REGIONAL #223:  After the draw for this group I thought I needed to recheck the code for the random team selector program I’d written, because it spit out three 1994 and two 1988 American League teams out of the eight teams, with pairs of entries from the Indians and Orioles.  Regardless of the random number generator, I thought there were going to be some decent squads here even if there were no pennant winners.  The ‘94 version of the Indians didn’t have a chance to win a pennant in that strike year, but they did so in the following season, and I thought that the ‘99 A’s were building toward some good teams while the Mets and the earlier version of the Orioles were probably declining from pennant-winning squads some seasons back.  I went with those strike year Indians to beat the A’s in the final, while the ELO rankings also favored those Indians but had the later Orioles team as the second seed in the regional.  

First round action  

It’s a (brief) Subway Series in this first round game, with a decent matchup in the #3 seeded 1988 Yankees and the #4 seeded 2005 Mets.  The Yanks won 85 games, although that was only good for 5th place in a tough AL East; they had some offensive weapons led by Dave Winfield who finished 4th in MVP voting, but their pitching staff was a weakness with John Candelaria (13-7, 3.38) the only good option in the rotation.  Although the Mets were slight underdogs having won only 83 games, I liked their chances with a strong lineup with three MVP vote-getters in David Wright, Cliff Floyd, and Jose Reyes, and a dominating Pedro Martinez (15-8, 2.82) fronting the rotation.  The Mets display their pop in the top of the 1st with a solo HR from Mike Cameron, but in the 3rd Rickey Henderson raps an RBI single and the AAA stealer promptly steals second, although Pedro strands him and the game is tied 1-1 after three.  In the 5th, Cameron knocks an RBI double, putting him a triple short of a cycle, and DH Mike Jacobs adds a sac fly and the Mets lead by two.  The Yankees cut it to one in the bottom of the inning as Henderson scores on Winfield double, but in the 7th Carlos Beltran doubles and scores on Cameron’s 4th hit of the game to provide the Mets with some breathing room.  A single by Floyd leads off the 8th and the Yankees finally replace the Candyman with Rags, but Righetti is greeted by an error from 2B-2 Willie Randolph and then a walk loads the bases.  In an effort to keep it close, the Yanks bring the infield in with nobody out, but Reyes promptly rolls the gbA++ to score two more and steals second for good measure.  Miguel Cairo then knocks a liner that falls in front of CF-3 Claudell Washington and the Mets add two more to their lead, and ultimately Cairo scores on Cameron’s 5th hit of the game.  Cameron scores on a missed HR split double from Jacobs and the Yanks burn off their Rags with a Leiter, who comes in to finally record two outs but six runs score in the inning and Yankee Stadium is filled with Bronx cheers.  In the 7th, Martinez is dinged by a comebacker and has to leave the game, although he shouldn’t miss any future starts if needed; Steve Trachsel is brought in to mop up and although he yields a run on a Henderson fielder’s choice in the 9th, it’s to no avail as the Mets advance with a 10-3 battering of their crosstown rivals.

For the Zoom game of the week, it was the best against the worst, with Cleveland’s own ColavitoFan manning the helm of the top seeded 1994 Indians, who went 66-47 and were one game out of first in the AL Central at the time that the strike ended the season.  Short season or not, this was a good team that would easily win the pennant the next season once play resumed, and in ‘94 Albert Belle and Kenny Lofton went 3-4 in the MVP votes while Charles Nagy (10-8, 3.45) was one of a couple of decent options for the round one start.   At the other extreme of the seedings were the 1988 Orioles, a dismal team best remembered for losing 21 straight games to begin the season en route to 107 losses, and the only thing they had in common with the Indians was Eddie Murray in the lineup.  Always up for a challenge, Nacster opted to manage this motley crew, and he tapped Jose Bautista (6-15, 4.30) as the best they could muster.   However, one of Bautista’s problems was those home run results at 4-9 and 4-10, and Lofton finds that solid 4-10 in the top of the 3rd to loft one for a two-run lead.  In the 4th, 23 year old Jim Thome crushes a solo shot for additional padding, and meanwhile Nagy has a perfect game going through five.  However, in the 6th the O’s break the ice and the better of the two Ripken brothers drives in a run, but Thome responds in the top of the 7th with another solo shot, perfectly setting up a 7th inning stretch trivia question that none of the Friday Night Strat crowd could guess, with Thome as the correct answer.  After seven feeble innings, it looks like Nac’s managerial ministrations might pay off in the bottom of the 8th, as a couple of hits from the dreadful bottom of the O’s order puts the tying run at the plate.  ColavitoFan has a nagging feeling that Nagy is done, and he plucks Eric Plunk from the bullpen, who gets the second out and then faces Nac’s top of the order, stacked with Baltimore’s two Hall of Famers.  The first one, Murray, draws the walk and the bases are loaded with one out and Cal Ripken Jr. at the plate as the go-ahead run, and Nac is cackling as he rattles the electronic dice in his phone.  At the last second, ColavitoFan clarifies that he is keeping the infield back, and that matters greatly as Ripken comes up with the gbA++ for the rally-killing double play.  Plunk then quickly dispatches the Orioles in the bottom of the 9th and the Indians move on with the 4-1 win; the Orioles head back to the card catalogs and take some solace in knowing that even they can’t lose 21 straight games in a single elimination tournament.

