REGIONAL #139:  This draw looked like a lot of fun with a bunch of interesting teams.  For the second bracket in a row, there was a pennant winning Braves team of the 90s, with this one seeking to better the limited success of the version that lost in the second round in the prior regional.  There was also a 2009 Rangers team that would win two pennants in a row beginning the following year, and some teams from the 60s that would include names like Mays, McCovey, Stargell and Clemente.  I had unsuccessfully picked the Braves to win the last regional, but I figured I’d stick to my guns and pick them again, guessing that they would best the Rangers in the final.  The ELO ranks portrayed this as a strong group, with six of the eight teams in the top 1000 and the Braves as favorites in the top 100; however, those ranks identified the Rangers as actually the weakest team in the loaded upper half of the bracket, forecasting that the 2013 Rays would be the Braves’ victim in the finals.

First round action

The first game of the regional looked like a fun one with two good teams from the 60s NL, the 2nd place 91-win 1967 Giants against the 92-win, 3rd place 1966 Pirates:  Mays, McCovey and Hart against Clemente, Stargell, and Clendenon, with SF’s Cy Young Award winning Mike McCormick (22-10, 2.85) against Pittsburgh’s Bob Veale (16-12, 3.02).   However, the Giants look on in horror as McCormick is injured for 8 games upon recording the last out of a perfect 1st inning, and Ron Herbel is called from a shallow Giants bullpen to provide innings.  The Giants give Herbel a lead in the 5th when Jim Davenport misses Veale’s HR 1-5/DO split, but Hal Lanier (1-12) sneaks under the tag at the plate to score…although Davenport is then erased on a Mays lomax.  The Pirates immediately tie things up in the bottom of the inning on a 2-out Stargell single, but Clemente makes the last out by getting injured for 6 games and league officials have to summon more ambulances.  The Giants come alive in the 6th when McCovey leads off with a tape-measure blast and Ollie Brown contributes an RBI single to give SF a 3-1 lead; with Herbel now burnt for the regional the Giants call for their best reliever, Frank Linzy, to replace him.  In the 7th, the unbelievable injury barrage continues, with McCovey knocked out of the game although he could return for the finals if the Giants can make it that far.  With the game tight, they have to stick with Linzy and he enters the 9th in his last inning of eligibility for the regional; he gets two quick outs but then a Mota single and a walk, and the winning run is at the plate in the form of Matty Alou…with his brother Jesus staring at him from left field.  Matty flies out, albeit not to his brother, and the Giants limp on with the 3-1 win, with their best pitcher and hitter injured and their best reliever burnt for the bracket.

The only two 21st century teams in the regional were matched in the first round, with the 2009 Rangers facing the 2013 Rays.  The Rangers won 87 games to finish 2nd in the AL West, but had many of the pieces in place that would lead to pennants in their next two seasons–although as was typical for those teams they were lacking in starting pitching, with Scott Feldman (17-8, 4.08) their top option.  Still, the ELO ranks favored the Rays, who won 92 games to finish 2nd in the AL East, and who were excellent defensively in support of a good rotation with Alex Cobb (11-3, 2.76) getting the round one start.  The Rays open the scoring in the bottom of the 1st on a Wil Myers RBI double, and Myers comes through again in the 3rd with an RBI single that makes it 2-0.  However, in the top of the 5th aging Rangers DH Andruw Jones deposits a 2-run homer into the dim reaches of the Trop, and the game is tied.  When Desmond Jennings rockets a liner past Rangers 1B-4 Hank Blalock for a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out, the Rangers need a strikeout and bring in reliever Neftali Felix as that is his specialty. Sure enough, he whiffs Evan Longoria to bring up Wil Myers, who dribbles a grounder to 2B-2 Ian Kinsler, but Kinsler muffs it and the Rays retake the lead.  A rattled Feliz then walks James Loney to load the bases, and Matt Joyce converts a HR 1-7 for a grand slam and suddenly it’s Tampa 7, Texas 2.  With that lead, Cobb asserts himself to close out the complete game 4-hitter and the Rays head to the semis with the 7-2 win.

In the last regional, I tried to take advantage of the rotation depth of the ‘96 Braves by starting Greg Maddux in the first round to save an awesome John Smoltz for a tough round two matchup.  Although Maddux did his job, Smoltz was defeated in the second round; even so, with the 90-54 WS Champion 1995 Braves now up in this regional, I thought I’d try the same thing, this time saving Maddux by starting Tom Glavine (16-7, 3.08) in the first round.  The Braves faced another NL team impacted by the same work stoppage, the 1994 Pirates, who were probably glad that the season ended early given their 53-61 record–although former Brave Zane Smith (10-8, 3.27) was a solid #1 starter.  The Braves strategy is looking like it’s backfiring right away when an Al Martin double in the top of the 1st sets up a 2-out, 2-run single from Orlando Merced to give the Pirates a lead.  The Pirates get two more in the 4th with a two out rally involving a Don Slaught RBI single followed by Andy Van Slyke’s double that scores one, with Slaught nailed at the plate to end the inning, and the 5th inning also ends for the Pirates in a similar fashion, with Al Martin (1-16) cut down to keep the score at 4-0.  When Glavine allows a double to Dave Clark in the 7th, his 10th hit allowed, the Braves turn to closer Mark Wohlers and he strikes out two straight Pirates to do his job.  Still, Atlanta can’t muster anything against Smith, and Pittsburgh brings in the defensive replacements in the 8th to try to close out the upset.  Finally, with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th, Fred McGriff finds Smith’s HR result for a solo shot, but that is far too little and far too late as Chipper Jones flies out and the Pirates win 4-1 and send yet another pennant winner back into storage with a first round loss.  And, once again I find that attempting to “save” a team’s ace starter for later rounds is usually ill-advised.

The 1987 Brewers won 91 games assisted by their Hall of Famers Yount and Molitor, and with the possibility of facing Greg Maddux in the semis eliminated they could start their ace Ted Higuera (18-10, 3.85) with no misgivings.  That is probably fortunate, because they would be facing an imposing Mike Cuellar (12-10, 2.22) of the 1966 Astros, a team that lost 90 games and were discovering that it was very hard to hit homers in their new domed stadium.   Both pitchers begin the game strong, but the long-term hopes of the Brewers take a crushing blow in the 3rd when Yount gets injured for 8 games in his second AB of the tournament.  In the 4th, Jim Gentile manages to reach the stands in the Astrodome for a solo shot that is the Astros’ first hit of the game.  However, in the 6th Mike Felder, in for Yount, singles, steals second, and scores on a 2-out hit by Greg Brock to tie the game, and in the bottom of the inning the injury bug hits Astros C John Bateman, out for 2 games.  The dice leave no doubt in the 8th that it is open season on all-stars in this regional, as Molitor goes down for 2 games, and to add injury to injury Bateman’s replacement, Bill Heath, gets knocked out for the rest of the game in the bottom of the inning.  To recap, entering the 9th inning, the score is 1-1, there have been 5 total hits in the game, and 4 total injuries.  To lead off the top of the 9th, Bill Schoeder singles for the Brewers and Jimmy Wynn misplays it, sending Schroeder to second where he scores on a Brock single to give Milwaukee their first lead.  That means it’s Higuera’s game to clinch, but after getting one out in the bottom of the 9th Wynn singles and 1B-3 Brock mishandles a Lee Maye grounder, so the tying and winning run are now aboard for Rusty Staub.  Higuera walks Staub to load the bases and the Brewers summon Dan Plesac from the pen to try to bail things out.  With grounder-prone Chuck Harrison at the plate, the Brewers play for the game-ending double play, but Plesac whiffs him and there are two out, and Bob Aspromonte is up.  It’s a sharp grounder to injury replacement Jim Gantner; he fields it cleanly and the battered but unbowed Brewers head to the semis with a 2-1 win on a combined 3-hitter from Higuera and Plesac.   

The survivors

The 2013 Rays were feeling pretty good about their chances in this regional, with their main competitors either eliminated or wracked by injuries while the Rays were at full strength with a fully rested bullpen to support Chris Archer (9-7, 3.22) if that should be necessary.  Meanwhile, with their bullpen depleted after their first round game, the 1967 Giants were relying on a complete game from workhorse Gaylord Perry (15-17, 2.61) and were hoping to survive this semifinal game and get McCovey back for the finals.  But things just keep getting worser for the Giants, and their now-leading HR hitter with McCovey out, Jim Hart, goes down with a 10 game injury in the top of the 1st.  An irate Giants team comes out charging in the 2nd, loading the bases for a 2-out double from .213 hitting Hal Lanier, but what should happen in the bottom of the 2nd but Rays DH Kelly Johnson rolling the 6-12 for a 2-game injury to Perry.  The Giants seem to take it in stride, rallying for two more runs in the 3rd on a Willie Mays single and a Jack Hiatt fielder’s choice, and SF leads 4-0.  A double by Hart’s replacement Bob Schroeder sets up a sac fly by Mays in the 5th, and meanwhile Lindy McDaniel tosses four innings of no-hit relief.  In the 7th Jim Davenport homers off Archer’s card, and he’s sent to the showers for Fernando Rodney, while Joe Gibbon has to come in to relieve the depleted McDaniel in the bottom of the inning.   Gibbon starts out great guns, but with two out in the 8th he allows three straight hits, the last an RBI single for Ben Zobrist, and the Giants lead is 5 heading into the 9th.  Rodney puts the Giants down in order, so it’s up to Gibbon, who retires the side to preserve the 6-1 Giants win and a berth in the finals, with McCovey returning but Hart, Perry, McCormick injured and an empty bullpen with four relievers burnt.

