REGIONAL #182:  The eye-catching team in this group was the recently acquired, pennant winning 1940 Tigers, the first new entrant in this tournament to come from the Diamond Gems sets because every other DG team existed previously in either regular season or Old-Timer form.  However, they weren’t the only pennant winners in the bunch, as the ‘91 Twins were eager to introduce the Tigers to indoor baseball.  There were also some other teams that might have a say in things, such as a Reds team shortly before they became a Machine, an Indians team from a vintage (the 70s) that had been successful in the tournament, and some other potentially decent representatives from the Nationals, Brewers, and Mariners.  The obvious matchup for the finals seemed to be the two pennant winners, and I guessed that the Twins, who I remembered as having been quite plucky in real life, would best the Tigers for the banner.   The ELO ratings predicted the Tigers would win that matchup, and indicated that I underestimated the Orioles whom I misremembered as having a long losing streak somewhere around that time (it was actually 1988).  I apparently made up for it by overestimating the prospects of the Brewers and Nationals, both tapped as terrible in the ELO numbers.

First round action

The pennant winning 1940 Tigers were newly arrived as part of the 40s Diamond Gems; they had gone 90-64 and were led by Rudy York and AL MVP Hank Greenberg at the plate, and Bobo Newsom (21-5, 2.83) finished 4th to Greenberg in that MVP race.  For the second regional in a row, the top seed drew the bottom seed, and this time it was the 106-loss 2002 Brewers who were seemingly the sacrificial lambs; the Brewers were remarkably underpowered for a team from the height of the steroid era, and although Ben Sheets (11-16, 4.15) wasn’t very good, he was a lot better than the arms that would have to follow if the Brewers could pull off the upset.  Sheets is having some control issues but escapes problems until the top of the 3rd, when he walks the first two batters and Greenberg crushes a double off the top of the wall that scores both baserunners; Greenberg then scores on a 2-out single by Bruce Campbell and it’s 3-0 Tigers.  However, in the bottom of the inning a 2-out error by 3B-3 Pinky Higgins opens the door for a Matt Stairs RBI single, followed by a 3-run homer from Geoff Jenkins, and the Brewers surge into the lead.  In the 7th, Barney McCosky ties the game with an RBI single and Sheets then puts two more runners on, so the Brewers turn to reliever Jayson Durocher and his 1.88 ERA, but Rudy York rips a single that puts the Tigers back on top.  Durocher is then convinced that nice guys finish last when Brewers 1B-2 Richie Sexson drops a grounder that allows another run to score, but finally gets the last out with the Brewers now down by two.  They begin the comeback quickly, with PH Ryan Thompson leading off the bottom of the 7th with a long homer, but Newsom gets out of a 1st and 3rd jam when Lenny Harris misses a SI* 1-3 split that would have tied the game.  Durocher does his job in the top of the 9th, so it’s Newsom against the heart of the Brewers order for the game.   He gets one quick out, but then Sexson singles by hitting the 5-7 result on Newsom that the Brewers have been rolling all game, so Matt Stairs comes to the plate as the potential winning run.  Newsom delivers, it’s on Stairs’ card…groundball A, double play and the Tigers survive a scare from a pesky #8 seed to move on with a 6-5 win.  