The 1999 A’s were a pre-Moneyball but mid-steroid era team that won 87 games with Jason Giambi, Matt Stairs and John Jaha all over 30 homers; however, the rotation got bad quickly after Tim Hudson's (11-2, 3.23) turn.  One of those bad starters turned out to be the top pitcher in the rotation for their opponents in the 1994 Rangers, Kenny Rogers (11-8, 4.46), which should tell you something about this team whose 52-62 record was good enough for first place in a terrible strike-year AL West.  Nonetheless, the Rangers jump out to a quick lead on back to back doubles from Will Clark and Jose Canseco in the top of the 1st, and in the bottom of the 1st the A’s must grieve the loss of their LF, Ben Grieve, to injury.  Texas extends their lead when Rusty Greer leads off the 3rd with a long homer, and a fielders choice from Doug Strange in the 4th makes it 3-0 Rangers.  Meanwhile, the A’s only get their first hit in the 4th from injury replacement Rich Becker, but he’s quickly wiped out on a DP and Rogers just keeps dealing the cards.  A couple of two-out Ranger singles in the 7th and Hudson is gone for Jason Isringhausen, who strikes out Canseco to end the threat but the A’s still trail.  Izzy does the job until the top of the 9th, when he allows doubles off his card to both Clark and defensive replacement Billy Ripken for an insurance run, which turns out to be a good thing as in the bottom of the 9th Becker and Jaha go back to back off Rogers’ solid HR result; the Rangers know when to fold ‘em and they assign reliever Darren Oliver to try to get the last two outs.  However, the first batter he faces is Giambi, who finds a solid HR on his own card for a back-to-back-to-back series that makes it a one-run game.  Next up is Stairs, who rips a liner past RF-2 Greer for a double that puts the tying run in scoring position.  2B-2 Ripken then makes a fine play for the second out, but Oliver walks Miguel Tejada and the winning run is now on.  Out comes pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz, and Oliver delivers:  a 2-8, solid HR, a three run blast for the 4th A’s homer of the inning and it’s game over, with the A’s riding the roid rage to a remarkable 6-4 comeback win and a trip to the semis.  

This game was a kind of flip of a previous first round matchup in this bracket, with the 2011 Indians facing the 1994 Orioles; this time, the Orioles were favored but the ELO ranks suggested that they weren’t as good nor the Indians as bad as was the case in the previous mismatch.  These Orioles went 63-49 and had the second best record in the AL East when the strike was declared, with Cal Ripken and Rafael Palmiero getting MVP votes and Lee Smith and Mike Mussina (16-5, 3.06) respectively 5th and 4th for the Cy Young.  The Indians were a mediocre 80-82 and were mainly hoping 40 year old DH Jim Thome could duplicate the feats of his younger self earlier in the regional, with Justin Masterson (12-10, 3.21) at the top of a rotation that went quickly downhill from there.  In the top of the 1st, one half of the Indians’ all-Cabrera DP combo, this one Asdrubal, hits a solo HR as the second batter of the game, and Mussina is rattled, issuing a couple of walks and then a three-run blast from Matt Laporta and Cleveland has a 4-0 lead before the Orioles swing a bat.  In the 3rd, Carlos Santana, who has consistently been black magic in this tournament forcing me to use up all my guitarist puns, hits a 2-run homer that makes it 6-0 Indians.  Things get even worse for Baltimore in the 4th as RF Fukudome, not to be confused with a ballpark sponsored by a punk rock band, flips off the O’s with another 2-run shot, this one off Mussina and in desperation the Orioles move to Lee Arthur Smith.  He records two quick strikeouts, but then Santana continues his evil ways with his second homer of the game and Cleveland leads 9-0 with the Orioles having yet to muster a hit.  Harold Baines finally notches a single against Masterson in the bottom of the inning but is quickly wiped out on a DP.  However, in the bottom of the 6th Masterson seems determined to make it interesting, walking three straight batters to lead off the inning and then delivering the grand slam to Leo Gomez, and the sizeable Indians lead is essentially halved.  But Masterson recovers and he finishes things out with a 3-hitter as the Indians once again down the Orioles, this one by a 9-4 score, but a 9th inning injury to Michael Brantley (likely for the tournament) will hurt their chances to make it an all-Tribe final.  

The survivors

A solid semifinal matchup between the top seed 1994 Indians and the #4 seeded 2005 Mets had Cleveland’s Dennis Martinez (11-6, 3.52) facing 39 year old Tom Glavine (13-13, 3.53) for a spot in the bracket final.  Martinez has a gruesome second inning, walking three and allowing three singles, and the Mets stake Glavine to a quick 4-0 lead.  The Indians load the bases in the 3rd with one out but Glavine fans Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome to quiet the Cleveland crowd, but they come back to life a little with a Kenny Lofton RBI single in the 4th that narrows the lead to 4-1. Cleveland picks up another run in the 5th when Jim Thome beats the throw home on a two-out Paul Sorrento single, and then Manny Ramirez slashes a two-out single that scores Baerga and Belle; Thome then singles past SS-2 Jose Reyes and Glavine heads to the rocking chair with Juan Padilla and his ERA getting the third out but the score is now tied.  That tie lasts up to the 9th; Martinez sets down the Mets quietly in the top of the inning, but Thome leads off the bottom of the 9th with a single.  Padilla then records two quick outs to bring up Indians #9 hitter Sandy Alomar Jr.; he lifts a little popup into fair territory but Mets C-4 Mike Piazza muffs it, putting Alomar on first and Thome in scoring position with the winning run.  Padilla then faces Lofton and the top of the order; he brings his best and Lofton crushes it, barely clearing the fence in the deepest part of The Jake and the Indians head to the final with a come from behind, walkoff 7-4 win.

