REGIONAL #179:  This group included a number of teams that I suspected would be decent, but I didn’t see a clear favorite rising above the competition, which for a change was largely made up of 20th century squads.  There was a ‘63 Cardinals team that would win the Series the following season, a Blue Jays team a few years before their mini-dynasty in the early 90s, a mid-70s Pirates team that was better a few years before and after this version, two teams in the Phillies and the Cubs that were couple of seasons past infamous collapses, and a relatively recent Yankees team that I suspected was expected to do more than they did.  It was not too long ago that I witnessed an early 90s Jays team win their regional, so I guessed that the 1990 version entered here would squeak by the Cards in the finals.  The ELO ratings concurred that this was a pretty solid group of teams, with the expansion Senators as the only bad one in the bunch; those ratings tapped the ‘76 Pirates with a slight edge over the Jays to win the regional banner.  

First round action

On the day after he passed, it seemed fitting that Tim McCarver would get a chance to lead his NL runner-up, 93-win 1963 Cardinals in pursuit of a win against the bracket’s top seed, the 1976 Pirates.  The Cards also had an old Stan Musial and a young Bob Gibson, but they would give the starting nod to Curt Simmons (15-9, 2.47) to be McCarver’s battery mate.  The Pirates won 92 games and were runner-up in the NL East, and they were celebrating Strat’s Opening Day on which their season was being re-released in updated form, although true to my tournament these Pirates were the original issue from the 70s.  They tapped John Candelaria (16-7, 3.15) for the start and were counting on Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, and Richie Zisk for some fireworks.  But it’s Al Oliver who provides the spark in the bottom of the 1st with a solo HR for a quick Pirates lead, but the next batter, Parker, goes down to injury and must leave the game although early reports suggest he could return for the regional final should the Pirates survive that long.  The Candyman keeps a shutout going through six innings, but when the Cards lead off the 7th with a single and a walk, the Pirates can’t risk Candelaria’s longball results and summon Kent Tekulve from the pen to try to preserve the shutout.  Tekulve gets one out, but then PH Mike Shannon finds a single on Tekulve’s card and the game is tied–briefly, as Bill Robinson leads off the bottom of the inning with a homer that wraps around the foul pole.  That is only the third hit allowed by Simmons, but he is rattled and then allows three straight hits, including an RBI poke from Rennie Stennett, and the Cards have to bring in veteran Bobby Shantz to end the inning with the Pirates now leading 3-1.  In the 8th, Parker’s replacement Omar Moreno gets on base, steals second on the late McCarver, and races home on a Zisk single to extend the Pittsburgh lead.  With the insurance run, the Pirates decide to preserve Tekulve and bring in Dave Giusti to close things out, and he tosses a flawless 9th and the Pirates head to the semifinals with the 4-1, but without the services of Parker.

In the first game of a Zoom doubleheader, Philly Phan TT took the reigns of the 87-win 1966 Phillies, who boasted Richie Allen (retrospectively Dick on his re-issued Strat Card) as the league OPS leader and 4th in the MVP votes, while sending out Jim Bunning (19-14, 2.41) on the mound.  Although he had no bone in the fight, StratFan Rick agreed to roll the bones for the 2011 Diamondbacks, who won 94 games and the NL West, and got a monster year out of Ian Kennedy (21-4, 2.88) who was 4th place for the Cy Young Award.  Both starters are sharp to begin the game and things remain in a scoreless tie through five innings, but Bill White drives in a run in the top of the 6th to push the Phils into a slender lead.  That lead doesn’t last long, as Arizona’s own 4th place MVP finisher, Justin Upton, singles in a run to tie things in the 7th and with the scoring drought, the official scorer is getting concerned about an extra inning marathon that would overwhelm his 12-inning scorecard.  There is no need to worry, as Allen takes control in the 8th with a tape measure 2-run homer that shatters Kennedy’s confidence, and even slap hitters like Cookie Rojas and defensive replacement Bobby Wine start teeing off on him until Rick calls for JJ Putz to finally end the inning after the Phils take a 5-1 lead.   However, Allen isn’t done, crushing another 2-run homer in the 9th and Bunning puts his political career on hold to toss a 6-hitter and the Phils march to a 7-1 victory and a trip to the semifinals.

The second game of the Zoom doubleheader saw an authentic Canadian, Eaglesfly Roy, manage the 86-win 1990 Blue Jays against an authentic Chicagoan, me, rolling for the 77-84 1973 Cubs; even though I’m a White Sox fan, I figured that I would reverse jinx the Cubs to a win since I usually want them to lose.  Roy looked to have the advantage with Dave Stieb (18-6, 2.93) who finished 5th in the Cy Young sweepstakes, while I countered with Bill Bonham (7-5, 3.02) for the Cubs, a swingman with a pretty nice card himself.  Unfortunately, Bonham’s card didn’t help much in the top of the 1st when George Bell blasted a 2-run homer off his own card for a quick lead, and then Kelly “Hans” Gruber goes Nakatomi for a back-to-back shot and the Jays have a 3-0 lead before Jack Brickhouse can figure out how to turn on the microphone.  The Cubs show some spark in response in the bottom of the 1st as Billy Williams rips a double that scores the fleet Jose Cardenal and after a walk Stieb is looking mortal.  However, Ron Santo then hits into his first of multiple double plays and the rally is killed–and so is the Cubs offense.  Stieb asserts control, as does Bonham, and after 8 scoreless innings the game ends as it began–the Jays win 3-1, Stieb allowing only 5 hits, Bonham allowing only four, but half of those ended up on Waveland Avenue and the Cubs head to the storage drawers while the Jays move on.

The 84-win 2016 Yankees featured guys who were either too old (ARod) or too young (AJudge) to be useful, so they were relying on a formidable card from DH/backup catcher Gary Sanchez and ideally a good start from Masahiro Tanaka (14-4, 3.07) who finished 7th for the Cy Young.  They didn’t seem to have much of a challenge in the 106-loss 1963 Senators, who couldn’t really field, get on base, or hit for power, and their best hope was for a dominating game from swingman Tom Cheney (8-9, 2.71).  The Senators use smallball to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd on an Ed Brinkman single, but in the 6th Starlin Castro singles in a run for the Yanks and then scores on a Brian McCann sac fly to put New York in front.  The Senators attempt to counter in the bottom of the inning is derailed when Chuck Hinton is caught stealing for the second time in the game, but when Jim King leads off the 7th with a double off Tanaka’s card, the Yanks move to their deep bullpen and Tommy Layne comes in to try to hold the lead.  He issues a walk but then gets two out, and the Senators trot out 39 year old pinch hitter Minnie Minoso, who shows he deserves his recent HOF induction with a single and King beats the throw home to tie the game.  Chaney gets the job done in the top of the 9th, so with the game on the line the Yanks bring out closer Aroldis Chapman for the bottom of the frame, and he blows through the Senators to send the game to extra innings.  Cheney is perfect in his final inning of eligibility, and Washington fares no better against Chapman in the 10th, so the Senators are forced to go to their closer, Ron Kline, to begin the 11th; he retires three straight, and the Yanks seek to preserve Chapman and summon Dellin Betances to pitch the bottom of the 11th, and he strikes out the side in impressive fashion.  In the 12th, Kline walks McCann and then Chase Headley singles him to 3rd and the Senators bring the infield in with one away; Texeria grounds out for two away, Headley heading to second, and then Aaron (not Judge) Hicks finds a single on Kline’s card, and both runners score to put the Yanks ahead.  Betances mows down the Nats in order to pick up the win and the Yanks head to the semifinals with the 4-2 win in which there were as many innings (12) as there were hits in total.  

