the inning, he manages to injure defensive replacement 2B Cass Michaels, requiring the Sox to downgrade defense at three different positions to cover the hole.  It then falls on the clearly tiring Lopat to put this one away, but with two out in the 9th he lets up an RBI single to injury replacement Jason Bourgeois and Brandon Phillips follows with a double that makes him the tying run at second.  Although they hate to do it, the Sox bring in their best reliever, Johnny Rigney and his 1.95 ERA to try to secure the final out, and Zack Cozart lofts a fly to left but Comiskey contains it easily to secure the 6-4 win for the Sox.  

The 2004 Giants fell two games short of the NL West title, but they won 91 games largely due to the contributions of NL MVP Barry Bonds although Jason Schmidt (18-7, 3.20) was also a big factor, finishing 4th for the Cy Young.  The 1990 Orioles had come from nowhere the previous year to compete for the division, but relapsed this season and lost 85 games, led by an all-Ripken DP combo and a bunch of guys like Brady Anderson and Steve Finley who had no power, but would mysteriously develop some in a couple of years.  Still, Cal Ripken did get a few MVP votes and Ben McDonald (8-5, 2.43) was 8th for Rookie of the Year.  P-4 Schmidt has only himself to blame for a two-out Randy Milligan RBI double that gets past him in the top of the 1st, but in the 2nd he can blame 2B-3 Ray Durham for a two-out error and RF-3 Michael Tucker for allowing a Steve Finley single to fall in front of him that drives in another run.  Schmidt is bailed out of a jam in the 7th when 1-10+2 Craig Worthington is nailed at home to end the inning, but in the 8th O’s DH Sam Horn crushes a solo shot to provide additional insurance.  In the bottom of the 9th, Bonds finally connects for a solo shot, his first hit of the game, and when JT Snow goes back to back to make it a one-run game the O’s summon closer Gregg Olson to get the last two outs.  He records a strikeout but then allows two consecutive singles to put the winning run on 1st, and SF decides on Brian Dallimore to pinch hit–but he flies out harmlessly and Olson shakily closes out the 3-2 Baltimore win.  

The Zoom game of the week was a grudge match played live between Eaglesfly Roy, still resenting the 1987 Tigers for what they did to his Blue Jays at the end of that season, and me, who had just been crushed in a playoff game by the 1954 version of these 1950 Indians.  The Tigers won 98 games, most in the AL, and captured the AL East but were upset in the ALCS by the Twins to be denied a pennant; they had a strong lineup with Alan Trammell finishing second in the MVP race and Darrell Evans and Matt Nokes also getting votes, and Frank Tanana (15-10, 3.91) had a solid season even though some of his rotation teammates received Cy Young attention while he did not.   The Indians won 92 games with Larry Doby and Al Rosen getting MVP support, and although there was no Cy Young award at the time Bob Lemon (23-11, 3.84) would have been the clear recipient as his 5th place finish in the MVP voting was easily the best for any pitcher in the league.  Roy’s Indians started off hot, with an RBI single from Bob Kennedy preceding a two-run homer by Ray Boone to stake Lemon to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning.  The Tigers claw back with Pat Sheridan driving in a run in the 3rd and Detroit’s own Lemon, Chet, knocking one in in the 4th, but big Luke Easter responds in the top of the 5th with an RBI double to push Cleveland ahead back by two.  Again, the Tigers respond, with a 2-run homer by Lou Whitaker tying the game in the bottom of the inning and the score is knotted at four apiece after five.  Given his propensity to allow homers, Tanana’s leash was quite short and when he yielded a single to lead off the 7th, it was time for Doyle Alexander, so brilliant as a late season pickup that he came in 4th in the Cy Young votes in only 88 innings as a starter.  That wasn’t enough innings to allow him to start in this tournament, but he was dazzling in relief, shutting down the Cleveland threat long enough to permit Chet Lemon to squeeze Bob Lemon for a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th and for the first time in the game, the Tigers lead.  Now able to preserve Alexander for later rounds, Detroit summons Mike Henneman to close things out and the Tribe goes down quietly to give the Tigers the 6-4 win and a trip to the semifinals.  

The survivors

A rather lackluster semifinal matched the #8 seed 1950 Senators and the #6 seeded 1947 White Sox, guaranteeing that one of the oldest squads in this bracket would reach the finals.  The Nats didn’t have many good choices to start, with Bob Kuzava (9-10, 4.33) getting the nod against the Sox and Joe Haynes (9-10, 4.33).  In the bottom of the 1st Rudy York hits a long solo shot into the grandstands for his second homer of the regional, but in the 3rd the Senators stage a 2-out rally to load the bases and Haynes walks in one run and then allows a 2-run single to Cass Michaels for a 3-1 Washington lead.  Haynes loads them up again in the 4th and the Nats get another run on a fielder’s choice, but a GIDP from Irv Noren keeps things from getting any worse.  The Sox try to climb back into it, scoring a run on a Luke Appling fielder’s choice in the 5th, and then Appling doubles in the 8th and scores on a Taffy Wright base hit to pull the Sox within one, although the rally dies when York grounds into an inning-ending DP.  The game heads to the bottom of the 9th with Kuzava trying to hang on, but his cause isn’t helped when the leadoff hitter reaches on an error from 3B-1 Eddie Yost.  Kuzava shakes it off and retires the next three in a row and the bottom seeded Senators head to the regional finals with the 4-3 win.  

After defeating the top seed in round one, the 1987 Tigers were the highest ranked team remaining in the bracket and they had to be considered favorites against the #5 seeded 1990 Orioles, with Detroit’s Jack Morris (17-10, 4.05) 9th in Cy Young ballots against a less successful Pete Harnisch (11-11, 4.34).  The Orioles’ cause is not helped when their second batter of the game, CF Mike Devereaux, is knocked out with an injury, and Darrell Evans adds insult in the bottom of the inning in the form of a 3-run homer to put the Tigers up.  However, Evans quickly gives some of it back when he drops a Randy Milligan grounder, and Milligan scores on a Sam Horn double to narrow the Detroit lead to 3-1.  An RBI double by Mickey Tettleton in the top of the 4th makes it a one-run game, but Kirk Gibson leads off the bottom of the inning with a single, steals second, and scores on a 2-out single from Pat Sheridan to make it 4-2 Tigers.  However, when the Orioles record two straight singles to begin the 7th, the Tigers want Morris’s multiple HR results off the table and they summon late-season wonder Doyle Alexander, winner in round one, to try to kill the rally and he does exactly that.  A single by Trammel in the bottom of the inning and Baltimore brings in its own rally-killer, closer Gregg Olson, who proves equally effective and it’s still a two run game heading into the 8th.  Alexander is perfect in his last inning of eligibility in the regional and Olson does likewise, so Mike Henneman comes in for the 9th to try to preserve the Tigers’ lead.  Henneman blows through the Orioles, striking out PH Ron Kittle for the final out and Detroit heads to the finals with the 4-2 win.

The finals look a little lopsided with the #2 seeded 1987 Tigers, winners of the AL East, against the #8 seed 1950 Senators who would send Sid Hudson (14-14, 4.09) against the Tigers’ Walt Terrell (17-10, 4.05) for the regional title.  The Tigers get a rude shock when Merrill Combs, who hit zero homers in the regular season, finds Terrell’s solid 6-4 HR result for a 3-run shot in the top of the 2nd.  A 2-out RBI single by Gil Coan in the 5th extends the Nats lead, but in the bottom of the inning errors by 3B-1 Eddie Yost and C-4 Al Evans help to load the bases, and sac flies from Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell narrow the gap to 4-2.  When Darrell Evans leads off the 6th with his second homer of the regional, it’s a one-run game, and Kirk Gibson follows with a single and steals second.  Then, singles from Pat Sheridan and Tom Brookens result in Gibson scoring, and although Hudson is clearly struggling, the Washington bullpen is nonexistent and they let their workhorse try to work out of it.  However, a Whitaker fielder’s choice scores Sheridan and the Tigers now hold a one-run edge after 6 innings.  The Senators get the tying run to 3rd in the 8th, courtesy of C-4 Matt Nokes’ 3rd error of the game, but Terrell bears down and hangs onto the slender lead.  For the top of the 9th, the Tigers bring in Mike Henneman, looking for his third consecutive save in his last inning of eligibility, against the top of the Washington order and he is flawless, accomplishing the unprecedented feat in this tournament of 3 saves in a regional and earning bracket MVP honors for his three hitless appearances.  The Tigers move on with the 5-4 come-from-behind win, the 7th regional win for the franchise and this squad joins the ‘86 team for a mini-dynasty that seems quite effective in this single elimination format. 