The #3 seeded 1999 A’s survived a wild first round comeback and now get to face the #6 seed 2011 Indians, with Cleveland’s Ubaldo Jimenez (10-13, 4.68) going against Omar Olivares (15-11, 4.16) of the A’s for an uninspiring pitching matchup.  In the bottom of the 1st Jim Thome appears eager to face himself in the finals as he belts a 2-run homer to put the Indians ahead, and Kosuke Fukudome adds an RBI single in the 2nd to extend the lead.  Eric Chavez answers with a 2-out RBI triple in the top of the 4th that makes it 3-1.  In the 5th Thome gets another RBI on a sac fly, although the Indians squander an opportunity to blow the game open when Grady Sizemore ends the inning on a bases loaded double play.  Two straight Cleveland singles to start off the bottom of the 6th and the A’s move to reliever TJ Mathews, and although he induces a DP ball it scores a run and the Cleveland lead is up to four.  A 2-base error by Indians 1B-4 Matt LaPorta opens la porta for a 2-out rally, and when Jason Giambi knocks an RBI single to put the tying run at the plate the Indians bring out closer Chris Perez.  However, Matt Stairs rips a liner past P-4 Perez to make it a two-run game heading into the 9th–and these A’s overcame a 4-run lead with six runs in the 9th in the first round, so they’re feeling plenty optimistic.  The A’s put up a single and two walks to load the bases to begin the 9th, and Perez now faces the top of the Oakland order needing three outs without two runs scoring.  He walks Randy Velarde and one of those runs scores, and now the infield comes in to try to keep the game from getting tied.  Ben Grieve, recovered from a game one injury, smacks a grounder to terrible 1B-4 LaPorta and the ball goes through his legs for another 2-base error and the A’s now lead with still nobody out.  Perez then walks Jaha, his fourth of the inning, and finally gets it over the plate to Giambi, who misses the HR split for the grand slam but drives in two as Jaha is nailed at the plate for only the first out of the inning.  The Indians decide to try a different Perez, this time Rafael, but Matt Stairs finds a double on the new pitcher to drive in Giambi and by the time the third out is recorded, the A’s put up their second 6-run 9th inning in as many games, Billy Taylor comes in to close out the Indians and the A’s head to the final with yet another comeback in the 9-5 win.   

What better as a Zoom game of the week than a regional final between the top seeded 1994 Indians and the #5 seeded 1999 A’s, with Cleveland’s own ColavitoFan reprising his strategy that led them to their round one victory, while TT was intrigued by the A’s combination of 6-run ninth innings along with a chemically-enhanced lineup.  With teams getting into the deeper parts of their rotation, the Indians’ Mark Clark (11-3, 3.82) looked like a better option than Oakland’s Gil Heredia (13-8, 4.81), and when the second batter of the game, Omar Vizquel, finds and converts Heredia’s HR split in the top of the 1st it’s looking like the A’s might need more 9th inning heroics to pull this off.  However, Heredia quickly settles down, while Oakland goes to work on Clark, who is not helped by a defense where it seems everyone is either a 1 or a 4, and the A’s keep hitting the ball at the 4s.  An unearned run in the bottom of the 2nd ties things up, and then as 3B-4 Jim Thome and 2B-3 Carlos Baerga wave feebly at balls hit through the infield, TT develops a knack for hitting Clark’s 4-9 HR 1-10/DO, which he does three times in the first four innings, missing the split every time.  However, even with the expensive sparkly fluid-filled split die refusing to cooperate, TT’s A’s continue to pile on, with those missed-split doubles by John Jaha and Randy Velarde driving in runs and the A’s build up a 4-1 lead after five.  ColavitoFan sticks with Clark through the 6th but after a leadoff hit in the 7th he plucks Plunk from the pen, and Plunk holds the A’s at bay.  However, Heredia is still cruising, and he moves into the top of the 9th but when Cleveland starts things off with a single, TT signals for Jason Isringhausen to close things out.  First roll is a 6-5, which would have been the HR on Heredia, but is a strikeout on Izzy and TT looks like Earl Weaver as the A’s roll to the 4-1 win, their third straight comeback victory and the 6th regional title for the franchise. 

Interesting card of Regional #223:  In this tournament of every standard Strat team ever printed, the DH is being used for all teams, meaning that decades of such teams never used or conceived of such a position.  To accommodate this in a somewhat fair way, tournament rules stipulate that any player with at least 100 ABs can start a game as the DH. and fortunately for the 2005 Mets they had a guy with exactly 100 AB who fit the “slugger who can’t field” DH prototype rather well.  These were actually the first hundred at-bats in the majors for Mike Jacobs, gathered when he was called up in late August.  In his first AB, he hit a three-run homer, and he became the first player in history to homer four times in his first four games in the majors a few days later.  However, the Mets were apparently unimpressed, trading Jacob to the Marlins for another DH type in Carlos Delgado in the off-season.  Jacobs continued to show decent power for the Marlins for a few seasons but in 2011 he became the first North American athlete to be caught by a newly developed test for human growth hormone, and his suspension pretty much spelled the end of his career.  

REGIONAL #222:  After the previous bracket, I was happy to see some diversity of eras in this group, with two seasons from the 1950s putting in their final tournament contestants, and other representatives from the 70s, 80s, and 90s in addition to a couple of 21st century squads.  In contrast, according to my memory the quality level of the group looked pretty consistent, teams that I was guessing were pretty decent although none were very close to a pennant year.   Some big names would make an appearance, such as pre-roid Barry Bonds and post-peak Ted Williams, but I found it difficult to pick a favorite in this group.  Other than assuming that the White Sox would fall victim to my usual jinx, I was totally in the dark but predicted an all-1992 final between the Pirates and the Cardinals, with the Pirates prevailing for what would be their most modern team to take a regional.  The ELO rankings came to the same conclusion, indicating that the toughest challenge for the favored Pirates would come in the first round against the Mariners.

