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

First round action

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

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

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

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

The survivors

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

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

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

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