The #7 seeded 1994 Pirates managed to eliminate the regional favorite in the first round, although the strike-shortened season made for a limited pitching staff with Jon Lieber (6-7, 3.73) their best remaining option.  Fortunately for them, they faced a depleted 1987 Brewers team whose primary claim to fame was two Hall of Famers–both of whom would miss this game due to injury.   The Brewers opted to go with swingman Chuck Crim (6-8, 3.67) as their best bet to get to the finals, but the Pirates greet him with back to back doubles from Andy Van Slyke and Al Martin to begin the game, and a Jay Bell RBI single makes it 2-0 before the Brewers can bat.  A Greg Brock sac fly in the bottom of the 1st narrows the gap to 2-1, but in the 3rd Martin singles, steals second and scores once again on a Bell single to restore the two run lead.  That lead evaporates when a Don Slaught error opens the door to 2-out RBI singles from BJ Surhoff and Jim Gantner, and we enter the 5th inning with the game reset to even and both teams leading off with the top of their orders.  That works best for the Brewers, as Glenn Braggs hits a solo HR in the bottom of the 5th to give Milwaukee their first lead, and Gantner (in for the injured Molitor) continues to prove his mettle by doubling home Surhoff with two out in the 6th.  The Pirates look at a bullpen, vainly hoping to see someone who isn’t terrible, but there’s nobody home and they decide to stick for a while longer with Lieber, who does end the inning without further damage but with the Pirates now down by two.  When Brock adds an RBI single in the 7th, the Pirates can take no more and try Randy Tomlin in relief, but SS-2 Jay Bell boots a grounder for the Pirates’ second error of the inning and the Brewers take a 7-3 lead into the 8th hoping that Crim can hang on and rest closer Plesac for the final.  That isn’t looking promising when Al Martin leads off the 8th with a homer, and then Crim loads the bases setting up a 2-out single by Carlos Garcia that scores one, but lumbering Lance Parrish is nailed at the plate and it’s now a 2-run game.  But Crim recovers and sets down the Pirates in order in the 9th to preserve the 7-5 win and push the Brewers into the finals.

One might think that a single elimination tournament would minimize the importance of team depth, but the finals of this regional demonstrate otherwise, as two injury-wracked teams manage to survive with clutch performances by players like Jim Gantner and Bob Schroder off the bench.  The 1987 Brewers had to reach the finals without any contribution from their two Hall of Famers, Yount and Molitor, while the 1967 Giants were an even sadder story:  they lost their two top HR hitters, McCovey and Hart, and ALSO managed to lose their #1 and #2 starting pitchers, McCormick and Perry, before the second inning of each game was over–totally depleting their bullpen for the final.   Fortunately for the Giants, starter Juan Marichal (14-10, 2.76) seemed perfectly capable of going nine if he could avoid injury, and they were also bolstered by the return of McCovey.  Similarly, the Brewers were getting Molitor back, and although Bill Wegman (12-11, 4.24) was not an inspiring starter, they did have a fully rested Dan Plesac ready to go out of the pen.  The Brewers start things off in the bottom of the 1st when DH Bill Schroeder finds Marichal’s HR split for a solo shot, and then of course in the second their 3B Ernest Riles goes down with a 2 game injury, meaning that Jim Gantner only missed one AB on the bench before he’s back in the game.  Meanwhile, Wegman takes a perfect game into the 6th but finally allows a double to Tito Fuentes with one out, and Plesac starts warming up in the pen.  Wegman gets one more out but then allows another double to Jim Davenport, and the game is tied and Plesac is summoned to try to keep it that way.  But he allows a single to Tom Haller, Davenport is running with the pitch, and he scores to give the Giants their first lead.  That lasts until the bottom of the 8th when Schroeder clouts a long solo shot, this time off his own card, and then Marichal absolutely disintegrates, allowing a walk and 5 straight hits as the Brew Crew bats around and Schroeder finally flies out to end the inning with Milwaukee having put up seven runs in the inning.  For the 9th, the Brewers take a risk and pull Plesac to try to preserve his innings for future rounds, even though the rest of their pen is terrible with Mark Clear given the job of getting three outs.  Clear comes in and strikes out Haller, McCovey, and Mays and the Brewers win 8-2 to capture only their second regional crown (joining the 2003 team) and doing so without the services of arguably their best player, Robin Yount, who was knocked out of the tournament almost immediately.

Interesting card of Regional #139:  He may have been injured for most of the regional, and his fielding was a source of concern (he was a 2b-4 e11 in advanced, which helps a little), but I still  quite like this Paul Molitor card, based on a season in which he finished 5th in the MVP vote.  To me, this is an ideal #2 batter.  He gets on base, he has plenty of extra base potential, he doesn’t hit into a lot of DPs, and he’s a serious base stealing threat that can cause additional disruption for the heart of the order.  Aside from the fact that the injury-plagued Brewers won the regional, I also wanted to show the card to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the least-legible cards ever printed by the game company.   These things were such a challenge to read at the time that the company, not known for their eagerness to change, immediately altered the appearance of the cards the next year to make them more easy to read.  This was also the first season of the perforated cards, of which I’ve never been a fan, but after three and a half decades I guess I’m used to it.  I’m just happy that the blue-print-on-blue-background experiment was a brief one.

REGIONAL #138:  The attention-grabbers in this group were two pennant-winning squads, the 1996 Braves with that great rotation that dominated the NL in that era, and the power-laden 2004 Cardinals.  In addition, there is another representative from the Braves franchise–Milwaukee variant–that I suspected would be pretty strong, as well as a pair of Cubs teams and another 2004 team from KC that was probably bad.  I put my money on an all-Braves final, with the ‘96 squad riding their pitching staff to the crown.  The ELO ranks were quite enthusiastic about those ‘04 Cards, however, and picked them over the ‘99 Rangers in the final.

First round action

The pennant-winning, 96-win 1996 Braves were such prohibitive favorites over the 103-loss 1962 Cubs, I decided to do something I sort of stopped doing years ago in this tournament:  save their best pitcher for a tough matchup anticipated in the second round.  Of course, it helps when your alternative pitcher is Greg Maddux (15-11, 2.72).  Upon grabbing the Cubs and setting their lineup, I thought to myself “hey, this isn’t a bad team for one that had trouble staying in front of the ‘62 Mets”--but then I realized I had grabbed the wrong Cubs team, ‘67 instead of ‘62, and upon further review, yes indeed they were not good.  However, they did have a core of the same players–Banks, Santo, Billy Williams–and their starting pitcher, Bob Buhl (12-14, 3.87) was decent, so I was a little nervous about the Maddux strategy.  I didn’t get less nervous in the top of the 1st when Chipper Jones hits into a DP that scores a run, but he gets injured for 5 games in the process.  Maddux then allows three straight hits in the bottom of the 1st to load the bases, then walks Ron Santo and the score is tied and the second-guessing is in full swing.  However, Buhl issues a couple of walks in the 5th to load the bases, and then Mark Lemke squibs a single past Ron Santo, and Dave Justice adds a sac fly to make it 3-1 Braves, but in the bottom of the inning Maddux again allows three hits, including an RBI single by Banks, and the lead is narrowed to 3-2.  In the 6th, Jermaine Dye singles to score McGriff, and they add another in the 7th when LF-4 Billy Williams (I remember him being a better fielder than that) turns a McGriff fly into a double.  When Dye doubles in the 8th and Lemke singles him home, the Cubs run up the white flag on Buhl and Barney Schultz gets his turn.  Schultz does his job, so it comes down to Maddux against the Cubs in the bottom of the 9th.  Lou Brock (probably shouldn’t have traded him) singles, but Maddux gets two outs to face RF George Altman–who misses a TR 1-4/DO split but with 2 out Brock is 1-19 going home and I figure it will at least make the final score look closer.  But, of course….split roll is 20, game over, and yet another bad decision by me sends a team back to the drawers and the Braves advance with the 6-2 win.  

The top-seeded 2004 Cardinals won 105 games and the NL, although they infamously lost to the Red Sox in the Series to break the curse of the Bambino–despite honoring the Babe with a slew of homer hitters like Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen.   The 1953 A’s were getting ready to pack up and leave Philadelphia for Kansas City, and aside from Gus Zernial there wasn’t much in the way of offense, although starter Alex Kellner (11-12, 3.93) was a decent option to go against the Cards’ ace Chris Carpenter (15-5, 3.46).  The A’s issue a wake-up call in the top of the 1st when Eddie Joost scores on a Ray Murray single, but the Cards quickly tie things up on a Pujols RBI single and almost take the lead, but Larry Walker gets nailed at the plate.  Walker is thrown out again in the 3rd trying to score on Pujols single, and the St. Louis thirdbase coach receives revised instructions about Walker’s baserunning.  In the 4th, Cards LF John Mabry turns a Joe DeMaestri flyball into a double, scoring Eddie Robinson as the A’s regain the lead, but a 2-run homer by Cards DH  Reggie Sanders in the bottom of the inning and the Cards now lead 3-2.  A nervous Cards team moves to closer Jason Isringhausen to begin the 8th, and after a perfect inning his job gets a lot easier when Scott Rolen pokes a 2-run HR in the bottom of the inning to pad the St. Louis lead.  To preserve Izzy, the Cards move to Steve Kline for the 9th inning, and he is also perfect to wrap up the 5-2 win and send the Cards to the semifinals.

After having previously set their lineup when I confused them with their hapless 1962 brethren, I could now play a much better 1967 Cubs that won 87 games with the core of a team that consistently competed for pennants for several years, sporting 20-game winner Ferguson Jenkins (20-13, 2.80) on the mound.  However, they were ELO underdogs against the seriously juiced lineup of the 1999 Rangers, who won 95 games and the AL West and had Rafael Palmiero (5th in the MVP votes), Juan Gonzalez, and Ivan Rodriguez fortified to provide Aaron Sele (18-9, 4.79) with run support.  That support begins with a solo shot by Pudge in the 2nd to give the Rangers their first run, and Tom Goodwin finds Jenkins’ HR result to lead off the 3rd for a 2-0 lead.  However, CF-2 Goodwin then gives up a double to Ted Savage in the bottom of the inning for the first Cubs hit and the first Cubs run, but in the 7th Rusty Greer leads off and also finds Jenkins’ homer, and the Ranger lead 3-1 going into the 7th inning stretch.  Sele hangs tough but when the Cubs get two straight singles to begin the bottom of the 9th, they head to the pen for Jeff Zimmerman, who has no complete hits on his card.  Zimmerman walks Randy Hundley, and then Glenn Beckert’s sac fly makes it a one-run game with the tying run in scoring position and the winning run on first.  Cubs DH Clarence Jones then singles past 3B defensive replacement Jon Shave to tie the game and put the winning run 90 feet away.  Zimmerman then walks #9 batter Don Kessinger and the bases are loaded for Adolpho Phillips; the infield stays in and Phillips whiffs to bring up Ted Savage for all the marbles.  Zimmerman delivers, Savage lines out, and the game heads to extra innings.  The 10th inning goes quietly, so the Cubs have to move to Chuck Hartenstein out of the pen in the 11th; he does the job, but Clarence Jones misses Zimmerman’s HR 1-14/flyB split in the bottom of the frame and the game proceeds to the 12th.  In the top of the inning Greer hits his second solo HR off the pitcher’s card in this game, and the Rangers take a one run lead into the bottom of the inning, summoning John Wetteland to try to preserve some eligibility for Zimmerman, but Adolpho Phillips finds Wetteland’s HR result to tie the game back up and we head to the 13th.  Roberto Kelly leads off with a double and scores on Palmiero’s long single to give the Rangers the lead once again, and although the Cubs get Beckert into scoring position when Royce Clayton fails to convert a DP, Wetteland hangs on and the Rangers take the 5-4 marathon win.

