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.