I had shortchanged the chances of the 85-win 1993 Orioles, as they turned out to have a solid lineup with Chris Hoiles and Harold Baines at its core, but their rotation consisted of a bunch of pitchers whose best years were either past them or yet to come–with Ben McDonald (13-14, 3.39) being the main exception.  On the other hand, I might have overestimated the 1973 Indians just because their ‘75 version managed to win the very first regional in this tournament in a huge upset, but this version lost 91 games despite the best efforts of Gaylord Perry (19-19, 3.38).   Mike Pagliarulo puts the O’s on the board by leading off the top of the 2nd with a homer, but Perry greases the ball up and holds court until the Indians can get a run in the 4th on a Chris Chambliss single to tie things up.   The O’s get to Perry in the 7th when David Segui leads off with a double on a missed HR split, but scores when a Mike Devereaux grounder gets past Indians SS-3 Frank Duffy; that’s followed by PH Jack Voight reaching the stands for a 2-run homer and Baltimore looks in control.  The Indians get a leadoff walk and a Buddy Bell single to begin the 8th, so the O’s move to closer Gregg Olson, but he yields hard singles to Charley Spikes and backup 2b Tom Ragland but he’s bailed out when the Indians opt to play the infield at double play depth with the tying run on 3rd, and John Lowenstein rewards them with a gbA++ that ends the inning with the O’s still up by a run.   Perry gets in trouble in the 9th but he’s bailed out by a Baines DP ball, and it’s up to Olson to try to sustain the one run lead in the bottom of the 9th.  He gets one out, but Oscar Gamble walks and George Hendrick singles; Gamble takes off for third (1-14) but is cut down and it’s two away, Hendrick taking second on the throw representing the tying run.  Olson pitches, John Ellis grounds out and Baltimore survives with a 4-3 win to play another day.

The 1966 Reds were a mediocre 76-84 team that was not quite the machine that they would be by the end of the decade, although some of the cogs were in place, and Jim Maloney (16-8, 2.80) led the league in shutouts and got some MVP votes.  That was good enough to make them substantial ELO favorites over the 2008 Nationals, who lost 102 games with Ryan Zimmerman the top HR hitter with 14 in an era with far more power, and John Lannan (9-15, 3.91) topping a bad rotation.  However, it’s Maloney who starts rough, allowing two singles and a walk to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 1st.  Zimmerman hits a sac fly to put the Nats on the board, and then Willie Harris misses a HR 1-15 split but the resulting triple scores two more and it’s 3-0 Washington after one.  Deron Johnson strikes back for the Reds by leading off the 2nd with a homer, and in the 4th the unexpectedly powerful Art Shamsky crushes one with Pete Rose aboard to tie the game.  Lannan gets two outs, but then walks two and delivers a HR off his card to Tommy Helms and earns a quick trip to the showers after allowing only 4 hits, three of them homers.  However, Zimmerman finds and converts Maloney’s HR split for a 2-out 2-run blast in the 5th and it’s back to a one run game until Shamsky rips an RBI single on a gbA++ with Tommy Harper being held.  Deron Johnson then scores Harper with a base hit and the Nationals are discovering the downside of trading your closer away in midseason, although Steven Shell does come in to record the third out.  Maloney thus takes a three run edge into the bottom of the 9th, but getting an out he walks two and the Reds summon closer Billy McCool to try to close things out.  That turns out to be a good move, as the next roll is a strikeout on McCool that would have been Maloney’s HR split, and then McCool records another K and preserves the 8-5 victory for the Reds.

The 1991 Twins won the pennant and a Series that is one of those where I remember exactly where I was while watching those games, so I was looking forward to revisiting their lineup.  For a 95-win team playing in the Homerdome it was not really a power-laden lineup, with Chili Davis’s 29 dingers topping the squad, but they had good defense and a solid rotation with Scott Erickson (20-8, 3.18) being the Cy Young runner-up.   The ELO ratings portrayed the 88-win 2007 Mariners as a worthy opponent, the 4th seed in the bracket with Ichiro finishing 8th in MVP ballots although Felix Hernandez (14-7, 3.92) topped a rather lackluster rotation.   Hernandez yields two hits and two walks in the top of the 1st but emerges unscathed because Chuck Knoblach (1-15) is nailed trying to score.  The M’s show them how it’s done in the bottom of the 1st, as Ichiro and Adrian Beltre both double and Seattle leads 1-0.  The Twins tie it in the 3rd when Kirby Puckett races home from 1st on a Chili Davis 2-out double, but Davis is then cut down at the plate (1-9+2) trying to grab a lead on a Shane Mack single.  The Mariners ride that momentum into the bottom of the inning and Beltre and Raul Ibanez go back to back to provide Seattle with a 4-1 lead.  Erickson then settles down, but a one-out double by Ichiro in the bottom of the 7th and the Twins can’t afford any more damage, so closer Rick Aguilera is summoned and Jose Vidro finds the only complete hit on Aguilera’s card to drive in Suzuki and extend the Seattle lead.  Later in the inning, defensive replacement Adam Jones finds the same hit to score Vidro.  From there, it’s all Hernandez as he fans PH Pedro Munoz for the final out in the 6-1 win to notch another case of a pennant winner, and a team that I enjoy playing, getting eliminated in the first round.

