REGIONAL #216:  This bracket was dealt a hand with three pair, sporting multiple entries from the Dodgers, Padres, and Cubs.  Only of those had won a pennant, the Padres from ‘84, but there was a Cubs team that was two years away from winning the NL in 1929, and both of the remaining two entries, the Indians and the Yankees, had won pennants two years prior.  I was really uncertain about a favorite in this group, as I suspected the ‘84 Padres faced tough competition against the 2011 Yankees in the first round, although by my calculations the latter was a Jeter-led squad and those have specialized in first-round exits in this tournament.  My recollection was that ‘84 San Diego was not that great a team, getting demolished by the Tigers in the Series,, and so I predicted that the run of bad luck for the Jeters would finally end and the Yanks would prevail over the Indians in the finals.   I was amazed to discover that the ELO rankings made an identical prediction, listing the Yankees as one of the 100 best teams of all-time. 

First round action

The 2008 Padres lost 99 games with shoddy defense and lackluster offense aside from Adrian Gonzalez, who did get a few MVP votes as the only credible star in the lineup; however, Jake Peavy (10-11, 2.85) was a good #1 starter who deserved better.  A ways up the coast, the 1996 Dodgers won 90 games and made a brief postseason appearance as as wild card, courtesy of 30+ HR seasons from MVP runner-up Mike Piazza and Eric Karros and a solid rotation fronted by Hideo Nomo (16-11, 3.19), who was 4th in the Cy Young sweepstakes.  However, it’s the Padres who jump to the early lead in the top of the 3rd when Brian Giles converts his HR split for a 2-run shot, and things could have been much worse if Dodgers CF-4 Roger Cedeno hadn’t hauled in a two-out flyball with runners in scoring position.  The Dodgers load the bases in the bottom of the inning but Peavy strands them all, although Jake’s luck runs out in the 5th when Dodgers DH Billy Ashley crushes a 3-run homer deep into the Ravine to put LA up by a run.  That lead proves to be short-lived as Scott Hairston counters with a 2-out 2-run homer in the top of the 6th to put the Padres back on top, and when Giles rolls his HR result again leading off the 8th but missing it for a double, Nomo is gone for Mark Guthrie, who promptly allows a single off his card to Jody Gerut that drives in the run.  Armed with that insurance, Peavy finishes out the game with three hitless innings and the Padres pull off the 5-3 upset to earn a trip to the semifinals.

This first round matchup paired two teams that were within two years of winning a pennant.  The 1927 Cubs went 85-68 behind MVP vote-getters Gabby Hartnett, Riggs Stephenson and Hack Wilson, and Charlie Root (26-15, 3.76) was actually their top MVP vote-getter, leading all other pitchers in those pre-Cy Young Award days.  The 1999 Indians won 97 games and the AL Central, but were eliminated in the ALDS probably due to a weak rotation after big Bartolo Colon (16-5, 3.95) who finished 4th in the Cy Young votes; certainly the offense was imposing, with Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez 3 & 4 for the MVP not to mention strong years from HOFers Harold Baines and Jim Thome.  For all of the Tribe’s power threats, it’s the Cubs who create fireworks in the 3rd with solo homers from Stephenson and Wilson for an early 2-0 lead. Hartnett completes the MVP triumvirat by leading off the 4th with a longball, while the Indians keep stranding runners in scoring position.  Finally, in the bottom of the 5th Roberto Alomar crushes a 2-run homer to make it a one-run game, but in the 8th Stephenson rolls his HR split again, and although he misses the split roll it’s still an RBI double to pad the Cubs lead a little.  When Pete Scott follows with another RBI double, Colon is drained and Mike Jackson comes in to tell Wilson to Beat It with a strikeout, but the Cubs nonetheless now lead by three.  Root retires the last nine Indians in a row and the old-school Cubs prevail, 5-2. 

With one representative already out, the 2010 Dodgers now carried the hopes for the franchise, and although they sported a poorer 80-82 record a 22-year old Clayton Kershaw (13-10, 2.91) should give them a fighting chance against anyone.  The 1994 Cubs were seeking to duplicate the success of their franchise in the previous game, but this was also the weaker of their two entries going 49-64 in that strike year with Sammy Sosa as the main weapon to support swingman Jim Bullinger (6-2, 3.60).   It’s the Cubs who strike first with Eddie Zambrano poking a solo shot that barely clears the wall in the top of the 1st, although Kershaw strikes out the other three batters to make a statement.  Zambrano is denied another RBI in the 3rd when he singles but Rey Sanchez (1-12) is nailed at the plate, and the Dodgers take advantage in the 4th to tie the game when Manny Ramirez cracks a leadoff double and scores on a single from Andre Ethier.  Back to back doubles from James Loney and Russell Martin score two more and LA now leads 3-1.  However, Glenallen Hill leads off the 7th with a double and scores on a single from Shawon Dunston off Kershaw’s card, so with nobody out and the lead down to a run the Dodgers feel the need for Hong-Chih Kuo and his 1.20 ERA, with no hits on his card, and he strikes out the side to quell the threat.  A leadoff single by Loney in the bottom of the inning and it’s the Cubs turn for bullpen help, with Kevin Foster able to induce an inning-ending DP out of PH Jay Gibbons to do his job.  In the top of the 8th, Sosa converts a HR 1-9/flyB split for a 2-run blast and a Cubs lead.  Foster takes that lead into the bottom of the 9th, but the Dodgers lead off with an Ethier single and he dashes to 3rd successfully on a Matt Kemp hit that puts the tying run 90 feet away and the winning run, held on 1st.  Foster whiffs Casey Blake for one out, and the Cubs have the infield at double play depth with slow PH AJ Ellis at bat.  Foster whiffs Ellis to bring up Loney, who lofts a deep fly to RF-3 Zambrano, and he makes a running catch to seal the Cubs 4-3 win.