First round action

This first round matchup between the top two seeds of the bracket was a natural for the Zoom game of the week; the favored 1992 Pirates winning 96 games and the NL East before losing a seven-game NLCS, while the 2014 Mariners won only 87 games but had a great equalizer on the mound in the form of Cy Young runner-up Felix Hernandez (15-6, 2.14).  However, as the guest managers of the M’s, ColavitoFan was unimpressed with a lineup that had some difficulty reaching base, while Nacster would skipper a Pirates team that boasted NL MVP Barry Bonds in his final year in Pittsburgh and Doug Drabek (15-11, 2.77) was 5th in the Cy Young votes.  Not surprisingly, the game begins as a pitcher’s duel, and with little action on the basebaths Nac decides to party like it’s 1909, reverting to deadball strategies and beating out two bunts (in Basic, mind you) in the bottom of the 5th to set up a 2-run single by Don Slaught for a Pirates lead.  That holds up until the top of the 8th, when Seattle finds Drabek’s weak spots and muster four hits, two of them RBI knocks from Michael Saunders and Kyle Seager, and the Mariners now possess a 3-2 edge and Hernandez is still looking strong.  However, Nac dips back into the John McGraw playbook and beats out yet another bunt, advances that runner into scoring position with a successful sacrifice–and Jeff King signals his displeasure with smallball by putting one into the Monongahela River and suddenly the Pirates have regained the lead.  Drabek comes out and sets down the Mariners in order in the top of the 9th and the top-seeded Pirates move on with a tightly contested 4-3 win.

The ELO ratings for the first round game between the 1954 Tigers and the 1976 Cubs portrayed the two teams as evenly matched, with neither being very good.  The Tigers finished 68-86 with little pop in the offense other than family patriarch Ray Boone, although besides Boone everyone else was a pretty good fielder and the rotation was solid, fronted by Ned Garver (14-11, 2.82).  The Cubs went 75-87 and had a bit more pop in the lineup, but less defense and pitching with Ray Burris (15-13, 3.11) good as long as he could avoid the longball.  Some smallball works for the Tigers in the bottom of the 2nd as a walk and a bunt sets up a run-scoring squib single by Bill Tuttle for a Detroit lead.  In the 3rd, it’s the Cubs defense that provides opportunities, as LF-2 Jose Cardenal misplays a Walt Dropo single that sets up a sac fly from Jim Delsing, and then Dropo scores when 1B-4 Rick Monday waves at a Frank House single as it goes by him.  The Cubs get on the board in the 4th when Manny Trillo misses Garver’s HR 1-13 split but 1-15+2 Joe Wallis is able to score on the resulting double; the Tigers get the run back in the bottom of the inning when Tuttle rolls his solid triple and then scores on a sac fly by Harvey Kuenn that almost bangs a wall.  The Cubs move to Bruce Sutter at the first sign of trouble in the 6th to try to keep the game within reach, and he holds as the Cubs make it a two-run game in the 7th on a sac fly from Mick Kelleher.  Sutter is lights out, striking out the side in the bottom of the 8th but it is to no avail as Garver finishes out a 4-hitter and the Tigers move forward, winning 4-2.  

This first round matchup featured two middling teams that were closely matched according to their ELO ratings.  The 1959 Red Sox went 75-79 but might have been much better if Ted Williams hadn’t suffered through an injury-plagued season in which he hit an un-Splinterlike .254; their rotation wasn’t bad with swingman Ike Delock (11-6, 2.96) as their choice for the opener.  The 1992 Cardinals had a better record at 83-79 but their most recognizable players were a bit past their prime, although Bob Tewksbury (16-5, 2.16) had his career year, finishing 3rd in the Cy Young sweepstakes and exhibiting his typically remarkable control (20 walks in 233 IP).  In the bottom of the 2nd, Cards 3B-3 Todd Zeile drops a grounder from Bob Costas’s nemesis Gary Geiger, which opens the door for a two-out two-run double from Sammy White on a missed HR split.  Pete Runnels is tossed out (1-13) at the plate in the 3rd trying to score on another missed HR split, but Williams does get across in the 4th after another missed HR split gets him a double and White drives him in.  That seems to distract Tewksbury, who allows RBI singles to Gene Stephens and Pete Runnels before he can end the inning and the Sox have a 5-0 lead after four.  A double by Dick Gernert in the 5th and Tewksbury is toast, with the Cards moving to closer Lee Smith in desperation to face Williams.  The Splinter is unimpressed and knocks an RBI single off Smith’s card, and as the 6th begins Boston makes some defensive adjustments with a substantial lead.  The Cards see that as an opportunity and push across two runs on a Luis Alicea sac fly and a Tom Pagnozzi single past Boston SS-4 Don Buddin, but St. Louis leaves the bases loaded and that’s their high water mark as Boston fastens Delock on the door for the Cards to win 6-2, in the process outhitting St. Louis 18-4 while missing splits and leaving numerous runners in scoring position, an issue they will need to remedy going forward.

