SUPER-REGIONAL Y:  There were three pennant winners that began this group of 64 teams, and two of them clashed in round two; however, only the third such team, the Cubs that finally broke the curse of the billy goat, made it to the super-regional level.  There were actually two Cubs teams represented here, which probably spelled doom for my White Sox given their jinx; I suspected that the 2016 champion Cubs would take this group, probably in an all-Cubs final just to taunt me.  The ELO ratings also pointed to those Cubs as the favorite, picked to defeat a middling Marlins team in round six, although the 2012 Cards were tapped as actually the second best team in the bracket, giving the Cubs a potentially dangerous rival in round five.

Round four action

The 1995 Cubs went a mediocre 73-71 but they had pulled off three straight wins in Regional #195 despite losing SS Shawon Dunston for perhaps the entire tournament; although #4 starter Kevin Foster (12-11, 4.51) had some trouble keeping the ball in the park, he had a fully rested bullpen behind him.  The 2005 Marlins had a similar performance at 83-79, and after three good starters at the top of their rotation they were now left with Brian Moehler (6-12, 4.55), whose card was littered with copious amounts of hits–but after three complete games their bullpen was also locked and loaded.  So, on paper it looked like a race to see who could knock out whose starter first.  The Marlins get a good start on that competition as Juan Encarnacion finds Foster’s solid HR result for a 3-run shot in the bottom of the 1st, but the Cubs get one back in the top of the 3rd when a 2-out Sammy Sosa triple is followed by a squib single past Marlins SS-2 Alex Gonzalez.  They add another with back to back doubles from Todd Zeile and Rey Sanchez in the 4th, and then a 2-run homer by injury replacement extraordinaire Todd Haney gives the Cubs the lead.  A 2-out solo shot from Luis Gonzalez makes it 5-3 Cubs, and come the 6th inning both teams head for the bullpen, with the Marlins bringing in Ron Villone and the Cubs going with Larry Casian.  They hold serve, and in the 8th both squads opt for their closers, Todd Jones for Florida and Randy Myers for the Cubs.  Myers makes it exciting as the Marlins get two runners on in the bottom of the 9th to set up a possible walk off homer, but the Cubs closer records the last out to earn the save in the 5-3 victory.  

It’s a Friday Night Strat grudge match between ColavitoFan’s 1989 Indians, regional winners despite a 73-89 record, and my 2019 White Sox, one of two Sox teams to still survive the Sox jinx despite a nearly identical 72-89 mark.  The Tribe had a pretty solid #4 starter in Bud Black (12-11, 3.36) while the Sox had no options and had to go with Dylan Cease (4-7, 5.79), who would develop into a decent pitcher, but not in 2019.   The Sox stake him to a quick lead in the bottom of the 1st as they keep pounding Black’s 6-5 split result, providing RBI singles for Jose Abreu, James McCann and Adam Engel, and Cease settles in to pitch some decent innings.  A solo homer for Brook Jacoby in the 6th narrows the Sox lead to 3-1, and a leadoff walk in the 7th and it’s time to desist with Cease.  In comes Evan Marshall to throw fuel on the fire, loading the bases with a single and a walk, and I have seen enough and will burn Aaron Bummer to try to stop the rally.  PH Dave Clark can’t get his Five, but he does get one with a sac fly, although it’s a Bummer for Indians fans as they can’t push across a tying run.  Bummer is perfect in the 8th, and for the 9th Alex Colome comes in to wrap things up and the Sox escape with the 3-2 win, setting up a round five matchup with their bitter rivals, the Cubs.

The  2012 Cardinals were an 88-win wild card team that came within a game of a pennant, and they also demonstrated their perseverance in winning some tight games in Regional #199; they had a variety of okay options for a number four starter, going with Joe Kelly (5-7, 3.53) against their cross-state rival, the 2011 Royals.  Befitting a 91-loss team, the Royals did not have great options at the bottom of the rotation and they hoped that Jeff Francis (6-16, 4.82) could deliver a competitive game to a fully rested bullpen.  It quickly becomes apparent that isn’t going to happen in the top of the 1st, as an RBI double by Allen Craig followed by 2-run homers from Yadier Molina and David Freese sends Francis to the showers before he can finish an inning.  The Royals try to begin a comeback in the bottom of the 2nd with a Mike Moustakas solo homer, but Freese responds with a sac fly in the top of the 3rd that makes it 6-1 Cards.  Eric Hosmer narrows the gap by a run with an RBI single in the 6th, but a solo shot from Carlos Beltran provides additional insurance for St. Louis in the 8th.  Jeff Francouer leads off the 8th with a homer for the Royals, but Matt Holliday provides the Cards with a 2-out 2-run double in the top of the 9th and Kelly wraps up the complete game 9-3 as St. Louis ends the unlikely run for the Royals and marches on to round five. 

For the Zoom game of the week, the Philly Phan known as the Tall Tactician would be at the helm of the 1965 Phillies, who won their regional to atone for their epic collapse in the preceding season.  However, they faced a formidable obstacle in the 2016 Cubs, who had broken the curse of the billy goat to become Series champions, and brother Chuck would attempt to continue his string of successes with Cubs teams in this tournament.  For the Phils, it would be Bo Belinksy (4-9, 4.84), who seemed to have more success with the ladies than with the curveball; the Cubs had a #4 starter in John Lackey (11-8, 3.35) who was as good as many teams’ number one.  However, the Cubs did have to contend with ongoing injuries to Javier Baez and Albert Amora, which put a few holes in their defense, but in this game it seemed that it was the “1” fielders for the Cubs who kept dropping the ball, one of which helped set up Bobby Wine for the first RBI of the game in the top of the 2nd.  However, the Phils could only watch in horror as Belinsky issues three walks in the bottom of the 3rd, and then Anthony Rizzo goes yard for the grand slam and it’s quickly 4-1 Cubs.  A 2-run single by Dexter Fowler in the 4th extends their lead, and a Kris Bryant sac fly in the 6th makes it look hopeless.  However, in the 8th the Phils show signs of the perseverance that got them this fair, with Richie/Dick Allen and Wes Covington driving in runs to make it 7-3.  A leadoff triple by Cookie Rojas in the top of the 9th and Chuck is starting to get nervous about Lackey, and Tony Gonzalez knocks a sac fly to put the Phils within three.  However, they would get no closer as Lackey lets the bullpen rest in a 7-4 Cubs victory that propels them on to round five.

The survivors: round five

The 2016 Cubs and Kyle Hendricks (16-8, 2.13) would face a stiff challenge in round five in the form of the 2012 Cardinals, with Kyle Lohse (16-3, 2.86) seeking to be the top Kyle in the bracket.  Even so, it didn’t take long for the Cubs to get things rolling, as Dexter Fowler leads off the top of the 1st with a homer and Willson Contreras adds an RBI double later in the inning; Anthony Rizzo adds a sac fly in the 2nd and the Cubs lead 3-0.  A solo homer from Allen Craig in the bottom of the 2nd narrows the gap a bit, but the Cubs explode against Lohse in the 4th as he can’t get an out; Matt Szczur buys a vowel in the form of a bases-clearing double as part of a five run inning and the Cards begin a parade of relievers to no avail.  The Cubs aren’t even done with the five run innings, either, adding another one in the 7th with injury replacement Javier Baez ripping a 3-run homer as the rout is on.  St. Louis makes a token rally in the 8th with RBI singles from Jon Jay and PH Pete Kozma, but the game is well out of hand by this point as Hendricks coasts to a 15-3 victory to propel the Cubs to the super-regional final.

In this round five grudge match, it’s the 2019 White Sox against the 1995 Cubs, so I have to recruit brother Chuck to manage the hated Cubs while I try to avoid the Sox jinx.  And sure enough, the gaming begins badly as the Sox started off getting crushed, but as the game progresses my scan of the historical documents reveals an anomaly–I’ve identified the round four starters for each team (i.e., the bottom of the rotation) instead of the staff aces at the top.  In consulting, we agree that it is unfair to both the eventual loser and winner of this game to skip the top rotation slot, and so it’s a do-over, with the Sox getting the far-better Lucas Giolito (14-9, 3.41) and the Cubs going with their ace, Jaime Navarro (14-6, 3.28).   And things go quite differently this time around, with Giolito being dominant in the early going.  Brian McCann continues his hot hand in this tournament with multiple teams, swatting a solo homer in the 2nd to put the Sox ahead, and then the Sox pile on the hits against Navarro in the top of the 5th, converting five singles into three runs and a 4-0 lead.  McCann adds another solo homer in the top of the 9th, and Giolito goes into the bottom of the 9th with a 2-hit shutout, but he’s losing his stuff and allows a couple of hits including a Rey Sanchez RBI single that gets the Cubs on the board.  Nonetheless, Giolito hangs on and the White Sox win the do-over 5-1; the Cubs file a protest with the tournament commissioner but since that’s me, that doesn’t go very far.  However, a much better Cubs team awaits the Sox in the super-regional final eager to make amends.