As the lone pennant-winner in the bracket, it was unusual that the 1984 Padres were pretty big underdogs in their first round matchup.  They were nonetheless a good team, winning 92 games and having Tony Gwynn lead the NL in hitting while finishing 3rd in the MVP sweepstakes, while Dave Dravecky (9-8, 2.93) was selected from a strong rotation that had 5th place Cy Young vote getter Goose Gossage ready for support.  However, the ELO ranks had the 2011 Yankees as a top 100 team, as they won 97 games and the AL East but fell quickly in the post-season.  This team had Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano finishing 4th and 6th in the MVP votes and CC Sabathia (19-8, 3.00) was 4th in the Cy Young with relievers Mariano Rivera and David Robertson also getting votes to head a killer bullpen.  The Padres produce a hit parade in the top of the 2nd with RBI singles by Garry Templeton and Tim Flannery providing an early lead, but the Yanks make it a one-run game in the 4th on back to back doubles from Granderson and Cano.  The Padres attempt to quickly respond as Alan Wiggins leads off the 5th with a walk and a stolen base, and Gwynn singles with the 1-17 Wiggins heading for home, but he’s out with a 20 split and Sabathia escapes any damage.  In the bottom of the inning, Russell Martin misses a HR 1-10/DO split with an 11 roll, but with two out Jeter comes through with the clutch single to score Martin and tie the game after five.  With two strong pens, both starters are on short leashes and when Jeter commits a 2-base error to lead off the 6th the Yanks waste no time in summoning Robertson’s 1.08 ERA out of the pen.  He scares the home crowd with two walks but managed to get out of the jam without anyone crossing the plate, and he’s perfect in the 7th but with the score still tied the Yanks move to Rivera to begin the 8th.  He sets the Padres down in order in the top of the 8th, and in the bottom of the inning it’s leadoff hitter Jeter converting Dravecky’s HR split for a Yankees lead and a call to the pen for the Goose.  But it’s now up to Rivera in the 9th and he blows through the Padres, whiffing Wiggins for the final out in the Yanks 3-2 win, and it was the Captain Jeter, who has been oft maligned in this tournament, leading his squad to the semifinals.

The survivors

Although both teams had pulled off upsets in the first round by ELO metrics, the 1927 Cubs were nonetheless huge favorites over the 2008 Padres, and their pitching options were better with the Cubs sending Guy Bush (10-10, 3.03) against a San Diego team that traded away two key members of their rotation in mid-season, leaving Chris Young (7-6, 3.96) as the only decent remaining option.  An error in the bottom of the 1st by Padres SS-3 Khalil Greene sets up a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Earl Webb and the Cubs take a lead without recording a hit.   That lead doesn’t hold as the Padres exploit the weaknesses on Bush’s card and an RBI single from Edgar Gonzalez and a fielder’s choice from Nick Hundley push SD to a 2-1 lead.   It takes the Cubs until the bottom of the 6th to mount a response, but a 2-out RBI single (on a missed DO 1-18) from Jolly Charlie Grimm ties the game although the missed double ends up costing the Cubs a lead as Grimm is stranded on 3rd.  When SS-3 Greene drops another grounder to put the leadoff runner on in the bottom of the 7th, the Padres summon reliever Mike Adams to cut off a rally, and he quickly dispatches the Cubs to maintain the tie.  In the 8th, Padres CF Jody Gerut barely misses his homer result while hitting his injury, and he’s out for the rest of the regional, but the Padres do survive errors from P-3 Adams and defensive replacement 2B-2 Tadahito Iguchi in the bottom of the inning without allowing any runs.  Thus the game heads to the 9th still deadlocked, and Bush and Adams both set their opposition down in order to push the game to extra innings, with the 10th being the final inning of eligibility for both pitchers.  They both do their job, so for the Cubs it’s reliever Luther Roy to begin the 11th, and the Wrigley faithful watch in horror as the second batter he faces, Adrian Gonzalez, deposits a solo shot into the bleachers.  So it’s now up to closer Trevor Hoffman for the Padres, and he goes through the Cubs in order to save the 3-2 victory for the upstart Padres, who record almost as many errors (4) as hits (6) but still head to the finals as the bottom seed in the regional.