 

Interesting card of Regional #215:  There were other cards in this bracket that I liked quite a bit, including some from the bracket winning Tigers such as Alex Trammell and Doyle Alexander, but I felt I had to feature this card, remarkable in many ways.  If the player wasn’t sufficiently interested in getting his name on the card, I don’t see any reason to mention it, but I suspect ”he who shall not be named” needs no introduction here.  This card represents his last of four MVP seasons in a row, and a pretty good season it was.  Although he set the MLB single season record for homers in 2001, this OPS of 1.422 in 2004 is the highest ever recorded outside of the Negro Leagues.  However, like their real-life counterparts, these Giants couldn’t come through when it counted most and despite a solo homer from this guy, they made a rapid exit from the regional in the first round.  In fact, it may be karma, but no team with him in the lineup, neither the Pirates nor the Giants, have ever won a regional in this tournament.

REGIONAL #214:  Right off the bat, my team selector program picked a pennant winner, the last Rangers squad to make the Series prior to their triumph this year.   But they were not the only pennant winner here, as the 2008 Rays were represented as Tampa Bay’s first AL championship, and there was also a Ted Williams-era Boston team immediately following their lone pennant of that era.  Other contestants of note included an Astros team that I thought might be a classic Astrodome-based group with pitching, speed, and defense, a Cardinals team that I thought might be competitive, a Mike Trout-led Angels squad, and a couple of Brewers teams from the 90s that played in two different leagues.  I had to go with the Rangers as favorites here, and I guessed that they would take an all-Lone Star finals besting the Astros, who would only get that far because of dominant starting pitching.   The ELO rankings also went with the Rangers, predicting that they would take a tough matchup with the #2 seeded Rays in the semifinals and best the #3 seed Red Sox in the finals.

First round action

The 2011 Rangers won 96 games and the AL and they came within one out of winning the Series; the ELO ranks had them as one of the best 150 teams of all time with Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, Adrian Beltre and Josh Hamilton all getting MVP votes and CJ Wilson (16-7, 2.94) finishing 6th in the Cy Young balloting.  They faced a decent 1991 Brewers who won 83 games with some elder statesmen such as Yount, Molitor, Gantner and Willie Randolph, although their main strength lay in a good starting rotation with Bill Wegman (15-7, 2.84) at the top.  What develops is a pitching duel, with Wegmen deftly getting out of jam after jam, such as stranding Beltre at 2nd in the 8th after missing a HR 1-13 split.  Meanwhile, Wilson is dominating and the game is a scoreless tie after nine innings, so things head to extra frames with both starters facing their final three outs of eligibility.  Wegman does his job, setting the top of the Texas lineup down in order in the top of the 10th, and Wilson also goes 1-2-3 and it’s time to test the bullpens in the 11th.  Milwaukee trots out Doug Henry with his 1.00 ERA and nary a hit on his card, and he holds the Rangers at bay in the top of the inning; the Rangers respond with Mike Adams sporting a 1.47 ERA for the bottom of the 11th.  Henry gets an out, but then Bill Spiers singles to bring up 36-year old Willie Randolph; the roll is on Adams card, DO 1-5/flyB and the split is a 5, 1-15 Spiers heads for home and he’s safe, and the Brewers quickly eliminate the bracket favorite winning a 1-0 nailbiter and move on.  

When the team selector program pulled up the 2008 Rays, I had vague memories of them being decent around that time but I was a bit surprised to be reminded that they won 97 games and the AL that season.  Carlos Pena was 9th in MVP votes and Evan Longoria and Jason Bartlett got some votes as well, but their rotation was quite pedestrian with Scott Kazmir (12-8, 3.49) better than the others by a fair amount–although a strong bullpen could help if the Rays need to go deeper in their rotation.   The 2018 Cardinals won 88 games in a different fashion, with a strong rotation fronted by Miles Mikolas (18-4, 2.83) finishing 6th for the Cy Young, but a lineup whose weapons dropped off quickly after Matt Carpenter, who like Pena also was 9th place for  MVP.  In the bottom of the 1st, the Cards come out swinging with a leadoff single from Kolton Wong followed by a double on a missed HR split by Jose Martinez, the 1-14 Wong successfully racing home for the game’s first run.  That brings up Carpenter, who also misses a HR split but doubles in Martinez and the Cards quickly lead 2-0.  In the 2nd, a sac fly from Dexter Fowler and an RBI single by Wong pushes the lead to 4-0, and the Rays begin activity in the bullpen much earlier than they had hoped.  The Rays get three hits in the 6th, including the first one that wasn’t off the pitcher’s card, but don’t score courtesy of a Pena GIDP.  With their hopes dimming, the Rays bring in JP Howell from the pen for the 6th and he records two quick outs but then Jedd Gyorko gyorks a double, and PH Tyler O’Neill comes in for Fowler and launches a 2-run shot that seems to spell the end of the Rays run.   Mikolas is businesslike from there, closing out a 6-hit shutout and the second of the two pennant winners in this bracket becomes the second to be eliminated in round one as the Cards head to the semis with a 6-0 win.

This game was the Irrelevant Series as the #7 seeded 1999 Brewers faced the #8 seed 2019 Angels in a game somebody had to win.  The Brewers lost 87 games and although they had some boppers like Jeromy Burnitz and Geoff Jenkins in the lineup, their rotation was both shallow and bad, with Hideo Nomo (12-8, 4.54) a sad choice for a first round pitcher.  However, they were still better off than the 90-loss Angels in that department, who had exactly one eligible starter, Trevor Cahill (4-9, 5.98), to go along with MVP Mike Trout and DH Shohei Ohtani, who made no pitching appearances for the Angels that season although he was desperately needed.  The Angels strike in the bottom of the 2nd with an RBI double from Albert Pujols off a missed HR split, and Pujols scores on a single from Luis Rengifo for a 2-0 lead.  A three run homer by Kole Calhoun breaks things open for LA in the 3rd, and a rattled Nomo walks two batters after that to set up a 2-run single from Rengifo and the Brewers don’t see much promise in their bullpen either.  With a seven run lead, the Angels are hoping that Cahill can preserve their pen, but RBI hits in the 4th from Mark Loretta and Sean Berry narrow the gap to 7-2 and doesn’t instill much confidence in their starter.  However, in the bottom of the inning Ohtani finds Nomo’s solid HR result for a solo shot and the Brewers in desperation try their closer, Bob Wickman, who does retire the side without further damage.  The Angels then get to Wickman in the 5th with two out, back to back doubles from the red hot Rengifo and Anderlton Simmons produce another run.   Loretta tries to get the Brewers back into the game with a 2-run single in the 8th, and his hit is followed by a 2-run homer from PH Kevin Barker off Cahill’s solid HR result; then Alex Ochoa goes back-to-back with a homer off Cahill’s split HR result and the Angels are finally forced to head to the bullpen for Ty Buttrey to hold a lead that has now dwindled down to two.  However, an error by C-4 Jonathan Lucroy puts Jeff Cirillo on, and then Jenkins finds a solid HR result on his own card and the game is tied.  The game moves to the bottom of the 8th, but Wickman is now burnt for the regional and it’s up to Al Reyes to keep the Brewers in the game.  He retires the Angels quietly in the 8th, and when Buttrey issues a leadoff walk in the top of the 9th the Angels move to their closer, Hansel Robles, who escapes the inning to give LA their shot in the bottom of the 9th.   Reyes has to face the heart of the Angels order, and Ohtani leads off with a hit but Trout’s DP kills the rally and the game moves to extra innings.  Robles handles the Brewers in the top of the 10th; in the bottom Reyes gets two quick outs but Lucroy converts a DO 1-10/flyB with a 10 split and the winning run is in scoring position in the form of a pinch runner.  That brings up household name Rengifo, who promptly knocks his 4th hit of the game into the gap and the Angels blow a 7-run lead but manage to come back to win 10-9 and head to the semifinals.   

After the prior first round games, this matchup between the 1947 Red Sox and the 1984 Astros paired the two highest remaining seeds.  The Red Sox went 83-71, good for 3rd in the AL, with Ted Williams the MVP runner-up (despite having a much better season than Dimaggio) and Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr also received some votes as did Joe Dobson (18-8, 2.95), who preceded the existence of the Cy Young award.  The Astros were under .500 at 80-82, but their Pythagorean projection indicated that they should have won 88, and their chances were helped with their lone HOFer, Nolan Ryan (12-11, 3.04), on the mound.  The slap hitters on the Astros begin slapping away in the top of the 1st, recording 5 singles that turn into 4 runs and the Fenway fans are wondering if they should turn around and go home.  A sac fly by Enos Cabell in the 4th  provides his second RBI of the game, but in the bottom of the inning the Red Sox rally and a squib RBI single by Birdie Tebbetts is followed by a spate of wildness from Ryan; the 38-year old Ryan walks Dom Dimaggio with the bases loaded to drive in another to bring up the Splendid Splinter with the bags packed, but Ryan whiffs him to prevent further damage.   In the 5th, .203 hitter Eddie Pelligrini uncorks a 3-run homer that ties the game and the Fens are rocking, but Bill Doran quiets them in the top of the 6th with a triple and he scores on a bloop single from Terry Puhl and Houston regains the lead.  However, the von Ryan Express is having trouble staying on the tracks and when he walks the bases full again in the bottom of the inning, the Astros move to the slightly less wild Julio Solano to get the third out.  In the 8th, a leadoff single and a walk and Dobson is pulled for Boston’s lone decent reliever, Johnny Murphy, and he is sharp retiring three in a row to quell the threat.  Solano runs into some trouble in the bottom of the 8th, so Houston summons Dave Smith to try to get the final out and he fans Doerr in a pressure situation.  Smith then faces the weak bottom of the Red Sox order for the 9th, and he blows through them, whiffing Jake Jones for the final out to earn the save in the 6-5 Astros win, completing a first round in which every favorite lost.  