Super-regional finals

With the 2019 White Sox having defeated a Cubs team under suspicious circumstances in round five, the North Siders were itching for revenge with the Series champion 2016 Cubs ready to teach their younger siblings a lesson, with Jon Lester (19-5, 2.44) looking far better than the Sox’ Ivan Nova (11-12, 4.72).  Once again brother Chuck will roll the bones on behalf of the Cubs, but it’s me that starts off the top of the first hot, with a leadoff single followed by a double from a missed HR split on Tim Anderson.  With a 1-15 Leurys Garcia itching to head for home on the play, the peanut gallery opines that my split rolling would result in a sure cut-down at the plate, and they convince me to hold Garcia at 3rd; of course, Lester then strikes out the next two batters and a popout means the rally results in nothing.  The Sox do load the bases in the top of the 3rd, but all they can manage is a sac fly by Eloy Jimenez, good for a 1-0 lead, but a Brian McCann solo shot in the 6th and the Sox are up by two.  Even though Ivan Nova is giving up fewer hits than Aldo Nova had hits, his solid 6-5 homer is making me anxious and I move to closer Alex Colome to begin the bottom of the 6th, even though the peanut gallery point out that Colome still has a homer at 5-5, but only a 1-11 split.  Of course, the first roll of the inning by Chuck:  5-5.  He misses the split, making me feel a little better, but the second roll of the inning: 5-5 by Kris Bryant, and Chuck doesn’t miss the split this time.   The third roll of the inning is finally not a 5-5; it’s a 2-5, a solid homer on Anthony Rizzo, and the freaking Cubs have the lead; Colome exits for Aaron Bummer, but Dexter Fowler adds an RBI single and the Cubs lead 4-2 after six.  Lester is then in command, and with two out in the top of the 9th I turn in desperation to PH Wellington Castillo and point out that a 1-4 roll would make it a one run game.  A cooperative Wellington brings the beef with a 1-4, and now it’s Chuck’s turn to get nervous, so he summons the virtually unhittable Aroldis Chapman from the pen, and down go the Sox as the 2016 Cubs not only quash the curse of the billy goat, but they win the super-regional to gain the final field of 32–one of the few Series winners to do so.

Interesting card of Super-Regional Y:  Despite a lifetime as a Sox fan who has no time for the North Siders, I have to give it to the 2016 Cubs as they managed to not only break a 107 year streak by finally winning a World Series, but they also managed to win a super-regional in this tournament, reeling off six straight wins culminating in a victory over my Sox to send them to the final group of 32 teams left alive in this project.  Furthermore, their starting pitching was good enough that they only had to dip into their bullpen twice in that streak, both times resulting in a save for their closer Aroldis Chapman.  Chapman is currently in the 16th year of his career in 2025, and he made the All-Star team at age 37, which is a nice callback to the years when he was the dominant closer in baseball.  Leading up to the 2016 season partially represented on this card, he had been on a strong run for the Reds, but an offseason domestic violence charge coupled with the last year of his contract made him a target to move.  He was thus traded to the Yankees, and although the charges against him were not pursued by authorities, MLB suspended him for 30 games and he began his season in mid-May.  Although pitching well in New York, their bullpen was well stocked and so they dealt him to the Cubs in late July, where he joined the team just in time to finish out a game against none other than the cross town White Sox.  As evidenced by this card, he was pretty unhittable for the Cubs, and was strong in the postseason, at least until Game 7 of the World Series, where he blew the save and allowed the Indians to tie the game in the 9th.  However, that accomplishment actually set him up to be the first Cubs pitcher to earn the win in the final Series game in 108 years, when Chicago scored twice to take the lead for good in the 10th.  

SUPER-REGIONAL X:  Two of the four pennant winners that began this group of 64 teams had survived to the super-regional level, including the Cardinals and one of the few Senators teams to perform well in this project.  Overall, I felt that the squads in the left side of the group were stronger than those in the right, although I had initially assumed that the Senators wouldn’t be particularly good.  Regardless, I picked the pennant-winning Cardinals to emerge from the top half of the bracket and then best the pandemic Indians team in the finals; the ELO ratings disagreed and tagged the Senators as a top 75 team of all time, picking them over a strong modern Rays team in the finals.

Round four action

I recruited brother Chuck to help with one of the marquee matchups of this group.  He would manage the Series champion 2006 Cardinals, whose mediocre 83-78 record was good enough to win the NL Central and allowed them to take care of business in the post-season.  However, he faced a number of challenges, such as a dubious #4 starter in Jason Marquis (14-16, 6.02). a badly taxed bullpen with his two best relievers burnt in an extra-inning regional final, and a lingering injury to star CF Jim Edmonds.  I would direct the 2021 Rays, who won 100 games and the AL East; although their bullpen was also stretched from a tight regional, it was very deep in case Michael Wacha (3-5, 5.05) wasn’t up to the task of facing a tough core of the Cards lineup.  The Cards load the bases in the top of the 1st with one out, but Wacha gets tough and strands them all, while a 2-base error by Marquis hands the Rays a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st.  From there both starters bend but don’t break until injury replacement Scott Spiezio manages to find Wacha’s solid HR result in the 5th for a game-tying solo shot, but Brandon Lowe responds with a 2-out RBI single to put the Rays back up 2-1 in the bottom of the inning.  Undaunted, the Cards tie it again in the 5th on a Ron Belliard single and I dig into that Rays pen for Colin McHugh, who keeps St. Louis off the board for the remainder of regulation.  Meanwhile, with only one decent arm in the pen, Chuck tries to nurse the outs out of Marquis, but finally with the go-ahead run on 3rd in the 8th he signals for Braden Looper out of the pen, who retires the side and then holds serve and the game is still knotted after nine.  I’m feeling good about extra innings with the depth of my pen and with Looper down to his last two outs of eligibility; Tyler Glasnow comes in to begin the 10th and my good feelings quickly disappear.  A couple of squib singles and then Preston Wilson’s two-out roll comes up on Glasnow of DO 1-10/flyB.  The game thus hinges on a 50/50 split roll, and it’s an 8; one run scores but 1-13+2 Juan Encarnacion is cut down at the plate for the third out.  Still, the Cards now hold a one run lead but they are going to have to come up with a reliever after Looper quickly records his two outs, and so it’s up to Josh Hancock to try to record a one-out save.  He promptly walks speedy Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena to put the tying run on, but then Hancock puts his signature on the game by recording the final out and the Cardinals survive the tight 3-2 battle to advance to round five where Jim Edmonds will return to further bolster the lineup.

The 2013 Dodgers were a strong team that won 92 games and the NL West, and they had cruised through Regional #187 with three complete games and no injuries; furthermore, Ricky Nolasco (13-11, 3.70) was a quite respectable option as a #4 starter.   As such they were favored over a mediocre 76-86 1996 Cubs and a bad Jim Bullinger (6-10, 6.54), but these Cubs had knocked off a pennant-winning Dodgers team in their regional and they always do well just to spite me.  But it’s the Dodgers who get off to a quick start in the top of the 2nd when Michael Young drives in one on a sac fly, and then Mark Ellis slaps a 2-out single under the glove off Cubs SS-3 Jose Hernandez.  Carl Crawford then cracks a double and Ellis races home to make it a 3-0 LA lead.  Juan Uribe and Andre Ethier go back to back in converting Bullinger’s HR split for consecutive solo shots in the 3rd, and the Cubs summon Turk Wendell from the pen who manages to get the third out.  To make things even worse for the Cubs, their main offensive weapon, Sammy Sosa, is injured for the tournament to lead off the bottom of the 4th, which at least gives some playing time to Stratomatic legend Doug Glanville, and in the 6th they lose DH Tyler Houston to injury.  New Cubs reliever Larry Casian yields RBI hits to Uribe and Yasiel Puig in the 7th to dig the hole deeper, and from there it’s a walk in the park for Nolasco, who closes out a 4-hit shutout and the Dodgers continue to dominate with a 7-0 thrashing of the Cubs and advance.  

For the Friday Night Strat zoom, the pandemic 2020 Indians would be managed by Tribe partisan ColavitoFan, or at least a cardboard cutout of him, while the opposing 2010 Braves were more or less guided by the FNS collective.  The “bottom” of the rotation for the Indians was determined strictly by IP due to the restrictions of the 60-game season, and Zach Plesac (4-2, 2.28) was about as good a #4 starter as one could hope for.  Meanwhile, Derek Lowe (16-12, 4.00) was on the hill for the Braves, trying to last long enough to get to a strong Atlanta bullpen.  That looks unlikely quickly, as Jose Ramirez crushes a three-run homer before Lowe can record an out in the top of the 1st and the Indians are off and running.  An RBI single from Franmil Reyes in the 2nd makes it 4-0 Cleveland, but the Braves respond in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run shot by Brian McCann that cuts the lead in half.  In the 5th, Melky Cabrera makes it a one run game with an RBI double and in the 6th it’s McCann with another 2-run blast and suddenly the Braves are on top and their bullpen immediately takes over.  Meanwhile, the Tribe’s pen isn’t faring so well, with Brad Hand coming in for the 8th only to get pelted by a succession of four hits and three runs, meaning that the Braves hold an 8-4 margin heading into the 9th inning with new Hall of Famer Billy Wagner coming in to the tune of Metallica ringing through the laptop speakers.  Unfortunately, the soundtrack soon shifts to Nancy Sinatra as Wagner walks the bases loaded, walks in one run and allows an RBI single to Tyler Naquin and Cleveland now has the go-ahead run at the plate.  But Wagner bears down and gets the final out as the Braves escape with the 8-6 win to move on to round five, while the Cleveland team is returned to the 2020 file drawer, wrapped in an N95 mask.

The 1973 White Sox had survived the Sox jinx to win their regional, but now they faced one of the few old-school teams actually added to the Strat pantheon courtesy of the Diamond Gems, these being the pennant-winning 1933 Senators.  Brother Chuck zoomed in to manage the Nats against my Sox, for whom I had to pitch Steve Stone (6-11, 4.24) who might have been more effective in the broadcast booth, against Washington’s Jack Russell (12-6, 2.69), known as a terrier on the mound.  Unfortunately, Stone never gets rolling, with Heinie Manush, Dave Harris, and Fred Schulte driving in runs in the first, and Joe Kuhel adding a 2-run double to another Harris RBI single to dispatch Stone and post the Senators to a 6-0 lead after two innings.  Carlos May breaks the ice for the Sox with a sac fly in the 6th, and Dick Allen raps an RBI single in the 8th to make it a little closer, but super-PH Cliff Bolton and his .410 batting average provide a 2-run triple in the bottom of the inning and the Senators coast to round five with an 8-2 win, sending these Sox back into storage to join many of their colleagues.