When I saw that a Braves team from the early ‘60s was involved in the regional, I figured that with Hammering Hank, Eddie Matthews, and Warren Spahn, the 1963 Braves had to be pretty good.  Yet, although those three led them to a winning record of 84-78, after setting the lineup it was clear that there wasn’t much of a supporting cast.  However, it didn’t seem like much support would be needed against the 104-loss 2004 Royals, a team with too many DHs and too little of anything else.  The pitching matchup was quite an age contrast between 20 year old Zack Greinke (8-11, 3.97) and Spahn (23-7, 2.60), who at age 42 was more than twice Greinke’s age.  However, the Royals show no respect for the elder Spahn when they begin the 2nd inning with three straight hits, the third one a 2-run double for Joe Randa, and Tony Graffanino singles in Randa and the Royals have a 3-0 lead.  In the 3rd, a two-base error by RF-2 Hank Aaron sets up a sac fly by Randa, and one inning later Graffanino finds Spahn’s HR result and Denis Menke boots a two-out grounder and the Royals lead is up to 6-0, and Milwaukee fans start looking for real estate in Atlanta.   From there it’s academic as the Braves can’t solve Greinke, who ends up with a 6-hit shutout as the Royals head to the semis with the 6-0 upset win.

The survivors

The first semifinal is the most anticipated matchup of the regional between two pennant winners.  The 1996 Braves must go without their injured HOF 3B Chipper Jones, but they saved another HOFer, Cy Young Award winner John Smoltz (24-8, 2.94), for this game.  In contrast, the 2004 Cardinals were at full strength with their power-laden lineup although Jason Marquis (15-7, 3.71), coincidentally just acquired from the Braves, was hardly a Cy Young candidate.  Both pitchers dominate until the top of the 5th, when Cards LF-3 John Mabry allows a double to Jeff Blauser that scores two, but in the bottom of the inning Mabry atones by swatting a solo HR, the first hit off Smoltz.  Smoltz then loses his composure, allowing three straight hits plus a 2-base error by RF-3 Jermaine Dye, and the Cards take a 3-2 lead.  They add another run to their lead when Pujols leads off the 5th with a homer, but they then lose Mabry to injury for two games and bring in defensive replacement Taguchi.  Smoltz settles down, but Marquis is steady and the Cards enter the top of the 9th with a two-run lead.   With one out, Braves PH Jerome Walton singles, but Mark Lemke hits into a game-ending DP and the Cardinals take the clash of the titans with a 4-2 win, despite a 5-hitter from Smoltz.

This semifinal matches the #3 seed 1999 Rangers and the #7 seed 2004 Royals, with neither team being blessed with an abundance of adequate starting pitching.  The Rangers were banking that their huge offense would feast on Royals swingman Dennys Reyes (4-8. 4.75) while hoping that their own swingman Esteban Loaiza (9-5, 4.56) could keep the Royals in single digits.   The Rangers strike quickly in the top of the 1st with back to back triples from Royce Clayton and Mark McLemore and grab a 2-0 lead, and a Pudge Rodriguez RBI single in the 2nd makes it 3-0.  However, the Royals were lucky in round one and continue that trend in the bottom of the inning, with Texas 1b-2 Rafael Palmiero making a 2-base error with the bases loaded and when David Dejesus follows with a 2-run single KC takes a 4-3 lead.  However, Reyes begins the 4th allowing five straight baserunners, including a 2-run poke by Rodriguez that gives Texas their lead back, and the Royals move to Jaime Cerda out of the pen but by the time the inning ends the Rangers lead 8-4.  Unfazed, the Royals retaliate in the bottom of the inning with a Graffanino RBI single and a Dejesus sac fly to cut the Texas lead to two, and fourteen runs have been scored with the game less than half over.  In the 5th, Angel Berroa hits a 2-out single and, counting on their luck, John Buck (1-11) stomps home from second and it’s a one-run game entering the 6th, with the Royals summoning their supersubs to try to match the Rangers’ firepower.  One of those subs, C Kelly Stinnett, contributes an RBI single in the 6th and we have a tie game and the Rangers are sweating with their bullpen seriously depleted following their extra-inning game in the first round.  But the Rangers load the bases in the top of the 7th assisted by two Royals errors, and Todd Zeile clears them with a 2-out double, and Cerda ends his eligibility for the regional by handing Texas a 12-8 lead.  Of course, the Royals immediately load the bases against Loaiza in the bottom of the inning and the Rangers have seen enough, bring in Mike Venafro, who promptly walks in a run but then induces a double play from Matt Stairs to prevent further damage.  Thus, Loaiza leaves the game with 9 runs charged to him, meaning that he did manage to avoid double-digits.  The Royals start the 8th with the best of their terrible remaining relievers, D.J. Carrasco, and the KC faithful give him a standing ovation when he tosses a perfect inning, but the adulation ends when Palmiero leads off the 9th with a homer that pushes the Texas lead to four.  In the bottom of the 9th, the Royals get two hits off Venafro, but he makes a nifty play on a Carlos Beltran grounder to end the game and preserve the 13-9 win and a berth in the finals.

The finals pair two offensive juggernauts, the #1 seeded 2004 Cardinals (214 team HR) and the #3 seed 1999 Rangers (230 team HR), and with neither team boasting a great rotation the number three starters for the two teams, Rick Helling (13-11, 4.84) for the Rangers and Woody Williams (11-8, 4.18) were both likely to be on a short leash.  The pitchers begin things decently, but in the 4th Helling allows a single and two walks, all off his card, and then allows a 2-run single to Renteria–also off Helling’s card.  The hits keep coming, including a two-run double from Jim Edmonds, and the Rangers get their starter the Helling out of there after 3+ innings, with a rested Zimmerman coming in to try his luck.  He retires Pujols to end the inning, but the Cards lead 5-0.  The Rangers move to their closer Wetteland in the 8th, and that goes off the rails as he allows four hits, including a 3-run blast by Edmonds, and Texas has two innings left to make up an 8-run deficit.  They do nothing in the 8th, and Williams takes a 2-hitter into the bottom of the 9th.  He gets one out, but then the Rangers reel off four straight hits, including RBI singles from Rodriguez and Rusty Greer, and the Cards bring closer Jason Isringhausen just to be safe.  He makes one pitch to Todd Zeile, who hits into a DP, and it’s game, set, and regional to the Cards with the 8-2 win over the Rangers–exactly as the ELO ranks predicted.  

Interesting card of Regional #138:  With a homer, a double, and five RBI in the final, this guy merited consideration for the MVP of the regional, as he did for NL MVP this season.  However, he only finished 5th in that 2004 voting, but talk about splitting the vote:  his teammates Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen finished 3rd and 4th, respectively.  Although he hit a few homers less than Pujols, he actually had a higher OBP and the OPS for the two was very close, with a slight edge to Albert.   Even so, anybody who watched the Cards during those years (or the Angels before them) knows that Edmonds would have been quite valuable even if he couldn’t hit a lick, mainly because he was one of the best centerfielders in recent memory–a mainstay on the highlight reels with incredible catches.  Of course, Rolen was also a great fielder but wasn’t quite the hitter that Edmonds was this season.  I’m not sure how the voters sorted it all out, but it’s easy to see how the Cards won the pennant and this regional with three strong MVP candidates.   With better pitching, this team could have been one of the all-time greats.

REGIONAL #137:  With no pennant winners in this group, there weren’t too many teams that jumped out at me as likely to be dominating.  The most attention-grabbing was the 1964 Dodgers, who won the NL in both the year before and after, and they had to be in the midst of those Koufax/Drysdale killer rotations.   I did know that the 1965 Red Sox would win the pennant two years later, but I also remembered that the pennant was a huge surprise because the team had been terrible in prior seasons, so I didn’t think much of their chances.  Instead, my hunch was that the ‘92 Expos would be competitive, and that maybe one of the two Pirates entries could put together a run.  However, my money was on the Dodgers, as I picked them over the Expos in the finals.   For a change, the ELO ranks aligned very well with my memory, although those ranks gave the Expos a slight edge over the Dodgers in the final.

First round action

The 75-87 1984 Pirates were a very different team than the one that excelled in the 70s–gone were the big home run hitters, and the team tried to offset an anemic offense and porous defense with a solid pitching staff, with a rotation headed by Rick Rhoden (14-9, 2.72).  They faced a team with a mirror image record, the 87-75 1992 Expos, who seemed a bit better in all respects–hitting, pitching, and defense–including the starter Dennis Martinez (16-11, 2.47).  The Expos take a 1-0 lead in the 3rd on back-to-back doubles–both on missed HR splits–by Larry Walker and Moises Alou, but Tony Pena scores on a Marvell Wynne grounder in the top of the 4th and the Pirates quickly tie it up.  They then take the lead in the 5th as they keep finding Martinez’ 5-6 DO 1-8/SI** result, leading to an RBI for Pena, but the Expos respond immediately in the bottom of the inning with a two out rally, involving clutch RBI singles from Alou and Marquis Grissom, and Montreal takes a 4-2 lead.  Another two out rally in the 6th for the Expos, with an RBI single for Spike Owen, and the Pirates call on Kent Tekulve to try to restore order.  In the 7th, Pirates RF Doug Frobel finds one of his oddly-placed homers for a solo shot that narrows the gap, but Tim Wallach matches that in the 8th by converting a HR 1-3 split and the Expos hand Martinez a three-run lead entering the 9th.  He sets the Pirates down in order and the Expos move on to the semifinals with a 6-3 win.

For a recent expansion team, the 1973 Brewers had made significant steps towards respectability, going 74-88 and even sporting a 20-game winner in Jim Colborn (20-12, 3.18), a feat that placed him 6th in the Cy Young voting.  The 2002 Royals did not have expansion as an excuse, losing 100 games although they had some weapons such as Carlos Beltran and one decent starter in Paul Byrd (17-11, 3.90).  The Brewers start out hot, with the top of the 1st seeing runs scoring on a George Scott single, a Dave May double, and a Darrell Porter triple, and a May sac fly in the 3rd extends the lead to 4-0.  An RBI single from Brent Mayne gets the Royals on the board in the 4th, but John Briggs matches that in the 7th and Byrd is yanked for Scott Mullen.  But Mullen allows four hits off his card in the 9th and Colborn enters the bottom of the 9th with an 8-1 lead and he sets the bottom of the order down in order to finish up the complete game 7-hitter, sending the Brewers to the semifinal in pursuit of only their second regional title.