The survivors

The first semifinal featured a matchup between two teams that had each eliminated a pennant-winner with shutout wins in round one, with the 2018 Cardinals and the 1991 Brewers both being decent teams such that those wins were no fluke.  Both had solid options for their #2 starter, with the Cards’ Jack Flaherty (8-9, 3.34) and Milwaukee’s Chris Bosio (14-10, 3.25) facing off, but Flaherty’s job isn’t made any easier when his SS Paul DeJong leaves the game with an injury in the 2nd inning and is replaced by a SS-4.  Things don’t get any better for him as Jim Gantner finds Flaherty’s solid HR result for a solo shot in the top of the 3rd, but Matt Carpenter crushes a 3-run homer with two out in the bottom of the inning to put St. Louis ahead.  The Brewers get a single and a walk in the 6th and the Cards lose confidence in Flaherty, moving to Michael Wacha who douses the flames successfully.  In the 7th, an error by 3B-3 Gantner sets up a sac fly from PH Tyler O’Neill and the Cards extend their lead, and with a solid edge they summon gopher ball prone closer Bud Norris to pitch the 9th.  On his first pitch Greg Vaughn rolls a HR 1-15/TR but misses the split, scoring nonetheless on a Dante Bichette grounder, but Norris manages to retire two more without incident and the Cardinals head to the finals with the 4-2 win in which they only manage five hits against Bosio.  

The 1984 Astros were the top remaining seed after all of the round one upsets, and they faced the #8 seeded 2019 Angels who were bad despite MVP Mike Trout and promising DH Shohei Ohtani.  The Angels weren’t helped by a lack of eligible pitchers, meaning that the top remaining IP, swingman Felix Pena (8-3, 4.58), was mandated to pitch, although he was pretty good other than some longball concerns.  The Astros would counter with 39-year old Joe Niekro (16-12, 3.04), and he would get staked to a lead when Denny Walling finds Pena’s solid HR result to lead off the bottom of the 2nd.  The Angels blow a chance in the 5th when Astros 3B-3 Phil Garner drops an Ohtani grounder and Trout follows with a double, but the 1-15 Ohtani is cut down at the plate and Houston retains the lead.  The Angels try PH Tommy La Stella in the 7th but he’s promptly out and injured, and when Craig Reynolds leads off the bottom of the inning missing Pena’s HR split for a double, LA brings in Ty Buttrey, who strands Reynolds at second in a much better showing than his round one outing.  When Trout leads off the 8th with a single, it’s the Astros turn to visit the pen for Julio Solano; after an out, Brian Goodwin doubles but 1-16 Trout is caught at the plate, and Solano blows it by Albert Pujols to preserve the lead.  With the Angels down to their last chance, Jonathan Lucroy singles to begin the top of the 9th and .124 hitter Zack Cozart beats out a bunt and the go-ahead run is on with nobody out.  The next batter, #9 hitter Andrelton Simmons, doubles to tie the game and Cozart is 90 feet away from the lead.  The infield comes in for David Fletcher, and he rips a 2-run double and the Angels capture their first lead and Dave Smith comes in for the hapless Solano.  He quickly retires the side, and the game heads to the bottom of the 9th with Cam Bedrosian in to replace Buttrey, now burned for the tournament.  He proves indeed to be bedrock as Houston goes down in order and the unlikely Angels ride the 3-1 comeback win into the finals.     

The regional final features the #4 seeded 2018 Cardinals against the #8 seed 2019 Angels, matching the two most recent teams in the bracket if not the two best.  The Cards would send out Carlos Martinez (8-6, 3.11) against the Angels’ Andrew Heaney (4-6, 4.91), who had a mean strikeout pitch but a bad tendency to let up the longball, and both bullpens had been taxed to get these teams this far.  Sure enough, in the top of the 1st Matt Carpenter finds one of Heaney’s HR results for a solo shot, and in the 2nd the Angels lose their second 2B, Luis Rengifo, to injury, meaning that it’s .124 hitter Zack Cozart in that position for the foreseeable future.  In the 3rd, Yadier Molina crushes a 2-run homer (off his own card), and then Marcella Ozuna goes back to back off Heaney’s other HR result and things are getting ugly.  However, the Angels have reached these finals because of late-inning heroics and are not worried, and Kole Calhoun and Brian Goodwin lead off the 4th with back to back doubles, with a single from Albert Pujols scoring Goodwin to narrow the Cards lead to 4-2.  In the 5th, Martinez feels a twinge in his arm and he’s out of the game and will miss at least one start, so Dakota Hudson is charged with maintaining the lead.  He is effective, but the injury bug hits St. Louis again in the 8th as Yadier Molina is lost for 5 games; the depleted Cards summon Jordan Hicks to pitch the 8th inning and although he allows a walk and single in the inning, a Pujols GIDP ends the threat with no damage.  Heaney shuts down the Cards in the top of the 9th, and so it’s down to the last chance for the Angels, a situation that they converted into wins in both prior rounds of the tournament.   Hicks issues two walks off his card to bring up Ohtani as the winning run with two outs, and Ohtani rips one deep but CF-1 Harrison Baden hauls it in to clinch the 4-2 win and the 13th regional title for the Cards, who join the 2018 team to form a mini-dynasty of squads that come through in this format. 

Interesting card of Regional #214:  I kind of hate to feature recent cards in this feature, but with a 2018 and a 2019 team being the ones to reach the regional final, I figured I had to pick somebody from one of them–so the 2019 AL MVP was the natural choice.  The 2019 Angels lost 90 games even with this card anchoring the lineup, and I thought it was remarkable that they even reached the regional finals because Trout was a non-factor–no homers, no runs driven in during any of the three games.  For those looking for trivia questions, Andre Dawson was the first player to win an MVP while playing for a last-place team, but even though the Angels didn’t finish last, the 1987 Cubs were actually a better team as they only lost 85 games.  How did the Angels manage to be so bad?  Well, one thing that was interesting about the team was that none of their primary starting pitchers reached the 100 IP threshold required to be an option in this tournament, meaning that their rotation had to progress in a strict order of innings pitched.  Even so, the three starters tapped in this way weren’t terrible, and statistically the Angels ended up pretty close to the league average in many hitting and pitching categories.  Despite having the worst ELO rating in the regional, they reached the final and were competitive there; after playing with a bunch of different teams in this tournament so far (over 1,700, if you’re counting) I have to say that this is perhaps the best 90-loss team I remember encountering, and if Trout could have just rolled the two column a few times, they might still be going in the tournament.

REGIONAL #213:  The attention-grabber in this collection was the infamous 2001 Mariners, a team that won a whopping 116 games but fell short of the pennant in the postseason–a malady that seems to be affecting many of the top winners in recent years.  Their efforts to redeem themselves would face some obstacles, such as a Cardinals team that would win pennants in two of the three following seasons, two versions of the Red Sox that would each go on to capture the flag within a few years, and a pandemic-year White Sox team that I think made the postseason, at least briefly.  Given that the Mariners have had a hot hand in recent regionals, I figured that the 2001 version would get their due, besting the Cards in the final.  The ELO ratings had the 2001 M’s as a big favorite, one of the 50 best teams of all time, picked to beat  the 80s version of the Red Sox who were tapped to squeak by the Cards en route to the finals.