The survivors

In an all-Pennsylvania semifinal it was the 1976 Pirates, minus an injured Dave Parker, against the 1966 Phillies and 20-game winner Chris Short (20-10, 3.54), who got some votes for MVP.  Pirates starter Bruce Kison (14-9, 3.08) was also plenty capable, and Pittsburgh was hoping he could go deep in the game after needing to use their bullpen in the first round.  Nobody gets a hit until the top of the 3rd, when the Pirates get three hits out of Short, with an RBI single from Parker’s replacement Omar Moreno and a sac fly from Bill Robinson leading to a 2-0 lead for the Bucs.  The Phils try to strike back in the bottom of the inning, but they hold John Briggs at 3rd on a Tony Gonzalez double not wanting to take the bat out of Dick Allen’s hands, although Allen fans and the Phils remain scoreless.   From there, Short is masterful, allowing only one more hit in the remaining six innings, but he nonetheless comes up Short as Kison is even better, finishing out a 3-hit shutout (two by Gonzalez, none by Allen who whiffs 3 times) and the Pirates sail to the finals where they will be rejoined by Parker in the decisive game.  

Both the 1990 Blue Jays and the 2016 Yankees had trouble mustering much offense in round one, only managing 10 hits between the two of them, but they each were hoping for more success against the number two starters, the Jays David Wells (11-6, 3.14) and the Yanks CC Sabathia (9-12, 3.91).  It stays scoreless until the bottom of the 4th, when Kelly Gruber leads off with a double and John Olerud singles him home to put the Jays on top 1-0.  Wells has the Yanks stymied until the 7th, when he starts to lose control; Tony Fernandez turns a clutch DP to help out, but then Wells allows a single and a walk and the Jays summon Duane Ward from the pen to try to get the final out, even though Wells has only allowed 3 hits.  Ward retires Chase Headley to preserve the slender lead, and then when Tony Fernandez leads off the 8th with a double it’s the Yanks turn to move to the pen, bringing in game one winner Dellin Betances and he succeeds in keeping it a one run game entering the 9th.  Ward records two quick outs, but to preserve his eligibility for the final the Jays must bring in Tom Henke (with a somewhat frightening HR result) to try to get the final out, and he gets Didi Gregorius to hit a lazy fly and the Jays head to the finals winning the 1-0 duel, with only 8 hits managed between the two teams.

For the second straight regional in a row, the finals matched the top two ELO seeds in the bracket, with the #1 seed 1976 Pirates against the #2 seeded 1990 Blue Jays for all the marbles.  Both teams had reached the finals by only allowing a total of one run in the first two rounds, while scoring little themselves, and so it would be up to Pittsburgh swingman Larry Demery (10-7, 3.17) and the Jays’ Todd Stottlemyre (13-17, 4.34) to try to continue the trend.  However, in the top of the 1st Dave Parker celebrates his return from injury with a solo blast off Stottlemyre’s card, and hits keep coming as Al Oliver contributes an RBI single although Bill Robinson (1-14) is cut down at the plate trying to score on a Richie Zisk base hit, so it’s 2-0 after half an inning.  In the 2nd, Parker comes up with two away and Richie Hebner on second, and he rips a base hit but once again the split die don’t cooperate and Hebner (1-14) is nailed at home to keep the Jays in the game.  They take advantage in the bottom of the inning as after two quick outs, Pat Borders bounces a triple past inept LF-4 Zisk, and Junior Felix follows by converting a HR split on Demery’s card and the game is tied.  There’s more bad news for the Pirates in the 3rd when Willie Stargell is knocked out of the game with an injury, and then the Jays pile on in the bottom of the inning as Kelly Gruber rolls Demery’s HR result with two men on; he misses the split but two runs score and the Jays take a 4-2 lead.  In the 6th, the injury bug hits the Jays as C Pat Borders is hurt, and in the 7th Parker’s third hit of the game is followed by an error from Jays 1b-3 McGriff, and Toronto turns to their already taxed bullpen and Duane Ward comes in and shuts down the Pirates.  For the second straight game Ward tosses two perfect innings, and once again the Jays nervously bring in Tom Henke to try to close things out in the 9th.  Henke allows a single to Frank Taveras, but then retires Parker for the 1st time of the game; however, 3b-2 Gruber then boots a grounder for the third Jays error of the game and the go ahead run comes to the plate with two away in the form of Richie Zisk.  It’s a grounder to 2b-3 Manny Lee, and he fields it cleanly, tosses to McGriff and the Jays wrap up the 4-2 win and their 7th regional title, with five of them coming from teams between 1984 and 1993.

Interesting card of Regional #179:  According to my Strat crony N/O, this is the card that forced the game company to incorporate the e-rating as part of fielding in the Advanced game.  As can be seen, Mr. Parker was the recipient of a RF-4 (a -2 arm, though) in his original 1976 card, which was Strat’s worst fielding rating at the time.  This was prior to the existence of the e-rating.  However, in 1977 Parker won the vote for the Gold Glove in RF, which presented the game company with a dilemma, because they traditionally (but not always) would assign a “1” rating to Gold Glovers:  they could either admit they made a mistake in his rating in 1976, or they could persist in their view of Parker as a lousy fielder in contrast to the voting of manager and coaches.  They went for a third option–inventing an “e-rating” that would separate fielding range from the propensity to make errors, and Parker thus became a RF-1 e16 (-5 arm, though!), their best range and their worst outfield e-rating available in the original 1977 cards.   Thus, Parker went from a 4 to a 1 in a single season in Basic, because when they were first introduced the Basic fielding rating was always the same as the ADV “range” rating, although they eventually allowed them to differ.  Since I like the original sets, I didn’t order the newly SADV-ed 1976 cards and I’m curious to know how they rated Parker in it–I’m guessing probably not a “4”.  Many know that Strat card creation (Basic only) is a hobby of mine, and when I run Parker through my algorithms, he is rated as a RF-3 for 1976 and a RF-2 for 1977–both of which I think are more accurate Basic ratings than what the game company originally provided.   I’m never quite sure how Strat arrives at their Basic fielding ratings, although a good rule of thumb is to improve any Yankees by a point or two.

REGIONAL #178:  There were two teams in this group that made me take notice, and unfortunately they would face off in the first round; it would be a pairing of two of the most formidable hitters in baseball history, Ted Williams against Barry Bonds.  Beyond those two teams, there was little that stood out to me; there was a late 50s Tigers team that might have been building towards their excellent squad from 1961, but I thought that most other entrants were mired in fairly bleak periods in franchise history.  I suspected that Bonds would have more support than Williams and thus picked the Giants over the ‘58 Tigers in the regional final.   The ELO ranks identified the Splinter’s Red Sox as the best team in the bracket, appreciably better than the #6 seeded Giants, and pegged them to win in the finals against a recent Rockies team that I had overlooked, probably because two Colorado teams were quickly eliminated in the first round in the last regional.  