The survivors:  round five

Since brother Chuck had seen some luck with the 2006 Cardinals in round four, he agreed to continue the quest in round five with ace Chris Carpenter (15-8, 3.09) on the mound.  The Cards now had a more rested bullpen and Jim Edmonds back from injury, but they would need all that against the 2013 Dodgers, who had dominated their opposition and their ace, Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw (16-9, 1.83), would pose a significant challenge.  But the Dodgers, who had outscored their opposition by a remarkable 38-4 margin in the first four rounds, strike quickly with a 2-run homer by Yasiel Puig in the bottom of the 1st.  Nonetheless, Carpenter then reels off five hitless innings and the Cards mount a few threats against Kershaw, but the Dodger ace repeatedly comes up big to quash rallies.  LA finally pieces together a couple of hits in the 7th that includes a Carl Crawford RBI double to add some insurance.  In the top of the 9th, Scott Rolen finally gets the Cards on the board by leading off with a homer, but Kershaw demands to stay in the game and he finishes out the 3-1 win to send the Dodgers on to the super-regional final.

The 2010 Braves and the 1933 Senators were looking for a pitchers' duel as they head back to the top of their rotations for round five, with Tim Hudson (17-9, 2.83) finishing 4th in the Cy Young ballots for the Braves while Earl Whitehill (22-8, 3.33) would be on the hill for the AL champion Senators.   And this time expectations were met, as neither team could muster any offense against the ace of the other team, with the game remaining scoreless until the bottom of the 7th, when Luke Sewell doubles in a run to give the Nats a 1-0 edge.  Meanwhile, Whitehill takes a 2-hitter into the 9th, but he runs out of gas in the 9th, as he loads the bases and gives way to Alex McColl to try to hang onto the lead.  And he almost escapes, but PH David Ross comes off the bench and rips a two-run single and suddenly the Braves hold the lead for the first time in the game.  It’s now up to recent HOF inductee Billy Wagner to come in and try to seal the victory for Atlanta, and for a change he doesn’t make it interesting; three straight outs and the Braves head to the super-regional final with a 2-1 come from behind win.  

Super-regional final

Two solid teams facing off for a spot in the final field of 32:  the 2013 Dodgers and Zack Greinke (15-4, 2.63) against the 2010 Braves and Tommy Hanson (10-11, 3.33).  Both teams had avoided the injury bug but the Braves had to burn closer Billy Wagner to reach this round, meaning that they were hoping Hanson would be able to go deep in the game.  However, Hanley Ramirez converts a TR 1-2 split in the top of the 1st and scores on a squib single by Adrian Gonzalez to give the Dodgers a quick edge, one that only lasts until the bottom of the second when back to back doubles from Brian McCann and Alex Gonzalez tie things up.  From there, both pitchers hang tough; Greinke gets into trouble in the 6th putting two runners on, and so I tap the strong but thus far largely unused Dodger pen and beach boy Brian Wilson comes in and successfully puts out the fire.  Hanson continues to hang tough, but in the top of the 9th it’s Adrian Gonzalez again, this time with an RBI double, and he also scores when Hanson throws an Andre Ethier grounder into the Dodger dugout.  Now visibly rattled, Hanson grooves one to PH Scott Van Slyke, who puts it into the Turner Field grandstand and the wheels have come off the Braves bus.  Takashi Saito comes in to finally record the third out, but Atlanta goes quietly in the bottom of the 9th as Ronald Belisario comes in to mop up the game for the Dodgers, who win their sixth in a row 5-1 and advance to the next round–but without 2B Mark Ellis, injured for the duration of the tournament in the win.

Interesting card of Super-Regional X:  The Diamond Gems 1933 Senators didn’t win the super-regional, but perhaps if Cliff Bolton wasn’t restricted by tournament usage guidelines, they might have.  Bolton’s .500 on-base percentage translates to a card where about 59% of the results on his card will get him aboard, and only considering his at-bats, he’s good for a .618 batting average when rolling on his card.  Of course, seeing this reminds me of the malpractice that Strat wreaked upon Eddie Murphy of the Diamond Gems 1919 White Sox (see Super-Regional T), who outhit Bolton .486 to .410 in essentially the same number of at-bats (39 to 35)--but Murphy’s own card results total a .379 average, barely half that of Bolton’s.  So somewhere between the release of the 30s and the deadball gems, the decision to nerf low AB wonders was apparently made.  I can’t help but wonder if this will also apply to Yankee players moving forward–I will note that in the 1990s Diamond Gems, the 1998 Yankees didn’t even get a card for low-AB legend Shane Spencer, so perhaps I should just be happy that there was one for Murphy at all.  As for Bolton, he wasn’t a total flash in the pan, with a career batting average of .291 in over 1000 plate appearances, and he and his teammates had a credible showing in this project, going five rounds deep before succumbing to more modern opposition. 

SUPER-REGIONAL W:  This group of regional winners had a collection of franchises that had relatively few survivors at this level, such as the Browns, Mariners, and Royals; it also had two entries from the Blue Jays who would face off immediately for bragging rights in round four, a classic Red Sox team that unfortunately had lost one of the best cards in Strat history to injury in the first round of the tournament, and a very good Astros team that had just fallen short of a pennant in the playoffs.  That Astros team seemed like a likely candidate to capture the crown in this super-regional, with the teams in the bottom portion of the bracket looking like a crapshoot to me–I thought perhaps the Mariners might make the final.  The ELO ratings agreed with that assessment, with none of the bottom four rated as strong teams.

Round four action

For this round four matchup between the 1998 Astros and the 1941 Red Sox, Strat enthusiast Kevin traveled to Endless Tournament Central to helm his 102-win Astros against a Boston team that had lost .400-hitting Ted Williams to injury in the very first round of the tournament.  Still, these Red Sox, who finished 2nd in the AL, still boasted other Hall of Famers like Jimmie Foxx and Joe Cronin, although #4 starter Joe Dobson (12-5, 4.49) was at a disadvantage against Kevin’s Mike Hampton (11-7, 3.36).  The Red Sox grab the lead in the bottom of the 3rd courtesy of an RBI single from Dom Dimaggio, while Moises Alou singles in a run in the 5th to tie the game although the Astros leave the bases loaded.  Nonetheless, it’s killer bee time in the top of the 7th with Bagwell and Biggio driving in runs for a 3-1 Houston lead and Dobson heads to the showers.  However, with their best reliever burnt from their regional final, the Red Sox have to try their luck with another Hall of Famer, 41 year old Lefty Grove, but he is a shadow of his former self as Alou and Derek Bell drive in two more; Billy Wagner pitches the 8th and the 9th and the Astros head to round five with the 5-1 win, and the Splendid Splinter heads back to the card catalogs with almost no chance to show his stuff in this project.

For the round four matchup between the 86-win 1990 Blue Jays and the 76-win 2017 Blue Jays, we had to give Toronto denizen Eaglesfly the choice of which team to manage, and he went with the earlier version to avoid Vlad Jr., who wasn’t even on the team yet in 2017.  So brother Chuck was responsible for the underdog 2017s, with homer-prone Marcus Estrada (10-9, 4.98) getting the call against 1990’s Jimmy Key (13-7, 4.25) testing the bottom of the rotation for both squads.  Furthermore, both teams had their starting catchers injured with 2017’s backup also hurt, so backstops were at a premium, but fittingly it was 90’s catcher Greg Myers who connects with Estrada’s solid HR result for a solo shot in the top of the 3rd to give the elders the early lead.  In the 4th, it was Kelly Gruber’s turn, a solo shot on his own card, and that 2-0 lead only lasts until the bottom of the inning, when Key can’t lock down the 17s who rap out four runs, three of them on a bases-loaded double from Jose Bautista.  Tony Fernandez responds with an RBI single in the top of the 5th but he’s thrown out stealing, contributing to an 0 for 3 rate on SB attempts for the 1990 team courtesy of my terrible split dice rolling.  It remains a one-run game until the bottom of the 7th, when supersub outfielder Teoscar Hernandez converts Keys’ HR result for a 2 run shot, and Eaglesfly summons Jim Acker bemoaning that he left in Key for one batter too long.  However, in the top of the 9th it’s Chuck who gets that feeling, as the redoubtable PH Glenallen Hill locates Estrada’s solid 5-homer for a 2-run shot and it’s a one-run game with nobody out.  At that point, Chuck has to burn closer Pablo Osuna, but it proves worthwhile as he strikes out the side and the 2017 Jays hold on for the contested 6-5 win over their earlier counterparts.

The 94-loss 1997 Royals were another one of those teams that seemed to have no business participating in a super-regional, but that didn’t stop brother Chuck from volunteering to roll on their behalf against me and the 88-win 2007 Mariners.  Although the Royals’ Tim Belcher (13-12, 5.02) did little to instill confidence, he was still better than the only remaining option for the Mariners, a terrible Jeff Weaver (7-13, 6.44) who had one of the worst pitching cards to start in this project.  Sure enough, the Royals get a run in the top of the 1st with a Chili Davis RBI single, but they leave the bases loaded, and then Weaver gets a scoreless inning in the 2nd and things are looking a little better.  That is, at least until the 3rd, when Jeff King rips a 2-run triple past a fumbling RF-4 Jose Guillen, and then a solo homer by Jose Offerman in the 4th later followed with a 2-run homer from Jay Bell and then a decent Mariners bullpen can finally take over to try to dig out of a 6-0 deficit.  They make a good start at it in the bottom of the 5th with Ichiro and Guillen each driving in two to make it a two-run game after five.  King ups his RBI total with a solo shot in the 7th, and although the M’s load the bases in the bottom of the 8th to threaten, they can only produce one run on a Guillen sac fly; Dave Veres comes in from the pen to earn the save in a 7-5 win that keeps the Royals run alive.