This matchup looked gruesome as it featured the two teams with the worst ELO ratings in the bracket.  It looked to me like the 2017 White Sox wouldn’t need my jinx for an early elimination, as they were the bottom seed on the bracket with 95 losses and they traded away some of their regulars midseason after throwing in the towel, leaving Jose Quintana (4-8, 4.49) as the best of a bad rotation.  The 1987 Padres were the second-worst rated team with 97 losses, although their Pythagorean projection suggested that they underperformed and they did have the league batting leader and 8th in the MVP votes in Tony Gwynn, with Eric Show (8-16, 3.84) the best of a sorry rotation.  In the bottom of the 1st, Carmelo Martinez misses a 1-15 split for a grand slam but three runs score on the resulting double and the Padres quickly have a substantial lead.  The Sox get one back when a 2-base error by SS-2 Garry Templeton sets up a run-scoring fielder’s choice by Tim Anderson, and then RBI singles from Yolmer Sanchez and Alen Hanson tie it up in the top of the 4th.  The Padres reclaim the lead in the 5th when Randy Ready drives in Gwynn with a triple, but when Leury Garcia pokes a one-out single in the 7th, the Padres move to Goose Gossage who racks up two strikeouts that both would have been hits on Show’s card.  However, seeking to not cook the Goose, the Padres bring in Lance McCullers for the save in the 9th, and he allows three straight singles with the last one by Jose Abreu getting under SS-2 Templeton’s glove that scores the game-tying run.  Quintana holds in the bottom of the 9th and the game heads to extra innings, with the offensive ineptitude of both teams evident as the game proceeds.  Finally, in the bottom of the 14th the Padres mount a threat against Sox reliever Anthony Swarzak as two-out singles from Shane Mack and Templeton put the winning run on 3rd, with defensive replacement Chris Brown at the plate.  Swarzak delivers, and Brown puts it into the stands at Jack Murphy Stadium as the Padres survive with a walk-off 7-4 extra inning win.

The survivors

After surviving the second best team in round one, the top seeded 1992 Pirates saw a clear path to the regional title, but it would have to go through the 1954 Tigers and Steve Gromek (18-16, 2.74) against the Bucs’ Zane Smith (8-8, 3.06).  Smith donates the lead to the Tigers in the bottom of the 3rd with a double and an RBI single, both off his card, but Gromek returns the favor as the first batter of the 4th, Don Slaught, converts the pitcher’s HR split to tie the game.  Gromek is rattled, and a few batters later Alex Cole also converts that HR 1-18 split with an 18 for a three run homer and a 4-1 Pirates lead.   Gromek settles down but the limited Tigers offense can’t produce anything until the bottom of the 9th, when Harvey Kuenn leads off with his third hit of the game and Ray Boone follows by converting Smith’s HR 1-6 split and suddenly it’s a one run game with nobody out.  The Pirates don’t like the homers on closer Stan Belinda, so they opt for young knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, and he survives an error from 3B-3 Jeff King to close out the game as the Pirates hang on for a 4-3 win to move to the finals.

The semifinal between the #4 seed 1959 Red Sox and the #6 seeded 1987 Padres involved three Hall of Famers, although Boston’s one HOFer had perhaps his worst season, the Padres’ bullpen was seriously taxed from their 14-inning marathon in round one.  It was Boston’s Frank Sullivan (9-11, 3.94) against swingman Mark Davis (9-8, 3.99) for San Diego, but the first swing in the top of the 1st by leadoff man Gene Stephens converted Davis’ HR result for an immediate Red Sox lead.  However, in the bottom of the 3rd Padres HOFer Tony Gwynn returns the favor with a two-run shot off Sullivan’s card and San Diego moves in front 2-1.  In the 5th Boston regains the lead as Pete Runnels rips an RBI triple, and he scores when Frank Malzone knocks a single past 3B-4 Randy Ready; a rattled Davis then loads up the bases so Ted Williams can loft a sac fly that makes it 4-2 Boston.  However, in the top of the 6th Boston loses SS Frank Buddin to injury for the rest of the regional, and sensing weakness the Padres pull within one in the bottom of the inning with a Carmelo Martinez RBI single.  But in the top of the 7th the Splendid Splinter converts a double off Davis’s card to drive in a run and San Diego calls upon Goose Gossage to try to keep it close, but Williams ultimately scores on injury replacement Pumpsie Green’s sac fly to extend the Boston lead.  From there Sullivan only gets stronger and the Red Sox finish out the 6-3 victory to earn a berth in the bracket final.

The regional final matched the #1 seed in the bracket, the 1992 Pirates with Randy Tomlin (14-9, 3.41) on the mound, against the #4 seeded 1959 Red Sox and Tom Brewer (10-12, 3.77), with Boston playing shorthanded without their starting shortstop.  In the bottom of the 1st, Gene Stephens, who had led off their semifinal game with a homer off the pitcher’s card, again rolls Tomlin’s HR split, and although he misses it for a double he scores on another double from Frank Malzone.  Two batters later Dick Gerhert cracks a 2-run homer and it’s a quick 3-0 lead for the underdog Red Sox.  But the Pirates had come from behind in each of their previous games, and they begin the process in the top of the 4th as Barry Bonds finally makes some noise with a 2-run homer that unnerves Brewer, who walks two and then allows an RBI single to Alex Cole that ties the game.  The Red Sox respond in the bottom of the inning with a sac fly from Ted Williams that puts them ahead once again, but the Pirates tie it again in the 4th after Jose Lind doubles and ultimately scores on a Don Slaught fielder’s choice.  Things look grim for already shorthanded Boston in the 5th when they lose their star RF Jackie Jensen to injury for the rest of the tournament, but they rally around their fallen comrade with a barrage of hits in the 6th that doesn’t stop when young Tim Wakefield comes in to give up a 3-run homer to injury replacement Vic Wertz, and by the time Stan Belinda manages to eventually record the third out of the inning the Red Sox lead 11-4 and Fenway is rocking.  From there, Brewer just has to be adequate and he is, propelling the Red Sox to their 9th regional win and their third of the Ted William era.  However, they will be facing the first game of their super-regional, whenever that might be played, without two of their starting position players and with unexciting options for a #4 starter.

