REGIONAL #191:   This was another batch of teams that didn’t look to me like they would be within shouting distance of greatness.   There was a Reds team from the 60s that was four seasons after their ‘61 pennant and five years before their ‘70 win, while there was also a Padres squad that was five seasons past a Series appearance.   Other than that, there were a couple of Tigers teams from the 90s that apparently didn’t make much of an impression on me, a steroid era Orioles team that I suspected would be fairly bad, and a first year expansion team in the ‘98 Rays that I was almost certain would be terrible.  My sentimental favorite, which should be evident to followers of this project, would be the ‘73 White Sox, who in the preceding year had amazed everyone by making a run for the pennant with MVP Dick Allen leading the way.  I seemed to remember that this team was not quite as good, and given my consistent ability to jinx the Sox I was pretty confident that they weren’t going anywhere.  I decided to go with the oldest team in the group, the pre-machine Reds, guessing that they would defeat the ‘96 version of the Tigers in the finals.   The ELO ranks also picked the Reds, but had a Twins team that I had paid little attention to as their likely opponent in the finals, while indicating that I banked on the wrong Tigers team.

First round action

The 2003 Padres lost 98 games but the ELO rankings indicated that there were two other teams in this bracket that were even worse, and they didn’t look that terrible, with some offense led by Brian Giles and Mark Loretta and a workable but shallow rotation fronted by Adam Eaton (9-12, 4.08).  They would be facing the better of the two Detroit teams in this regional, the 1993 Tigers, who went 85-77 with 30+ homers from Cecil Fielder and Mickey Tettleton, but their starters beyond David Wells (11-9, 4.19) looked worse than those of the Padres.  Loretta starts things off when he finds Wells’ solid HR result for a solo shot in the 3rd, and Loretta follows that up with a 3-run blast off his own card in the 5th and it’s Loretta 4, Tigers 0.  The Padres get two on in the 7th on a walk and an error from 2B-3 Lou Whitaker, and the Tigers move to closer Mike Henneman, who is fortunate to get out of the inning as 1-14 Khalil Greene makes the third out at the plate trying to score on a Loretta single.  Meanwhile, the Padres bring in some defense to support Eaton, who is throwing a no-hitter, and in the 7th he’s bailed out by strong managerial strategy as I decide not to hold B-stealer Alan Trammell; the Tigers don’t steal with Tettleton up and Mickey hits into the gbA++ DP to end the 7th with Detroit still hitless.  However, Chad Kreuter breaks up the bid with a leadoff single in the 8th, but in the top of the 9th Giles converts Henneman’s HR 1-2/flyB for a two-run homer and additional insurance for Eaton, who loses his shutout with two out in the bottom of the 9th when Travis Fryman doubles past LF-3 Giles.  But Eaton closes out the 4-hitter and the Padres move on with the comfortable 6-1 win.

This first round game matched the bracket’s top seed, the 1965 Reds, against the first year expansion team the 1998 Rays (actually still Deviled at the time), who somehow avoided receiving the worst ELO rank in the regional and tapped as the #7 seed.  The 89-win Reds had a serious offense for a mid-60s team with Frank Robinson and Deron Johnson leading the charge, and there were two 20-game winners at the top of the rotation with Jim Maloney (20-9, 2.54) getting the round one start.  On the other hand, the Rays lost 99 games, although they had some recognizable names such as Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff, and Rolando Arrojo (14-12, 3.56) was a solid option for the start.  The Rays' cause isn’t helped any when Boggs is knocked out of the game with an injury in the 3rd, but that rouses the Rays bats and Dave Martinez knocks a 2-out RBI single in the 4th to put Tampa Bay up 1-0.  Meanwhile, Arrojo has allowed no hits through five, and for the second game in a row the underdog team starts loading up the defensive replacements in the 6th inning in support of a no-hit bid.  One of those replacements, Randy Winn, contributes an RBI hit in the 6th and Miguel Cairo adds a sac fly that makes it 3-0 Rays.  Tommy Harper misses a SI 1-13 split in the bottom of the inning and the bid remains alive, and with two out in the top of the 9th Bubba Trammell whacks a 2-run homer to provide additional insurance.  That leaves it to Arrojo to try to finish things out in the bottom of the 9th, and it’s three up, three down, with Arrojo striking out Harper to finish out only the second NO-HITTER of the tournament, with two walks being the only baserunners the top seeded Reds could muster.

