REGIONAL #232:  There was a lot of wrapping up in the draw for this group, as the final team from the 1960s, the final team from the 1970s, and the final team from the 1987 National League all ended up in the bracket; two of those were Dodgers, and the other included Roberto Clemente.  Also included was one of the final teams from Montreal before they flew south, another squad that would combine the idiosyncrasies of Coors and the pandemic, and entries from the Phillies and the Indians that would face each other, with both just a few seasons away from pennants.  I didn’t see a clear favorite in here, as I suspected all of these teams had some weaknesses, but as a total crapshoot I picked the 1987 version of the Dodgers over an unknown-to-me Diamondbacks team in the finals.  The ELO rankings indicated that I put my money on the wrong Dodgers team, as the 1976 Dodgers were a season away from a pennant and were favored to best the Indians in the finals.  

First round action

The 1976 Dodgers won 92 games to finish second behind the Big Red Machine, but they would win the pennant the following season and all the parts were here, with Steve Garvey and Ron Cey receiving MVP votes and Don Sutton (21-10, 3.06) was 3rd in the Cy Young voting.  They were somewhat baffled by the visiting 2020 Rockies, as the Dodgers had never heard of such a team and wondered if they had something to do with the recently released Sylvester Stallone movie, and why their uniforms were purple.  They were also puzzled as to why these Rockies only played 60 games, going 26-34 which was better than their projection; still, Trevor Story got MVP votes and German Marquez (4-6, 3.75) had about as good a card as could be expected from a Coors Field starter.  The Rockies display their punch as Ryan McMahon leads off the top of the 2nd with a long homer, and a flustered Sutton loses control and walks the bases loaded but strands them full to escape trailing only 1-0.  Sutton settles back down and is in control until Garrett Hampson leads off the 9th with a triple, and the Dodgers make the questionable move of summoning knuckleballer Charlie Hough with the runner on third.  But there are no passed balls needed as PH Matt Kemp singles in the run to give Marquez a two-run lead entering the bottom of the 9th.  And he sets the Dodgers down in order to secure the 5-hit shutout as the Rockies win 2-0 send the regional favorite and the last 1970s team to enter the tournament back into the storage drawers from whence they surfaced after a nearly 50 year hibernation.  

With the top seed eliminated, it was time for the #2 seed and the last team of the 1960s to enter the tournament, the 1965 Pirates, to try their hand.  These Pirates won 90 games to finish 3rd in the 10-team NL, with Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell garnering MVP support, as did Vern Law (17-9, 2.16) who received no Cy Young votes–because somebody named Koufax got them all.  The faced the #4 seed 2018 Diamondbacks, who looked a bit better than their 82-80 record with Paul Goldschmidt finishing 6th in the MVP votes and Patrick Corbin (11-7, 3.15) 5th for the Cy Young.  The Pirates open the scoring in the bottom of the 3rd as Bob Bailey doubles, Mazeroski singles him in, and then Bill Virdon laces a triple for a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead.  John Jay triples for the first Dback hit of the game to open the top of the 5th, but Law prevails and strands him at third to maintain the lead.  He continues his domination until the top of the 9th, but then David Peralta leads off with a double and AJ Pollock triples him in to put the tying run at third with one away.  Law gets Nick Ahmed to line out for out number two, and the best PH off a terrible Dback bench steps to the plate in the form of Steven Souza, who rips a game-tying single off Law’s card.  It’s now up to Corbin in the bottom of the 9th, and down goes Stargell and Clendenon for two quick outs, bringing up C Jim Pagliaroni; the roll is a 3-10, HR 1-6/DO, the split is a 6 and the ball scrapes the top of the Forbes Field wall for a walk off two out homer that sends the Pirates to the semifinals with a 3-2 victory.