First round action

The Zoom game of the week involved the marquee matchup between Ted Williams and the 1941 Red Sox against Barry Bonds and the 1997 Giants, with both teams being co-managed by participants, meaning that my typical jinx should have no bearing on the outcome.  The BoSox were 84-70 and runners-up in the AL, with Charlie Wagner (12-8, 3.08) on the hill, while the Giants went 90-72 and won the NL West before getting swept by the Marlins in the NLDS, and they would start Shawn Estes (19-5, 3.18) in his career year.  However, in the top of the first the Red Sox make Estes ponder a different career as they bat around, knocking 5 hits including a bases-loaded double by Lou Finney that makes the score 4-0 before the Giants can swing a bat.  Estes then settles down, and the Giants begin the task of chipping away at the lead, getting an unearned run in the 2nd courtesy of an error by Boston 3B-4 Jim Tabor, and another run in the 3rd when Bill Mueller singles home the intentionally walked Barry Bonds.  However, the biggest blow suffered by the Red Sox occurs when Ted Williams is injured in his second plate appearance, out for seven games to prove that I can jinx teams even when not managing them.  From there, the burden falls on Wagner and he rises to the challenge, shutting down the powerful SF offense and benefitting from a Joe Cronin solo homer in the 6th involving a converted HR 1-2/flyB off Estes’ card.  That provides the final 5-2 margin as the Red Sox move on to the semifinals–but missing one of the best cards in Strat history, almost certainly for the rest of the tournament.

In the least eagerly anticipated matchup of the first round, it was the #7 seed 66-96 2001 Tigers against the even worse #8 seeded, 105-loss 2019 Marlins.   Unusually for a team from the heart of the steroid era, the Tigers had nobody that cleared 20 HR and they had a largely terrible defense to support their one decent starting pitcher, Steve W. Sparks (14-9, 3.65).  Although the Marlins had a few players who could actually field their position, they also had two guys in the lineup hitting below the Mendoza line but they did similarly have one decent starter, Sandy Alcantara (6-14, 3.88) who was better than his record would suggest.   The Tigers lose one of their best hitters and fielders when Bobby Higginson goes down with an injury in the 3rd; Tony Clank then responds with a double but Damion Easley (1-12+2) is cut down at the plate for the third out and the game remains scoreless.  The Marlins finally break the ice in the top of the 6th when Tigers CF-3 Jose Macias commits a 2-base error and Brian Anderson doubles in the run off Sparks’ card; Starlin Castro then finds a Starks single to score Anderson and the Marlins lead by two.  When Sparks walks two in a row to begin the 8th, the Tigers bring in their own Mr. Anderson, closer Matt; he gets a double play ball out of Castro to end the inning, but yields a run in the top of the 9th on a Miguel Rojas sac fly.  That put the game in Alcantara’s hand for the 9th; he allows a leadoff double to Clark and activity begins in the Marlins pen.  Alcantara whiffs Robert Fick but then Shane Halter triples and Miami moves to Jarlin Garcia with the tying run at the plate.  He gets two in a row, striking out Macias to end the game, preserve the shutout and the four hitter, and the Marlins head to the semifinals with a 3-0 win.    

The 2018 Rockies won 91 games and made a brief postseason appearance as a wildcard team, and they combined the typical Rockies offense–four guys with .500+ SLG%--with some atypically decent pitching, Kyle Freeland (17-7, 2.85) finishing 4th in the Cy Young ballots.  However, the 2007 Cubs looked like an even matchup, as they won the NL Central with 85 wins;  these Cubs also had four .500 sluggers in their lineup and starter Carlos Zambrano (18-13, 3.95) was 5th in the Cy Young sweepstakes, with the main difference between the clubs being the far greater defensive skills of the Rockies, with three 1s in the infield.  Zambrano starts out a bit rough in the top of the 1st with the Rockies getting a leadoff single, followed by a Zambrano error, and then with 2 outs David Dahl and Carlos Gonzalez nail back to back RBI singles for a quick Colorado lead.  The Cubs respond in the bottom of the inning with a pair of singles, but only get one run that scores on an Alfonso Soriano double play ball.  Ian Desmond then converts Zambrano’s HR split to lead off the 2nd to extend the Rockies lead, and a nifty DP turned by Rockies 2B-1 DJ Lemahieu kills a Cubs rally in the bottom of the inning.   Gonzalez also finds Zambrano’s homer to lead off the 4th, and the Cubs are just waiting for the 5/5 rule to take effect so they can try someone else; they don’t have to wait long, as Charlie Blackmon singles home Lemahieu later in the inning for run number 5 and the Cubs put Zambrano on ice, trying another Carlos in Marmol and his 1.43 ERA and he fans Trevor Story to end the inning but the Rockies now lead 5-2.   The Cubs get to Freeland in the 6th, and Adam Ottavino comes in with the bases loaded and two out to walk Daryle Ward for a run, but then whiffs Derrek Lee to prevent further damage.  An RBI single from Story provides some insurance in the top of the 7th, but the Cubs strike back in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases for a 2-run single from Cliff Floyd, although Ottavino then whiffs Aramis Ramirez and Ward in succession to strand another potential run on 3rd, so it’s 6-4 Colorado heading into the 8th.  Ian Desmond singles in the 8th, steals second on backup catcher Geovany Soto, and scores on a Lemahieu base hit, and Marmol exits having been burnt for the regional with the Rockies up by three.  Wanting to preserve Ottavino, the Rockies summon closer Wade Davis, who recorded 43 saves but his 4.13 ERA is worrying.  Davis is perfect in the 8th, but in the bottom of the 9th he allows a couple of hits to bring up Ramirez with two outs as the tying run; Ramirez lofts a fly ball but there’s not enough wind at Wrigley and the catch is made to seal the 7-4 win and a semifinal berth for the Rockies.   

The 1958 Tigers finished an even 77-77, with Gus Zernial appreciating this DH rule and 23-year old Al Kaline showing some promise, supporting a solid rotation with Paul Foytack (15-13, 3.44) getting the first round nod.  They were slight ELO favorites against the strike-year 1994 Royals, but I didn’t really see it as the Royals had a better 61-54 record, being built on speed, defense and pitching with David Cone (16-5, 2.94) awarded the Cy Young that season. However, it’s Foytack who impresses early, striking out the side in the top of the 1st while Cone gives up a leadoff single, a walk, and then an RBI hit to Kaline that sets up a 3-run blast by Gail Harris into the upper deck at Briggs Stadium and the Tigers lead 4-0 after an inning.  Four more hits in the 3rd for the Tigers lead to two more runs, although the Royals do get on the board in the 4th with a Mike MacFarlane sac fly although it’s matched with a Charlie Maxwell sac fly in the 5th.  Cone then seems to settle down, and the Royals try to chip away at the Detroit lead as Wally Joyner pokes a leadoff homer in the 6th   A 7th inning injury to Tiger catcher Red Wilson causes some consternation as they have no backups who clear the Mendoza line, although Wilson should be ready for the regional final if the Tigers can get that far.  The Royals then try to assure that they won’t, opening the 8th with three straight hits, the last a 2-run single from Felix Jose; after a conversation with Foytack on the mound, they leave him in and he retires three straight to maintain a three-run edge.  Although Foytack drops a grounder by PH Dave Henderson in the 9th, he keeps his composure and closes out the 7-4 win and the Tigers move on.