This game involved an increasingly rare matchup of two old-school die-cut teams,those being the mediocre 80-82 1973 Yankees and the Cinderella 1950 Browns that had somehow won their regional despite a dismal 58-96 record.  However, it was hard to envision any glass slippers for the Browns with two of their best players injured during the regional, and some ghastly options for a #4 starter with Dick Starr (7-5, 5.02) perhaps the least bad.  Meanwhile, the Yankees had already gotten through the wife-swapping portion of their rotation, and they figured that Pat Dobson (9-8, 4.24) might be able to handle the Browns and keep swingman Lindy McDaniel available for relief work.  That decision is called into question when the second batter of the game, Dick Kokos, rolls Dobson’s solid HR result for a quick 1-0 Browns lead.  The Yanks don’t get a hit off Starr until Bobby Murcer’s single in the 4th, but although a couple of walks load the bases they come away empty.  With the offense not generating any scores, the Yanks move to McDaniel to begin the 6th even though Dobson has only allowed the one hit; NY threatens again with the bases loaded in the 6th but once again #9 hitter Gene Michael can’t bring anyone home.  And Starr continues to pitch over his head, shutting down PH Jim Hart for the final out of a 2-hit shutout and the Browns somehow manage to move on despite notching only three hits themselves.  

The survivors:  round five

After having his ‘90 Jays downed by Chuck and the 2017 Blue Jays, Eaglesfly abandoned the Jays and decided to let Chuck test his luck against the formidable 1998 Astros.  With pinch-roller Kevin out of the country, it would fall to me to direct the Killer B’s in their round five matchup, with ace Jose Lima (16-8, 3.70) going against the Jays’ Marcus Strohman (13-9, 3.09) in a good pitching matchup.  And both keep the game scoreless until the top of the 4th, when Jeff Bagwell scores from first on a Carl Everett double for a 1-0 lead.  But Toronto storms back in the 6th when 3rd string catcher Luke Maile, in because Russell Martin managed to get his second three-game injury in five tournament games, drives in a run on a single and he scores on a Teoscar Hernandez double to make it 2-1 Jays.  However, a critical error in the 7th by Toronto 3B-2 Josh Donaldson helps to set up a two run double by Bill Spiers, and then PH Sean Berry adds a sac fly and Craig Biggio contributes a 2-out RBI single and the Astros lead 5-2 after 7.  A leadoff double in the 8th chases Lima, and with Billy Wagner burnt Houston goes to Scott Elarton, who is the beneficiary of some insurance in the 9th courtesy of a Spiers RBI single.   The Jays get two on in the bottom of the 9th and Donaldson comes to the plate with a chance to make it a one run game, but he misses the 3-4 homer with a 3-3 roll and the Astros walk away with the 6-2 win, and a chance at a berth in the final field of 32.  

One would not have expected the 94-loss 1997 Royals and the 98-loss 1950 Browns to have been two of the 128 teams able to knock off four straight opponents in this tournament, but here they were; Chuck would try to replicate his previous success with the Royals with their ace Kevin Appier (9-13, 3.40) on the hill, while I would lead one of the only two Browns teams to win their regional, with top starter Ned Garver (13-18, 3.39) getting the assignment–with this Browns squad short two starters due to injuries.  The game began a lot like the Royals’ round four game, with Johnny Damon leading off with a triple and Chili Davis knocking him in with a single.  However, in the bottom of the 4th Les Moss ties the game with a solo homer, making him the top home run hitter named Les in this project; nonetheless, KC regains the lead as Jay Bell raps an RBI single past 2B-4 Owen Friend in the 5th.  Chuck inserts a slew of defensive replacements in the 6th to shore up a shaky Royals defense, but Appier hits a rough patch as a Moss double puts runners on 2nd and 3rd, and PH Bill Sommers cracks a single that scores two when the 1-10+2 Moss hoofs it home to give the Browns their first lead.  From there the Royals are Garvered, as they can only muster one hit in the final four innings and even though a St. Louis insurance run is cut down at the plate with a 1-14 chance, the insurance isn’t needed as the lowly Browns survive and advance to the super-regional final with a 3-2 win.

Super-regional finals

It was another David v. Goliath matchup for the super-regional final, although the slingshot has often proved to be a successful weapon in so many games in this tournament.  This time it was the 102-win 1998 Astros against the 58 win 1950 Browns, and to make matters even more lopsided, the Browns still had their best hitter, Don Lenhardt, on the DL, and they had a Houston problem with Randy Johnson (19-11, 3.28) on the mound against the Brown’s less impressive Al Widmar (7-15, 4.76).  However, Widmar keeps pace and the game begins as a pitching duel with only three hits between the two teams through four scoreless innings, but in the top of the 5th Bill Spiers continues his strong tournament performance with a triple, and Brad Ausmus lofts a sac fly for a 1-0 lead that looks like it might hold up the way that the Big Unit is delivering.  Jeff Bagwell then adds a solo shot in the 6th, and two more tallies for the Killer B’s are recorded in the 7th from Derek Bell and Bagwell which is more than enough for Johnson against the undermanned Browns.  The Unit finishes with a 3-hit shutout, fanning 11 and leading the Astros into the final field of 32 for the tournament, while the Browns head back to the card catalogs but should take pride in reeling off five straight wins against supposedly superior opponents.

Interesting card of Super-Regional W:   With a strong rotation, the super-regional winning 1998 Astros may not have needed much help from the bullpen, but that pen included a closer that was one of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, Billy Wagner.  This card nicely captures my recollection of his characteristics as a closer–ungodly strikeout numbers, an uncomfortable number of walks, and the hint of disaster lurking in the form of that 5-10 result.  Wagner describes this 1998 season as a turning point for him, when he was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Kelly Stinnett around the All Star break.  Wagner was able to return after a three week stint on the DL, which he said changed his perspective on pitching; after his return he described pitching more calmly and with greater control, and he had a career year the following season with a 1.57 ERA to finish fourth in the Cy Young award.  In this tournament he has racked up two saves in five and two-thirds scoreless innings, helping his Astros reel off six straight wins to become one of the final 32 teams surviving from the original 2,060 that began the project.

SUPER-REGIONAL V:   This group of eight regional winners featured a bunch of teams that were great and near-great, with the 1993 Blue Jays a pennant winner that would have to face an earlier version of themselves in their first game in the bracket and the 2019 Nationals being another pennant winner in that half of the group.  The ‘47 Cardinals had won a pennant with an all-time great team in the prior year, the 2021 Giants were one of the winningest teams in recent years, and the 1984 Cubs had provided a respite from decades in the wilderness with a division title.  All in all, this was one of the strongest groups of eight I’d encountered in quite a while, and other than a surprising 2019 Tigers team none of the entries seemed like longshots.  I figured that the depth and power of the more modern teams would prevail and guessed that the Giants would top the Nationals in the final; the ELO ranks picked the same two in the final but had the Nationals as the favored squad in the bracket.

Round four action

The 1984 Cubs had won their division to spite White Sox fans who had celebrated their first division win in the prior season, and these Cubs also sought to spite me in particular by winning their regional over some pretty strong competition.  They got the easiest draw in this super-regional in the shape of the surprising 2019 Tigers, a 114-loss team that won their regional as a #8 seed but looked hopelessly overmatched at the super-regional level.  The pitching matchup of #4 starters was predictably lopsided, with the Cubs’ Steve Trout (13-7, 3.41) a seemingly huge advantage over Detroit’s Jordan Zimmerman (1-13, 6.91).  Zimmerman starts off well but an error by 1B-5 Miguel Cabrera sets up a 2-out Henry Cotto RBI single, and then a distracted Zimmerman grooves one to powerless Larry Bowa, who hits the pitcher’s solid homer result for a 3-run shot and a big Cubs lead.  The Tigers move to reliever Buck Farmer to begin the 6th in an effort to stay in the game, but in the 7th Keith Moreland drives a bases-loaded triple past RF-4 Nick Castellanos, Ron Cey follows with a 2-run homer, and the fat lady is singing loud.  The Tigers find Trout’s weaknesses in the 8th and rack up five hits and two runs, but George Frazier comes in to end the inning with the Cubs still up 9-2.   Chicago gets another run when Rob Cey hits into a DP in the top of the 9th, and Frazier tames the Tigers to seal the 10-2 win and the Cinderella run for the Tigers comes to an end.  