In picking the 1987 Dodgers to win this bracket, I obviously thought they’d be better than a #7 seed and a 73-89 record, one of the worst records for the franchise that I remember seeing in my lifetime.  Their main weapon was Pedro Guerrero, who got a few MVP votes, and Bob Welch (15-9, 3.22) also got a few for the Cy Young award, but their defense was bad and there wasn’t much of a bullpen.  Time was running out for the 2002 Expos in Montreal, but they were still favored with a better 83-79 record their own Guerrero, Vlad, finishing 4th in the MVP voting and a large presence on the mound in Bartolo Colon (20-8, 2.93) who was a 20 game winner across two teams.  However, Mike Scioscia find and converts Colon’s HR split for a two run shot in the top of the 2nd to provide LA with the early lead, but Michael Barrett and Fernando Tatis each find Welch’s HR split in the bottom of the inning; both miss it, but Barrett does score on Tatis’s knock and it’s 2-1 Dodgers after two.  Colon struggles again in the 4th, allowing an RBI double to Mickey Hatcher off the pitcher’s card and that runner scores on a Scioscia single to pad the Dodger lead, but the Expos get those runs back in the 5th on a sac fly from Troy O’Leary and an RBI single by Jose Vidro.  In the 6th Hatcher adds an RBI single to the LA lead, and a leadoff single in the top of the 7th and the Expos decide it’s time to irrigate Colon, summoning Joey Eischen’s 1.34 ERA from the pen and he retires the side without incident.  In the 8th Barrett misses Welch’s HR split once again, but with two out Brad Wilkerson races home from first and it’s a one-run game entering the 9th.  Eischen quickly dispatches the Dodgers in the top of the inning, while in the bottom of the inning Orlando Cabrera singles, and the A stealer is held allowing Vidro a gbA++ single with two out to put the tying run on third and Vlad the Impaler at the plate.  Lacking a dominating reliever, the Dodgers stick with Welch (unlike Fleetwood Mac) and Vlad rolls a second gbA++, but nobody’s held this time and the Dodgers survive and advance with the 5-4 win.  

The Zoom game of the week featured partisan managers Tall Tactician in charge of the 2001 Phillies, and ColavitoFan once again directing Cleveland in the form of the 2014 Indians, with both of these squads climbing towards pennants but not there yet.  The Indians were the #3 seed in the bracket with a respectable 85-77 record and Cy Young winner Corey Kluber (18-9, 2.44) on the hill, and Michael Brantley came in third in the MVP voting to head the offense.  The Phillies went 86-76 but had a worse ELO ranking; although there were MVP votes for Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu and Scott Rolen, their pitching staff was uninspiring with Randy Wolf (10-11, 3.70) leading the pack.  Wolf runs into trouble in the 2nd as a hit and a walk set up a 2-run double for David Murphy, and he also scores courtesy of a 2-base error by Travis Lee, the first of three Philadelphia errors on the night.  But Wolf settles in and keeps control until he’s replaced by Ricky Bottalico in the 6th and Jose Mesa in the 8th, all of whom keep the Indians at bay until the Phils offense can get untracked.  That doesn’t happen until the 8th, when Rollins doubles in a run, advances to third on a grounder, and with two outs TT gives the “steal” sign to the AA Rollins–and he’s safe with a steal of home, and it’s a one run game.  At this point ColavitoFan visits the mound to chat with his ace Kluber, and the old HAL trick works as Kluber slams the door on the Phils in the 9th and the Indians escape with a 3-2 victory for a trip to the semifinals.

The survivors

Having disposed of the top seed in the regional in the first round, the bottom-seeded 2020 Rockies now faced the #2 seed in the 1965 Pirates, who had been hard-pressed in their first round game.  The Rockies rotation was weirdly adequate for a bad Colorado team, with Antonio Senzatela (5-3, 3.44) a decent #2 option for an eight-seed regardless of pandemic inning restrictions.  Bob Veale (17-12, 2.84) was on the menu for the Pirates, and Donn Clendenon stakes him to a lead with a two-out solo shot in the bottom of the 4th.  In the top of the 7th, Garrett Hampson misses a HR 1-11/TR split with one out, but represents the tying run at third; however, Veale records two straight strikeouts and the Bucs cling to the one run lead.  In the 8th, the Rockies load the bases with one out on a single, a walk, and an error by P-4 Veale, but he atones by once again striking out two in a row to preserve the lead.  In the bottom of the 8th, it’s Bill Mazeroski’s turn to miss a HR 1-13/TR split, but Bill Virdon lofts a fly ball deep enough to score Maz and provide a slight bit of padding for Veale going into the 9th.  It proves unnecessary, as Veale sets the Rockies down in order to wrap up a 6-hit shutout in which he whiffs 16, a dominating performance that sends the Pirates to the finals averaging only two-plus runs and 5-plus hits per game in the first round.  