The 1948 Pirates had a middling ELO ranking, but had a winning record (83-71) courtesy of Ralph Kiner and a solid if unspectacular rotation fronted by Bob Chesnes (14-6, 3.57).  They faced an 84-77 2008 Marlins team with a similar ranking but a very different build, with eight guys in the lineup with double digit homers but gaping holes on defense and a gopher ball-prone pitching staff, with Ricky Nolasco (15-8, 3.52) pulling the first round start.  Kiner misses a HR 1-11/flyB split in the bottom of the 1st, and in the 2nd the appropriately named Clyde Kluttz allows a wild pitch in the top of the inning, and then leaves the bases loaded while getting injured in the bottom of the inning, so the game remains scoreless.   That ends when Jorge Cantu nails a 2-out solo HR in the top of the 4th and the Marlins draw first blood.  In the 6th, Dan Uggla nails a leadoff double and scores on a Cody Ross sac fly to make it 2-0, while in the 7th Pirates injury replacement catcher Ed Fitzgerald himself gets injured, and it’s just not looking like Pittsburgh’s day.  The Pirates get men on 1st and 3rd with one out in the 8th, courtesy of an ugly error by Marlin 2B-4 Uggla, but Florida decides to stick with Nolasco, who has been pitching out of jams all game.  Dixie Walker makes them regret that with an RBI single off Nolasco’s card, and the Marlins bring in both the infield and closer Kevin Gregg to try to retain the lead.  Gregg walks Johnny Hopp to load the bases, but a Gustine grounder and Hopp is nailed at home to make it two outs with the bases still loaded.  Up comes emergency catcher Max West and his .178 average, and he grounds out so the game heads to the 9th with the Marlins still clinging to a one run lead.  In the top of the inning, Marlins defensive replacement Alfredo Amezaga hits a two out single with Cantu on 2nd, but Cantu (1-14) is cut down at the plate and we head to the bottom of the 9th with the Pirates needing a run to stay alive and the top of their order up.  Gregg makes a fine play on a Stan Rojek grounder, Murtaugh flies out, andup comes Ralph Kiner; a cautious Gregg walks Kiner and gets Westlake to ground out and the Marlins eke out the 2-1 win, holding the Pirates to 6 hits.  

The last game of the first round featured two teams from the Beatlemania era, the 1964 Dodgers and the 1965 Red Sox, and both squads had important flaws but had major parts of pennant winners already assembled.  For the 100-loss Red Sox, there was Yaz, Petrocelli, and Tony C. making contributions, but they would have to face the ace of the 80-82 Dodgers, Sandy Koufax (19-5, 1.74), finishing 3rd in the Cy Young vote.  The Red Sox countered with workhorse Earl Wilson (13-14, 3.97), but the Dodgers figure out Wilson early in the 1st when big Frank Howard doubles off Wilson’s card with two out, and then DH Derrell Griffith finds Wilson’s HR result for a 2-0 LA lead.  Meanwhile, the Red Sox don’t get a baserunner against Koufax until Yaz walks in the 4th.  In the 6th, Willie Davis singles for the Dodgers, but is nailed trying to steal second; Howard follows that with what turns into a solo HR, and the Dodgers lead 3-0 and Boston still doesn’t have a hit.  That finally changes with two out in the 8th, as Dalton Jones pokes a single to break up the no-no, but in the bottom of the inning Maury Wills singles, steals second, and scores on a Willie Davis single and Koufax isn’t giving up anything in the 9th, closing out the 4-0 one-hitter in which he struck out six but walked five (three by Yaz).   

The survivors

The first semifinal matched the #1 seed 1992 Expos, with Ken Hill (16-9, 2.68) on the mound (PS:  I watched Hill’s son play QB in college), and the #6 seeded 1973 Brewers and Jerry Bell (9-9, 3.97).  The Brewers start fast in the bottom of the 1st when leadoff hitter Ollie Brown goes downtown, but a two-base error in the 3rd by Montreal 3B-2 Don Money sets up an RBI single for Delino Deshields that ties the game with the Expos’ first hit.  Money atones in the bottom of the inning with a 2-out double and he’s driven in on a Dave May single and the Brewers regain the lead, and a John Briggs homer to lead off the 4th pushes the Milwaukee lead to 3-1.  However, Bell issues two walks to lead off the 6th and a Larry Walker single (only their second hit of the game) and a Moises Alou fielder’s choice tie things back up, and things get worse for the Brewers when George Scott gets injured for two games leading off the bottom of the inning.  Doubles from Walker and Ivan Calderon give the Expos their first lead in the top of the 8th, but Tim Wallach gets cut down trying to score with two out in the top of the 9th so the Brewers have their last chance looking at a one-run deficit.  A one-out single from Darrell Porter and the Expos bring in Mel Rojas to try to lock things down; he whiffs Briggs but walks Coluccio and the tying run is on second in the form of pinch-runner Bob Mitchell.  Rojas delivers to Pedro Garcia; SI* 1-4, split roll unlucky 13, and the top seeded Expos escape to the finals with a hard-fought 4-3 comeback win.    

A semifinal between two very different teams, the 1964 Dodgers with Don Drysdale on the mound (18-16, 2.19), and the 2008 Marlins and Scott Olson (8-11, 4.20), who had more HR chances on his card than nearly all of the Dodgers’ hitters.  However, it looks like the dice are going the Marlins’ way when Luis Gonzalez converts Drysdale’s HR 1-2/flyB result with a 1 roll, and a rattled Drysdale then allows a double to Jeremy Hermida who scores on a Matt Treanor single.  Some Olson wildness enables the Dodgers to load the bases in the bottom of the 4th, but Jim Gilliam fails to come through in the clutch and the score remains 2-0.  However, Nate Oliver and Willie Davis both find Olson’s solid 5-9 HR result in the 5th for solo shots that tie the game.  When Ron Fairly singles to lead off the 6th, Olson is pulled in favor of Arthur Rhodes, but Rhodes issues two straight walks to set up an Oliver sac fly that gives the Dodgers their first lead.  From there, Drysdale hangs tough despite some challenges from LA’s uneven defense, and the Dodgers head to the finals with a 3-2 win, although the next starter in their rotation is unlikely to be anywhere near the caliber of their first two.

The regional final was as ELO predicted, with the #1 seed 1992 Expos and the #2 seed 1964 Dodgers having both survived serious scares to reach this faceoff.   Entering the back half of their rotations, both teams opted for swingmen, the Expos with Brian Barnes (6-6, 2.97) and LA trying Bob Miller (7-7, 2.61) as a follow-up act to Koufax and Drysdale. It’s a rough start for the Dodgers when DH Derrell Griffith gets injured for 6 games in the first inning to weaken an already feeble offense, and when Maury Wills also goes down for 6 games in the 3rd there seems to be more Dodgers in the hospital than on the bench.  But Miller is still hanging in there, bailed out when Tim Wallach is gunned down trying to score on a Deshields single to end the 4th.  The Expos return the favor in the 5th, nailing Ron Fairly at the plate trying to score on a John Roseboro double, but Nate Oliver contributes a clutch 2-out single that scores Roseboro and LA takes a slim lead.  It doesn’t last long, as Les Expos open the 7th with two straight singles, and then a Larry Walker double drives in two for a Montreal lead.  The Dodgers get men on 1st and 3rd in the bottom of the inning, but can’t get them across the plate, and Spike Owen homers to lead off the 8th and the Expos lead 3-1.  When Frank Howard doubles to lead off the bottom of the 8th, Montreal brings in John Wetteland to try to maintain order, but Wes Parker advances him to 3rd on a groundout and Tommy Davis brings him home with a sac fly to make it a one-run game entering the 9th.  Miller holds serve despite a Jim Gilliam error, so it’s the bottom of the 9th and the Expos turn to Mel Rojas to close things out.  He blows through the bottom of the LA order, in order, and the Expos close out the 3-2 win to take the third regional title for the franchise, joining the 1976 and 1991 teams.  

Interesting card of Regional #137:  In the four seasons between 1963 and 1966, Sandy Koufax won three Cy Young Award in three of them.   This card represents the season in which he DIDN’T win, although he still led the league in winning percentage, ERA, WHIP, shutouts, and SO/9, so maybe the voters wanted to spread the laurels around a bit.  Nonetheless, this card was good enough for a one-hitter in this regional, only losing the no-no with two out in the 8th.  It is particularly worth noting that it was this season when Koufax’s arthritis had seriously set in; in early August, Koufax dove back to the bag on a pickoff attempt and injured his elbow, and the resulting assessment revealed how serious his arthritis had become so he was shut down for the ‘64 season on August 19.  As is widely known, he managed to hang on for two more seasons, winning the Cy Young while leading the Dodgers to the pennant in both of them–marking perhaps the greatest culmination of a pitching career in the history of baseball.

REGIONAL #136:  The closest this bracket would get to a pennant winner would be the 1988 Twins, who had famously won the World Series the previous season.   There was a Giants team that had won a pennant four years prior and would win one four years later, but this version was best known as one of the final years of the home run hitter who by this time was nameless, at least on his card.  Most of the other teams didn’t seem serious contenders to me; there were a couple of fairly recent Diamondback teams, and alliterative entries from the Angels, A’s, and Astros that all seemed like Also-rans.   So I was guessing a Twins-Giants final, with my suspicion being that the PED-assisted Giants would come out on top.   The ELO ranks indicated that I had totally overlooked the 2003 Braves, who were actually ranked as the best team in the NL that season, and those rankings predicted the Braves over the Twins in the final. 

First round action

The first matchup of the regional featured two teams that lived and died by the longball:  the 76-85 2006 Giants and the 81-81 2012 Diamondbacks.   The Giants featured the next to last season of one Barry Bonds (we think, given there is no name on the card), who only managed 26 HR while battling nagging injuries, a number bettered by Arizona’s Jason Kubel.  The Dbacks’ Wade Miley (16-11, 3.33) looked like an advantage over SF’s Matt Cain (13-12, 4.15), but both pitchers start out strong as neither team can record a hit until the bottom of the 3rd.  It’s not until the top of the 7th that a run is scored, with Arizona CF Chris Young connecting on a solo HR (located at 1-2, requiring triple snake eyes) for only the second Dback hit of the game.  That seems to wake up the sleeping Giants, as Eliezer Alfonzo leads off the bottom of the inning with a double and Shea Hillenbrand follows with a triple that ties the game; the infield then comes in as does AZ closer JJ Putz.  But Dback 2B-2 Aaron Hill boots a Pedro Feliz grounder, and the Giants have the lead.  A walk to Steve Finley and then gloveman Omar Vizquel putz one into the Bay for a 3-run blast.  Another Dback error, this one by CF-2 Gerardo Parra, and a few more singles and by the time the inning ends it’s 6-1 Giants and Putz has been yanked.  Arizona does load the bases up in the top of the 9th, but Cain gets the last out with Justin Upton missing a DO 1-9/flyB split and the Giants head to the semifinals.  They move on seeking to be the first Giants team of the 21st century to capture a regional, thus joining ten such winners from the previous century.