First round action

The Friday Night Strat Zoom game of the week doubleheader involved both of the top two seeds in the regional.  In this matchup, the 1984 Red Sox were the #2 seed in this bracket, winning 86 games with a power-packed lineup that saw their outfield of Tony Armas, Dwight Evans and Jim Rice all get MVP votes; unfortunately for them, 21-year old Roger Clemens was not quite the Rocket yet, so Al Nipper (11-6, 3.89) would get the round one start.  I would manage them against Toronto’s own Eaglesfly Roy at the helm of the 1982 Blue Jays, who were “starting to get good” with a 78-84 record but many of the names that would make them contenders within a few years, including 24-year old Dave Stieb (17-14, 3.25).  The Jays warmed up Exhibition Stadium quickly in the bottom of the 1st, with a succession of hits off Nipper’s card leading to RBI for Jesse Barfield, Wayne Nordhagen, and Ernie Whitt.  However, some sloppy fielding for the Jays creates a threat in the top of the 2nd and #9 hitter Jackie Gutierriez takes advantage, locating and converting Stieb’s HR split for a 3-run poke that instantly ties the game.  The Jays aren’t done, with a solo homer by Willie Upshaw in the 3rd putting the Jays back on top, but once again Boston responds immediately in the 4th as Jim Rice also finds Stieb’s HR to tie things once more, and Roy is on the phone to the pen just waiting for the 5th run to be scored so that Stieb can be pulled.  The Jays persist and hand him the lead yet again with an RBI double from Alfredo Griffin in the bottom of the inning, but Stieb pleads the 5th as an RBI single from Dwight Evans and a run scoring passed ball from Whitt gives the Red Sox their first lead, and Roy summons his namesake Roy Lee Jackson from the pen.  Jackson comes in on fire, and he bakes Boston with four no-hit innings, but now that Nipper has a lead he turns into a real pitcher and the Jays have little success against him until the 7th, when a walk and a double put two runners in scoring position with two out and dangerous Upshaw at the plate.  I ponder walking Upshaw but decide to bring in walk specialist Mark Clear instead to accomplish the same end; Clear responds by whiffing Upshaw, and proceeds to allow only one hit and two walks in his 2+ innings to earn the save in Boston’s 6-5 victory.  

The 2010 Cardinals were the #3 seed in this bracket, winning 86 games on the verge of capturing the pennant the following season and led by MVP runner-up Albert Pujols and Cy Young runner-up Adam Wainwright (20-11, 2.42).  Unlike the Cards, the 2020 White Sox visited the postseason briefly, recording a pandemic-year 35-25 record for a better winning percentage than the Cards, and the Sox had the AL MVP in Jose Abreu and Lucas Giolito (4-3, 3.48), who had to start because of tournament rules around IP restrictions, fortunately finished 7th in the Cy Young voting.  Thus, although the Sox were ELO underdogs, after setting the lineups I thought they were the better team, meaning that it was time for the White Sox Jinx to kick in.  The first victim of the jinx is Sox DH Nick Madrigal, who records one tournament AB while getting injured for 7 games in the 3rd; the second is Eloy Jimenez, cut down at the plate trying to score on a Tim Anderson double in the 4th.  In the bottom of the 4th, the jinx rubs off on the Cards as LF Matt Holliday is gone with a 6 game injury.  The Sox break the scoreless tie in the 6th when Cards 3B-3 David Freese boots a Tim Anderson grounder that allows a run to score, Luis Robert then pokes an RBI single and the Sox stake Giolito to a 2-0 lead.  A leadoff single by defensive replacement Adam Engel in the 7th and the Cards pull Wainwright for Jason Motte, who quickly retires the side to keep St. Louis within striking distance.  In the bottom of the inning PH Matt Pagnozzi launches a solo HR to make it a one run game, and when Freese follows with a single the Sox dip into their collection of low-IP wonders for Garrett Crochet, who knitted up a 0.00 ERA, and he promptly ends the threat.  In the 8th, Sox backup 3B Yolmer Sanchez hits a 2-2 roll for a 2-run homer, and now with some breathing room the Sox try to preserve Crochet, inserting the almost equally dominating Matt Foster, who promptly yields a solo HR to his first batter faced, injury replacement Allen Craig.  But Motte doesn’t help his cause in the 9th, making a 2-out error to load the bases for Tim Anderson, who finds Motte’s HR 1-13/flyB result and converts it for a grand slam, and the crowd goes so quiet you could hear a Busch open.  However, they get noisier in the bottom of the 9th, as a single and a walk set up a 3-run blast by Colby Rasmus, but defensive replacement LF-2 Jarrod Dyson sucks up a Craig flyball for the third out and the Sox survive and advance with an 8-5 win.   

The other Zoom game of the week featured the top seeded 2001 Mariners, a 116 win team ranked among the best in history, with Ichiro as the MVP, Bret Boone finishing 3rd, and Mike Cameron, Edgar Martinez, and Kazahiro Sasaki also getting votes and Freddy Garcia (18-6, 3.05) finishing 3rd for the Cy Young.  To add to the mix, they would be managed by Seattle denizen StratFan Rick, who had never lost a game for any Mariners team in these tournament Zooms.  However, the gauntlet had been thrown down by Nacster, who stated “I would take my chances with 1976 JR Richard” and so he did, sending a rather wild Richard (20-15, 2.75) out to the mound fronting a rather punchless 1976 Astros team that went 80-82 while unsuccessfully trying to hit balls out of the Astrodome.  In the top of the 2nd, John Olerud shows Houston how it’s done with a solo shot for Mariner’s lead, and Dan Wilson leads off the 5th with another blast to make it 2-0 Seattle.  The ‘stros get on the board in the bottom of the inning when Cesar Cedeno crushes a solo shot that would have been out in the Polo Grounds, but Garcia reasserts himself and the Mariners maintain that 2-1 lead through seven innings.  However, a lengthy delay brought about by a truly baffling trivia question for the 7th inning stretch seems to throw Garcia off his game, as in the bottom of the 8th Nac begins a flurry of his usual over-managing moves, his electronic dice finally begin rolling on the batter’s card, and in a split roll for the ages Bob Watson converts a TR 1/SI** to tie the game; he scores on a sac fly from Enos Cabell and suddenly it’s not Houston that has a problem.  That sends things into the 9th with Richard three outs away from the upset, and nobody’s gonna shoot JR as he retires the side to complete a 6-hitter, striking out 7 while walking 4 to send the Astros to the semifinals with a 3-2 win.  And, as has been typical in this tournament, the bigger the team, the harder they fall back into the storage drawers. 

The two teams involved in this game had already seen better versions of themselves play in the first round of this regional, with differing results.  The 2001 Red Sox had their sights on an all-Boston final, and they were a decent team that went 82-79 with Manny Ramirez being Manny enough for 9th place in the MVP votes, but they became a formidable squad with Pedro Martinez (7-3, 2.39) on the mound.  On the other hand, the 2009 Mariners had already seen their best selves fall in the previous game; this team was the ELO underdog despite having a better record than Boston at 85-77, although their Pythagorean projection suggested they should have been a whopping 10 games worse.  Still, they had Cy Young runner-up Felix Hernandez (18-9, 2.49) which suggested a pitching duel might be forthcoming.  Boston DH Dante Bichette unloads a long solo HR in the top of the 2nd, and in the 3rd Trot Nixon adds a 2-run blast to spot Pedro a three-run league.  In the 4th Mike Lansing misses a HR split but the resulting double scores Carl Everett, and when Jose Offerman singles Lansing home the M’s decide that their ace isn’t cutting it, so Sean White snowboards in from the bullpen to record the final out of the inning.  In the 7th, the Red Sox load up the defensive replacements in support of Martinez, who is tossing a perfect game, but with one out Franklin Gutierrez singles to dash that hope.  The Red Sox retaliate in the 8th with defensive sub Nomar Garciaparra hitting a two-run Homar to welcome Seattle closer David Aardsma to the festivities.   The Mariners finally wake up the remaining fans in the bottom of the 9th as they load the bases with nobody out, and then Russell Branyan singles past 1B-3 Brian Daubach for one run and Griffey Jr. singles past CF-2 Trot Nixon for another two.  However, Martinez shakes it off and strikes out Adrian Beltre for his 9th K and closes out the 7-3 Boston win, with two consecutive first-round losses for the Mariners spelling a reversal of fortune for Seattle after having won two of the three prior regionals.  

The survivors

This semifinal was straight out of the Sox drawer with the pandemic 2020 White Sox against the 1984 Red Sox, the top remaining seed in the bracket.  Although the Chisox were required to pitch their second starter with respect to IP because of the limitations of that season, the good news was that starter was Dallas Keuchel (6-2, 1.99) who finished 5th in the Cy Young voting.  Boston had a number of options, but none of them were as good, with Bob Ojeda (12-12, 3.99) getting the assignment.  In the bottom of the 2nd, Danny Mendick’s 2-out single drives in Tim Anderson but the Sox Jinx strikes as Yoan Moncada is cut down at the plate for the third out, limiting the lead to one.  In the 5th, Chicago injury sub Yolmer Sanchez has the fans talking about Wally Pipp with a 3-run homer, and the Sox start shoring up their defense in the 6th.  The Red Sox don’t get a hit off Keuchel until Bill Buckner doubles in the 8th, and that’s the only one they’ll get as Keuchel wraps up a one-hit shutout to propel the White Sox to the regional final.  