The Zoom game of the week was a David vs. Goliath matchup with the role of the big guy played by the 2021 Giants, a 107-win team ranked among the top 75 ELO ratings.  The underdog wass the 1986 Orioles, an 89-loss team that was stacked with many big names, most of them well past their sell-by dates.  On the mound for the Giants was Alex Wood (10-4, 3.83), while the O’s Scott McGregor (11-15, 4.52) had seen better days; both bullpens were depleted from tight regional finals, but SF’s pen was far deeper than Baltimore’s.  Giants’ fan StratFan Rick would be steering them, while ColavitoFan, freshly back from a Far East sojourn, agreed to helm the Orioles, and that guidance gets off to a good start with a Fred Lynn solo homer in the bottom of the 1st for a quick Baltimore lead.  RBI singles from Evan Longoria and Brandon Crawford push SF ahead 2-1 in the top of the 3rd, but the O’s are assisted by an error from SF CF-2 Austin Slater in the 4th and they move out to a 3-2 lead.  When Brandon Belt belts a homer to lead off the 6th, McGregor is pulled for Nate Snell, who prevents further damage and the game remains tied heading into the 8th.  Slater bounces a solo homer off the foul pole in the top of the inning to atone for his error, but in the bottom of the inning it’s C-1 Buster Posey who earns the goat hordes with a passed ball and it’s tied 4-4 heading into the 9th.  ColavitoFan summons Odell Jones from the pen to begin the 9th, and things quickly go south; with 3B-4 Juan Bonilla at the hot corner after a series of pinch hitters, he watches as a single goes through his legs, and then after a few walks Bonilla adds a bases-loaded 2-base error to deliver the lead to the Giants.  Belt then singles home the two runners perched in scoring position, and the Giants break open the hard-fought game in the 9th and set the Orioles down for the 8-4 win to advance.  

For the Zoom game of the week Toronto area resident Eaglesfly had the dilemma of picking between the 1993 Blue Jays and the 1984 Blue Jays to see who would advance further to represent the franchise.  It didn’t seem to take him long to select the Series champion 1993 version, which was one of his favorite teams, so brother Chuck would roll the bones for 1984.  Both teams were down to their #4 starters, with 93’s Todd Stottlemyre going against swingman Jim Gott  going for ‘84, and although both pens were rested, the depth of the ‘93 version was far greater than anything the ‘84s could muster.  Things start off nicely for the ‘84s in the top of the 1st with an RBI triple by slow-footed DH Cliff Johnson, and George Bell scores Johnson on a sac fly for an early 2-0 lead.  However, the 1984’s experience an Orwellian nightmare in the bottom of the inning.  After Rickey Henderson leads off with a walk and is promptly caught stealing, the ‘93s rack up hit after hit, and they don’t get retired until Henderson comes around again to provide the third out with the 93s leading 6-2.  Alfredo Griffin and Rance Mullineks each contribute RBI singles in the 2nd to narrow the gap to 6-4, but Chuck then calls a 2-run shot by Paul Molitor in the bottom of the inning and it’s 8-4 after only two innings of play.  With nothing in the pen, Chuck prays that Gott can keep the 93s in single digits for a few more innings, although John Olerud adds to the lead in the 4th and Ed Sprague and Roberto Alomar drive in two more in the 5th to dash those hopes.  Meanwhile, Stottlemyre is getting out of jams, but Roy isn’t taking any chances, bringing in Frank Castillo to quash any possible comeback.  The 84’s make the effort, with a Griffin RBI in the 8th and a Bell homer to lead off the 9th, so just to be safe closer Duane Ward is summoned for the last out and the 1993 Jays hang on and advance with the noisy 11-6 win.  

The 93-69 2019 Nationals were World Series champions and had a season-ending ELO rating placing them among the top 40 squads of all time.  The good news for the Nats was that their #4 starter, Anibal Sanchez (11-8, 3.85) was a solid option, but the bad news is that Juan Soto would be unable to play due to an injury suffered in their tight regional final. The opposing 1947 Cardinals were also no slouches, going 89-65 as the NL runner-up one season after fielding an epic championship team., and they were perhaps even better stocked with Red Munger (16-5, 3.37) an All-Star on the hill.  The Nats get a solo homer from Anthony Rendon in the top of the 1st for a quick lead, and in the 2nd Soto’s replacement Michael Taylor doubles in a run to put Washington up 2-0.   Doubles from a pair of Hall of Famers, Stan Musial and Joe Medwick, in the bottom of the inning narrow the lead to 2-1, but once again Munger can’t keep the Nationals off the board as Asdrubal Cabrera’s sac fly adds another run to the lead.  The Cards respond again, as Musial's two-out single scores one but 1-17+2 Enos Slaughter is out going to 3rd with a 20 split roll to cut off the rally.  In the 6th, back to back doubles off Munger’s card provide another Washington run, but a 2-out double by Ron Northey in the bottom of the inning lead them to yank Sanchez for Daniel Hudson, who whiffs Medwick to end the threat.  But Hudson issues 2 straight walks in the 8th, setting up a Marty Marion single that scores one, but 1-16 Red Schoendienst is nailed going to third with yet another 20 split.  The Nats sense the gap closing and pile on Munger in the 8th, with RBI singles from Victor Robles and Adam Eaton chasing Munger for Gerry Staley.  But Staley can’t stop the bleeding and when the dust clears the Nats have batted around to score five more, and they trust that lead enough for homer-prone closer Sean Doolittle to finish out the 9-3 win to survive and advance, with Soto scheduled to rejoin the lineup for round five.  

The survivors:  round five

This round five matchup pitted two division winners that both arguably were the best teams in their respective leagues, the 1984 Cubs and the 2021 Giants.  With both teams returning to the top of the rotation, this merited a Zoom game of the week, and Giants fan StratFan Rick would have Kevin Gausman (14-6, 2.81) on the hill while brother Chuck, born in the Chicago area, would spare me from having to manage my nemesis, with Cy Young winner Rick Sutcliffe (16-1, 2.69) sporting a ridiculous winning percentage.  Although both lineups have some weapons, this has the markings of a pitchers’ duel and that’s what we get, with both pitchers racking up strikeouts until Cubs OF Henry Cotto manages to convert a TR 1-3 on Gausman’s card to record a run in the top of the 3rd.  Gausman settles down from there, but Sutcliffe is dominating, ending the lone whiff of a Giants rally in the bottom of the 5th with two consecutive strikeouts.  Gausman ends the game with 10 Ks and only one run allowed on a lucky split roll, but Sutcliffe is better, with 13 strikeouts in a 5-hit shutout as the Cubs squeak into the super-regional finals with the 1-0 pitching gem.  

Two Series champs squaring off with their top starters in this round five game, the type of squads one expects to see (but rarely does) at this point in the tournament.  This merited Zoom game of the week status, with Torontoan Eaglesfly once again directing the 1993 Blue Jays with Pat Hentgen (19-9, 3.87) and the Tall Tactician stepping in for the second time to manage the 2019 Nationals and Stephen Strasburg (18-6, 3.32).   Eaglesfly nominated me to actually roll the dice on his behalf given that I had staked them to a 6-run first inning last time they played, so out came the trusty dice but this time I could only manage one run on a John Olerud single in the top of the 1st.  However, a bases loaded single by Joe Carter courtesy of Strasburg’s 4-8 TR 1-3/SI split and RBI hits from Paul Molitor and Tony Fernandez gives the Jays a 4-run 3rd inning and a 5-0 lead.  Trea Turner gets the Nats on the board with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 3rd, but my dice continue to pound that 4-8 outcome, hitting it five times in total while converting two of them for triples, and by the time Strasburg is mercifully lifted after the 6th following a 2-run Rickey Henderson homer, he’s allowed 13 hits and the Jays lead 10-2.  PH Kurt Suzuki raps an RBI single for Washington in the 7th, but Molitor matches that with a 4-8 split RBI single off reliever Wander Suero, and Hentgen hangs on as the Jays march to the super-regional final with a dominating 11-3 win. 

Super-regional finals

The matchup for the super-regional final was appropriate for determining a team that would be one of the final 32 survivors out of the over 2,000 teams that began this tournament, because it paired the Series champion 1993 Blue Jays against the 1984 Cubs, with the NL’s best record that season.  Two veteran managers for each team faced off on Zoom, with brother Chuck attempting to repeat his success with the Cubs and Dennis Eckersley (10-8, 3.03) against Toronto’s own Eaglesfly with Juan Guzman (14-3, 3.99) on the hill.   The Cubs get off to an auspicious start, as Bob Dernier leads off the game by getting injured, but by Grabthar’s Hammer, he would be avenged:  his teammates extract their revenge on the Jays as Chuck manages to roll and convert every possible hit outcome on Guzman’s card in the first inning and a third.  After Ron Cey squibs a single that puts the Cubs on the board and loads the bases, it’s Jody Davis checking off Guzman’s HR split for a grand slam and the Cubs lead 5-0 after one.  Inning two goes no better, with a three-run homer by Leon Durham and an RBI double by MVP Ryne Sandberg and it’s 9-0 Cubs, and the Jays have yet to record a hit.  Durham and Davis knock in two more runs in the 4th and the Cubs have a double digit lead, while the Jays can’t mount a threat until the 7th when injury replacement C Randy Knorr belts a three-run homer to make it 11-3.  The teams exchange runs in the 8th, which finally chases the beleaguered Guzman, but that proves far too late as the Cubs continue to taunt Sox fans everywhere with an easy 12-4 win, earning a trip to the sectionals where Dernier will be ready to resume his centerfield duties.

Interesting card of Super-Regional V:   At 6 foot 7 inches and sporting a distinctive red beard, Rick Sutcliffe was an imposing presence on the mound, but his 1984 season began rather painfully: early in his season with Cleveland, he was suffering from severe dental issues that required four straight days of root canal surgery.  Sutcliffe had led the AL in ERA in 1982 but the dental work seemed to have impacted him, so to speak; he was 4-5 with a 5.15 ERA in June and was due to become a free agent at the end of the season.  With the Indians hopelessly out of the running, they found a willing buyer in the Cubs, who were in a fight to make their first post-season appearance since 1945 and who had just been upstaged by their cross-town rival White Sox who had won the AL West the preceding season.  Having suffered some key injuries to their rotation, the Cubs shipped Mel Hall and Joe Carter to Cleveland for the big right-hander, and you could say that it paid off.  Sutcliffe assembled a remarkable 16-1 record in 20 starts for the Cubs, and he was the unanimous choice for the Cy Young while being the first player to have pitched in both leagues while winning the award.  Sutcliffe was on the mound when the Cubs clinched the NL West; he was the Game 1 starter in the NLCS, where he pitched a shutout and hit a home run to boot.  However, in the deciding Game 5 against the Padres, Sutcliffe blew a 3-0 lead and absorbed the loss as the Cubs dream of their first pennant in decades evaporated.  Regardless, he came through big in this super-regional, shutting out an imposing 2021 Giants offense to pull out a 1-0 round five win and helping send his team to the round of 32 after six straight victories.