The survivors

It was hard to consider the 1941 Red Sox as bracket favorites with their .400-hitting Hall of Fame leftfielder lost to injury, but even without Ted Williams they should probably be favored against the bottom-seeded 2019 Marlins.  In particular, Boston’s Mickey Harris (8-14, 3.25) was quite a bit better than the Marlins’ Trevor Richards (3-12, 4.50) so the Miami team was hoping that they could get five decent innings out of Richards to get to their main advantage, a deeper bullpen.  Jim Tabor and Joe Cronin lead off the top of the 2nd with consecutive doubles, and after a couple more hits Dom Dimaggio and Jimmie Foxx also put up back to back doubles and by the time Richards records out number three, it’s 5-0 Boston.  When Tabor singles to lead off the 3rd, Richards is out and Sergio Romo retires the side without damage.  Romo goes four strong innings, but he’s now burnt and Austin Brice comes in to begin the 7th and is greeted by a walk and two singles with Bobby Doerr driving in a run with one of them; Brice then walks the bases loaded for Joe Cronin, who muscles a grand slam through the Miami humidity to give Boston a double digit lead.  Foxx doubles to lead off the 8th and Tabor singles him home and the Marlins can’t take any more of Brice and send in Nick Anderson to mop up.  The Marlins never can figure out Harris, who completes a 2-hit shutout and the Splinter-free Red Sox have no trouble scoring in disposing of the Marlins by an 11-0 margin and move on to the finals.  

Unlike the previous semifinal, this one featured two competitive teams ranked among the top 1000, the #2 seed 2018 Rockies against the #3 seed 1958 Tigers.  It was German Marquez (14-11, 3.77) for the Rockies against Detroit’s Jim Bunning (14-12, 3.52), who would be without his usual batterymate Red Wilson who had not recovered from his first round injury.   Unfortunately for the Rockies, they end the top of the 1st with an injury to their All Star shortstop Trevor Story, and their vaunted infield defense suddenly gets much worse.  However, DJ Lemahieu records the first hit for the Rockies in the 3rd, a long home run off Bunning’s card, and then a rattled Bunning commits an error, walks the bases full, and then gives up a double to David Dahl; two runs score but Nolan Arenado (1-10+2) is cut down at the plate for the third out.  The Tigers get one back in the bottom of the inning when a 2-out Charlie Maxwell single scores Harvey Kuenn on a close play at the plate, but Bunning gets sloppy again and loads the bases in the 5th, which Carlos Gonzalez clears with a double and the Rockies now lead 6-1.  A single in the 6th and Bunning leaves to run for Senate, while Hank Aguirre comes in to end the inning.  Al Kaline contributes a 2-run blast in the bottom of the inning to make it a three-run game, but replacement SS-4 Ian Desmond makes his third straight X-chart play to prevent any further damage.  Marquez holds serve into the 9th, when Kaline gets injured to make the 2nd out; that seems to catalyze Gus Zernial who pokes a solo shot but Marquez fans Gail Harris and the Rockies move on with a 6-4 win, and with the good news that Story will be back for the regional final.  

The finals result in a rare matchup of the #1 and #2 seeds, a particularly unusual outcome given that both the 1941 Red Sox and the 2018 Rockies had to overcome injuries to key players to get this far.  However, the Rockies would be back at full strength with Trevor Story back in the lineup and with a fully rested bullpen that might be needed given the minefield that was Tyler Anderson’s (7-9, 4.55) card.  The Red Sox would send out Dick Newsome (19-10, 4.12), apparently no relation to Skeeter Newsome, the .225 hitting shortstop who was filling in for Ted Williams.  The Red Sox begin the top of the 1st with three straight hits, including a Jimmie Foxx RBI single, and Bobby Doerr adds a sac fly to provide a quick 2-0 Boston lead.  The Red Sox had gotten off to big starts in their two previous games, but they had never encountered a counterpuncher quite like the Rockies; in the bottom of the 1st Nolan Arenado gets Colorado on the board with an RBI single, and then David Dahl punches a three-run homer, immediately followed by another blast from Carlos Gonzalez and it’s suddenly 5-2 Rockies with eight innings still to play.  An Aranado double in the 3rd sets up a Gonzalez RBI single to extend the Colorado lead, but Boston narrows the gap in the 5th with back to back 2-out doubles from Doerr and Jim Tabor that make it 6-4.  When Boston leads off the 6th with two straight singles, the Rockies take no chances and summon closer Wade Davis in relief of Anderson, who allowed 11 hits in his 5 innings; that goes spectacularly badly, as after getting two outs Davis allows back to back doubles to Dimaggio and Foxx, and then a 2-run homer to Doerr.  A walk and a single to Joe Cronin and the Rockies can take no more, with Adam Ottavino coming in to get the final out but Boston has now regained a 9-6 lead.  However, in the bottom of the 6th, P-2 Newsome commits an error setting up a 2-out 2-run homer from number nine hitter Chris Ianetta, and it’s a one run game heading into the 7th.  Newsome allows a walk and a sharp single in the 7th and the Red Sox feel they have to move to what passes for a bullpen, trying Bill Fleming and bringing the infield in to try to keep the tying run from scoring.  That frees up Dahl to try to steal second and stay out of the DP, but he’s nailed and Fleming gets out number three to maintain the lead.  In the top of the 9th, Rockies 2b-1 DJ Lemahieu makes an unexpected error, and Dimaggio doubles the runner home to provide an insurance run for Fleming entering the bottom of the 9th as he faces the top of the Colorado order.  However, he doesn’t need the help, setting down the Rockies in order to preserve the 10-8 win and secure the 7th regional crown for the Red Sox, who manage to pound out the runs with aging talent like Jimmie Foxx and Joe Cronin, despite being without one of the biggest offensive weapons in baseball history.

Interesting card of Regional #178:  Imagine having this guy in your lineup in a single-elimination tournament and losing him to a seven-game injury in his second at-bat.  That was the predicament of the ‘41 Red Sox in this bracket, and somehow they managed to overcome that setback to go on to win the regional; if they can eventually win their super-regional and I live long enough to play those games, they just might get Williams back someday.  I know there are some of you that are a bit tired of the 1-column pattern for a team’s best hitter, so to break up the monotony I thought I’d also include Ted’s vintage Hall of Fame series card, which also presented his 1941 year as his best season but used a different, classic card format.  As for me, I’d be willing to put either card in my lineup, but after this regional, I’d prefer it if they could print one that didn’t have an injury result on it. Oh, and by the way–this season apparently wasn’t good enough to qualify Ted as the league MVP; that award went to a brother of one of Ted’s teammates, even though Ted led the league in homers, batting average, walks, slugging percentage, on-base percentage (and OPS, obviously), and WAR.  I guess that’s what a hitting streak (and a pennant playing in New York) will do for you.

REGIONAL #177:  There were a number of teams in this largely post-steroid era bracket that caught my attention while they were being selected.   The 2009 Yankees were the last squad from that franchise to win the AL to the current day, and they had an interesting subway-series matchup against the 2017 Mets as I still remembered the 2019 version of the Mets bashing their way to a regional win nearly 70 brackets ago.  I knew that the 1983 Padres would win the NL the following season, and I thought I remembered the 1998 Astros making a serious run at the pennant.   There would also be a couple of 90s entries from the Rockies, whom I guessed sported a mile-high offense and pitching staffs with mile-high ERAs.  I thought the Padres would have a smooth path to the finals in the top half of the bracket, while the bottom would be extremely competitive, but my hunch was that the ‘98 Astros would handle the Yanks and then best the Padres in the finals.   The ELO rankings had the Yanks as one of the best 50 teams in history, with the ‘98 Astros almost making the top 100 with those two ranked as the best teams in the group by far; the Yanks were thus heavy ELO favorites to beat the Padres in the final.