Each having dispatched Seattle teams in round one, the 2001 Red Sox were hoping to fare better than they did in the prior semifinal, and they were favorites against the 1976 Astros, who would not have JR Richard to fall back on in this round.  Of course, Boston didn’t have Pedro Martinez any more either, so they called upon the late Tim Wakefield (9-12, 3.90) for the honors, while after some debate the Astros tried 23 year old Joaquin Andujar (9-10, 3.61) who had not yet learned control.  Although the Red Sox defense is suspect, it’s Houston’s CF-1 Cesar Cedeno who makes a 2-base error in the bottom of the 1st, and the runner scores on a double from Brian Daubach to put the offensively-challenged Astros in a hole.  Ed Herrmann quickly ties it in the 2nd with a 2-out solid double located at a 2-12 roll, but that doesn’t last long as Carl Everett leads off the bottom of the inning with a homer.  As he has been known to do, Andujar loses his cool, loading the bases and issuing a walk to Trot Nixon, and a single by Manny Ramirez scores another although 1-14 Jose Offerman is out trying to score.  That brings up Daubach with two out, and he rips a 2-run single for the 5th hit of the inning to evict Andujar and Ken Forsch gets the final out but the Red Sox lead 6-1 after two.  Cedeno attempts to atone for his fielding miscue by leading off the 6th with a homer, but from there Wakefield does the job; Houston garners only seven hits while making five errors and the Red Sox head to the finals with the 6-2 win.  Meanwhile, Andujar was busy trashing my Strat cave and had to be dragged back to the storage drawers by his teammates.

It was a final straight out of the Sox drawer, with the #4 seeded 2001 Red Sox against the #5 seed 2020 White Sox for the regional crown.  The innings-limited Chisox had no choice but to pitch Dylan Cease (5-4, 4.01), who wasn’t bad other than some gopher ball issues, while the Bosox were going for broke with swingman Rolando Arrojo (5-4, 3.48) getting the starting assignment.  But it’s Arrojo who gives up the first longball off his card, with Luis Robert converting a HR 1-6 split in the 2nd for a solo shot, although Scott Hatteberg almost ties it up in the bottom of the inning with a 2-out single but 1-11+2 Shea Hillenbrand is nailed at the plate for out three.  But I forgot to mention that Cease also has walk problems, and in the 3rd he issues two walks off his card to set up a three run homer for Brian Daubach and it’s now the Red Sox in the lead.  That lead lasts two batters, as Robert follows a Tim Anderson single with his second HR of the game in as many ABs; as if that’s not enough, Robert comes up again with two out in the 5th and blast a 3-run shot to make him 3 for 3 in the homer department and it’s the White Sox who now lead, 6-3.  A leadoff single by Danny Mendick in the 6th and Arrojo is yanked for Boston closer Ugueth Urbina, who ends any threat, and when Cease issues a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning Chicago ceases to use him, turning to their excellent pen for Alex Colome and his 0.81 ERA.  Colome immediately commits an error, but gets a DP ball out of Hatteberg to end the inning without incident.  In the 7th, Urbina gets two quick outs but once again up comes Robert, and once again it’s a 3-6 roll, solid HR and that’s four homers–unprecedented in the over 12,000 games that have been played in this tournament.  For the 8th, Chicago moves to Codi Heuer and his 1.52 ERA, but he surrenders a 2-run homer to Mike Lansing and it’s a 2-run game. In the top of the 9th, the leadoff batter is none other than Robert, but Urbina strikes him out and retires the side to give Boston their best chance in the bottom of the 9th.  However, Heuer proves up to the task and closes things out with the final score Luis Robert 7, Boston 5.  The White Sox win their first regional in over 20 brackets, with the last success coming from the 2019 team, making a mini-dynasty for that era of Pale Hose teams who won when more high-profile examples could not.  

Interesting card(s) of Regional #213:  The pandemic year 2020 White Sox surmounted the jinx that typically befalls the south siders to win this bracket, and they indeed were a good team with the first Sox MVP winner in decades and two starters in the top 10 for Cy Young.  The weird pandemic season led to some interesting cards, and the Sox had some nice examples of how small samples could giveth and they could taketh away.  I think it’s safe to say that Strat has never printed a card with a lower ERA than that of Garrett Crochet, who was a 21-year old making his first appearance in the majors during that truncated season.  Crochet was brilliant in his brief appearance and he was called upon to relieve in the decisive game 3 of the postseason series against the A’s; he struck out the only two batters that he faced, but something felt wrong with his arm and he was pulled.  It was later determined that manager Rick Renteria had decided to use him even though Crochet was already hurting before the game, and this move cost Renteria and his pitching coach their jobs a few days later; Crochet eventually had Tommy John surgery and missed the 2022 season.  Although pitching Crochet may have been an ill-considered decision, it was still probably better than putting in Zack Burdi.  Burdi allowed homers at a rate of 4.9 HR per nine innings.  As far as I can determine, Dan Straily set the all-time worst record in HR/9 (min. 45 ip) in 2019 with a 4.2 HR/9, allowing 22 in just 47.2 IP, but Burdi has Straily beat.  However, remarkably there were THREE relievers on the 2020 Sox with higher HR/9 rates than Burdi, but unfortunately (and perhaps mercifully) Strat did not print cards for those (even lower IP) players.  Too bad–it would be nice to see the card for Drew Anderson, who allowed 2 homers in 1.1 innings pitched for a HR/9 rate of 13.5 to go along with his 40.50 ERA.

REGIONAL #212:  I initially thought this draw was going to be entirely stocked from the 21st century, but at the last minute a White Sox team from the 90s snuck in to provide a little more variety.  I thought the Sox might have another shot to lose in the regional final, like they had in the previous two, because there were some squads in here that I suspected might be stinkers, such as an Orioles team from the early 2000s and last year’s Tigers.  Chronologically, the team closest to a pennant was a Yankees team three seasons after their most recent one (in 2009, can you believe that?), a version of the Dodgers five years before a flag, and a Rangers squad midway between their 2011 and 2023 wins.   My hunch was a Dodgers vs; Yankees matchup in the final, guessing that the Yanks would make up for a first round exit in the prior bracket by winning this one.  The ELO ratings apparently didn’t know about my jinx, because they predicted the White Sox to defeat the Dodgers in the final, seeding the Yankees third in a generally weak bracket.  

First round action

The 2014 Rockies lineup did not look like one that would lose 96 games, as eight of their nine were in double digit homers led by Nolen Arenado, Corey Dickerson and the oft-injured Troy Tulowitzki, and their DP combo involved two 1s; it was interesting to see that their Pythagorean projection was nearly 10 games better than their actual record.  Although their pitching staff suffered the typical Coors hangover, Jorge de la Rosa (14-11, 4.10) wasn’t a terrible option at the top of the rotation.  They were ELO underdogs to the 2017 Angels, who had an 80-82 record with Mike Trout finishing 4th for AL MVP with Andrelton Simmons and midseason acquisition Justin Upton also getting votes; however, like the Rockies the rotation was a mess and JC Ramirez (11-10, 4.15) was the best of the bunch.  But it was a different Justin making a name for himself in the top of the 1st, that being Justin Morneau with a two-run homer to make the Rockies mountain high.  Wilin Rosario wills a solo shot in the 2nd and Michael Cuddyer adds a run-scoring fielder’s choice in the 3rd and Colorado now leads 4-0.  The hits just keep coming, as a 2-out RBI single in the 4th by Franklin Stubbs is followed by a 2-run double from Morneau, and Ramirez exits without tossing a scoreless inning.  Yusmeiro Petit comes in to contribute a scoreless 5th and the Angels briefly have some hope, but Charlie Blackmon leads off the 6th by converting Petit’s HR split and the hole just keeps getting wider and deeper.  De la Rosa loses his shutout in the 8th when Martin Maldonado finds the pitcher’s HR result for a solo shot, and then with two out in the bottom of the 9th Luis Valbuena connects for a long 2-run homer, but it’s far too late to make a difference and the Rockies move on with the 8-3 win.  

The 2012 Dodgers were the 2nd seed in this bracket, going 86-76 behind Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and a couple of Ellises, but the real advantage was Clayton Kershaw (14-9, 2.53), who was runner-up in the Cy Young ballots although he won the award in both the prior and the following season.  The 2003 Orioles lost 91 games but they were not as bad as I’d first imagined, with an all “2” .300 hitting outfield led by Melvin Mora, although Pat Hentgen (7-8, 4.09) was their least frightening starter since they had traded away Sidney Ponson in midseason.  Mora launches a solo shot into the pavilions at Chavez Ravine in the top of the 1st for an early advantage, but in the bottom of the inning LA leadoff hitter Shane Victorino nails Hentgen’s solid HR result, and then back-to-back errors by O’s 3B-4 Tony Batista and 1B-3 Jeff Conine sets up Ethier for another roll on Hentgen’s solid big fly; the inning finally ends when #9 hitter Dee Gordon misses Hentgen’s split homer result for a flyB.  Undaunted, the Orioles find all the hits on Kershaw’s card, and RBI singles by Deivi Cruz and Brook Fordyce and a sac fly from Luis Matos immediately tie the game back up in the top of the 2nd.  In the 3rd, Hanley Ramirez locates Hentgen’s solid HR, the 3rd time in 3 innings, and the Orioles have to find someone in the pen with an out at 4-9, with BJ Ryan filling the requirement.  A two-out RBI single from Adrian Gonzalez provides additional padding in the 4th, although Ryan does the job in the 5th thanks to two consecutive 4-9 rolls.  Baltimore PH Jack Cust cuts the deficit to one with a long solo homer in the 8th.   Kershaw gets one out in the 9th but then allows two singles, and Kenley Jansen is summoned with the tying run on 3rd.  With the infield in, Matos rolls a gbB and the runner is nailed at the plate, so now there are two out and All-Star Melvin Mora at the plate.  Jansen blows it by him, recording the strikeout and the save as the Dodgers survive the 6-5 scare to advance.  