Interesting card of Regional #222:  This is another example of a card from a turning point in Strat card-dom.  This was the first season of the perforated cards, the first season with colored ink on the Basic side, one of the last seasons of the classic card patterns that I had grown up with, and the only season with the shaded diamond background designed to thwart photocopiers, although it proved to be more effective in being unreadable by the old eyes of their aging player base.  Still, if you put on the bifocals, you may see a rather nice specimen of a hitter’s card, with that solid three-column that I always loved (although I wonder why 3-4 wasn’t a solid triple?) and some nice results located in the other columns as well.  Throw in top-flight defense and speed and you’ve got yourself a pretty good ball-player.   This was probably the Hall of Famer’s best season, leading the league in hitting and hits and posting the best WAR in the National League, but he only finished 8th in the MVP voting, even finishing behind teammate Mark Davis on the 97-loss Padres.  In fact, Gwynn never won an MVP award and finished in the top five only once, when he was just 24 years old.  Despite this seeming lack of recognition during his career, he was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try with the eighth-highest voting percentage in Hall of Fame history.  After his death at age 54 from salivary gland cancer, which likely resulted from his long-term use of chewing tobacco, MLB named the NL league batting title after the Padres icon, a recognition nicely exemplified in this card.

REGIONAL #221:  I began this tournament in 1980, and my slow off-and-on progress over the years has led to most pre-21st century teams having made their appearance among the 1,760 teams that have already played.  As such, the draw for this group consisted almost entirely of squads from 2000 on, and perhaps it’s a sign of my advanced age that the more recently a team played, the less I remember about them.  So my blind appraisal of this group was pretty blind indeed–I knew the Cubs entry was two seasons away from their first Series win since Moses parted the Red Sea, and most of the ‘98 Red Sox were probably familiar to me as I’d spend a year in Boston a season or two before and went to a fair number of Red Sox games and they were pretty good.  There was also a Cardinals team that had won the pennant in the prior season, and a pandemic year Mets squad that might prove interesting.  The multiple-entry franchise in this group was the Padres, with two shots including one from a few years back that I vaguely remembered being competitive in a very tough division.  My guess was that it would be a finals between arch-rivals, the Cubs and the Cardinals, and I went with the Cards to win just so I could root against the Cubs.  The ELO rankings mostly confirmed that my memories were bad (for example, the Cubs were in fact the bottom seed), other than the one that the Red Sox had some talent as they were favored to win over an Orioles team that I was surprised to see was ranked pretty well, given that I just played a terrible O’s squad from two seasons later in the last regional.    

First round action

The 2014 Cubs would win a championship in two seasons, but you’d never know it from this 73-89 last place team that had no real hitters other than Anthony Rizzo (who got some MVP votes), and a rotation that was terrible other than Jake Arrieta (10-5, 2.53), who finished 9th for the Cy Young and should have received a Purple Heart for pitching in front of this defense.  They were decided underdogs against the 2005 Padres, who actually managed to win the NL West with an 82-80 record although they were quickly eliminated in the postseason.  The Padres had a more balanced offense with some MVP support for Brian Giles, although like the Cubs their rotation was baked other than a Jake, this one Jake Peavy (13-7, 2.88) although Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen was also mentioned on a few MVP ballots.  Both Jakes are in fine form until the bottom of the 5th, when .169 hitting Cubs “DH” Javier Baez converts his HR 1-10/flyB split for a two run Cubs lead.  When Ryan Sweeney bounces a single in front of Padres RF-3 Brian Giles in the bottom of the 7th, San Diego decides it’s time for Hoffman, who immediately yields a triple to Baez off Hoffman’s card, and Baez scores on a Chris Coghlan single that’s also off the pitcher’s card, and my sense that Hoffman has a pretty crappy card for a closer with 43 saves seems to be validated.  However, it matters little, as Arrieta is dealing and finishes up a four-hit shutout in which he fans 11 to lead the Cubs to the semis with a 4-0 win.

This first round game featured two teams with good ELO ratings that would both be terrible within two years.  For the 81-81 2015 Orioles, it was pretty much the same players as the group that appeared in the prior regional, but with better years, with Manny Machado 4th in the MVP ballots and Chris Davis also getting votes while leading the league in homers (47) and strikeouts (208).  Wei-Yin Chen (11-8, 3.34) headed up a mediocre rotation but there were some strong arms in the bullpen.  Meanwhile, the 86-win 2021 A’s had a decent staff with Chris Bassitt (12-4, 3.15) getting the round one start, but after 8th place MVP contender Matt Olson there weren’t many threats in the lineup.  Bassitt gets hounded in the top of the 1st when a couple of singles and a walk sets up a two out grand slam by Steve Pearce off the pitcher’s card, and although he settles down to pitch a perfect 2nd, he’s injured on the last out of the inning and has to leave the game.  Matt Chapman homers to lead off the bottom of the inning to make it 4-1, and then in the 3rd the A’s use Andrew Chafin and his 1.83 ERA to replace Bassitt, but immediately Davis converts a TR 1-2/SI as the only solid hit on Chafin’s card.  Davis scores on a Caleb Joseph fielder’s choice to extend the O’s lead in the 3rd, but Oakland gets the run back in the 5th on an RBI double from Olson.  Machado greets new A’s pitcher Lou Trivino with a tape-measure homer to lead off the 7th and then the next batter Davis puts one even deeper into the stands for back to back blasts, but when Chen loads up the bases in the bottom of the inning with nobody out the Orioles call on Mychal Givens of the 1.80 ERA to bail them out.  That goes poorly, as Seth Brown crushes his first pitch for a grand slam and all of a sudden it’s a one run game. In the top of the 9th Baltimore gets a little insurance on an RBI single from defensive replacement David Lough, and it’s up to Givens to hang on.  But Starling Marte walks to lead off the bottom of the 9th and Olson misses a HR 1-10 split, but his double makes him the tying run with nobody out.  Not liking what they see from Givens, the O’s bring in Darren O’Day 1.59 ERA, who immediately walks Brown to load the bases.  Baltimore looks for the DP from slow-footed catcher Sean Murphy, but he smacks a single to score Marte and 1-11 Olson takes off for home to tie the game; he’s under the tag and the game is tied with nobody out and the winning run on 2nd.  O’Day records a whiff but then yield another single off his card, this one to Josh Harrison, and 1-13 Seth Brown dashes for home; he’s safe and the A’s stage a remarkable comeback, walk-off 9-8 win 