First round action

The main thing I noticed about the 79-82 2000 Marlins is that they seemed to have a lot of guys with no names on their cards, and since none of them were Barry Bonds I had the feeling it was not a good sign.  Still, they had six players in the lineup with double digits homers and Ryan Dempster (14-10, 3.66) was decent by the standards of this era.  Even so, their offense paled compared to that of the 83-79 1996 Rockies, with Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga, and Vinny Castilla all with 40+ HR and a total of five guys with SLG% over .500.  However, their pitching was painfully bad, with Kevin Ritz (17-11, 5.28) apparently able to win high-scoring games.  The Marlins seem to like the thin Denver air, as in the top of the 1st a Derrek Lee RBI triple and a 3-run blast from Preston Wilson and it’s a 4-0 lead for the Florida men.  Eric Young narrows the gap with a 2-out 2-run shot off Dempster in the 3rd, but in the 5th Lee converts a Ritz-y double to score Cliff Floyd to add to the Marlins lead.  Alex Gonzales triples to lead off the 6th, and Luis Castillo singles him home, with both off the pitcher’s card, so with Ritz crackered they bring in Bruce Ruffin, who they figure can’t be much worse.  Castillo responds by promptly stealing second and then scoring on a Mark Kotsay single that makes it 7-2, but Ellis Burks reduces the lead by a run with a solo shot in the bottom of the 6th.  The Marlins get another run on an RBI double from Mike Lowell in the 7th, but when Burks nails a 2-run shot in the 8th for his second homer of the game, Florida nervously eyes a bad bullpen but stays with Dempster and he gets a DP ball from Larry Walker to end the inning still holding a 3-run lead.  Dempster gets through the 9th unscathed and the Marlins move on in a minor upset with the 8-5 win.

The 2013 Astros were the bottom seed in this bracket, with an ELO ranking among the 50 worst teams of all time, and it was hard to imagine that this 111-loss team would win the World Series in four years, with Dallas Keuchel (6-10, 5.15) still being a key part of that championship staff.  Still, after looking at the lineup of the much better-ranked 81-81 1983 Padres, I didn’t see a huge advantage in the SD lineup even though they won the NL the following season.  However, swingman Mark Thurmond (7-3, 2.65) looked like a much better option than Houston could muster, but Keuchel holds his own until the bottom of the 3rd when he gives up a 2-out double to Steve Garvey that scores one, but Tony Gwynn is out at the plate to end the inning.  A 2-base error in the 5th by Astros 3B-2 Matt Dominguez sets up an RBI single from Gwynn, and then with Gwynn held Garvey nails a gbA++ to score another, and a 2-out single by Luis Salazar brings in a third run.  Keuchel desperately tries to go his 5 innings, but the next batter, Gene Richards, converts a HR 1-2 split for a 3-run shot and it’s time for Dallas to go into reruns.  Brett Oberholzer comes in to get the third out, but it’s now 7-0 Padres and Thurmond is looking strong against the whiff-prone Houstonians.  Two SD hits to lead off the 7th and the Astros try their best reliever, Kevin Chapman, and he escapes the jam without further damage; however, in the 8th the Astros best hitter, Jason Castro, leaves the game either with an injury or a desire to beat the Southern California traffic.  Thurmond cruises from there to finish up a 6-hit shutout and the Padres progress with a 7-0 win.

The 1998 Astros won 102 games and the NL Central but were upset in the NLDS; they had a strong lineup with Bagwell, Biggio, and Moises Alou, who finished 3rd in the MVP votes.  With a possible semifinal matchup against a championship Yankee team, the Astros decided to save a formidable Randy Johnson and went instead with the far less impressive Jose Lima (16-8, 3.70) figuring he would be better than anyone the 1999 Rockies could start.  And they were correct; the Rockies lost 90 games largely because of a terrible starting rotation.  Although Larry Walker and Todd Helton had big years, they were hoping that Brian Bohanon (12-12, 6.20) could keep the Astros in single digits.   Bohanon issues three walks in the top of the 1st but gets out of the inning unscathed thanks to a GIDP from Sean Berry, and in the 3rd it’s the Rockies who strike first when Brian McRae converts a HR 1-4/flyB split for a solo shot and a one run lead.   They extend it when Walker doubles to lead off the 4th and races home on a Helton single, but the Astros strike back in the 5th with a 2-out rally when Biggio walks, Alou doubles, and Bagwell singles, but Alou (1-14) is nailed at the plate trying to tie the game.  With their offense having unexpected trouble scoring against Bohanon, the Astros go to their bullpen and Doug Henry in the 6th to try to keep it close; he allows a double to McRae in the 7th but Henry Blanco (1-10) is cut down at home and it remains a 1-run game.  In the 8th, Bohanon’s magic runs out and Bagwell leads off with a towering blast that ties the game, and then Sean Berry goes back-to-back for a Houston lead and Rockies closer Dave Veres is summoned to staunch the bleeding.  He does so, and in the process Brad Ausmus is injured (the second straight game in which the Astros lose their catcher) and will miss the following game if the Astros can hang on.  To assure that happens, they bring in closer Billy Wagner to begin the 8th, and he makes the inning exciting by walking the first two batters he faces, but he’s bailed out by a nifty DP turned by Biggio.  Wagner also survives the 9th, and the Astros survive an unexpected pitching duel to gain the semifinals with a 3-2 win.  

The 2009 Yankees won 103 games, the AL, and the World Series, and they were favored in this bracket sporting an ELO designation of one of the best 40 teams in history.  However, Yankee pennant winners have traditionally fared poorly in this tournament, with the Jeter-era teams particularly underperforming, so they were looking to change that narrative with Mark Texiera and Jeter finishing 2nd and 3rd for MVP and CC Sabathia (19-8, 3.37) 4th in the Cy Young ballots.  This was a subway series against the 2017 Mets, who might have had a dismal 70-92 record and rather atrocious fielding, but they had power and Jake DeGrom (15-10, 3.53) also got some Cy Young votes, winning it the next season.  As it featured the top seed, this was the Zoom game of the week, and with a well-attended session the decision was made to revive the College of Coaches approach last seen with the ‘62 Cubs–a committee of four would call the shots for the Yankees, while I would manage the Mets to avoiding jinxing the bracket favorites since I had failed to score a run in my two previous Zoom appearances.  That streak ended quickly, as the Mets exploded out of the box in the top of the 1st with a couple of doubles and some sloppy Yankee fielding by 1B-1 Texiera to take a 2-0 lead.  However, the Mets return the favor by committing three errors–two of them by DeGrom–in the bottom of the inning and the game is tied.  Texiera atones for his fielding miscue with an RBI single in the 2nd to give the Yankees an edge, but then DeGrom finds his groove, striking out Yankee after Yankee.  That give Jose Reyes the chance to tie it, which he does leading off the 4th by converting Sabathia’s HR 1-5 split.  But from there, CC also settles in, at one point retiring 12 in a row and the pitchers are locked in a duel as the game enters the 9th.  In the top of that inning, the Mets get a leadoff single and it’s time for Mariano Rivera, who is bailed out by a key DP and the Mets leave the go-ahead run stranded at 3rd.   That brings up the top of the Yankees order in the bottom of the 9th, with the Mets sticking with DeGrom who has fanned 13 batters.  Jeter leads off with a single, and swipes second to put the winning run in scoring position.   That brings up Johnny Damon, who is 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts, and the College of Coaches goes into conference; after forming three subcommittees, developing four strategic plans, and consulting extensively with the Risk Management office, the College decides to let Johnny swing away.  And the roll is a 2-6, solid home run, and there’s bedlam in the Bronx as the Yankees move on with the 5-3 walkoff win.