The 2014 Yankees went 84-78 as the last of the Jeter-era squads that have done so badly in this tournament.  Jeter was 40 years old here, as was his teammate Ichiro, and Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Beltran, and Brian Roberts were all well past their sell-by date as well.  The good news was that Masahiro Tanaka (13-5, 2.77) got votes for Rookie of the Year and although Mariano Rivera had retired the previous season, there were still some great arms in the pen.  They faced a 78-84 2017 Rangers team that had nobody in common with this year’s Series winner, with a 38 year old Adrian Beltre as their top weapon along with 7 big swingers in the lineup with over 100 whiffs, but Yu Darvish (6-9, 4.01) not looking too bad if he can manage to keep the ball in the Stadium.  The Yankees get off to a dubious start when Jacoby Ellsbury leads off the bottom of the 1st by getting knocked out of the game with an injury.  The Rangers get on the board first in the top of the 4th with a Mike Napoli single, and then a 2-base error from SS-4 Jeter opens the door for a two run double courtesy of Rougned Odor.  However, in the 6th the Yanks get a pinch hit RBI double from Francisco Cervelli, and then with two out Mark Teixeira lofts a 2-run blast to knot the game at 3-3.  A leadoff single by Odor in the top of the 7th and New York doesn’t mess around, pulling Tanaka for Dellin Betances and his 1.40 ERA; however, he is immediately greeted by a moon shot from new catcher Robinson Chirinos.  Three batters later and it’s Beltre’s turn for a 2-run homer and the mood in the Bronx is getting ugly.  It gets better in the bottom of the inning when Ichiro finds the solid HR result on Darvish for a two-run poke of his own, and when Brett Gardner follows that with a triple Darvish is gone for Jose “Wilder Thing” LeClerc.  To his credit, LeClerc doesn’t walk the next batter, Martin Prado–instead, he allows another 2-run homer and once again the game is tied.  The Yanks bring in Adam Warren to begin the 9th, but after a double and a walk they decide to end that experiment, summoning closer David Robertson to try to get out of the jam.  He whiffs Beltre for one out, but then walks Joey Gallo to bring up Elvis Andrus–and Elvis has left the building with the bases loaded for a grand slam.  It’s now the Rangers’ turn to try a 9th inning reliever, and Matt Bush survives an error by 2B-4 Odor to close out the 11-7 win for the Rangers, and the end of the Jeter years goes pretty much like the rest of the era with a first round exit for the Yankees.

This was a first round matchup between the top and bottom seeds in the regional, with the 1991 White Sox earning top billing with 87 wins in their crappy new ballpark, with Frank Thomas 3rd in the MVP ballots and Black Jack McDowell (17-10, 3.41) attracting some votes for Cy Young.   Although the Sox teams are typically jinxed in my tournament, this time they had the good fortune to draw the 2022 Tigers in the first round, who lost 96 games but still outperformed their Pythagorean projection.  It seemed to me that this Tigers team would have a hard time beating the ‘62 Mets, although Tarik Skubal (7-8, 3.53) was a credible option in the rotation–the only one.  However, it’s the Tigers who take the lead in the bottom of the 4th when DH Kerry Carpenter leads off the inning with a long homer, and that’s followed by back to back doubles from Eric Haase and Javier Baez that make it 2-0.   Because the Sox can’t muster any offense against Skubal, they feel compelled to pull McDowell when he issues a leadoff walk in the 6th, with Scott Radinsky assigned to keep it close and he retires the side without incident.  The mishaps continue for the Sox as Robin Ventura is knocked out of the game in the 7th with an injury, no doubt from getting punched by Skubal.  As a vague gesture of a threat, Lance Johnson gets a one-out single in the top of the 9th to bring up the Big Hurt as the tying run, and there is Hurt all right as Thomas grounds into a double play; the Sox are mere Skuby snacks for Skubal’s 2-hit shutout as the Tigers pull off the 1 vs 8 upset, 2-0, to head to the semifinals.  

The survivors

The 2012 Dodgers were the top remaining seed in the bracket although they barely survived the first round; they did benefit from the typical advantage of the better teams with having a deeper rotation for later rounds, and Chad Billingsley (10-9, 3.55) was just one of a number of viable options.  The 2014 Rockies hoped that Tyler Matzek (6-11, 4.05) could pitch well enough to allow their powerful offense to prevail, and it looked promising as the Rockies led off the top of the 1st with a Drew Stubbs double followed by a Justin Morneau single that allows the fleet Stubbs to beat the oft-uncooperative split die and score.  In the 2nd, Drew Stubbs drives a hanging Chad curveball for a 2-run triple, and Morneau picks up another RBI with a single that is also off Billingsley’s card, but the Dodgers show signs of life in the bottom of the 3rd with Bobby Abreu and Matt Kemp driving in runs to narrow the gap to 4-2.   Matzek gets wild in the 4th and Abreu draws a bases-loaded walk to make it a one-run game, and in the 6th an error by 3B02 Aranado sets up an RBI double for Andre Ethier that ties the game.  With runners now on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, the Rockies bring in the infield for Hanley Ramirez, who promptly get a gbA++ for a two-run single and Matzek is gone for closer Latroy Hawkins, but Ramirez steals second and scores on a Mark Ellis single; Shane Victorino replaces Ellis after a fielder’s choice so he steals second and scores on an Abreu single and by the time Hawkins gets the final out the Dodgers lead 8-4.  Corey Dickerson then leads off the 6th for the Rockies with a homer that begins to narrow the gap, and when Billingsley allows a couple of singles in the 7th the Dodgers move to the pen for Scott Elbert, but the Rockies get a run on a Tulowitzki fielder’s choice.   The Dodgers respond in the bottom of the inning when Ramirez singles, steals second again, and races home on a Victorino single; Victorino steals second and he scores on a double by Dee Gordon off Hawkins’ card.  With a solid lead, the Dodgers bring in Randy Choate for the ninth and he sets the Rockies down in order and LA moves to the finals with a 10-6 comeback win.  

The 8th seeded 2022 Tigers knocked out the bracket favorite with an excellent pitching performance, but as is typical of a 96-loss team the rotation got ugly quickly, with Drew Hutchison (3-9, 4.53) having some rough spots on his card.  For the 2017 Rangers, Andrew Cashner (11-11, 3.40) was a decent option and they were hoping he’d allow them to rest a bullpen that was needed to survive round one.  Rangers leadoff hitter Delino Deshields walks in the top of the 1st, steals second, and then scores on an Adrian Beltre hit; then Elvis Andrus, who won the opening game with a 9th inning grand slam, contributes a 2-run homer in his next at bat for a 3-0 Texas lead.  Carlos Gomez leads off the 3rd with a homer, and two batters later Beltre belts a solo shot and the Tigers withdraw Drew and try Jose Cisnero, who ends the inning quickly.  The Tigers try a comeback in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff homer by Jeimer Candelario who converts a HR 1-4/flyB split on Cashner, and Kerry Carpenter later adds a two out RBI single to narrow the deficit.   In the 4th, the Rangers respond by knocking hits past SS-3 Javier Baez and 1B-3 Harold Castro to score a run, and then both sets of bats cool down.  In the 9th the Rangers watch in horror as Gomez gets injured, but it’s apparently minor and he’ll be back for the final if Cashner can hold on.  And in the bottom of the 9th, he retires Harold Castro, he retires Willi Castro, and since Detroit can’t get Fidel to sign a contract, Cashner snuffs out Candelario and wraps up a six-hitter and a 6-2 win that sends the Rangers to the finals.  