I had overlooked the top-seeded 2003 Braves in picking contenders partially because I thought that the Braves had begun to decline from their great teams of the 90s, and also because they played during the height of the steroid era during which I kind of stopped paying attention to contemporary baseball.  The ELO ranks, however, were paying attention to their 101 wins and NL East crown, as they combined steroid era power numbers with a still-strong pitching staff, fronted by Russ Ortiz (21-7, 3.81) having his career year and finishing fourth in the Cy Young voting.  They faced a 91-loss 1969 Angels team from a far less prolific offensive era in baseball, but Andy Messersmith (16-11, 2.52) was a reminder of the dominance of pitching in the prior season.  The Braves load the bases in the top of the 2nd with nobody out on a Gary Sheffield double and a couple of walks, but only convert one run from a Julio Franco sac fly.  That lead is erased immediately in the bottom of the inning by a 2-run homer from Angels DH Bubba Morton, and the Braves manage to hit into rally-killing DPs in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings to repeatedly bail out Messersmith.  When Rich Reichardt converts a HR 1-9/flyB for a solo shot in the 6th, the Braves sense that their stay in this tournament might be a short one and throw in all their chips, bringing in nearly unhittable closer John Smoltz to try to stay in the game.  Smoltz proves to be hittable, allowing three squib singles in the 7th, but he manages to escape with no runs crossing the plate.  The Braves narrow the deficit to one when Marcus Giles crushes a solo HR in the 8th, but Smoltz immediately hands that run back to the Angels in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff single by Reichardt followed by an RBI double to Morton–off Smoltz’s card.  So it’s now up to Messersmith heading into the top of the 9th; Sheffield singles to lead off the inning and advances to 2nd on a Chipper Jones groundout.  Then, it’s Andruw Jones’ turn, and he deposits it into the cheap seats for a 2-run blast that ties the game.  The panicked Angels, who by this time have put in a bunch of defensive replacements that all hit below the Mendoza line, summon Hoyt Wilhelm to try to stop the bleeding.  He does so, and we head to the bottom of the 9th with Smoltz on the line, nearing the end of his eligibility for the regional.  Smoltz gets two quick outs but then Bill Voss bounces a double off the leaden glove of LF-4 Chipper Jones, and Smoltz is facing .155 hitting Vic Davallilo with the game on the line; with not much of anything on either the pitcher or hitter card, the inning ends and we head to extra frames.  In the top of the 10th, Rafael Furcal singles, and then with two out Angels SS-2 Jim Fregosi boots a Javy Lopez grounder, and Gary Sheffield follows with a single; 1-19 Furcal heads for home, and barely makes it with a 17.  The game then heads to the bottom of the 10th, and with Smoltz now burnt for the regional, it’s up to Ray King to try to earn the save.  He sets the Angels down in order, retiring the hapless Fregosi for the final out, and the Braves survive a scare and move on with the 5-4 comeback win.

The 1988 Twins were unable to replicate their pennant from the previous season, but they still won 91 games with largely the same team, and ace starter Frank Viola (24-7, 2.64) had an even better season, winning the AL Cy Young award.  They faced the second Arizona entry in the regional, the 85 win NL West runner-up 2019 Diamondbacks, sporting a big season from Ketel Marte who finished 4th in the MVP voting, and they had a good #1 starter in Zack Greinke (10-4, 2.90)--at least until they traded him to Houston midseason.  The game starts slow as both pitchers dominate until the bottom of the 4th, when Gary Gaetti hits his second double of the game to score Kirby Puckett from 1st and the Twins take a 1-0 lead.  However, 3B-1 Gaetti quickly goes hero to goat, dropping a grounder to lead off the 5th that rattles Viola, who delivers a gopher ball to Christian Walker and the Dbacks take the lead.  The Twins luck continues to run bad in the bottom of the inning as SS Greg Gagne goes down to injury, and both pitchers settle back into dominant mode.  So it comes down to Greinke vs. the meat of the Twins order in the bottom of the 9th; John Moses leads off with a hit but Puckett and Hrbek go down quietly.  This brings up Gaetti, who raps a hard single that sends Moses to 3rd, and the tying run is 90 feet away with two out.  The Dbacks decide to stick with their ace against Randy Bush, who lifts a tough fly ball out to CF-2 Marte–he hauls it in, and the Dbacks squeeze out the 2-1 win despite being 4-hit by Viola.   

The last game of the first round matched two also-rans from two distinctly different eras of baseball, the 2007 Astros against the 1966 A’s.  Even though the Astros had won the NL pennant two years earlier, the team had not aged well and this version lost 89 games despite good years from Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, and Hunter Pence.  The 1966 A’s similarly lost 86 games, but in different fashion, with good pitching and defense paired with a punchless offense whose top HR hitter, Roger Repoz, had 11.  However, they did have the remarkable Jim Nash (12-1, 2.06), who must have won a lot of 1-0 games, to go against Roy Oswalt (14-7, 3.18).  Unfortunately for the A’s, Nash looks quite mortal in the top of the 1st, allowing an RBI single to Lee, a sac fly to Berkman, and then loading the bases for Brad Ausmus, who sends a flyball to RF-2 Mike Hershberger who plays it into a 2-run double.  Nash then settles down and tosses three perfect innings, but in the 5th he issues a walk and Lee follows it with a blast into the far reaches of old KC Municipal Stadium, and the Astros hold a 6-0 lead that appears insurmountable for the feeble A’s offense.  Houston begins wholesale substitution in the 6th, and the scrubs set up a Biggio sac fly to expand the lead further, while the A’s finally get on the board in the bottom of the 7th courtesy of a Phil Roof RBI single.  However, when Oswalt loads the bases in the 8th with nobody out, the Astros decide to bring in closer Brad Lidge, who limits the damage to a Larry Stahl sac fly.  Lidge is also lights out in the 9th, and the Astros head to the semis with a 7-2 win, despite being outhit 11 to 6. 

The survivors

After a first round where the PED era teams were dominant, two of chemistry’s best were facing off in the first semifinal between the 2006 Giants and the 2003 Braves.   The Braves had their 37-year old Hall of Famer Greg Maddux (16-11, 3.96) and the Giants’ Jason Schmidt (11-9, 3.59) selected to try to keep the big bats in check.  Maddux fails to do so in the top of the 1st, with RBI doubles from Moises Alou and Shea Hillenbrand spotting the Giants a two-run lead, but back to back doubles from Marcus Giles and Javy Lopez in the bottom of the inning cut that lead to one.  The Braves tie it in the 3rd when Gary Sheffield misses a HR 1-10/DO split, takes 3rd on an error by Giants 3b-2 Pedro Feliz, and scores on a squib SI* 1-11 by Andruw Jones.  In the 6th with two out, Rafael Furcal also misses that HR 1-10 split on Schmidt but Vinny Castilla lumbers home on the resulting double and the Braves take the lead.  In the bottom of the 7th, Andruw Jones misses a HR 1-4/flyB split with a 5 that would have been a 3-run shot; the next batter, Castilla, misses a HR 1-3/DO split that does score one, but Chipper Jones is nailed at the plate for the final out and the score is now 4-2 Braves.  A leadoff walk followed by a Robert Fick double in the 8th and the Giants have to turn to a not-so-good bullpen, with Kevin Correia assigned to try to keep things close; he does a great job in preventing any damage and the game heads to the 9th with Maddux trying to hold on given the unavailability of Smoltz.  Alfonzo leads off with a single, but Hillenbrand whiffs and Feliz comes up with a gbA and the Braves take the 4-2 win behind Maddux’s 7-hitter.  

This semifinal matched the #3 seeded 2019 Diamondbacks against the #6 seed 2007 Astros, with Arizona’s Robbie Ray (12-8, 4.34) against Houston’s Wandy Rodriguez (9-13. 4.58) in a battle of uninspiring #2 starters.  Ray strikes out the side in the 1st, but the Astros open the bottom of the 2nd against him with five straight hits, including two allowed by Dbacks 2B-4 Wilmer Flores, and Houston jumps to a 4-0 lead but loses CF Hunter Pence to injury for the rest of the regional.  The Dbacks then lose THEIR CF and MVP, Ketel Marte, to injury for the rest of the regional in the top of the 3rd.  That seems to rouse the team, as they push across two runs in the top of the 5th, including an RBI single by Flores past Astros 2B-4 Craig Biggio as some measure of payback.   The Astros get one of those runs back on a couple of walks and a Ty Wigginton double, and they start to put in their defensive replacements in the 6th.  Two straight walks by Rodriquez to open the 8th and the Astros have a conference on the mound, but decide to try to preserve Lidge for the 9th.  Wandy gets one out, but then Carson Kelly finds Rodriguez’s HR result for a 3-run shot that ties the game, and the Astros too late move to Chad Qualls, who retires the side without further incident.  With one out in the top of the 9th, David Peralta bounces a double past Astros LF-4 Carlos Lee and Lidge is summoned to try to strand him, which he does and we head to the bottom of the 9th with the score still knotted at 5-5.  The Astros replacements can’t do anything against Ray, who records strikeout number 13 in the inning, and the game goes to extra innings.  In the top of the 10th, Christian Walker leads off by finding and converting a DO 1-15/flyB at Lidge’s 5-2 result, and then Eduardo Escobar singles the 1-13 Walker home to put the Dbacks on top for the first time in the game; Arizona almost gets another when Nick Ahmed misses a HR 1-11 split but gets stranded at second.  Thus it comes down to Ray, in his last inning of eligibility in the bottom of the 10th, and he can’t do it; Houston PH JR Towles finds Ray’s solid HR result at 6-9 and it’s game tied once again.  Ray is now gone in favor of Zac Gallen, who retires the side and we head to the 11th.  Lidge, with one-third of an inning of eligibility in the regional left, stays in to try to get one out, but leadoff hitter Alex Avila finds and converts a triple on Lidge’s card; the infield comes in and Lidge is left in to try to get his one out, which he does and he leaves the game having allowed four hits in two innings.  The Astros now enter the ugly portion of their bullpen with Trever Miller getting the assignment, but he gets two quick popouts to strand Avila at 3rd.  In the top of the 13th Miller issues a walk and then defensive replacement 3B-3 Eric Bruntlett boots a grounder; Tim Locastro (1-16) goes in to pinch run at second, and Wilmer Flores singles with two out–Locastro heads home and scores on an 18 roll, courtesy of the two-out bonus, and the Dbacks again have the lead.  The game heads to the bottom of the 13th, with Gallen in his last inning of eligibility, and there are two straight X-chart rolls to RF-4 Adam Jones–and he makes both plays.  However, a walk and a hard single and the tying run is now at 3rd with Bruntlett up; Gallen fans him and the Diamondbacks capture a wild comeback 7-6 extra inning win, but head to the finals with their leading hitter injured and their bullpen depleted.