The favorite in this semifinal was the #3 seeded 2014 Indians, and although they needed their Cy Young winning ace to survive round one, they still had swingman Carlos Carrasco (8-7, 2.55) with a very nice card to serve as starter number two.  However, they faced a bulldog in Orel Hershiser (16-16, 3.05) of the 1987 Dodgers, but Hershiser’s defense lets him down in the bottom of the 4th when 3B-4 Mickey Hatcher butchers a grounder for a two-base error and the runner eventually scores on a Michael Brantley grounder.  Yan Gomes then leads off the bottom of the 4th with a long blast, and then a few batters later Asdrubal Cabrera converts Hershiser’s HR 1-4/flyB split for a two-run shot and Cleveland pushes their lead to 4-0 after five.  Another run scores in the 6th on a Carlos Santana fielder’s choice, and Carrasco keeps cruising until the 9th, when a single and a couple of walks load the bases with one out for Mike Marshall; Marshall can make it a one run game but he rolls the gbA and it’s game over as Carrasco records the 4-hit shutout, striking out nine and propelling his Indians into the finals with a 5-0 win.  

The regional final was played live via Zoom, with ColavitoFan reprising his successful leadership of the #3 seed 2014 Indians while EaglesFly was at the helm of the #2 seeded 1965 Pirates.   These Bucs had one of the deepest starting rotations that had been seen in recent brackets, with swingman Joe Gibbon (4-9, 4.50) just one of a number of good options, while the Indians did not have the same luxury, hoping that Danny Salazar (6-8, 4.25) could last long enough to hand the game to a deep and fully rested bullpen.  However, things start off rough for Salazar as on the first play of the game SS-3 Jose Ramirez, in the game because of his relative glove, commits a two-base error that leads to a Donn Clendenon RBI single.  The Bucs then pour it on in the 2nd, as a 2-run Roberto Clemente double and a Stargell sac fly push the Pittsburgh lead to 4-0, although in the bottom of the inning Carlos Santana rips into a blistering solo (HR, that is) and the gap is narrowed to 4-1.  A Clendenon homer in the 5th makes it 6-1, and Salazar is gone for Bryan Shaw, but he has some issues allowing a Jerry Lynch homer in the 7th that makes it 9-1.  Santana proves that he’s a Hall of Famer (Rock and Roll edition, just down the street from the stadium) with his second solo shot of the night in the bottom of the 7th, and David Murphy adds another in the 8th but Al McBean comes on for the 9th and the Pirates take the 9-3 win and the regional title back to Pittsburgh.  Gibbon allows only 5 hits in 8 innings, three of them solo homers, and whiffs 12 as the Pirates take the bracket with a combination of blistering starting pitching and Clendenon as a one-man wrecking crew.  

Interesting card of Regional #232:   The 1965 Pirates were the regional winners, and they would be the final team to enter this tournament that had originally been released in Basic-only format, although I used the Basic side of the SADV release for their games because the original version, while more aesthetically pleasing to me, included only 20 players.  The comparison is often interesting, particularly when the game company “retcons” certain ratings based on hindsight that are different from the contemporary ratings established at the time.  One such example on the ‘65 Pirates was Bob Bailey, a 3B-3 on the original 1965 set but a 4(e30) in the ‘65 SADV set that was released in 1998.  But a more interesting case is Roberto Clemente, who is immortalized in the 1965 set (as well as others) as having the only -6 outfield arm ever issued by the game company.   Of course, the original Basic 1965 cards did not have outfield arm ratings,because that feature was introduced with the Advanced game in the 1971 set. But a relevant comparison can be found between his original 1971 card, where he was rated with a -5 arm, and his 1971 SADV card (issued in 2007) where he was “upgraded” to the -6.  Clemente died tragically on New Years Eve 1972 in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission, and a few months later the Baseball Hall of Fame honored him by waiving the eligibility requirements and electing him immediately.  I believe that the Strat game company similarly waived their rating conventions to honor Clemente with the -6 arm rating.  I think the available data support the contention that he certainly had one of the best outfield arms in history, but I’m less confident that he was in a “class of his own”--for example, I’ve seen analyses that suggest that Jesse Barfield might have had a better arm.  In no way do I begrudge Strat’s recognition for Clemente, who was an all-time great, but it’s always been interesting to me to ponder the various factors that go into the assignment of some of Strat’s more subjective ratings.  Dare I speculate that if he’d played for the Yankees, he would have received a -7?