The Zoom game of the week featured the bracket’s top seed, the 1998 Red Sox, against a pandemic year 2020 Mets, with long-suffering Mets fan Frank directing traffic while I took the helm of the Red Sox, being pretty familiar with the team as I had gone to Fenway several times in the preceding seasons.  These Red Sox were a formidable team that won 92 games and made the postseason as a wild card, and they boasted two of the top five MVP candidates in Nomar Garciaparra (2nd) and Mo Vaughn (4th), and Pedro Martinez (19-7, 2.89) was the Cy Young runner-up.  Frank’s Mets went an unimpressive 26-34 but they had weapons in the lineup, with Domonic Smith getting MVP votes and some pandemic-fueled low AB wonders ready to join the fray after the 5th inning, but their defense was atrocious and their pitching staff frightening with an impressive exception in Jacob deGrom (4-2, 2.38), who finished third in the Cy Young and fortunately happened to be the Mets’ top IP starter, which on pandemic teams means that he automatically starts round one.  However, in the top of the 2nd Troy O’Leary notches an RBI double on a missed HR split and the Red Sox briefly take a lead, but Robinson Cano smacks a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to tie it up.  In the 4th, Reggie Jefferson moves it on up into the empty stands at Citi Field that makes it 2-1 Boston, and an RBI single from Darren Bragg in the 6th gives Pedro some additional insurance.   But it’s now the 6th inning and the Mets begin their parade of pandemic peculiarities, and Jake Marisnick, who came in to upgrade a CF-4 to a CF-1, also happened to have some pandemic power and he proved it with a 3-run homer and a Mets lead.  A solo blast from Dom Smith in the 8th and deGrom has all he needs to finish out a 5-3 win and oust the regional favorite, with Frank guiding the Mets to an upset and the semifinals.

I had blindly picked the 2014 Cardinals to win this regional because I knew they were coming off a pennant year, and indeed they won 90 games and made it to the NLCS.  They did so due to a very strong rotation fronted by Adam Wainwright (20-9, 2.38), finishing 3rd for the Cy Young; however, their lineup had way more guys named Matt (3) than players with more than 25 homers (0), so offensively they were basically a small ball team that had no team speed.  I had thought that the 2021 Padres finished better than 79-83, but that was probably because I remembered Fernando Tatis Jr. leading the NL in homers and finishing 3rd in the MVP votes before being suspended for PED use the following year; the San Diego rotation was not very good after Joe Musgrove (11-9, 3.18) and curiously most of their offense came from their infielders and not their outfielders.  The Cards quickly prove that they are no doorMatts as in the bottom of the 1st Matt Carpenter singles and Matt Adams launches a 2-run dinger, and after an out Matt Holliday adds a solo shot to make it 3-0, and the Cardinals front office immediately tries to sign as many inactive Matts as they can find, offering contracts to Matt Williams, Matty Alou, and Matt Lauer.  Jhonny Peralta leads off the 3rd with a gritty battle against the spellchecker, eventually converting Musgrove’s HR split; Matt Holliday follows with a double and he scores on a Yadier Molina single that makes it 5-0.  In the 4th, Tatis launches a tape measure solo shot that seems to rattle Wainwright, but he recovers in time to whiff Eric Hosmer with two runners in scoring position to keep a comfortable lead.  The Cards record two straight hits to lead off the bottom of the 5th and Musgrove must go, so wild Austin Adams comes in to try his hand and he induces two straight grounders to 2B-2 Adam Frazier, who wipes out the threat.  However, in the 8th Jon Jay adds some insurance with an RBI single, and although the Padres try to stage a 9th inning comeback with an RBI double from PH Austin Nola, it’s not enough as the Cards sew up a 6-2 win and move on as the top remaining seed in the bracket, while the Padres watch both of their entries in this group get bounced in the first round.  

The survivors

After having their starting pitcher injured in the second inning in the previous round, the 2021 A’s were hoping Frankie Montas (13-9, 3.37) would be able to go deep in this semifinal against the 2014 Cubs, who were fortunate that Jason Hammel (8-5, 2.98) squeaked over the 100 IP threshold to be eligible to start.  The Cubs take the lead when Justin Ruggiano converts a HR split to lead off the top of the 2nd, but they give it away when 3B-3 Luis Valbuena drops a Tony Kemp grounder allowing a run to score.  The A’s then take a lead when Seth Brown leads off the bottom of the 7th with a long blast, and when Sean Murphy follows with a single the Cubs bring Pedro Strop out of the pen to try to keep it close.  However, the A’s put another across on a Josh Harrison fielder’s choice, and Strop is bailed out when 1-14+2 Mark Canha is tossed out at the plate for the third out, but Oakland leads 3-1 heading into the 8th.  The Cubs waste no time getting back into the game as they load the bases in the top of the 8th with nobody out, and with the Oakland pen burnt it’s up to Montas to get out of his own mess.  And he does a decent job, only allowing a sac fly to Anthony Rizzo so the A’s lead is cut to one.  The Cubs then hand Oakland some insurance as errors by CF-3 Ruggiano and 1B-2 Rizzo produce a run, but Chicago then puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with one away in the top of the 9th.  A fielder’s choice by Ryan Sweeney brings the Cubs within one and the tying run is 90 feet away, but Montas bears down and whiffs game one hero Javier Baez and the A’s survive with a 4-3 win and head to the finals.  