Saving the 1973 White Sox for the Zoom game of the week, I was hopeful that maybe if I managed against a live opponent I could surmount the jinx that has bedeviled the Pale Hose for most of this tournament.  The Sox had shown signs of life the previous season, but in ‘73 they limped to a 77-85 record with ‘72 MVP Dick Allen out for half of the season with a leg fracture and Wilbur Wood (24-20, 3.46) managing to be a 20-game winner AND loser at the same time.  Still, they were ELO favorites against the 2001 Orioles, graciously managed by Roy, who lost 98 games with their biggest names being 40 year olds like Cal Ripken Jr. and Tim Raines.  The O’s rotation was particularly gruesome, with Jason Johnson (10-12, 4.09) the best of the lot.  There was immediate consternation as my 50-year old Sox team set was missing SS Eddie Leon, but I did have an extra ‘72 Eddie who was equally bad so he would have to substitute.  Wood starts out with the knuckler out of control, issuing walks and hits and fortunate to escape the top of the 1st with only a 1-0 deficit.  That doesn’t last long, as in the bottom of the 2nd Ed Herrmann finds his 2-11 home run result for a 2-run shot that gives the Sox the lead; at that point, both pitchers settle down and neither team can muster much of a threat.   Chris Richard rolls his HR 1-12/DO split but misses it and Wood strands him, but finally Brian Roberts capitalizes on a spinning knuckler and slaps an RBI single in the 7th to tie things up.  In the bottom of the 8th, Dick Allen finds a HR 1/DO at 5-3 on Johnson’s card, and after a couple of walks the bases are loaded with one out for Herrmann, who lofts a deep fly that stays in the yard at Old Comiskey but is deep enough to score Allen with the go-ahead run.  Wood then has the knuckler dancing in the 9th and finished out the complete game (of course) 3-2 win, holding the O’s to six hits while the Sox only manage four themselves, but they make them count.

I was curious to see how the 1996 Tigers managed to end up with a worse ELO ranking than a first year expansion team, and setting their lineup made it obvious, as I kept shuffling through the team trying to find somebody good.  With 109 losses, it’s not surprising that the team didn’t have much of a rotation, with Omar Olivares (7-11, 4.89) not offering much encouragement as their top starter.   They faced the top remaining seed in the bracket, the 2009 Twins, who won 89 games and the AL Central; they had some nice offensive weapons led by AL MVP Joe Mauer and his .365 average, but made a rapid exit from the postseason perhaps because of a weak rotation fronted by Scott Baker (15-9, 4.37) although Joe Nathan was a force in the pen.  The Twins strike first when Jason Kubel leads off the bottom of the 2nd with a smoked shot high off the baggie in the Metrodome, and then with two out in the inning Delmon Young pokes a solo shot that makes it 2-0 Twins.  Mauer adds a sac fly in the 3rd, and Kubel drives in another in the 5th with a fielder’s choice to make it 4-0 after five.  Meanwhile, Baker is keeping the Tigers at bay, at least until the top of the 9th, when a leadoff single is followed by a two-run homer from Tony Clark (off Baker’s solid HR result) and suddenly it’s a 2-run game with nobody out.  That’s the cue for Nathan, and he gets the job done to save the 4-2 win for the Twins, in which they only recorded five hits off Olivares.