The survivors

With the Twins out, this semifinal featured the top two surviving teams in the #1 seed 1940 Tigers and the #3 seeded 1993 Orioles, with both teams having survived close calls to reach this game.  The Tigers would start Tommy Bridges (12-9, 3.37) while the Orioles would counter with Jamie Moyer (12-9, 3.43), a 30 year old who was completing a comeback that would last another 17 years.  The Orioles stake a claim in the bottom of the 1st on a 2-run moonshot by Hall of Famer Harold Baines, but the Tigers claw back in the 3rd when an error by 3B-3 Mike Pagliarulo opens the door for RBI hits from Barney McCoskey and Charlie Gehringer, and then a sac fly by Rudy York puts Detroit ahead.  As is traditional in semifinal games, the O’s immediately retaliate in the bottom of the inning, as a Baines RBI single, a run scoring double from former goat Pagliarulo, and a sac fly by Ripken restores Baltimore’s two run lead.  However, in the top of the 5th McCosky triples into the corner and then SS-2 Ripken throws a Gehringer grounder into right field, and Gehringer scores when York singles just out of reach of 2B-2 Harold Reynolds and it’s a tie game once again.  Chris Hoiles misses Bridges HR split to lead off the bottom of the inning and ends up stranded at 3rd and so the game remains tied at the 5-inning mark.  When the Tigers get a couple of hits with two out in the 6th, the Orioles move to the pen for Jim Poole, but McCoskey rips an RBI single before he can record the third out and the Tigers move back into the lead.  That lasts two outs until PH Jack Voigt comes off the bench to rip a solo homer, his second pinch HR of the regional, and for the 4th time the game is again tied.  The O’s regain the lead in the 7th when Pagliarulo rips a single past the glove of Tigers SS-3 McCosky to score Chris Hoiles, and so in the 8th they turn it over once again to closer Gregg Olson, and he shuts down the heart of the Tigers order to preserve a 7-6 victory and a visit to the finals, although Olson is now burnt and not eligible to try for his third save of the regional.  And, the lone representative of the new 1940s Diamond Gems to make the tournament heads to the storage drawers.

Neither the 1966 Reds nor the 2007 Mariners were blessed with deep starting rotations, and although Cincinnati’s Jim O’Toole (5-7, 3.55) was decent and Seattle’s Miguel Batista (16-11, 4.29) was serviceable, both teams were wondering what to do if they were to move on to the finals.  Adrian Beltre would do his best to insure that it would be his team that had to worry about that, as he hits a solo homer in the bottom of the 1st for the second straight game to give Seattle an early edge.  It doesn’t last long, as Leo Cardenas rips a 2-run double in the top of the 2nd to put the Reds up, and in the 3rd the Reds begin the inning with three straight singles, the third a squib hit by Art Shamsky that scores another, although M’s 2B-3 Jose Lopez turns a nifty DP to prevent further damage.  Tony Perez finds and converts Batista’s HR 1-5 split for a solo shot in the 4th, and in the 5th Deron Johnson hits his second homer of the regional, this one with Rose aboard and it’s now 6-1 Reds.  However, in the bottom of the 5th the Reds usually reliable defense begins to falter, as a 2-base error by SS-2 Cardenas sets up an RBI single that gets past 3B-2 Tommy Helms, and the floodgates open with an RBI single from Ichiro and a 2-run single from Beltre; another error by RF-3 Tommy Harper then sets up a 3-run homer from Kenji Johjima and don’t look now but the Mariners suddenly lead 8-6.  A squib single by Cardenas to lead off the 6th and Seattle decides to use their much deeper bullpen to their advantage, yanking Batista for George Sherrill; he comes in to face PH Lee May, who misses a HR 1-14 split but scores Cardenas on the resulting triple, and May scores on a single by Helms and it’s a tie game.  Disaster then strikes the Mariners when Beltre leads off the bottom of the 7th by getting injured for 7 games, but the M’s avenge their fallen comrade with a single, a walk, and an error by Helms that loads the bases with two outs for Ben Broussard, who sets Safeco rocking with a grand slam and O’Toole doesn’t have much of a St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate as he’s finally yanked after allowing 12 runs.  Armed with a four run lead, the Mariners try their own luck with the Irish, summoning Eric O’Flaherty from the pen.  He makes things interesting as Rose misses a HR 1-16 in the 9th, scoring on a Johnson double, but that’s it for the Reds as the Mariners hang on with a 12-9 win to head to the finals in pursuit of only their second regional win–but without their best hitter for the foreseeable future.