SUPER-REGIONAL U:  Only one of the three pennant-winners that began this group of 64 teams survived to reach the super-regional level:  the 1998 Padres (the other two both Astros teams).  Nonetheless, these eight survivors also included a couple of near misses as well as two pair, a duo of Padres and the other involving two distinctly different Twins teams.   One of those entries for the Twins was from the season following their 1965 pennant, while other squads from the Giants and Phillies were also within a couple of years of World Series trips.  And then there was a Senators team that was an unlikely survivor to this level of the tournament; I suspected that the clock would strike midnight for that Cinderella story, and that the two 21st century teams here would meet in the finals, with the Phillies pulling off another win to join the 2008 and 2011 squads in the final 32.  The ELO rankings predicted something completely different, with the 1998 pennant-winning Padres picked to best the 1966 version of the Twins to move on.  

Round four action

For the Zoom game of the week, it would be StratFan Rick, who grew up listening to the Giants on a weak radio signal during the 60’s, reliving his youth at the helm of the 1966 Giants.  Meanwhile, brother Chuck would attempt to replicate his Super-Regional R successes with the 1997 Brewers, and like the ‘87 team Chuck had previously helmed, this version had also been hobbled by injuries during the regional with both SS Jose Valentin and C Mike Metheny out for the entire super-regional.  It would be the bottom of the rotation in round four, with Ron Herbel (4-5, 4.16) for the Giants matched against the gopher-ball prone Jeff D’Amico (9-7, 4.71) for the Brew Crew, but it’s Herbel who yields the first long-ball to the second batter of the game, Jeff Cirillo, and Milwaukee takes a 1-0 lead.  In the top of the 4th, John Jaha finds a solid homer on his own card for a solo shot, but the Giants finally put together a couple of hits in the 5th and Hal Lanier makes it a one-run game with a sac fly.  In the 6th, Herbel allows only his third hit of the game, but once again it’s a solo homer, this time by PH Jack Vogt, and with runs seeming hard to come by Chuck summons Bob Wickman from the pen.  He holds off the imposing core of the Giants order–Mays, McCovey, Hart–and for the 8th it’s time for closer Doug Jones and some defensive replacements.  Jones does what he’s paid to do, and he closes out the 3-1 win to earn the save and propel the Brewers to round five despite recording only four hits in the game–three of them solo homers.  

The Zoom game of the week features the Tall Tactician managing his hometown 2012 Phillies, who only went 81-81 but were the last of a run of Phils teams from this era to win their regional, against StratFan Rick and the 89-win 1966 Twins, the AL runner-up who featured much the same lineup as had won the league the prior season.  It would be Philly’s Kyle Kendrick (11-12, 3.90) against Mudcat Grant (13-13, 3.25), with both bottom-of-the-rotation starters getting off to a strong start.  The ice is broken in the bottom of the 4th when Harmon Killebrew finds Kendrick’s alluring home run result for a solo shot, but the Phils respond with four runs in the top of the 5th with Juan Pierre, Kevin Frandsen, Carlos Ruis and Chase Utley (who was not injured for a change) all taking turns driving in runs.  The Twins immediately respond with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning courtesy of Jimmie Hall and Don Mincher, but a Placido Polanco sac fly makes it 5-3 after six innings.  But Kendrick seems to lose the ability to throw strikes in the 7th and after a couple of walks TT summons Jeremy Horst from the pen, as Jonathan Papelbon was burnt from the regional.  Horst continues the walk parade and provides Ted Uhlander with a bases-loaded base on balls for one run, and then it’s Cesar Tovar with a two run single and the Twins move into the lead.  Horst is worst in the 8th as well, with more walks setting up a 2-run double by Earl Battey, and after two hitless innings from Pete Cimono the Twins have Al Worthington close out the 9th for an 8-5, come from behind win in which they garnered as many walks as they did hits.

The 2017 Twins had powered past their opposition in Regional #165, outscoring them by a 20-5 margin, but with #4 starter Bartolo Colon (7-14, 6.48) a disaster waiting to happen, they might need to score 20 more in this round four game.  They faced the 1998 Padres, who had scored 21 runs of their own and had Joey Hamilton (13-13, 4.27) backed up by dominating closer Trevor Hoffman, who was fully rested.  The Twins strike in the top of the 1st with an RBI single from Eddie Rosario but Greg Vuaghn ties it in the bottom of the inning with a run-scoring grounder.  Then the Padres move out in front in the 2nd courtesy of a Wally Joyner leadoff homer, but that lead is also short-lived as Brian Dozier crushes a 2-run shot in the 3rd to put Minnesota back on top.  Rosario then goes back to back and it’s 4-2 Twins, and they breathe a sigh of relief as big Bartolo manages to hold that lead through his mandatory five innings.  When Byron Buxton converts a HR 1-3 off Hamilton’s card to start the 6th, they immediately summon Hoffman to try to stay within reach, and although he yields a double he’s bailed on when 1-10 Jason Castro is cut down trying to score.  A leadoff double by Joyner in the bottom of the inning and Colon is gone for Alan Busenitz and his 1.99 ERA, and he ends the threat with no damage.  He tosses three hitless innings and the Twins hope to preserve him, inserting closer Brandon Kintzler to begin the bottom of the 9th.  That proves problematic, as he yields two hits and a sac fly by Tony Gwynn narrows the lead to two runs, bringing 50 homer-hitting Greg Vaughn to the plate as the tying run with two outs.  But Vaughn lines out to first and it’s game over, with the Twins hanging on for the 5-3 win and quite happy to be returning to the top of their rotation for round five.

At first glance, the 1969 Senators seemed like an unlikely participant in a super-regional, but this team had responded to new manager Ted Williams to win 86 games, perhaps the pinnacle in the brief history of those expansion Senators.  They would have Jim Hannan (7-6, 3.65) as their #4 starter and they had some bullpen wear from their extra-inning win in their regional final, but they were still ELO favorites over the 1995 Padres, a middling 70-74 team that would send out WIllie Blair (7-5, 4.34) but was still without an injured Bip Roberts in the lineup.  An RBI single from big Frank Howard puts the Senators up in the bottom of the 1st, but injury replacement Melvin Nieves crushes a 2-run homer in the 4th to put the Padres ahead, and Tony Gwynn drives in another in the 5th with an RBI double on a missed HR split.  When Ken Caminiti wraps a 2-run shot around the foul pole in the 7th, the Senators try Darold Knowles from the pen, and although he does his job, so does Blair to shut down the Nats and send the Padres forward with the 5-1 win and buoyed by the return of Roberts for round five.

The survivors:  round five

The 1966 Twins were one season off an AL pennant and seemed like a team deserving of a berth in round five, while the 1997 Brewers were an unexpected squad to reel off four straight wins.  Both were back to their aces, with the Twins’ Jim Kaat (25-13, 2.75) an apparent big advantage against Ben McDonald (8-7, 4.06).  Both teams had been bitten by the injury bug, with the Twins losing SS Zoilo Versalles while the Brewers were also out their SS, Jose Valentin, as well as C Mike Metheny.  The Twins jump out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st courtesy of a 2-out RBI double by Harmon Killebrew, but their body count increases as 1B Don Mincher is lost for the super-regional in the 4th with an injury.  Meanwhile, Kaat doesn’t allow a baserunner until the 5th, but he gets into a jam in the 6th and Jeff Cirillo knocks a 2-out 2-run single that provides the Brewers with the lead.  A 2-out 2-base error in the 8th by Twins CF Ted Uhlander sets up Julio Franco for an RBI single and an insurance run, and the Brewers tap closer Doug Jones to try to record the save in the 8th.  However, Jimmie Hall drives in a run with a triple, but Jones strands him at third to hold a slim one run lead entering the 9th.  With two away in the bottom of the 9th, Tovar singles to represent the tying run, and Bob Allison rolls a DO 1-3/flyB with a chance to score the speedy Tovar on the split.  But alas for the Twins, the roll is a 7 and the Brewers continue their unlikely run with a 3-2 win in which they were outhit 10 to 5.  

For the second round in a row, the 2017 Twins face a group from San Diego in the 1995 Padres, but this time both squads were back to the top of their rotations, and both of these pitchers had thrown three-hitters in their first appearance in the tournament–Ervin Santana (16-8, 3.25) for the Twins and Andy Ashby (12-10, 2.94) for the Padres.  Max Kepler records the first hit of the game in the top of the 2nd in the form of a solo homer that gives the Twins an early edge, but Ken Caminiti raps a 2-run double in the 3rd and the Padres lead 2-1 after three.  The Twins respond immediately in the 4th, as Kepler knocks an RBI single that sets up a 3-run homer for Byron Buxton off Ashby’s card and a 5-2 Twins lead.  Four straight singles for Minnesota gives Kepler another RBI and chases Ashby for Trevor Hoffman, who does the best he can stranding the bases loaded to keep the score at 6-2.  That looks big when Ken Caminiti, Scott Livingstone, and Eddie Williams go back-to-back-to-back, all with two out in the bottom of the inning, because suddenly it’s all tied up after 5 and the Twins are giving a panicked look at their depleted bullpen.  To compound their misery, C Jason Castro leads off the 6th by getting injured for 7 games, and when Jody Reed leads off the bottom of the inning with a single off Santana’s card the Twins can take it no longer and try Matt Belisle out of the pen.  He’s greeted with a double by PH Archi Cianfrocco and then elderly Tony Gwynn scores both runners with a single for an 8-6 San Diego lead.  The Twins aren’t rolling over for anyone, as Miguel Sano leads off the 7th with a tape measure shot that makes it a one run game, and although Kepler doubles Hoffman strands him by fanning Buxton with his final pitch.  The Pads then go with Bryce Florie to begin the 8th in the hopes he can close out the save, a possibility that is bolstered when SS-4 Ray Holbert makes a stellar play to strand the tying run on 3rd in the 8th.  Florie yields two singles in the top of the 9th, but bears down and again Buxton strikes out, this time for the final out of the game and the Padres hang on to record the 8-7 win and earn a trip to the super-regional final.  