For the finals, it’s the #1 seed 2003 Braves against the #3 seeded 2019 Diamondbacks, with both teams missing key components–the Braves minus their star closer Smoltz, the Dbacks without their primary offensive threat Marte.  The Braves rotation was not as deep as it had been the previous decade, but Mike Hampton (14-8, 3.84) was still probably a better option than Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (13-14, 4.42).  Rafael Furcal starts the game off with a bang, hitting a triple and then scoring on a Marcus Giles single.  Kelly then proceeds to load up the bases, then issuing a run-scoring walk to Andruw Jones and a 2-run single to Vinny Castilla, and by the time Kelly retires Furcal in his second AB of the inning to record the final out, the Braves lead 6-0 and Dback fans are wondering if they can still get a refund on parking if they leave before their team bats.  A Gary Sheffield RBI triple in the 2nd and Kelly is gone, with Luke Weaver trying his hand at long relief, but back to back doubles in the 3rd by Robert Fick and Julio Franco gives the Braves an 8-0 advantage.  However, the Diamondbacks started out behind in both previous games, and so they get to work in the bottom of the 3rd with a 2-run double from Wilmer Flores and an RBI single from Carson Kelly.   The onslaught continues in the 4th, and after allowing five straight hits and another four runs, Hampton is pulled for Kent Mercker in the hopes that Mercker can finally get the last out.  He promptly delivers a gopher ball to Christian Walker for a 3-run homer and the Miracle Snakes take the lead, 10-8.  Weaver celebrates by getting two quick outs in the top of the 5th, but then Fick singles past AZ 2B-4 Flores and Rafael Furcal converts his HR 1-6 split and the game is tied.  In the 6th, Weaver has one out of eligibility left, but he walks two and then is taken downtown by Andruw Jones, and the Braves have the lead once again and the Dbacks decide that Weaver has to go in favor of Alex Young, who ends the inning with Atlanta in front, 13-10. The indomitable Christian Walker gets one of those runs back with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning, but Young walks three straight batters in the 7th and, although Vinny Castilla misses a HR 1-4 for a grand slam, he does clear the bases on the resulting double and it’s now 16-11 Braves.  Atlanta wants to take no chances, and Ray King comes in for the 8th; in the 9th the big bat of Javy Lopez finally wakes up and he clouts a leadoff homer to give the Braves more insurance.  It looks like it might be needed as the Diamondbacks load the bases against King with nobody out in the bottom of the 9th, but they only get one run out of a fielder’s choice and the Braves hold on with an NFL-type 17-12 win to capture the 6th regional for the franchise, and their first of the 21st century.  

Interesting card of Regional #136:  His Braves took the regional title, but remarkably this guy had little to do with it, contributing a solo homer and a total of two RBI over the three games.  Still, you have to figure that he’s going to warm up at some point, and their future super-regional opponents had better watch out.  This 2003 season followed a few poor campaigns during which it appeared that Lopez was washed up as he was a poor fielding catcher who wasn’t hitting, but in reality he was battling injury and a host of personal problems.  For the 2003 season, he demonstrated a renewed interest in physical conditioning, lost a lot of weight, and coincidentally this was the height of the steroid era.  Whatever the reason, 2003 was his career year, and in my opinion reflects one of the best hitter cards for a catcher in my collection.  One difference between the real-life Braves and their performance in this tournament:  for some reason, the real Greg Maddux did not want Lopez behind the plate when he was pitching, opting for Eddie Perez.   With me in control of the cardstock, Greg had no vote, and it obviously worked as Maddux, Lopez, and the Braves emerged as victors.

REGIONAL #135:  This bracket featured an eclectic group of teams, but only one that I knew for certain to be good–the pennant winning 1983 Phillies.  As for the rest, I was uncertain; I figured that the ‘97 Orioles might be pretty competitive, and I doubted that the ‘27 Red Sox and ‘58 A’s would be.  The others were a crap shoot, but at least there would be a second team from the newly acquired 1947 season, the Reds, to make things interesting.  The Phillies didn’t do very well against the Orioles in the ‘83 Series, but I felt that they might be motivated to exact some measure of revenge so I picked them to beat a different Baltimore squad in the finals.  The ELO ranks forecast the same final pairing, but weren’t impressed with the Phillies, ranking them as only the 7th best team in baseball during their pennant-winning season, and thus chose the  Orioles to win the bracket. 

First round action

Setting the lineup for the top-seeded 1997 Orioles, I have to say that I was impressed:  good power, solid starting rotation, strong defense, and an outstanding bullpen.  Not surprisingly, they won 98 games and I had forgotten that they won the AL East that season, losing out on a pennant in the ALCS.   They faced the 73-81 1958 A’s, who had a core of recognizable players like Maris, Cerv, Lopez, Terry, Daley–mainly because they all ended up on the ‘61 Yankees.  The A’s started swingman Ray Herbert (8-8, 3.50) as their best shot against Mike Mussina (15-8, 3.20), who was 6th in the AL Cy Young voting that season.   The game starts dubiously for the A’s in the top of the 1st when leadoff hitter Bob Martyn triples, the O’s bring the infield in to fend off scoring by the limited KC offense, and that works perfectly as Martyn is nailed at home on a Preston Ward grounder.  Things go better for them in the 2nd, as Hector Lopez finds Mussina’s HR result for a 2-run shot put KC ahead, while the O’s keep hitting into rally-killing DPs.  In the 4th, Baltimore loses DH Geronimo Berroa to injury, although they have a seemingly endless supply of candidates to replace him.  Bob Cerv leads off the 5th by also finding and converting Mussina’s 5-9 HR, but the Orioles finally respond in the bottom of the inning with a Mike Bordick sac fly and a clutch 2-out RBI single from Roberto Alomar, and the A’s lead is cut to 3-2.  When Mussina walks Bill Tuttle with one out in the 6th, I think about pulling him, but leave him in just long enough for Martyn to find that 5-9 roll again, and it’s now 5-2 and closer Randy Myers is called in desperation.  That doesn’t solve the problem, as in the 8th Martyn doubles DeMaestri home–putting Martyn one single short of a cycle–and Ward nails a single off Myers’ card that scores Martyn and the A’s lead expands.  The onslaught doesn’t stop there, and Myers is pulled for Arthur Rhodes, but he allows a few more baserunners and by the time Tuttle makes his second out of the inning to finally end it, the A’s lead 9-2.  The A’s batting around in the 8th provides Martyn with an at-bat in the 9th, and he seizes the opportunity with a base hit, completing his cycle which I believe is the first in the history of the tournament!  Herbert dispatches the Orioles in the 9th and the #1 seed is crushed by the #7 seeded A’s, 9-2.

According to ELO rankings, the 1927 Red Sox had the distinction of being among the 20 worst teams of all time, and after playing the terrible 1930 version of the team last regional it was hard to imagine this team being even worse.  But they were, going 51-103, with a team ERA of 4.79 and an offense that hit fewer than half the home runs provided by Babe Ruth that season.  They faced the 2006 Nationals, who may have lost 91 games but looked great by comparison, except for the near-total lack of starting pitching.  The Nats best option was spot starter Mike O’Connor (3-8, 4.80) while the Red Sox were at least able to send out their lone Hall of Famer, Red Ruffing (5-13, 4.67) albeit hardly in one of his better years.  Washington loses C Brian Schneider to injury in the 3rd, but both pitchers are in control until the 6th, when Nats RF-2 Austin Kearns misplays a Jack Tobin single that sets up a sac fly by Bill Regan for a 1-0 Boston lead.  A Jack Rothrock double in the 6th chases O’Connor for Nats closer Chad Cordero, but he yields a single to Phil Todt and the Red Sox extend their lead.   However, in the bottom of the 8th Kearns walks and Alfonso Soriano finally solves Ruffing, taking him deep for a 2-run shot that ties the game; a rattled Ruffing then walks three batters but whiffs PH Alex Escobar to keep the game knotted.  Neither team can score in the 9th so we head to extra innings, and both Cordero and Ruffing expend their final inning of eligibility keeping things tied after 10.  In the top of the 11th, new Nats reliever John Patterson is greeted by a Fred Haney grounder that Nats 2B-3 Jose Vidro can’t get to; Haney steals second on injury replacement C Brandon Harper and then Jack Tobin doubles in Haney to put the Red Sox on top.  That means Boston has to turn to its non-existent bullpen to try to hold the fort in the bottom of the inning, so Jack Russell of terrier fame is given the task.  Russell does the job, with 2B-3 Regan turning a game-ending DP, and the underdog Red Sox move on to the semifinals with the extra-inning 3-2 win.  

The 1983 Phillies won the NL pennant with a 90-72 record, although as noted earlier the ELO ranks thought that there were six teams better than them that season.  Still, the team had some weapons in Schmidt and Morgan (although Pete Rose was a waste of cardboard, as he often was towards the end of his career), as well as solid fielding and three good starters, with John Denny (19-6, 2.37) getting the first round nod.  They faced a steroid-era 2000 Rangers squad juiced with players like Rafael Palmiero, although they lost 91 games as they had some serious defensive holes and their pitching was largely dreadful, with Rick Helling (16-13, 4.48) being by far their best option.  The Rangers squander back to back doubles from Rusty Greer and Pudge Rodriquez in the top of the 1st, as Denny strands them both, although Gary Matthews’ leadoff double in the bottom of the inning produces the same lack of results.  However, a Mike Lamb 2-out double in the top of the 2nd does result in a run, and then Frank Catalanotto singles in Lamb to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.  The rash of doubles continues in the bottom of the inning, with two-baggers from Garry Maddox and Sixto Lezcano narrowing the margin to 2-1, and then a 2-run shot by Joe Lefebvre off Helling’s card gives the Phils a 3-2 edge.  Sarge Matthews connects for a solo shot off his own card in the 5th and the lead is 4-2.  A Gabe Kapler single in the 8th makes the Phils eye their bullpen, but they decide to stick with their ace and Denny comes through, retiring the side without incident.  The Phils thus enter the 9th with a two run lead and their full complement of defensive replacements in, but Denny doesn’t need them as the Rangers go down in order and the “Wheeze Kids” limp on with a 4-2 win, with Denny scattering seven hits.  