The regional final between the #3 seeded 1993 Orioles and the #4 seed 2007 Mariners also turned out to be the Zoom game of the week, with M’s fan Stratfan manning the helm for Seattle and anti-Mariner zealot nacster taking charge of the Orioles.  However, the nacster did not seem enthusiastic about the O’s lineup, benching Harold Baines while impugning his Hall of Fame credentials, and relegating Cal Ripken to the number nine slot in lineup.  The starters for both teams, Baltimore’s Mike Mussina (14-6, 4.46) and M’s Jarrod Washburn (10-15, 4.32) had rather hittable cards, but the ice is broken by a solo homer in the bottom of the 2nd on batter Kenji Johjima’s card to put Seattle up 1-0.  The Mariners were playing without their injured slugger Adrian Beltre, but his replacement Willie Bloomquist belts a solo shot in the 5th to make it 2-0, and Washburn is making full use of his dominating 5 column to baffle the Orioles.  As the game heads into the late innings, nac is orchestrating his trademark flurry of bench-clearing but nothing is taking hold; finally in the top of the 8th Ripken records a single for Baltimore and Stratfan heads to the bullpen for the killer card of JJ Putz to shut down any threat.  Nac finally gives in and points to Baines sitting at the far end of the bench, and Harold steps up to the plate and lofts a blow into the Safeco seats to make it a tie game.  David Segui then almost goes back to back, missing a HR 1-6 split and getting stranded at third, and the game is tied heading into the 9th.  Putz puts down the O’s in order in the top of the inning, so it’s up to Mussina and with closer Gregg Olsen burned, nac sticks with his ace to face the M’s 3-4-5 hitters.  Mussina retires Raul Ibanez to bring up Jose Guillen, one of three Jose’s in the Seattle starting lineup; this one rolls Mussina’s 6-5, HR 1-18 result and converts the easy split, and it’s game and regional over with the walkoff blast that gives the Mariners only their second regional win. Mussina allows only 5 hits, but three of them are solo homers that comprise the entire Seattle offense.

Interesting card of Regional #182:  Given that this was only the second regional win for the Mariners franchise, I thought it fitting to feature a card that was central to their success, both as a leadoff threat as well as a defensive standout in CF.  I have to admit that I tended to undervalue Ichiro while he was playing, as I tend to favor lead-footed outfielders who homer and strike out at prodigious rates, but his career really is remarkable.  He was the first position player from the Japanese major leagues to play in US MLB in 2001, and few felt that his skills would translate from a nine-year career in Japan which included seven consecutive batting titles. However, he didn’t miss a beat, rattling off 10 straight 200-hit seasons in the US as well as 10 consecutive Gold Glove awards. He ended up with over 3,000 hits in MLB, despite spending nearly a decade of his career in Japan–his total number of hits in his entire 28 year career in professional baseball exceeds Pete Rose’s record by more than a hundred.  Leading the Mariners to the win in this regional was fitting because Ichiro was specifically recruited by the Mariners and spent most of the best years of his career there; at the end of his career, he returned to the team and started his last two games in a season-opening series against the A’s played, fittingly, in Japan’s Tokyo Dome.  Playing back where his career began, at age 45 Ichiro became the second oldest player to appear in the starting lineup on Opening Day, leaving the trivia question:  who was the oldest?  (no Googling!)