The survivors

This semifinal paired two bad teams that pulled off first round upsets, the 98-loss 2003 Padres and the 99-loss expansion 1998 Rays.   The Padres would have Jake Peavy (12-11, 4.11) on the mound, while the Rays were unlikely to pull off a second straight no-hitter with Julio Santana (5-6, 4.39).  And Santana allows the first hit off the Rays this tournament in the 2nd, as Sean Burroughs finds and converts Santana’s home run result for a solo shot; then Xavier Nady does the exact same thing for back to back damage and it’s 2-0 Padres.   That combination strikes again in the 4th as Burroughs doubles and Nady singles him in to extend the lead, and sensing that runs are going to be hard to come by, the Rays bring in Albie Lopez to begin the 6th in an attempt to keep the game within reach.  The Rays then come to life in the bottom of the 6th, as Bobby Smith delivers a pinch-hit RBI double, he scores when RF-4 Nady misplays a Wade Boggs single, and then Bubba Trammell delivers a 2-run moon shot for a Rays lead.  The Padres summon their closer Rod Beck to try to stop the bleeding, which he does but the Rays take a one run lead into the 7th.  Tampa brings in closer Roberto Hernandez to begin the 8th, and he locks down the Padres to propel the unlikely Rays into the finals with the 4-3 victory, with Lopez picking up the win in relief.  

For their semifinal game, the 1973 White Sox were reunited with a scanned image of their shortstop Eddie Leon, with the real thing on the way in the mail, but as estimated he was just as bad as the ‘72 card that had sat in for him in round one.  The Sox would throw their second straight 20-game loser in Stan Bahnsen (18-21, 3.57), and they would be considerable underdogs to a good 2009 Twins team that were the highest rated seed remaining in the semifinal round.  However, the Twins would be going deeper into a bad rotation hoping to get at least five decent innings out of Carl Pavano (14-12, 5.10) before having to turn it over to their more capable bullpen.   The Sox, who only got four hits in their first round win, match that in the top of the 1st inning, with the final one being a 2-out double by Ed Herrmann and they jump out to a 3-0 lead.  They get another in the second when Ken Henderson shoots a liner past CF-2 Denard Span for an RBI double, but Jason Kubel’s two-out single in the bottom of the 3rd makes it 4-1.  Bahnsen escapes a jam in the 5th when Joe Mauer (1-12+2) makes the third out trying to score on a Michael Cuddyer single, and when Tony Muser leads off the top of the 6th missing a HR 1-2/DO split with a 3, Pavano is pulled for secret weapon (more to come on that) Kevin Slowey.   However, Jorge Orta seems to have figured out the secret and he greets Slowey with a triple, driving in Muser, although Slowey strands Orta at third to keep the Twins in the game.  Disaster strikes the Sox in the 7th, when Beltin’ Bill Melton rolls a 6-game injury to prove that the Sox jinx is never far away.  Nonetheless, Bahnsen powers past the jinx and finishes out the 5-1 win to send the Sox to the regional finals, but without their power hitting third baseman for the foreseeable future.  

Interesting card of Regional #191:  This card presented me with an interesting dilemma.  This tournament is a cards and dice Basic tournament of every team that Strat has ever PRINTED.  Yes, that last word is significant in this situation.  You see, in the 2009 season the game company screwed up and gave Mr. Kevin Slowey a Basic side of his card that was rather better than he deserved (https://www.strat-o-matic.com/announcements/2009-and-1977-baseball-corrections/).  However, the company declined to print a corrected version of Slowey’s card, instead posting an image that customers could download and print themselves.  That image looks a great deal like the homebrew cards that I make, and so I had to decide:  which card to use, the homebrew download or the actual printed card?  Well, it’s my tournament and this is all about the teams Strat PRINTED, so dammit, I’m using the card they printed.  If they had cared enough to print a correction, I would have used it instead, but no–Slowey got his God Card moment in the sun.  In the tournament, he was not eligible to start but he did pitch four shutout innings in relief, although it wasn’t enough to keep his team from getting bounced in the semifinals.  Unfortunately for Slowey, his actual career wasn’t as good as this card was, although he did lead the AL in shutouts in 2008 (with 2!), and he retired in 2014 with a career ERA of 4.62.