Super-regional finals

Given the many strong teams among the 64 that began this super-regional, it was two supposed mediocrities that managed to win the 5 games in a row needed to reach these finals, the 1997 Brewers and the 1995 Padres that each had records around the .500 mark.  Milwaukee continued to be shorthanded with their starting shortstop and catcher both injured, and closer Doug Jones was burnt to further complicate the job of starter Jose Mercedes (7-10, 3.79).   For the Padres it would be Joey Hamilton (6-9, 3.08) and their closer Trevor Hoffmann also required rest.   The Pads strike first in the bottom of the first, with Steve Finley singling and stealing second, setting up a 2-out Scott Livingstone RBI single, but Gerald Williams homers for the Brewers in the top of the 2nd to tie it up.  But Williams misplays a Finley single in the 5th that puts two runners in scoring position for Tony Gwynn, who rips a double to score two, and then Livingstone brings him home with a double of his own and the Padres lead 4-1 after five.  The Padres threaten again in the bottom of the 7th and Milwaukee brings in Bob Wickman to successfully avoid any damage.  The Brewers get a run in the 8th on a 2-out John Jaha single, but SD responds immediately with a Bip Roberts double and a Jody Reed single.  After a Finley walk, Gwynn drives in another with a single and Wickman is gone for Mike Fetters, and although he retires the side, the Brewers lose the duel with Hamilton and the Padres capture the super-regional and head to the final 32 with the 6-2 victory.  

Interesting card of Super-Regional U:   The 1995 Padres were an unlikely winner to emerge from a super-regional field of 64 teams that included many far more highly-rated entries.  In the prior season, which had ended prematurely by a strike, the Padres had the worst record in baseball and were going nowhere.  However, with the strike still unsettled in the off-season, some clubs anticipated that negotiations might ultimately result in a salary cap, and as such began to unload high-priced talent in preparation.  One such club was the Astros, who traded Ken Caminiti to the Padres as a part of a 12-player deal that was one of the largest swaps in modern baseball.  For San Diego, this began a major turnaround as Caminiti’s toughness and intensity sparked a teamwide resurgence that led them to the World Series three years later.  For Caminiti, it proved both a boon and a tragedy.  On the upside, this first card of his with the Padres represented career highs to that point in batting average, homers, and OPS as well as the first Gold Glove of his career (only a 2 in Basic, but a 1e31 in ADV); all of that was just a precursor to a huge year the following season when he was the unanimous choice for NL MVP.  However, the move to San Diego also brought with it a downside: he learned that teammates had been helped getting through injuries using steroids that could be bought over the counter just a few minutes away in Tijuana, a discovery that coincided with the sudden jump in his offensive stats with San Diego.  Thus began a downward spiral that involved injuries, ever-expanding steroid use, and abuse of alcohol, pain-killers, and street drugs such as cocaine and heroin.  An interview shortly after his 2001 retirement in which he acknowledged the far-reaching impact of steroids in baseball made him a pariah in the sport, and his life began to fall apart legally and interpersonally.  After multiple probation violations resulting from a drug arrest, he was sentenced to jail in 2004; released after a month, he died five days later from a heart attack resulting from a “speedball” of heroin and cocaine.  That was only 8 years after this card was printed, representing a season which began both the best years of his life, and the worst. 

SUPER-REGIONAL T:  This group of eight seemed to include a variety of unlikely contenders considering that six pennant winners had begun this group of 64, but none of them had survived past round three.   Of the eight that did persevere, not many were within hailing distance of an epic season, with the Rays being two years post their first pennant, and for the Mets and Brewers pennants would be 5+ years away.  Picking from among this group seemed to be a total crapshoot, but I figure the Brewers would emerge from the top half of the bracket and fall to the Rays in the finals.  The ELO rankings agreed with that prediction, portraying the four teams in the bottom of the bracket as much better than the dubious group at the top.

Round four action

Two rather unlikely regional winners square off in this round four matchup.  The 1976 Padres went 73-89 but pulled off three straight upsets to win Regional #153; however, they now faced the bane of the underdog squads in going to the bottom of their rotation in the form of Tom Griffin (9-6, 4.10), who was a base on balls waiting to happen.  The 1990 Brewers had a similar record at 74-88 but they sported a much better ELO ranking, and they did have some Hall of Famers such as Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and the newly inducted Dave Parker; Mark Knudson (10-9, 4.12) was tapped for the start from a variety of options.  The Padres jump to a quick lead in the top of the 1st on an RBI single from Dave Winfield that gets past SS-3 Bill Spiers, but Winfield is caught stealing by BJ Surhoff to prevent further damage.  Both pitchers work their way out of jams until Parker delivers a 2-out RBI single in the bottom of the 5th that ties the game, and Gary Sheffield follows with another for a Brewers lead.   When Griffin yields a double to Greg Vaughn and a walk in the 6th, he’s gone for Dave Tomlin, who ends the threat with no damage.   However, in the 8th Timlin is injured for the tournament, and Butch Metzger holds to send the game to the 9th with the Padres still down by a run.  But Knudson tosses a perfect 9th to hold on for the 2-1 Brewers victory and the end of the line for the upstart Padres. 

Another couple of teams that had no business making it to round four of the tournament, the 97-loss 2009 Royals and Kyle Davies (8-9, 5.27) taking on the arguably worse 64-90 1947 Senators, with Mickey Haefner (10-14, 3.64) sporting a nice card for a #4 starter on a 90-loss team that was no doubt enhanced by pitching in spacious Griffith Stadium.  The task for the Royals was complicated by lengthy injuries suffered by Mark Teahen and Alex Gordon in their regional final, and RF-2 Mitch Maier doesn’t help matters when he misplays an Eddie Yost single in the top of the 2nd that allows a run to score.  Things just get worse for the Royals when 2B Alberto Callaspo gets injured for 10 games in the bottom of the inning, with the KC bench already badly depleted.  A Sherry Robertson RBI double in the 4th makes it 2-0 Senators, and run-scoring singles from Stan Spence and Al Evans in the 5th extend it to a four-run lead.  The Royals try Jamey Wright from the pen to begin the 6th, and he holds the Nats scoreless for four innings.  However, that’s not quite as good as Haefner, who blanks the battered Royals for nine innings and finishes up a 2-hit shutout as the Senators move on with a 4-0, while the Royals return to the storage drawers to nurse their wounds.  

There were no particular partisans for the Zoom game of the week between the 2010 Rays and the 2007 A's; Tall Tactician liked the look of the 96-win, AL East-winning Rays while brother Chuck would try to squeeze the last dime out of the moneyball A’s, who had handled three pretty good teams in winning Regional #158 despite a mediocre 76-86 record.  Both managers were uneasy about their #4 starters, Wade Davis (12-10, 4.07) for the Rays and Chad Gaudin (11-13, 4.42) for Oakland, and were convinced this was going to be a high scoring affair.  Sure enough, the A’s Milton Bradley proves he’s a gamer with a solo homer off Davis’s generous gopher ball options in the bottom of the 1st, and although an RBI double in the top of the 2nd by Sean Rodriguez makes it a tie game, Mark Ellis homers in the bottom of the inning to put Oakland back on top, 2-1.  However, for the rest of his appearance Gaudin can’t escape an inning without allowing a run, with a Carl Crawford homer tying it in the 3rd, a 2-out RBI single by #9 hitter Bartlett in the 4th, and a run scoring single by Carlos Pena in the 5th providing Tampa with a 4-2 lead.   Meanwhile, Davis has taken control of the game for the Rays, but TT doesn’t trust those homer results and in the 6th moves immediately to Grant Balfour, but that turns out poorly as A’s DH Jack Cust crushes a 2-run homer to tie the game…one that would have been a 3-run homer but Shannon Stewart had been caught stealing.  Chuck then summons the A’s sole decent available relief pitcher, Huston Street, and although the Rays threaten, none score and the game enters the 8th still knotted.  At this point TT opts for the imposing Joaquin Benoit and his 1.34 ERA to try to send the game to extra innings, at which point Street will be toast with only terrible options remaining for the A’s.  However, Nick Swisher foils that plan with a long solo homer, and Street ends his eligibility for the super-regional with a 1-2-3 9th to seal the 5-4 win for the A’s and a trip to round five.  