The survivors

After cruising through the first round against a bad team, the 1983 Padres would now face a somewhat better squad in the semifinal in the form of the 2000 Marlins.  The Padres couldn’t be blamed for looking ahead to a possible matchup in the finals against a dominant team, but they felt that Dave Dravecky (14-10, 3.58) would be able to get them there.   The Marlins have to dig deeper in their no-name pitching staff and draw a blank–literally, their starter has no name, just a blank space.  A little bit of research reveals that this horse with no name is actually called Chuck Smith (6-6, 3.23), which is probably an alias anyway, but whoever he is the Marlins give him a quick lead in the top of the 1st with a Luis Castillo single, who steals second and scores on a Mark Kotsay single, both coming from the same roll on Dravecky’s card.  The Marlins add another run in the 2nd on a Castillo RBI single, but they also lose their top hitter, Cliff Floyd, to injury for the rest of the regional, replacing him with yet another no-name player.  The Padres load the bases in the bottom of the inning with nobody out, but fail to score thanks to a Garry Templeton GIDP.  They do break the ice in the 3rd with three straight hits to lead off the inning, the third a 2-run double from Tony Gwynn, and it’s a tie game.  Not for long, as another RBI single from Kotsay puts the Marlins back on top in the 4th, and both pitchers then settle into a groove.  When Smith issues a one out walk in the bottom of the 7th, the Padres pinch run Bobby Brown, and it’s his prerogative to steal second which he does; the Marlins eye their bullpen and see no names there either, so Smith stays in and he ends the threat still clinging to the one run lead.  However, Smith issues a walk to Steve Garvey to lead off the bottom of the 8th, and then hangs a curve to Terry Kennedy, who crushes it for a 2-run homer and a sudden Padres lead.  The Padres then summon Luis DeLeon to pitch the 9th against the top of the Marlins order, and DeLeon mows them down in order so the Padres move to the finals with the come-from-behind 4-3 victory.  

This was the matchup that had been anticipated since the regional draw, with the #1 seed and World Champion 2009 Yankees against the NL West winning #2 seeded 1998 Astros, and although the Stros would be without C Brad Ausmus for the game, they would have the intimidating Randy Johnson (19-11, 3.28), who compared favorably to the nonetheless solid Andy Pettitte (14-8, 4.18).  After Pettitte gets two quick outs in the top of the 1st, Moises Alou greets him with a moon shot, and the rattled Pettitte grants a double to Jeff Bagwell who scores on a Sean Berry single giving Houston an early 2-0 edge.  It proves to be short-lived, as ARod finds and converts Johnson’s HR result for a 2-run poke in the bottom of the inning to tie the game.  After making some nifty fielding plays in the 2nd, Craig Biggio leads off the 3rd with another long homer to put the Astros back on top, and then two batters later Berry converts Pettitte’s HR split for a solo shot.  Derrek Bell then doubles, Carl Everett follows with a triple,  and it’s looking like Andy is tossing batting practice out there; by the time he records the third out, Houston leads 5-2 and the Yankee bullpen is on red alert.  When Bill Spiers singles in the top of the 4th, Pettitte is gone, allowing 8 hits in 3+ innings with most of them for extra bases, and David Robertson gets the call, but Alou takes him to the corner with a triple and Houston extends their lead.  In the 6th, Jeter converts Johnson’s HR split for a solo shot and the Yanks narrow the gap to three, and in desperation they then decide to burn Mariano Rivera for the regional, bringing him in to begin the 7th.  Rivera is perfect in the top of the 7th, and ARod leads off the bottom of the 7th with his second homer of the game, and the next batter Matsui misses a HR/flyB split and the Astros are beginning to worry about Johnson, who is adamant about remaining in the game.  Everett gives the Big Unit some padding in the 8th when he converts Rivera’s HR split for a solo shot; in the bottom of the inning PH Eric Hinske draws a walk, but Astros defensive replacement SS-2 Tim Bogar converts a DP to send the game into the 9th with a three-run Houston lead.  With Rivera burnt, Alfredo Aceves comes in to walk the first two batters but escapes the inning with no damage, and so it’s Johnson’s game in the bottom of the 9th.  Damon and ARod single, and Damon scores when a ball gets past injury replacement C-4 Tony Eusebio, but Posada makes the final out missing a SI 1-12 split and the Astros triumph in the battle of the titans 7-5, and another Jeter-era Yankee pennant winner joins their colleagues in the storage drawer. 

Having disposed of the top seed, the #2 ranked 1998 Astros would now face the #3 seed 1983 Padres with both squads looking to win the 5th regional title for their franchise.  The Astros would be back at full strength getting Brad Ausmus back from injury, and they would have Shane Reynolds (19-8, 3.51) on the mound, who won a lot of games despite allowing a lot of hits.  The Padres would counter with a very good swingman in Andy Hawkins (5-7, 2.93) who would try to keep the powerful Houston lineup in check.  However, Hawkins has a rough time in the bottom of the 1st, with a single to the leadoff hitter Bill Spiers, followed by a double by Craig Biggio, and then Moises Alou ups the stakes with a long 3-run homer.  The Padres respond immediately, with Garry Templeton knocking one in with a sac fly and then Juan Bonilla converts Reynolds’ HR split for a 2-run shot and it’s a tie game.  The Astros move back in front when Biggio leads off the 3rd with a single off Hawkins’ card, steals second, and scores when Alou pokes a double past Padres CF-2 Ruppert Jones.  Once again the Padres strike back, with Templeton converting Reynolds HR split again for a solo shot for another tie, and in the 5th Luis Salazar singles in Steve Garvey to give the Padres their first lead, and the Astros have had enough of watching Reynolds rapped and Jay Powell comes in to end the inning with a DP ball.  When the Padres put together a two out rally in the 7th with a single followed by a 2-base error by LF-2 Alou, the Astros summon closer Billy Wagner to try to keep it close, but he allows a sharp single that scores both runners and the deficit grows to three.  Biggio narrows it with a solo blast in the bottom of the 7th, Alou walks, and then Bagwell puts one in the Crawford Boxes and the game is tied yet again; after a mound conference the Padres lets Hawkins pitch and he ends the inning to head to the 8th with the score knotted at seven apiece.   Wagner blows through the Padres in the top of the 8th, and when Derek Bell leads off the bottom of the inning with a double Hawkins is gone for Luis DeLeon.  He walks Ausmus and defensive replacement Tim Bogar bunts the runners into scoring position; the infield comes in to retire Spiers on a grounder with both runners holding for two out, but then DeLeon hangs one to Biggio, who crushes it for his second homer of the game, a three run shot that gives the Astros the lead.  With some padding, Houston decides to preserve Wagner for later rounds and brings in Doug Henry to close things out, and although he walks Garvey he handles the rest of the San Diego lineup to clinch the 10-7 win and the regional for the Astros.  In addition to providing the fifth win for the Astros franchise (joining 1969, 1972, 1980 and 2004), the victory also provides a measure of revenge for this ‘98 team, who were upset in the NLDS by none other than the San Diego Padres.  

 

Interesting card of Regional #177:  The 1998 Astros were the regional winners, and they reached the finals mainly because one Big Unit managed to best the bracket favorite 2009 Yankees in the semifinal round.  That big result was only fitting because Houston acquired Johnson at the trading deadline in 1998 in a push to win their first pennant in franchise history.   At the time, Johnson was in the last year of his contract with Seattle and constant trade rumors seemed to be disrupting his performance, as he had a mediocre (9-10, 4.33 ERA) record with the Mariners.  However, he was traded for Freddy Garcia, John Halama and Carlos Guillen at the July 31 deadline, and his enthusiasm about his new location is evident in this card, which represents his Astros-only performance.  Now, tournament rules require that a player with two cards for the same team must use the higher IP/AB version, so the card that beat the Yankees was good, but not this good.  It certainly looked like the Astros got what they bargained for, as they marched to 102 wins and took the NL Central by 12+ games.  However, when they hit the NLDS, the Astros were upset by the Padres in four games, with Johnson losing two of them.  With his contract now up, Johnson became a Diamondback the next season and the Astros were left with this rather good Strat card as consolation–as well as a win in Regional #177 of this tournament.

