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.