This round four matchup was a Zoom game of the week, with Toronto-area resident Eaglesfly taking the reins of the 2000 Blue Jays.  The Jay had a middling 83-79 record despite oozing with steroid-era power that had bashed their way through Regional #160, but their rotation also bore the scars of that era and their #4 starter, Steve Trachsel (8-15, 4.80) was certainly no exception.  ColavitoFan volunteered to steer the 1995 Mets, who had a 69-75 record in that strike-shortened season that narrowed his #4 starting options to one:  Dave Mlicki (9-7, 4.26), and to make matters worse they would be without the services of injured 2B Jeff Kent for the foreseeable future.  The game begins ominously for the Jays, as Trachsel is injured while walking the first batter of the game, forcing a move to an already depleted bullpen resulting from some tough regional games.  Paul Quantrill then comes on and promptly allows a run-scoring double to Rico Brogna and the Mets move out to a 1-0 lead.  Unfortunately for the Mets, Mlicki does not get injured while allowing four hits to the Jays in the bottom of the 1st, including RBI hits from Carlos Delgado and Darren Fletcher, and Shannon Stewart adds another in the 2nd as the Jays move out to a 3-1 lead.  Mlicki then fails to get anyone out in the 3rd until allowing a 3-run homer to Tony Batista, and the Jays lead 6-1 but the good news is that ColavitoFan can finally pull the terrible Mlicki and Jason Isringhausen gets the assignment.  In the 4th, a last-minute lineup adjustment by ColavitoFan pays off as Chris Jones leads off the inning with a homer that narrows the gap to 6-2, and Ryan Thompson’s sac fly in the 6th makes it 6-3 as the Mets slowly inch back into the game.  In the top of the 7th, the Jays insert Lance Painter as their 4th pitcher of the game, and he paints the Jays a disastrous picture, yielding five hits including a big 2-run double to Brogna; by the time he’s pulled after recording only two outs, the Mets now hold a one run lead.  From there, it’s Doug Henry and John Franco thwarting the power-packed Jays lineup and the Mets pull off the remarkable comeback for the 7-6 win.  

The survivors:  round five

Two teams with losing records that nonetheless survived to round five, the 1990 Brewers and the 1947 Senators square off to determine which of them will play for the super-regional title.   Both teams were back to the top of their rotation, with the Nats’ Walt Masterson (12-16, 3.13) and Milwaukee’s Ted Higuera (11-10, 3.76) getting the honors.  In the bottom of the 1st, Buddy Lewis (who had just been the subject of a Friday Night Strat trivia question) hits a 2-out RBI double to give the Senators a quick lead, while Masterson is masterful in repeatedly bailing out the bad Nats defense.  The Brewers threaten in the top of the 7th with 1st and 3rd with one out, and the Senators bring in the infield; A-stealer Paul Molitor is tossed out trying to steal second and Masterson fans the next two batters to end the threat.  The Brewers get the tying run in scoring position in the 9th, but Masterson induces a grounder out of Molitor for the third out and the unlikely Washington Senators head to the super-regional finals with the 1-0 shutout gem. 

Brother Chuck had led the 2007 A’s to a come-from-behind win in round four, and although in the process he had burnt Oakland’s best reliever, he would have top-of-the-rotation Dan Haren (15-9, 3.07) on the mound, with RF Travis Buck still out with an injury suffered in the regional.  The matchup against a 1995 Mets team that had pulled off a remarkable comeback in their prior game seemed to merit a Zoom faceoff, and I would try to continue their luck with Bill Pulsipher (5-7, 3.98) hopefully doing better than he had in his round one start that had been won by his bullpen, a game in which Jeff Kent suffered an injury that continued to keep him out of the lineup.  Despite their best hopes, once again Pulsipher proves generous with the hits, yielding a series of RBI hits to Nick Swisher, Mark Ellis, and Dan Johnson as the Mets again are faced with a steep deficit after the top of the 1st.  However, as has been their way they immediately chip away at the lead, with a run scoring on a double play ball hit by Bobby Bonilla and a 2-out RBI single by Todd Hundley narrowing the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the 1st.  Edgardo Alfonso ties the game in the bottom of the 2nd with an RBI single but Eric Chavez homers to lead off the 3rd to reestablish an Oakland lead.  In the 4th, Chaves adds a 2-run triple giving him the two hard parts of a cycle, and he scores on a Johnson single and it’s 7-3 A’s; the good news for the Mets is that Pulsipher can now be pulled, and Mike Birkbeck comes in to hold the A’s at bay for four innings.  In the meantime, Hundley picks up another RBI hit in the 5th and Rico Brogna makes up for missing a HR 1-16 split earlier with a solid HR solo shot in the 7th, and once again the Mets appear to be creeping back into the game.  A leadoff triple by Johnson in the 8th and I decide to go with John Franco for the strikeout to keep the Mets in the game; however, he does one better, with a LOMAX wiping out the running at third and a whiff to finish the inning with emphasis.  However, Mark Ellis gets to Franco with an RBI double in the top of the 9th, meaning that the A’s take an 8-5 lead into the bottom of the inning needing three outs to move on.  With little to work with in the pen, Chuck lets Haren take his shot at the final inning, but after recording an out Jose Vizcaino slaps a base hit, bringing up Bobby Bonilla; Chuck, showing inordinate fear of Bonilla, or perhaps his contract, opts to intentionally walk Bonilla for the second time in the game, a controversial move that puts the tying run at the plate in the form of Todd Hundley.  Hundley then draws a bases on balls, and suddenly the tying run is aboard and Chris Jones steps to the plate.  Now, Jones is only in the game because ColavitoFan had opted for his bat over Tim Bogar’s glove in the prior game, and I had retained that lineup since, after all, it had worked swimmingly in the prior round.  So Haren delivers, the roll is 1-6; a solid home run for a walk-off grand slam that gives the Miracle Mets a 9-8 victory.  A little research revealed that this is actually the 5th walk-off home run of the tournament, and the second (after the 1954 White Sox, how could I forget) to be immortalized on a Zoom game. 

Super-Regional final:  round six

In a very unlikely matchup for a super-regional final, the 64-90 1947 Senators, winners of five straight upsets, found themselves facing the 1995 Mets, who had put together two remarkable comebacks in their past two games to reach this spot.   The Nats would again be the underdogs according to the ELO ratings, but the Mets had some factors that might be equalizers, with Jeff Kent still out to injury, and closer John Franco burnt while their starter Pete Harnisch (2-8, 3.68) was not a Hall of Famer, unlike Washington’s Early Wynn (17-15, 3.64).  The Mets get to start playing from behind once again when the Senators get runs via a Mickey Vernon single and a 2-out double by Sherry Robertson, but Harnisch settles down and the Mets narrow the gap in the 4th when Bobby Bonilla leads off with a tape measure homer.  Two batters later, it’s round five hero Chris Jones with a long 2-run blast and the Mets have uncharacteristically come back to take the lead early in the game.  Although Harnisch is now mowing down the Nats, the Mets move to Jason Isringhausen to begin the 8th, but he loads the bases with two singles and a walk, and then he walks Stan Spence to tie the game with still nobody out.  After a lineout, PH Rick Ferrell laces a 2-run single, another PH Gil Coan adds an RBI single, and Eddie Yost provides a sac fly and suddenly the Mets are once again looking at another large late-inning deficit.  A single to begin the top of the 9th chases Isringhausen, but Doug Henry promptly loads the bases and Mickey Vernon drives the ball through a drawn-in infield and Farrell adds a sac fly and the Mets need another miracle staring at a six run deficit in the bottom of the 9th.  But Wynn isn’t having it, and the Mets go down as the Senators record a statement 9-3 win and become one of the most improbable teams to advance to the final field of 32.  

Interesting card of Super-Regional T:  At first, this may appear to be a partial rerun of this feature from Regional #155, which featured the card of the inestimable Gil Coan, but bear with me, because this is going to turn into a rant (warning: some math ahead).  Now, Mr. Coan once again helped lead his 1947 Senators to victory as a late inning sub, with 6 straight upsets putting them into the final 32 surviving teams in this tournament.  However, if you want to read my writeup on Mr. Coan, I'll refer you to my blog for his regional results, because here I want to take time to express my irritation with the game company for their latest assault on my White Sox.  To begin the math portion of our presentation, getting Mr. Coan to hit .500 is a difficult feat, because for the 50% of rolls where he is on the pitcher's card, he will only hit .256, the league average for the 1947 AL.  He makes up for that with a card on which 68.6% of at-bat results is a hit, which averages out to a projected batting average of .471--not quite .500, but I'll take it.  Now, consider the case of Eddie Murphy from the 1919 White (Black) Sox of the recently issued Deadball Diamond Gems.  Eddie's .486 average puts him in the same ballpark as Gil's--but his card doesn't, because only 37.9% of the AB results are hits.  Combine that with a .268 league average for the 1919 AL, and Eddie's card should be good for a .323 average: not .486, not Ted Williams, not even Pete Rose.  Now, perhaps for some reason Strat wanted to normalize Diamond Gems cards against each other--however, because of the quality of pitching on those teams, the "league average" would be even lower and Murphy would hit for even less.  But even that excuse can be ruled out based upon teammate Shoeless Joe's Diamond Gems card, where Jackson's .351 average presents as a card with 42.7% of ABs resulting in hits, combining for a .348 average against 1919 AL pitching--pretty close.  So why pick on Eddie Murphy--was it because of Beverly Hills Cop III?  Assuming not, I am left with two possible conclusions:  1) that Strat made a mistake and that we are owed an errata card for Murphy (for which I'm not holding my breath), or 2) that Strat suddenly decided (since Coan's 1947 card was only released a few years ago) to provide low AB wonders like Murphy (and Coan and the like) with "imagined" cards, based upon Strat's voodoo projections similar to the 2020 "imagined" or the Negro League DG teams.  If it's the latter, count me in the “opposed” category.  Just give me the card that is merited by the actual stats, and I'll decide how to use it, thank you.  I may be in the minority, but it is an empirical question:  just how well do you think those "2020 imagined" cards sold?