REGIONAL #176:    This group featured a couple of teams that were within a year of a title, with the 1947 Cardinals representing the follow-up to their classic ‘46 Series champs, and the 2012 Red Sox would capture the pennant in the following season.   There was also a 2016 Giants team two years after winning the NL crown that looked to be contenders.  Among other entries, there were a couple of Braves teams from different eras that seemed to have the misfortune of getting two of the tougher draws in the bracket, a turn of the millennium White Sox team that would be the latest to try to overcome my Sox jinx in this tournament, and an Indians team that might be a dark horse.  I guessed that the ‘47 Cards would meet the Red Sox in the finals, which would be fitting since those teams met in the Series in both the aforementioned 1946 and 2013 seasons, and that maybe Musial would lead the Cards to the regional crown.  The ELO rankings concurred on picking the Cards to win, portraying them as the best team in the NL that season even though they didn’t win the pennant; they were predicted to best the ‘66 version of the Braves and Hammerin’ Hank in the finals.    

First round action

The 2000 White Sox would be the latest South Siders to try to overcome my jinx, and they seemed to have a good shot having won 95 games and the AL Central.  This was a team from the height of the steroid era with everyone in the lineup with double digit homers, Frank Thomas, Magglio Ordonez and Charles Johnson all clearing at least 30, although like most pitching from that era, longballs were a problem with Mike Sirotka (15-10, 3.79) being less susceptible than other options.   The 1969 Yankees were in the midst of a bad stretch for the franchise, going a mediocre 80-81 and probably best known for the wife-swapping that was going on in the pitching staff.  That staff had a strong starting rotation with Fritz Peterson (17-16, 2.55) getting the round one start, but their offense looked largely limited to Joe Pepitone and Bobby Murcer.  I decided that perhaps I could break the Sox jinx by managing them live via Zoom against a Philly fan in TT, who had no particular love for the underdog Yankees, but both of us started off with cold dice and the game was scoreless after five innings.  However, in the top of the 6th, Frank Thomas smacked a wicked liner off the shin of Fritz Peterson, but instead of running to first Thomas yelled out to the collapsed Peterson, “And your wife will enjoy it too!”.  Peterson had to leave the game, but the mention of Mrs. Peterson brought Steve Hamilton out of the bullpen breathing fire.  Riled by the incident, the Yankee bats come alive in the bottom of the inning, with Pepitone lining an RBI single and Sirotka starts to come unglued, loading the bases for a 2-run double by the legendary Jerry Kenney and the Yankees are up 3-0.  The Sox can feel the walls of the storage drawers closing in on them, and in desperation bring in closer Keith Foulke, who manages to give up a solo homer to banjo hitter Gene Michael in the 8th.  Meanwhile, Hamilton and then Jack Aker continue to dominate and close out the 4-0 shutout to send the Yanks to the semis.

The 1966 Braves had just moved to Atlanta and won 85 games by taking advantage of the warmer weather to generate a solid offense with Hammerin Hank supported by Joe Torre, Rico Carty, Felipe Alou, Eddie Mathews, and Bob Costas’s favorite player, Gary Geiger.  However, their starting rotation was fairly shallow, with Ken Johnson (14-8, 3.30) the best of the lot.  They faced the 93-loss 2012 Red Sox, who had David Ortiz and a bunch of other guys with terrible injury rolls in the lineup, and some strong bullpen arms who would be needed to support a terrible rotation headed by Clay Buchholz (11-8, 4.56).  And, no sooner than I should mention it but Ortiz is injured for six games to end the 3rd inning, leaving the Bosox without their biggest bat, and the Cards take advantage in the bottom of the inning when Denis Menke walks, advances to second on a grounder, and scores on a Joe Torrea 2-out RBI single to put the Braves up 1-0.  The pitchers take control from there, and with a razor-thin edge the Braves decide to take no chances even with Johnson tossing a shutout, summoning Clay Carroll to close things out in the 8th.  And he does the job, preserving the 1-0 shutout and the Braves move on even though Buchholz holds them to two hits, both singles.

The 1947 Cardinals were the bracket favorites, finishing 2nd in the NL with 89 wins and boasting strong up the middle defense, a lineup anchored by Stan the Man, Whitey Kurowski, and a 35-year old Joe Medwick skeptically occupying this newfangled “DH” slot.  Their rotation was pretty solid as well, with Jim Hearn (12-7, 3.22) getting the nod from among a group of equally good starters.  The 1986 Braves had 89 losses, with the typical 80’s WTBS-exposed Braves woes of Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, and bad starting pitching with Zane Smith (8-16, 4.05) trying his luck against the Cards.   The luck looks thin pretty quickly, as Marty Marion leads off the game with a single under the glove of SS-3 Raffy Ramirez, and Country Enos Slaughter follows that with a triple and the Cards take a lead.  Two batters later, Musial puts it into the Fulton County Stadium grandstands and the Braves are looking at a 3-0 deficit before they can bat.  In the 3rd, Ron Northey (1-10) chugs home on a Del Rice single, and that sets up a 2-run triple from Red Schoendienst which chases Smith for Gene Garber.  The Cards are equally mean to Gene, as Slaughter leads off the 4th with a double and scores on a Kurowski single, and WTBS switches to reruns of the Three Stooges to try to retain an audience.  The Braves try to get something going in the bottom of the 6th, but Dale Murphy (1-15) makes an ill-advised dash home on a single and is nailed at the plate.  The Braves do break the shutout in the 7th when a Bob Horner sac fly scores Ken Oberkfell, but Hearn holds serve from there to finish out the 7-1 win to put the Cards in the semifinals.

Once again through the wonders of Zoom, it was live Strat in the tournament as StratFan Rick volunteered to take the helm of the 2016 Giants, a solid 87-win team that made a brief run in the postseason as a wild card.   Rick opted for Madison Bumgarner (15-9, 2.74) on the mound, who had finished 4th in the Cy Young vote, and they had their usual bevy of Brandons who had come up big for other SF teams in this tournament.  I assumed the reins of the 2003 Indians, who lost 94 games and although without looking at the team I had thought they might be a dark horse in the regional, after setting the lineup it seemed that there might be some beating of a dead horse instead.  Still, in addition to a nutritious breakfast provided by Coco Crisp, the Indians did have a 22-year old CC Sabathia (13-9, 3.60) going for them, and with it being a cold, foggy night in San Francisco, it looked like there might not be much offense.  And there wasn’t, with a total of only two hits managed in the first four innings, and although there were a few HR splits, the balls just died in the soggy air.   The stalemate was broken in the bottom of the 5th when the Giants got a single to bring up a Brandon, this one Crawford, and he finds Sabathia’s HR 1-10 split; the ball heads out towards McCovey’s Cove, but nothing is going to travel in this soup and it falls for a double, scoring the baserunner and giving the Giants what turns out to be their only run of the game.   They do threaten in the 7th, and rather than risk more Sabathia, they opt to risk Riske–David Riske, and despite his ominous HR result he sets the Giants down to keep it a one run game.   But the Tribe can’t do a thing against Bumgarner, with the only noteworthy accomplishment from the Cleveland lineup being Omar Vizquel’s feat of managing to get injured twice in one game, the second ending his tournament participation.  But it’s no matter, as Bumgarner strikes out the side in the 9th to put the exclamation point on a 4-hitter, and even though the Giants only manage four hits themselves, they take the 1-0 duel and move on to the semifinals.