In this second round matchup, the top-seeded 2011 Yankees were prohibitive favorites against the #7 seed 1994 Cubs, who were hoping to avenge their 1927 brethren from the prior semifinal.  After surviving tightly contested games in round one, both squads were hoping that their starters, Ivan Nova (16-4, 3.70) for the Yanks and Steve Trachsel (9-7, 3.21) for the Cubs, could go deep in the game to rest up their bullpens.  In the top of the 2nd, an error by C-2 Russell Martin and a single past LF-2 Brett Gardner sets up the Cubs Rich Wilkins, who misses a HR split on Nova’s card; one runner scores on the resulting double but 1-10 Steve Buchele is cut down at the plate with an 11 split.  Meanwhile, the Yankees can’t buy a hit, but lose ARod for the remainder of the regional in the 4th to further subdue the Bronx crowd.  They finally get their first hit of the game in the bottom of the 5th when Mark Teixeira finds Trachsel’s solid HR result for a solo shot that ties the game.  In the 6th, Curtis Granderson crushes a 2-run shot off his own card, and even though Trachsel has allowed only three hits, the fact that two of them were homers means that closer Randy Myers is coming in for the duration.  Myers gets in trouble but is bailed out when 1-12+2 Teixeira is nailed at the plate for the final out of the 6th.  Nova then allows three straight singles off his card in the 7th and the NY hope for a rested pen is dashed as David Robertson is summoned to try to preserve the lead, and he records two straight strikeouts to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.  In the bottom of the inning, two walks and an error by 2B-2 Rey Sanchez give the Yankees their turn with the bases loaded, and unlike the Cubs they take full advantage as a two-out homer from Robinson Cano is good for the grand slam and blows the game open.  With a hefty lead in the bottom of the 9th and Robertson now burned for the regional, the Yanks save Rivera and bring in Luis Ayala, who promptly surrenders three straight hits for two runs but he finally records the third out for a 7-3 Yankees win that sends them to the finals.  

The matchup for the regional final looked pretty lopsided, with the top seeded 2011 Yankees facing the bottom seeded 2008 Padres, although neither team would be playing at full strength.  Both bullpens showed signs of wear, and each team lost a key component in their offense to injury, with ARod still out for the Yanks and CF Jody Gerut sidelined for San Diego.  The pitching assignments certainly favored the New Yorkers, with Freddy Garcia (12-8, 3.62) considerably better than the lone remaining option for the Padres, one Cha Seung Baek (6-10, 4.79).  However, the curse of the Jeter-era Yanks quickly sets in as Adrian Gonzales nails a 2-out RBI double in the top of the 3rd, and then Scott Hairston follows that with a homer for a 3-0 Padres lead.  In the bottom of the inning Jeter pops out with two runners in scoring position, but then Nick Swisher hits one and it’s Baek, Baek, Baek, and gone for a 3-run homer that ties the game.  However, the Pads respond immediately in the top of the 4th, with consecutive singles off Garcia’s 5-7 roll followed by a Nick Hundley single that gets past CF-2 Curtis Granderson, and when Khalil Greene drives in two more by converting a TR 1-2 Garcia has to go, having not recorded an out in the inning.  The Yanks turn to a rested Mariano Rivera in hopes they can still pull this one out, but Greene scores on a sac fly and SD now leads 7-3.  In the 5th, injury replacement Eric Chavez leads off by converting Baek’s HR 1-19 split with a 19 roll, and Robinson Cano singles in another run although 1-16+2 Granderson is cut down trying for the extra base with yet another 19 roll, but the lead is now down to two.  The Padres pull Baek and move to Heath Bell to begin the 6th, and he handles the Yanks, while Rivera does his job but is burnt by the 8th, so Luis Ayala gets the call in the pen.   Ayala does his job in this outing, but the Padres are letting Bell ring for his final inning of eligibility in the bottom of the 9th, and he gets two quick outs to face Jeter, the face of the failures of this “dynasty” in this tournament.  And Jeter grounds harmlessly to 3rd as another of his teams heads back to the storage drawers, with the unlikely #8 seed Padres taking the regional with the 7-5 win, only the 5th San Diego squad to win a bracket and the first from this millennium.

Interesting card of Regional #216: I haven’t made an exhaustive search, but I can’t remember too many bullpen set-up men who have received votes for both the Cy Young Award and the MVP while serving in that role.  For a number of years, Robertson was second banana in the Yankee bullpen to Mariano Rivera, but for this season at least it was the set-up man who had the better card.  Robertson continued in this role until Rivera retired, and then he spent one year as the Yankees closer before going to the White Sox as a free agent–often a career-killing move.  He did survive that experience but since then he has bounced around both leagues, nearly always putting up decent numbers but never quite reaching the heights of his 2011 season.  As of this writing, he’s still active, finishing 2023 with a 3.03 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP at age 38.  In this tournament, he was the MVP for the Yankees, who fell behind in both the first and second round and relied upon Robertson to toss two hitless innings in each game, allowing the Yanks to score and making his record 2-0 in his two appearances.   Alas, that used up his eligible innings before the final, and without him the Yanks were unable to catch up once again after falling behind to the bottom seed in the bracket, and were eliminated from the tournament.