The 2001 Blue Jays were a pretty mediocre bunch, going 80-82 with uneven offense and defense, and their best starter was a 24-year-old named Roy Halladay (5-3, 3.16) who seemed to deserve more innings than he’d been getting to this point in his career.    They faced the hot off the Strat-press 1947 Reds, who would have been noticeably worse than their mediocre 73-81 record if not for the efforts of Ewell Blackwell (22-8, 2.47), the NL MVP runner-up that season.  Both teams start off the game looking offensively inept, getting runners on but unable to convert, with Jays 3B Felipe Lopez grounding into a DP in the 4th while getting injured being one example.  The teams keep stumbling through innings; Shannon Stewart leads off the 8th missing a HR 1-4/DO, but Blackwell bears down and strands him at second.  That seems to galvanize the Reds into a two out rally, as Grady Hatton doubles in Bert Haas (off Halladay’s card) and Eddie Miller singles Hatton home to give Blackwell a two run pad going into the top of the 9th with three defensive replacements coming in for additional insurance.   Blackwell gets two quick outs, but then I discover a 4th defensive switch I should have made, as Alex Gonzalez hits a grounder to Reds 1B-4 Babe Young.  But Young casually scoops the ball, steps on first, and it’s game over with the Reds heading to the semifinals with a 2-0 win, courtesy of the 6-hit gem by Blackwell.   

The survivors

Two bad teams that pulled off upsets in the first round get to vie for a berth in the regional finals as the #8 seeded 1927 Red Sox play host to the #7 seed 1958 A’s.  The starters were Ralph Terry (11-13, 4.24) for the A’s against Boston’s Slim Harriss (14-21, 4.17), which didn’t instill much confidence on either side.  In the bottom of the 2nd, the Red Sox manage to hit five X-Chart results, all of which were manned by “4” fielders on the A’s, and the results aren’t pretty as Boston takes a 2-0 lead on the resulting hits.  The Red Sox add another in the 4th when Grover Hartley triples off Terry’s card, and Jack Rothrock singles him home for his second RBI of the game and a 3-0 lead.  Another KC 2-base error in the 7th sets up a Jack Tobin RBI single and Boston adds to their advantage.  Meanwhile, Harriss is cruising and keeps the A’s off the scoreboard until two are out in the 9th; at that point Hal Smith converts a HR 1-5 for a solo shot, but Harriss gets the next batter and the underdog Red Sox take the 4-1 win and will make an unexpected visit to the regional finals.

This semifinal matched the pennant-winning, #2 seeded 1983 Phillies against the #5 seed 1947 Reds, featuring two veteran pitchers of considerable repute, with neither of them in one of their better seasons:  39 year old Steve Carlton (15-16, 3.11) against double no-hit Johnny Vander Meer (9-14, 4.40).  The Reds rattle Carlton early with two walks and a sharp Eddie Miller single giving Cincinnati a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st, but Sixto Lezcano promptly nails a solo shot in the 2nd to tie it up.  In the top of the 3rd, Joe Morgan comes to the plate, and the dice come up 1-12, and I look to his card nervously wondering what I would find there, but lo and behold, it’s a solid HR and the Phils lead 2-1.  Things then stay tight until the 8th, when Ivan Dejesus raps a clutch 2-out single and Schmidt takes off for home (1-16 with two out)--but he’s nailed and it remains a one run game.  It thus comes down to the bottom of the 9th; PH Ray Mueller gets a hit to lead off, but Carlton retires a second PH Bobby Adams and there is one out and the top of the order is up.  Frankie Baumholtz draws a walk, and 1-16 Tommy Tatum comes in to pinch run at second.  The Phils debate long and hard, and ultimately decide that their veteran starter is done for, and summon Al Holland from the pen to try to preserve the game.  Augie Galan grounds out, advancing the runners, so it's 2 away, tying run on 3rd, winning run on 2nd, and the Reds best hitter, Grady Hatton, is at the plate.  Here’s the pitch:  6-7, it’s in Holland’s killer 6 column and mighty Grady has struck out.  The Phils squeak their way into the finals with a 2-1 win and the Reds’ effort to become the second straight brand-new 1947 season regional champion falls short.

It’s another David vs. Goliath finals, with the pennant winning 1983 Phillies and Charlie Hudson (8-8, 3.35) facing what the ELO ranks list as one of the 20 worst teams in baseball history, the 1927 Red Sox and Danny MacFayden (5-8, 4.27).  A sac fly in the top of the 3rd by Ira Flagstead gives the Red Sox a 1-0 lead and quickly reminds the Phillies that Goliath often doesn’t fare too well in these matchups.  Fred Haney then leads off the 4th with a homer off Hudson’s card, and when Buddy Myer replicates that feat in the 5th the Red Sox lead 3-0 and the chorus of boos in Veterans Stadium is deafening.  The crowd is somewhat mollified in the bottom of the inning when, with two out, Pete Rose actually does something useful, converting a TR 1-3, and then Sarge Matthews follows with a 2-run shot off MacFayden’s card and Boston’s lead is narrowed to 3-2.  However, in the 8th, Matthews leads off the inning by rolling a 10-game injury; the Phils try to use that as a rallying point as Morgan squibs a single, advances to 2nd on a Lefebvre grounder, bringing up Mike Schmidt with the tying run in scoring position.  MacFayden is extremely cautious with Schmidt and walks him to get to Bo Diaz; Diaz whiffs and the game heads to the 9th with Boston still clinging to a one-run lead.  Hudson, who hasn’t allowed a hit since the 5th inning, sets the Red Sox down in order so now it’s up to the bottom of the Phillies order to try to pull out the game.  Maddox pops out, but Dejesus singles; Lezcano flies out and the Phils hopes are down to Len Matuszek, pinch hitting for Rose.  It’s a CATCH-X, Grover Hartley fields the foul cleanly, and the Red Sox pull off yet another improbable regional win for an #8 seed.  This is the 6th regional win for the Red Sox, joining 1950, 1978, 1983, 1996, and 2005, but this one is certainly the biggest head-scratcher in the bunch.

Interesting card of Regional #135:  Some Strat C&D players, myself included, bemoan the fact that the game company doesn’t seem to have changed their card patterns for decades.  I personally prefer the old-school patterns and wish they would revert to those; at least back then they had some unpredictable ones, and I’d include this card of one of my favorite players as one of them.  As I mentioned in my regional writeup, with Morgan at the plate I saw the dice pop up with a 1-12, and I instantly wondered what I would find there:  an injury?  Lomax?  No, to my surprise it was one of the complete extra-base hits that Joe had stashed in strange places around his card.  He only spent this one season with the Phils, and at this point he was 39 years old and in the penultimate season of his career.  Even though he was clearly not the player he was in his prime, I don’t think it was a coincidence that they happened to win the NL in that lone season when Joe was manning second base.

REGIONAL #134:  This week, the tournament was happy to welcome the 1947 and 2021 seasons to the party (most 1986 teams have already played using my originals), which means that the number of competing squads has now gone from 1,932 to 1,978 teams. This is why the tournament is endless, although this regional marks 1,072 different teams that have played so I am a little more than halfway through the collection.  Apparently to celebrate the occasion, my random team selector program picked a team from one of my new seasons, and not just any team, but the AL pennant winner 1947 Yankees.  Not only that, but for the first time in ages a regional draw included a second pennant winner, the 1938 Cubs, and threw in their archrivals the Cards from the same season.  There were also two entries from a Rangers franchise that had only won a regional once before; a Red Sox team deep in the curse of the Babe and an A’s team perhaps contending with the curse of Connie Mack; and a modern Mets squad in a trough between pennants.  Although my instincts told me that one of the three 21st century teams would prevail with their typically greater power and depth, I decided to go old-school and select the 1938 Cardinals in an upset over the Yankees in the final.   The ELO predicts the same two in the final, but ranks the Yankees as big favorites, with a potential semifinal matchup with the Cubs as the most highly anticipated pairing. 

First round action

The 1947 Yankees won 97 games, the AL, and the World Series, with MVP Joe Dimaggio patrolling CF behind a strong pitching staff headed by Superchief Allie Reynolds (19-8, 3.20).  Hot off the Strat printing press but long awaited, they were the 60th best team of all time according to ELO, while Neyer & Epsteins’ _Baseball Dynasties_ had them as 29th best using their standard deviation metric.  By any measure, this was a great team, but in this tournament that can be a curse.  Their opponent, the 2016 Rangers, was no slouch, having won 95 games and the AL West and sporting a core of sluggers unheard of in 1947, and Cole Hamels (15-5, 3.32) had recently arrived from the Phillies to anchor the staff.  The Yanks score first when Hamels gets two quick outs, but then walks four batters in succession and New York leads 1-0 despite not having any hits in the game thus far.  In the 4th, the no-hitter ends abruptly as Yogi Berra leads off with a big fly, and then Hamels loads up the bases for Dimaggio, who hits the infamous “9” hole in his primary column to make the 3rd out, but the Yanks lead 2-0.  Charlie Keller leads off the 5th inning by barely converting a SI 1-19 with a 19 roll, then Tommy Henrich misses a HR 1-16/TR roll with an 18 but Keller scores and Berra drives in Henrich with a single that extends the Yankees lead to 4-0.  When the Yanks lead off the 6th with two straight hits, the Rangers decide Hamels isn’t the answer and they bring in their closer Sam Dyson to try to keep their fading hopes alive.  Dyson earns his keep, getting Dimaggio on a popout and inducing a DP ball from Keller and no runs cross the plate.  However, in the 8th the Yanks solve Dyson, with doubles from Berra and George McQuinn scoring two and it could have been worse but once again Dimaggio makes the final out with the bases loaded.  Meanwhile, Reynolds is cruising, and although Carlos Beltran breaks up the shutout in the 9th with a solo shot, it’s too little too late and the Yanks move on to the semifinals with the 6-1 win.  