The regional final featured the #2 seeded 2012 Dodgers and Aaron Harang (10-10, 3.61) against the #5 seed 2017 Rangers and Cole Hamels (11-6, 4.20), who was coming to the end of his experience in Texas.  Carlos Gomez, back from his injury suffered in the semifinal, makes a return in style with a solo homer in his first AB in the bottom of the 1st, and three batters later Joey Gallo makes contact for a 2-run shot and a quick 3-0 Texas lead.  Andre Ethier serves notice that this game isn’t over by converting Hamels’ HR split to lead off the 2nd, and after a couple of walks and an error by 1B-3 Mike Napoli loads the bases for the Dodgers, Bobby Abreu converts a two-out DO 1-12/flyB on Hamel’s card that clears the bases and LA vaults to a 4-3 lead.  That doesn’t last, as a 2-out 2-run homer by Adrian Beltre in the bottom of the inning returns the Rangers to the lead and the Dodgers decide to waste no time in going to their strong bullpen, Brandon League replacing Harang who doesn’t last two innings.  Beltre adds a 2-out RBI single in the 4th and that’s followed by Gallo’s second homer of the game, a 3-run blast and the Rangers are looking unstoppable as they climb to a 9-4 lead.  In desperation, the Dodgers summon closer Kenley Jansen in the 6th, and they try to cut into the lead in the 7th but are thwarted when Mark Ellis (1-12+2) is nailed at the plate trying to score on a Victorino double.  The Rangers score another in the bottom of the 7th courtesy of a 2-base error by Dodger 3B-4 Hanley Ramirez, and Hamels hangs on, surviving three Texas errors to close out the 10-4 win and provide the Rangers with their third regional title, their first for a team from this millennium.  These Rangers were built on the Dave Kingman model, a team that collectively either struck out or homered, and the latter worked for them in this bracket with 10 dingers in the three games. 

Interesting card of Regional #211:  I don’t believe I’ve ever selected a card from the “current” set for this feature, but with a bracket loaded with modern teams I figured that Jose Cisnero should get his moment in the sun, if he can locate it.  Sporting a gaudy 1.08 ERA, Cisnero had one of the lowest H/9 rates in the regional, but also had the highest BB/9 rate.  I found myself wondering if this might be the highest ratio of BB/9 to ERA in printed Strat card history, but my googling left me unable to determine the answer to that question.  It has to be close, though; Cisnero’s BB/9 of 6.8 was pretty much the same as the all-time career “leader” in that regard, Tommy Byrne, who holds that record by nearly a full walk per inning over his nearest competitor.   Byrne managed to assemble a winning career record despite accomplishing such feats as once walking 150 batters in 143 innings, although he developed better control later in his career, like some others such as Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Sandy Koufax.  However, Byrne’s career 4.04 ERA is more in line with what might be expected out of a pitcher with his (and Cisnero’s) control issues.  For this card, Cisnero was age 33 which might be a bit late to start developing pinpoint accuracy, although I should point out that in 2023 he managed to lower his BB/9 rate by a full three walks per game.  Unfortunately, his H/9 nearly doubled and his ERA climbed to 5.31, suggesting that maybe he’s better off when he doesn’t throw strikes. 

REGIONAL #211:   The last team pulled in this bracket was a pennant winner, the 2001 Yankees representing a Jeter-era team from the heart of the steroid years.  The first team pulled was an Indians team from 1947 that was one season away from one of the all-time great Tribe squads.  In between were many intriguing entries, like the Dodgers from a year after Kirk Gibson’s Series, a Twins team two seasons before their miracle 1987 run, a Mariners team two seasons after the powerhouse that unfortunately lost to these very Yankees in 2001, a White Sox team a few years before their long-awaited 2005 pennant, and a Pirates squad of roughly the same vintage that made the semifinals in the previous bracket.  Although the Jeter Yankees have repeatedly come up short in this tournament, I thought that maybe this group would capture the crown, and best the Dodgers in the final–although that would require LA to get past the Indians in round one, which should be a challenge.  The ELO rankings surprised me by ranking the Mariners as the top squad in this group, meaning that they might at last get a chance to avenge themselves against the 2001 Yanks, if they can get past a highly rated A’s team.  Assuming they can do both, they were ELO favorites over the Dodgers in the finals.

First round action

The 1947 Indians had most of the players but they were not the same team as their all-time great version that would emerge the following year; they went 80-74 and while their great DP combo of Boudreau and Gordon were in the top 10 in the MVP votes, Larry Doby had only a handful of appearances and they showed the stress of being the first black player in the AL.  They did have the 2nd place MVP votes for a pitcher in those pre-Cy Young days, Bob Feller (20-11, 2.68) ready to go against the 1989 Dodgers, who had basically an identical ELO rating to the Indians.  The Dodgers went 77-83 after famously limping their way to a Series championship in the preceding season, with an aging lineup of former AL stars like Eddie Murray, Willie Randolph, Alfredo Griffin and of course Kirk Gibson not getting better, just older.  However, their pitching staff was top-notch, with Orel Hershiser (15-15, 2.31) bulldogging his way to 4th in the Cy Young votes.    The first time through their elderly lineup, the Dodger his Feller’s 4-6 TR 1-6/SI three times, with Jeff Hamilton and Mike Scioscia converting the split twice in a row in the second inning and then Gibson finding a different single on Feller’s card to give LA a 2-0 lead before most Dodger fans get to their seats.  In the 3rd, Hank Edwards puts the Indians on the board with a homer that’s a solo shot only because Boudreau was wiped out on a Gordon DP ball on the preceding roll, but the Dodgers lead is cut to one.  Feller finds his stuff, allowing only one hit in the final five innings, but the Indians can’t sustain a rally; Gordon gets a leadoff single in the 9th but Eddie Robinson ends the game by hitting into Cleveland’s 5th DP (one on a LOMAX) of the game to give the Dodgers the 2-1 win and the trip to the semifinals.

The 2001 White Sox had Frank Thomas out with injuries most of the season, but they still finished over .500 at 83-79 with production from Maggio Ordonez and Paul Konerko, and Mark Buehrle (16-8, 3.29) had the best WHIP in the AL but didn’t muster a single Cy Young vote.  They looked like world-beaters compared to the 105-loss 2010 Pirates, who had a young Andrew McCutchen and one of the worst rotations I’d seen in recent regionals, “fronted” by Ross Ohlendorf (1-11, 4.07) and his .083 winning percentage.  One thing both teams have in common is some gaping defensive holes, and in the 2nd the Sox score first thanks to a 2-out 2-base error by Bucs SS-4 Ronny Cedeno.  In the top of the 3rd, two Sox stolen bases off Pittsburgh C-4 Ryan Doumit lead to two RBI singles from Ordonez and Konerko, and Carlos Lee adds to the lead with a leadoff homer in the 4th.  In the bottom of the inning, Garrett Jones gets the Pirates on the board with a sac fly but he’s injured in the process, and his tournament is likely over, but Delwyn Young adds a 2-out RBI double and the Sox lead narrows to 4-2.  In the 5th, Cedeno is injured and the Pirates bench is looking pretty empty, while in the 6th the Sox bring in two youngsters who will star for the pennant-winning 2005 team to replace two 5’s in the field.  Konerko rips a 2-out RBI double past injury replacement 1B-4 John Bowker to give Buehrle a little insurance, but Doumit quickly responds with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to make it a 2-run game again.  Buehrle tries to hang on, but he’s tagged for two straight singles in the bottom of the 9th and with one away, the Sox summon closers Keith Foulke.  2B-3 Ray Durham then drops a grounder to load the bases and put the winning run on 1st, but with a depleted bench it’s up to #9 hitter Lastings Milledge, who makes no lastings impression as he hits into a DP and the Sox survive and advance with a 5-3 victory.

This first round game matched the two top seeds of the regional.  The 2003 Mariners had the best ELO rating in this bracket and won 93 games, but aside from Edgar Martinez and Bret Boone, who finished 10th in the MVP voting, nobody else in the lineup had an OPS over .800; still, Jamie Moyer (21-7, 3.27) did win 20 games at age 40 and was 5th in the Cy Young balloting and he was backed by a deep bullpen.  The 2004 A’s won 91 games in the waning years of their “Moneyball” era, transitioning to a team led by a young rotation fronted by Tim Hudson (12-6, 3.53).  Oakland threatens in the top of the 2nd but Jermaine Dye ends the inning getting tossed out at home (1-12+2) trying to score on a Damian Miller single.  The Mariners don’t need to test Edgar Martinez’s slow legs in the bottom of the inning, as Carlos Guillen delivers an RBI double to drive him in easily from 2nd and give Seattle the lead.  In the 5th, Olerud doubles in Ichiro and Hudson stops flowing, getting racked for a double by Randy Winn that scores Olerud, a 2-run single by Guillen, and a 2-out triple from Dan Wilson that completes a 5-run inning and the Mariners are looking like they intend to take their second regional in a row.   The A’s can’t figure out the junk that Moyer is tossing at them, and he finishes with a 7-hit shutout as the Mariners cruise to the semis with an easy 6-0 win against a team that was supposedly their top competitor. 