The survivors

The 1969 Yankees had pulled off a first round upset and would need another one against the 1966 Braves, but they did have 20-game winner Mel Stottlemyre (20-14, 2.82) for their effort.  Meanwhile, the Braves had difficulty scoring runs in round one and they were hoping to do better in support of Denny Lemaster (11-8, 3.74), and both teams were looking for long stints from their starters after relying on their pens to reach this game.  That quickly looked unlikely for the Braves, as Roy White leads off with a double off a missed HR split on Lemaster’s card, and Clarke follows with a single from a missed TR split, also off Lemaster’s card, and the Yankees lead.  Clarke is then nailed at the plate (1-15) trying to score on a Bobby Murcer double, and it’s looking like Lemaster might survive the inning but then Frank Fernandez hits a grounder that SS-4 Denis Menke waves at as it goes by, Murcer comes in, and the Braves begin their first at-bats with a 2-run deficit.  Those at-bats lead to nothing, and then Jerry Kenney leads off the top of the 2nd with a solid home run off Lemaster’s card, Joe Pepitone and Fernandez go back to back with solo homers in the 3rd, and Denny’s is closed by the health department after serving up three homers and nearly a 4th in two plus innings.  Don Schwall finally ends the inning, and the Braves finally get their first hit in the bottom of the 4th from Joe Torre, and he scores on a Hank Aaron hard single which is followed by a Felipe Alou RBI single, and things are starting to get interesting.  Aaron comes in on a Rico Carty sac fly, and suddenly it’s a game–5-3 NY after four.  Schwall does fine for a few innings, but when he allows a couple of hits in the 7th the Braves summon Clay Carroll to try to keep the hole from getting deeper and he does exactly that, inducing a double play ball from Murcer and it’s still a 2-run game.  The Braves then get a single and a walk in the bottom of the inning and there is activity in the Yankee bullpen, but they stick with Stottlemyre and he gets the DP from Menke to end the threat.  With Carroll toast for the regional by the 9th, the Braves have to go to Chi Chi Olivo, and that goes badly as he immediately allows a double and an RBI single to Ron Woods. Roy White then follows with yet another double off Olivo’s card that scores Woods; Murcer singles White home and then Pepitone’s double scores Murcer and the Yankees have blown the game wide open.  Stottlemyre then breezes through the bottom of the 9th to wrap up a 6-hitter and the Yankees head to the finals with the 9-3 upset.

The top seeded 1947 Cardinals had a wealth of starting pitchers to choose from, and although Murray Dickson (13-16, 3.07) didn’t have the best record on the staff, the Cards liked his card and he got the second round assignment against the 2016 Giants and Johnny Cueto (18-5, 2.79), who finished 6th in the Cy Young votes that season.  The Giants miss a couple of HR/flyB splits in the 1st inning, but in the 3rd Angel Pagan leads off the inning by converting Dickson’s HR 1-8 split for a 1-0 Giants lead.  However, in the 4th Cueto allows the first Cardinal baserunner by committing a 2-base error on an Enos Slaughter grounder, and the speedy Slaughter dashes home on a Whitey Kurowski single to tie the game.  Then, a leadoff walk to Terry Moore in the 5th is followed by four straight Cardinal hits, including a triple by Red Schoendienst, and by the time Cueto gets the third out the Cards now lead 5-1.  A leadoff single in the 7th by Marty Marion chases Cueto for Derek Law, but Schoendienst adds to his RBI total with a sac fly in the 8th.  However, the Giants offense finally comes alive in the 8th, as a few singles and a walk loads the bases for Hunter Pence, who walks to score one; Brandon Belt then follows with a solid double but Pence (1-14) is out at the plate trying to clear the bases.  Schoendienst converts his 4th X-chart grounder of the game to end the inning, but the Cards lead has been narrowed to two heading into the 9th.   Two straight singles to begin the top of the 9th and the Giants decide Law is broken, and they bring out Will Smith to try to slap around the Cards.  A walk to Musial loads the bases, and then defensive replacement Erv Dusak contributes a sac fly to provide an insurance run.  That leaves the bottom of the Giants order needing to make up three runs in the bottom of the 9th, but Dickson sets them down 1-2-3 to finish a 3-hitter and Cards move to the finals with the 7-4 win. 

It’s a David vs. Goliath matchup for the final, where the top seeded 1947 Cardinals and Harry Brecheen (16-11, 3.30) against the #6 seeded 1969 Yankees, who had won two straight upsets and would send out swingman Al Downing (7-5, 3.37), who had opted out of pitching against Hank Aaron in the semifinals.  The Yankees show how they got here in the top of the 1st, with Horace Clark doubling on a missed HR split, but scoring on a Bobby Murcer single for a 1-0 lead.  However, the Cards are not frightened, and begin the bottom of the inning with three straight singles; one run scores on a Musial grounder, and then Joe Medwick misses a HR split but drives in two on the resulting double; Medwick scores on a Terry Moore single, Schoendienst adds an RBI hit, and the Cards bat around with six hits and end the inning with a 5-1 lead.  A walk and a single to begin the bottom of the 3rd and the Yankees sense their chances going Downing, so they bring in Steve Hamilton who had success in the first round, but the Cards still get a run on a Del Rice sac fly.  The Yankees get a run in the top of the 6th when DH Jimmie Hall hits his second double of the game off a missed HR split, and catcher Frank Fernandez chugs home from first with two out to make it 6-2.  They then load the bases in the 7th on two walks and an error from 3B-4 Whitey Kurowski, but Harry the Cat Brecheen uses one of his nine lives and escapes the jam unscathed.  With Hamilton toasted, the Yanks summon Jack Aker, and Stan Musial greets him with a tape measure shot to lead off the bottom of the 7th.  New York threatens in the 8th but again Brecheen pitches out of the jam, and then he sets the heart of the Yankee order down in order in the 9th to seal the 7-2 victory and the 9th regional win for the franchise.  Those regional wins don’t include the 1946 champions, but do include the 1949 and 1950 versions which qualifies that era for the Cards for consideration as a tournament dynasty.

Interesting card of Regional #176:  A little while back, a forum member asked if anyone had an example of a card for Dale Murphy, and since he played in this regional AND his card was from the last Strat set before the perforated abominations began, I figured I’d use Dale for this feature so folks could see what a real Strat card from Dale’s era looked like.  This is not one of Dale’s better cards, which would probably come from his twin MVP years in 1982 and 1983, and by 1986 the Braves were entering a dark era in which Murphy and Bob Horner were about the only reasons to tune into WTBS.  One thing that I had forgotten about Murphy, who was a catcher in the minors, was that he came up with the Braves as a first baseman in his rookie year; despite the formidable target that he must have presented (after all, the guy was 6’4”), he was pretty terrible, leading the NL in errors at the position.  The Braves then obtained 1B Chris Chambliss from the Yankees, and needed Murphy to play somewhere, so they decided to stick him in centerfield–not the first position you’d think to put your error-prone first baseman.  Remarkably, he became one of the best centerfielders of his era.  While this might not best Murph’s best card, it’s his last of the classic Strat card era:  Give me these die cut cards, these hit patterns, this cardstock, this font, please.  While I’m not really interested in paying a premium for black Strat cards, I’d gladly pay double for a previously unreleased season that was printed like this.