The 89-63 1938 Cubs won the NL pennant with much the same team that had famously done so in 1935, although they had added Rip Collins from the Gas House Gang and Tony Lazzeri from Murderer’s Row which made for fond memories of those Old-Timer teams that were a big part of my childhood gaming.  The 1950 A’s, on the other hand, lost 102 games and finished last in the AL, and the record of their #1 starter Lou Brissie (7-19, 4.02) was pretty similar to that of the Cubs’ Bill Lee (22-9, 2.66), except in reverse.  Brissie doesn’t start well, walking the bases loaded in the top of the 1st, but the Cubs can only convert one run on a Collins sac fly.  They add a second run in the 2nd on a 2-out RBI single from Augie Galan, but the A’s threaten in the 3rd with three straight singles off Lee’s card to begin the inning.  However, Lee whiffs the next batter and then Cubs 2B-2 Billy Herman turns a beautiful DP and the A’s still have goose eggs on the scoreboard.  Herman adds to his heroics in the 4th with a solo shot off Brissie’s card, although Brissie hangs in there until the 8th, when the Cubs erupt for four runs with a Herman double and a Stan Hack 2-run homer (again off Brissie’s card) makes it a 7-0 lead.  In the bottom of the inning, A’s LF Paul Lehner leads off with a triple and it looks like maybe the A’s will stage a rally, but Lee bears down and the hapless A’s leave him stranded at third, and that’s the last noise that Philadelphia will make as the Cubs win easily 7-0 behind Lee’s 7-hit shutout, setting up a semifinal confrontation between the regional’s two pennant winners.

The 1938 Cardinals were a team in transition from the infamous Gas House Gang to the dynasty that would dominate the NL during the war years, but this squad was not nearly as good as either of those versions, going 71-80 to finish in 6th place.  They faced a 72-90 2002 Rangers team from a distinctly different era, with four players having SLG% greater than .500 but only two starting pitchers that had over 100 IP.  Out of those limited options, the Rangers took a gamble on Kenny Rogers (13-8, 3.84) to go against the Cards’ Bob Weiland (16-11, 3.59).  The Rogers gamble doesn’t pay off, as Enos Slaughter hits a 2-run homer in the 2nd off Rogers’ card, and later in the inning Terry Moore misses the same HR split but drives in two with the resulting double.  Jimmy Brown then singles Moore home, and the Rangers find themselves with a five run deficit heading into the bottom of the 2nd.  However, in the 5th Weiland begins the inning by dropping a groundball, and he seemingly loses composure allowing a single and then a massive 3-run shot by Carl Everett and the gap narrows to 5-3.  With the game tightening, a leadoff single by Slaughter in the 8th chases the Gambler in favor of Francisco Cordero and his 1.79 ERA, but Don Gutteridge greets him with a longball and the score moves to 7-3, although a solo shot by Rafael Palmiero recoups one of those runs in the bottom of the inning.  Weiland holds on until the bottom of the 9th, when an error by Cards SS-3 Lynn Myers is followed by a double from PH Frank Catalanotto, and there is nobody out and the tying run is at the plate with the top of the Rangers order up.  Weiland whiffs Todd Hollandsworth for one out; Everett grounds out; and it’s all up to ARod with the game on the line.   But, he hits a weak grounder and it’s game over with a 7-4 Cardinals win, and the dice mess with Texas as both Rangers entries in this bracket get bounced in the first round.  

The 2009 Mets had some notable players, but unfortunately they tended not to be in the prime of their careers, and they had little starting pitching past Johan Santana (13-9, 3.13), explaining why the team lost 92 games.  They were still ranked as much better than the 52-102 1930 Red Sox, whose hitters seemed to miss the offensive explosion that characterized that season, and whose rotation was fronted by two 20-game losers including their “ace”, Milt Gaston (13-20, 3.93).  The Mets jump out to a lead in the top of the 1st on an Angel Pagan RBI triple, although leading off the 2nd they lose SS Alex Cora to injury for the regional.  The Mets get another run in the 5th on a Carlos Beltran sac fly, but a Phil Todt RBI single in the 6th puts Boston on the board and makes it a one-run game.  The Mets defensive replacements come in for the bottom of the 8th, and when Santana issues a leadoff walk they look long and hard at the bullpen, but decide to let Santana try to finish things out, saving the pen knowing what the rest of their rotation looks like.   He gets out of the inning, and although a Daniel Murphy error in the 9th gives the Mets another scare, Santana takes care of things to finish out a 6-hitter as the Mets move on with the 2-1 win.

The survivors

The first semifinal was the matchup the fans had been waiting for, with two pennant-winners facing off in the form of the #1 seeded 1947 Yankees and the #2 seed 1938 Cubs.  The pitching matchup was a good one, with NY’s rookie Spec Shea (14-5, 3.07) going against Cubs veteran Charlie Root (8-7, 2.86).  However, the top of the 1st goes rough for Root; he walks Rizzuto to lead off the game, but Stirnweiss hits into a DP.  Then, Dimaggio singles, Keller walks, Heinrich walks, and rookie Yogi Berra brings them all home with a colossal blast onto Waveland Avenue for a grand slam; McQuinn misses a HR split for a double, but Root finally retires Billy Johnson for the third out.  Root thus issues three costly walks in the first inning–despite the fact that he only walked 30 batters all season and doesn’t have a single walk result on his card.  The Cubs respond in the bottom of the inning with two straight singles and then a Gabby Hartnett sac fly makes it 4-1,  but Stirnweiss pokes a 2-run homer off Root’s card and the Yankees are looking unstoppable.  Three straight Yankee hits to start the 4th and that’s it for Root, and in comes ol’ Dizzy Dean with the Cubs in a 7-1 hole, and he does end the inning without additional trauma.  Buoyed by the Diz, Cubs gloveman Billy Jurges atones for an earlier error with a 2-run homer in the 5th off Shea’s HR 1-8/flyB split, and it’s 7-3.  However, the Yanks get an unearned run in the 6th off the Cubs third error of the game, although the Cubs get it back in the 7th on a Frank Demaree sac fly.  The game moves to the bottom of the 9th; Shea retires the first batter but then walks two straight, and a Billy Herman double scores one and a Jurges walk loads the bases and puts the winning run at the plate in the form of Stan Hack.  The Yanks don’t trust their pen much and stick with Shea, and he retires Hack on a run-scoring flyball and it’s two outs with two on in a two run game, Augie Galan at the plate.   A single for Galan scores another and the tying run is now 90 feet away, with Hall of Famer Hartnett at the plate.  The Yankees are forced to admit that Shea has nothing left, and Joe Page is summoned from the pen to try to get the final out.  It’s a sharp grounder to 3B-2 Billy Johnson, who makes a diving stab and gets it to McQuinn in the nick of time and the Yankees survive with an 8-7 victory in an epic battle worthy of the contestants.   

The semifinal between the #4 seed 1938 Cardinals and the #6 seed 2009 Mets featured two rebuilding teams in transition between much more successful versions.  The shallow Mets pitching staff was painfully evident as the best they could muster was Tim Redding (3-6, 5.10), while the Cards had fewer offensive weapons than the Mets but were in better position on the mound with Bill McGee (7-12, 3.21).   The Mets begin the bottom of the 1st with two straight singles, one of which is misplayed by Joe Medwick, to set up a 2-run single from Carlos Beltran.  The Cards get a run back in the 3rd on a Johnny Mize RBI single, and add two more in the 4th on Lynn Myers single and a Terry Moore sac fly to take the lead.  However, in the bottom of the inning a Mize error opens the door for three runs, including another Beltran 2-run single, and the Mets regain the lead, 5-3.  A St. Louis walk and a single to open the 6th and the Mets aren’t taking any more chances with Redding, and Pedro Feliciano comes out of the pen; one run does come in on a Don Gutteridge sac fly but the Mets get it back in the bottom of the inning courtesy of an RBI single by injury replacement SS Wilson Valdez.  For the 8th, the Mets bring in their closer, Francisco Rodriguez, and he impresses by striking out the Cardinal side in the 8th and knocking them down 1-2-3 in the 9th to earn the save in the Mets 6-4 win, earning them a trip to the finals–albeit with their starting SS and C both injured.   

It was a Subway Series version of a regional final with the #1 seed 1947 Yankees and the upstart #6 seed 2009 Mets, with the seeding difference being obvious in the pitching matchup between the Yanks’ Spud Chandler (9-5, 2.46) against the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey (10-12, 5.03).  As in the previous game, the Mets plan was to try to stay in the game long enough to turn it over to their bullpen in the 6th inning, but that looks unlikely as Pelfrey allows three runs to the Yanks in the top of the 1st before he records an out.  However, the Yankees quickly learn that Mets teams of this vintage always punch above their weight in this tournament, as they quickly score three to tie it up in the bottom of the inning, paced by a Gary Sheffield 2-run single, and Chandler is lucky to escape with the game tied as the inning only ended when Francouer hits into a bases-loaded double play.  In the second, the Yanks load the bases with two out, and then a walk to Henrich and a sharp single by Berra that scores two and Pelfrey is gone, with Elmer Dessens summoned from the pen, and he gets the third out but it’s now 6-3 Yankees.   In the 3rd, Angel Pagan becomes the third Mets regular to be knocked out of the lineup with an injury, but they avenge him in the 4th when a David Wright double and a two-base error by Yanks 1B-2 McQuinn leads to three runs that tie the game once again.  That tie doesn’t last long, as Berra leads off the 5th exploiting Dessens’ tendency to allow the longball, and later Rizzuto triples to drive in another and the Yanks regain the lead, 8-6.  The Mets turn to setup man Feliciano to start the 6th, and Dimaggio greets him by finding his HR result; the Mets finally go to FRod in the 8th and he pitches two perfect innings, but Chandler has found his stuff by then and the top seeded Yankees live up to their billing with a 9-6 victory and the 9th regional win for the franchise.

Interesting card of Regional #134:  With the 1947 season being a brand new arrival and having the AL pennant winner representing the season as its first entrant, it seemed only fitting to feature the most impressive hitting card from that team.  Given that Joe Dimaggio won the AL MVP award, you might think that would be his card, but no–King Kong Keller bettered Joltin’ Joe in both SLG% and OBP, albeit in far fewer ABs.  Unfortunately, those limited appearances were no fault of Keller’s; on June 5th of the 1947 season Keller led the league in home runs, RBIs, and runs scored, but after collecting a pair of base hits, he complained of soreness in his lower back, and left in the sixth inning.  The pain continued to worsen, and on June 27, Keller checked into the hospital for observation.  Two weeks later doctors removed a slipped disk from Keller’s spine; he didn’t play another game that season, and although he hung on for a few seasons in a limited role, he could no longer swing the bat the way that he had previously and was never able to play a full season again.  Thus, this card freezes his abilities in time just before the injury/surgery, in his prime at age 30.