The last game of round one featured the only pennant winner in the bracket, the 2001 Yankees, but they were only seeded third despite winning 95 games, more than either of the two teams that had better ELO ratings.  Perhaps it was because the Jeter-era teams have done terribly in this tournament; although the Yanks have won 10 different regionals, none of them were by a Jeter-led squad–even though 16 of those teams made the postseason.   This version was a typical example, with Jeter and Tino Martinez getting MVP votes, as did Mariano Rivera and Roger Clemens (20-3, 3.51), who was a runaway winner of the Cy Young award.  Against that firepower, the prospects for the #7 seeded 1985 Twins did not look good, but although they only won 77 games, they had a core in place of Puckett, Hrbek and Gaetti that would win the AL two years later, and Bert Blyleven (17-16, 3.16) was spinning curveballs at the top of the rotation.  Clemens is greeted with two singles in the top of the 1st that set up a Dave Engle sac fly, and they add to their lead when Gaetti doubles and scores on a Roy Smalley single in the 2nd.  A 2-run single by Mark Salas in the 3rd continues the woes for Clemens, but the Yanks finally get on the board in the bottom of the inning when Alfonso Soriano singles, steals second off C-4 Salas, and scores on a Chuck Knoblach single that makes it 4-1 Twins.   Clemens then starts to gain his form, and Scott Brosius knocks a sac fly in the 6th that cuts the lead to two, but when Puckett singles in the 8th it’s Rivera time for the Yanks, who ends the threat in a flurry of strikeouts.  However, with two out in the top of the 9th Gaetti nails a solo shot to provide some insurance for Blyleven, but that proves unnecessary as he retires Jeter with a runner in scoring position for the final out and the Twins pull off the 5-2 upset as yet another Jeter-led pennant winner exits in the first round.  

The survivors

It was a Zoom double-header for the semifinals, with the first game on tap featuring the 2003 Mariners managed by StratFan Rick, who had led the M’s to a regional title in the previous bracket.  With no other takers, I volunteered to helm the 1985 Twins in what appeared to be a mismatch between the #1 and #7 seeds, although both Seattle’s Joel Pineiro (16-11, 3.78) and the Twins’ Frank Viola (18-14, 4.09) were decent enough workhorses.  Viola was pitching from the stretch much of the night, allowing three hits in the top of the 1st but getting bailed out courtesy of Ichiro and Randy Winn both getting caught stealing by rubber-armed Twins C-4 Mark Salas.  However, Winn contributes a sac fly in the 3rd and the Mariners draw first blood, and in the 5th they load up the bases for John Olerud, who smacks a 2-run single to provide additional padding.  The Twins can’t manage a second hit against Piniero until the 5th, and although the third time through the order they begin to get some baserunners, they repeatedly leave those runners in scoring position with no payoff.  In the 8th, the Twins again bring the tying run to the plate and Rick has seen enough of Piniero, summoning Rafael Soriano and his 1.53 ERA to end the threat; he does exactly that, blowing through four straight Twins to notch the save to share in Piniero’s 6-hit shutout as the Mariners head to their second straight regional final with the 3-0 win.  

The second Zoom semifinal featured my #6 seeded 2001 White Sox, seeking to atone for the ‘59 team’s demise in the previous regional, against the 4th seed 1989 Dodgers, with the Tall Tactician stepping in to the role of Tommy Lasorda for the game.  The strength of these Dodgers was the rotation, and Tim Belcher (15-12, 2.82) was a round two starter who came in 6th in the Cy Young voting; for the Sox, Sean Lowe (9-4, 3.61) was only voted most likely to be traded to Pittsburgh after the season.  Those votes increased in the top of the 3rd when John Shelby, the .183 hitting Dodger CF, finds and converts Lowe’s 5-5 HR split for a solo shot and a 1-0 lead, which looked pretty substantial since I had now gone 17 straight innings without scoring in a Zoom game.  However, that streak was broken in the 4th by an aging Jose Canseco, in the final year of his career, smoking an RBI double to tie the game, and an injury to Dodger DH Franklin Stubbs put a crimp in an already suspect LA offense.  With 1st base open and two away, TT elects to walk dangerous (with the bat and the glove) Carlos Lee to load the bases to get to Royce Clayton; the role of 3-8 hits the hole in Clayton’s strong column to end the inning–and it would have been a solid HR on Lee, so TT chose wisely.  In the 6th a leadoff double by Jose Valentin rattles TT, who seeks to take advantage of a strong Dodger bullpen by moving to Alejandro Pena; that move proves less effective as the first batter he faces, Paulie Konerko, ignites the scoreboard with a 2-run homer and the Sox lead 3-1.  However, in the 7th it’s Jeff Hamilton’s turn to find and convert Lowe’s 5-5 HR for another solo blast, and with closer Keith Foulke only having two innings of eligibility remaining, the Sox hope that unheralded Matt Ginter can hold LA at bay.  He gets the final out of the 7th, but he allows 2 straight hits to begin the 8th, with the second one by Willie Randolph scoring the tying run, and I’ve got to move to Foulke to try to stay in the game.  Foulke does his job, as does Mike Morgan for the Dodgers, and TT inserts closer Jay Howell for the bottom of the 9th hoping to send the game to extra inning, as Foulke is now burnt and the remainder of the Sox bullpen is ghastly.  But Howell walks the leadoff hitter, defensive replacement Aaron Rowand, and then Royce Clayton rips a grounder that gets past immobile 1B-4 Eddie Murray for a single that sends Rowand to 3rd as the winning run with nobody out.  Up to the plate steps #9 hitter Sandy Alomar Jr., who loft a flyball deep enough for Rowand to score and the Sox survive a see-saw game for a 4-3 win on a walk-off sac fly.  

For the second regional in a row, it was going to be a ChiSox/Seattle final, but this time the tables were turned as it would be the 2003 Mariners coming in as the top seed against an underdog 2001 White Sox team that was seeded 6th in the bracket.  I managed to jinx the Sox in the prior bracket in a live Zoom game, but this time it would be the typical solitaire rolloff, where my Sox jinx has been particularly pronounced.  However, it didn’t seem to me like a jinx would be required for the Sox to lose this one, with Jon Garland (6-7, 3.69) having control issues and their only good reliever burned, while the Mariners would have a solid pen available in support of Ryan Franklin (11-13, 3.57).  Things start rough for Garland in the bottom of the 1st as Ichiro singles, decides not to test Alomar’s arm after getting caught stealing twice in the semifinal, and then he uses his speed to race home on a Randy Winn double to give Seattle the quick lead.  Bret Boone then singles past SS-2 Royce Clayton and John Olerud brings both runners home with another double; a single gets by P-3 Garland, a walk loads the bases, and the 9th hitter of the inning, Jeff Cirillo, rips a 2-run single as the Mariners bat around en route to a 5-0 lead after one inning.  As if that’s not enough, Paul Konerko begins the 2nd inning by getting knocked out of the game with an injury,  and when Winn knocks a 2-run double when he misses Garland’s HR split in the 4th, the Sox move to Matt Ginter out of the pen who ends the inning without further damage.  In the 5th, Mariners 3B-2 Cirillo drops a grounder, and that rattles Franklin as he loads up the bases and then issues two consecutive walks to Magglio Ordonez and Jose Valentin; Cirillo then atones by turning a nifty DP to end the inning as Seattle still leads comfortably at 7-2.  Jose Canseco knocks a solo HR in the 8th off Franklin’s card, but even though Franklin is tiring he hangs on and whiffs Canseco for the last out in the 9th to secure the 7-3 win and the regional title for the Mariners, as they defeat the White Sox in the bracket final for the second time in a row.  

Interesting card of Regional #211:  This selection features another installment in the “pretty good final Strat cards of their career” series.  This is the last card for the infamous Jose Canseco, and if you blinked you might not have even known that he ever played for the White Sox, but he did and he played an important role here in leading the team to the regional final.  He didn’t get a full season of at-bats at age 36, perhaps because the Sox already had a DH in the Big Hurt and Canseco’s bad fielding (rf-5(+1)e16 for those curious) by this time was legendary after a fly ball bounced off his head for a homer.  Still, an OPS of .843 isn’t too shabby, pretty close to his career mark of .867; he certainly didn’t want this to be his last card, as he attempted to sign with several teams after this in an effort to reach 500 career homers, but he ended with 468 after this season.  However, by this time there were whispers about the source of his home run power (curiously absent in his identical twin brother, Ozzie), whispers that Canseco emphatically confirmed in his 2005 tell-all autobiography _Juiced_ in which he claimed to have introduced steroids to the baseball world beginning in 1985.  If he wasn’t one before, that book certainly made him a pariah in the baseball world, and when his name first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot, he received only 1.1 percent of the vote despite a slew of impressive accomplishments such as being the first 40-40 hitter in MLB history.  Although he will probably never make the HOF, he is the GOAT in one respect:  he does hold the record for the player with the most career homers who was stopped by the police while driving with a goat wearing diapers in the back seat.