After riding the arm of deGrom to survive the first round, the 2020 Mets were now faced with a significant step down to Rick Porcello (1-7, 5.64) as their second most prolific starter.  On the other hand, the 2014 Cardinals were blessed with four solid starters and Lance Lynn (15-10, 2.74) and the three Matts were clear favorites here.  But it doesn’t take long for the Mets to get going as Jeff McNeil walks and Pete Alonso crushes a long homer, and after Cards RF-3 Randal Grichuk misplays a Michael Conforto single the hits keep coming, with RBI singles from Robinson Cano and Amed Rosario putting the Mets up 4-0 as they bat around.  However, in the bottom of the 2nd the Cards make it a one-run game when Kolton Wong raps an RBI single followed by a 2-run double from Yadier Molina, and in the 4th the Mets ugly defense rears its head as errors from C-4 Wilson Ramos and LF-3 Jeff McNeil gift the Cards a run and the game is tied.  Lynn essentially walks the bases full in the 5th but is bailed out when Rosario hits into a rally-killing DP, and the game heads to the 6th still knotted at 4-4 and it’s time for the Mets’ supersubs to enter the fray.  Jake Marisnick is the first of those and he doubles, Brandon Nimmo pokes a single and the Cards go to the pen in the hope that Pat Neshek and his 1.74 ERA can hang on.  But they miscalculate and play Alonso at double-play depth, and they can’t convert his grounder and a run scores to put the Mets up.  The Cards respond with a couple of singles in the bottom of the inning, and it’s the Mets’ turn to call for help in the form of reliever Erasmo Ramirez, and he mows down the opposition with a card that has no complete hits on it.  Mets supersub Tomas Nido then belts a solo shot in the 7th to extend their lead, and in the 8th Marisnick leads off the inning with his second double in as many ABs and Nimmo singles him home for additional insurance.  The Mets again gift the Cards a run in the bottom of the inning on an error by defensive replacement SS-2 Andres Gimenez, but Cano gets that one back in the top of the 9th with a solo shot from Cano.  Jeurys Familia is brought in to close things out in the bottom of the 9th, and he deals the Cards three straight outs as the pandemic Mets survive four errors to win 8-5 and earn a berth in the finals.  

The bracket final matched two near-contemporaries, the #4 seeded 2021 A’s and Sean Manaea (11-10, 3.91) against the #6 seed 2020 Mets and a surprisingly solid David Peterson (6-2, 3.44) as their starter, which was determined for this pandemic team in strict order of IP.  The Mets’ bad fielding quickly costs them in the top of the 2nd, as a 2-base error by 3B-4 JD Davis allows a run to score and the A’s grab a lead.  In the 3rd, a Sean Murphy double extends the lead but 1-11+2 Matt Olson is out trying to score to end the rally.  However, in the bottom of the inning Manaea commits a two-out error that loads the bases for Pete Alonso, who delivers a two-run single and the game is tied–briefly, it turns out, as Matt Chapman opens the top of the 4th with a long homer into the cardboard fans at Citi Field.  Peterson never recovers from that, as the A’s proceed with a barrage of hits including two consecutive doubles allowed by the Mets outfield, and the only out Peterson can get is a successful squeeze play by Elvis Andrus.  The Mets dip into the pen for Justin Wilson and his first pitch is a 2-run homer to Olson, so by the time the inning is over the score is 8-2 and even the fan cutouts are heading for the subway. Chapman leads off the 5th with his second homer of the game, and come the 6th inning the Mets send out their pandemic wonders in an effort to claw back from a seven-run deficit.  However, the A’s are showing no signs of letting up as Olson smacks an RBI single past P-5 Wilson, and even the Mets’ supersubs don’t have an answer as Oakland cruises to the 10-2 victory and the A’s record their 7th regional title.   

Interesting card of Regional #221:  This card represents the second full season from a 24-year old shortstop that had won the Rookie of the Year award the prior season, and in this season he was the runner-up for the AL MVP in a year of remarkable performances.  If you were around at the time, you may remember that he immediately became a huge sensation in Boston, with chants of “Nomah” ringing through Fenway, and with cards like this it was easy to see why everyone assumed that he was on a straight path to the Hall of Fame.  However, over time his relationship with the Red Sox management soured, perhaps fueled by a rumor that they were attempting to acquire ARod to replace Garciaparra, and he became increasingly unhappy.  So, at the trading deadline in 2004, the Red Sox sent the fan favorite packing to the Cubs, and magically the Sox suddenly got much better, going 42-19 for the remainder of the season, and besting the Angels and Yankees in the playoffs and sweeping the Cardinals in the Series for their first championship since 1918.  Meanwhile, Nomar was never the same player even though he was only 30 years old; he did have one strong season with the Dodgers but whether it was injuries, steroids, or Fenway, his ticket to the Hall of Fame never got punched.  Even so, he is certainly the greatest player ever named “Nomar”, leading to the trivia question (no Googling!):  how did he get that name?