REGIONAL #133:  It was just three regionals ago that I lamented the poor performance of my favorite teams in this project, accurately forecasting that my ‘83 White Sox would go down (via shutout, no less) in the first round.  And, here we go with another favorite Sox team, the 1994 version that “won” the AL Central and an MVP for Frank Thomas, but were robbed of a postseason appearance by the strike.  They now have their chance for glory in this regional, but they face obstacles besides my jinx, such as a Twins team just a season away from a pennant and a more modern Tiger team two seasons away from the AL flag.  The remainder of the bracket looked like they could be decent as well, and after a truly terrible team won the previous regional I doubted I’d be able to pick this one accurately.  However, tradition required a selection so I went with the Tigers over the Sox in the finals, figuring the Sox would get my hopes up only to dash them as they have over nearly every season (except one) of my life.  The ELO ranks added to the kiss of death for the Sox by listing them as by far the best team in the regional, predicting a win over the Twins in the final.  We shall see.

First round action

The 1964 Twins were just one season away from winning the first pennant for that franchise in more than three decades, but they only finished 79-83, and looking at the team I couldn’t figure out why they were under .500.  They had good offense from Killebrew, Oliva, Allison, Versalles  et al., three solid starters, and a good bullpen, and their Pythagorean projection agreed with me, predicting that they should have won 87 games.  Meanwhile, their opponent, the 1989 Orioles, did win 87 games to nearly win the AL East, but they overplayed their projection (in fact, they had lost 107 games in ‘88) and I felt that the ELO ranks were accurate in ranking the Twins as the better team.  The pitching matchup had the O’s Jeff Ballard (18-8, 3.43), 6th in the AL Cy Young voting, against Minnesota’s recent Hall of Fame inductee Jim Kaat (17-11, 3.22).  Killebrew begins the fireworks in the top of the first by crushing a homer to give the Twins a 2-0 lead that could have been worse as Bob Allison and Don Mincher both missed HR splits (1-11 and 1-17) in the inning.  Allison leads off the 3rd leaving no doubt by nailing a solid HR on his card, but in the bottom of the inning Joe Orsulak leads off with a blast of his own and a couple of Kaat walks and a Zoilo Versalles error and the Twins’ lead narrows to 3-2.  In the 4th, Rich Rollins doubles with 2 out and C Earl Battey (1-8) lumbers home successfully to make it 4-2; the O’s threaten again in the bottom of the inning but Mike Devereaux ends the inning by grounding out and getting injured in the process.  In the bottom of the 7th, a 2-out, 2-run homer from Randy Milligan ties the game and Memorial Stadium is rocking; when Kaat issues a leadoff walk in the 8th the Twins move to Al Worthington and his 1.38 ERA, and he gets out of the inning without damage.  The game moves to the 9th still tied, and when Battey leads off the top of the inning with a single the Orioles bring in their closer, Gregg Olson, who is bailed out by a failed bunt from Bernie Allen that keeps the score knotted for the bottom of the 9th.  Worthington walks Tettleton, and then Twins CF-3 Jimmie Hall plays a Cal Ripken fly into a double, putting the winning run on 3rd with nobody out.  The infield comes in; Milligan walks, and Craig Worthington (no apparent relation to the Twins’ pitcher) hits a grounder to Versalles, who fields it cleanly for the first time in 5 X-chart attempts this game, and there is one out.  Orsulak pops out, and Billy Ripken grounds out, and we head to extra innings.  Neither team can do much until the top of the 12th, when Don Mincher tries that HR 1-17 split again and this time converts it for a solo shot to put the Twins up.  It’s now Johnny Klippstein’s game in the bottom of the 12th, and he sets the Orioles down in order to give the Twins the hard-fought 5-4 win.

Next up was a matchup of teams from the same season, the 2010 Tigers against the 2010 Diamondbacks.  I had picked the Tigers to win the regional vaguely remembering that those were the years of Verlander and Scherzer, and sure enough those two were there and were solid, but the rest of the rotation was not so good, team defense was mediocre at best, and aside from Miguel Cabrera there wasn’t a lot of firepower in the lineup, resulting in their mediocre 81-81 record.  That was still a far sight better than the 97-loss Dbacks, as when I was going through the cards to set their starting lineup, I kept wondering when I was going to run across somebody whose name sounded familiar.  Arizona had a couple of hitters, a couple of fielders, and a collection of starting pitchers who were different flavors of bad, with Ian Kennedy (9-11, 3.80) the best of the lot to go against Verlander (18-9, 3.37).  In the 3rd, a two-out error by Tiger 2B-3 Carlos Guillen opens the floodgates for consecutive RBI singles from Chris Young, Justin Upton, and Miguel Montero.  That’s the scoring until the top of the 9th, when Stephen Drew leads off with a homer that gives the Dbacks a 4-0 lead, but all eyes are on Kennedy as he is tossing a PERFECT GAME going into the bottom of the 9th.  Of course, the second I write that, Jhonny Peralta leads off the inning with a double to break up the gem, and to make matters worse I have to type his name four times before I can get the damn autocorrect to stop changing his first name.  Then, Alex Avila doubles to bring in Peralta, and it is starting to get interesting here in Comerica Park.  Kennedy walks Ramon Santiago and then Austin Jackson converts a squib single, and the bases are loaded with nobody out and the winning run at the plate.  Kennedy is obviously spent after losing his no-no and the Dbacks give the ball to Daniel Hudson to try to hang on to the win.  Johnny Damon hits a grounder to AZ 1B-3 Adam Laroche, who boots it and the bases remain loaded with the score now 4-2, and still nobody is out.  Hudson whiffs Cabrera to get one, Magglio Ordonez lifts a flyball to CF-2 Chris Young for a sac fly that scores Santiago, and it’s now two away with the tying run on second and Carlos Guillen at the plate, eager to atone for his costly error earlier in the game.  It’s on Hudson’s card:  SI* 1-12, and the split is a 13.  Guillen gets the double goat horns and the Dbacks barely hang on for the upset 4-3 win–one in which they lost 2B Kelly Johnson to injury with little depth to replace him.  

The 1983 Angels had some names that would lead one to believe they were better than they actually were, such as a Reggie Jackson who hit .194 with 14 HR, and I thought that their ELO ranking was better than their 92 losses merited.   The 94-loss 2004 Brewers had similar results but did so with a no-name cast of characters; their best hope lay in starter Ben Sheets (12-14, 2.70) who finished 8th in the Cy Young balloting and led the league in SO/W ratio, which is certainly more than Angels starter Ken Forsch (11-12, 4.06) could claim.  The Angels load the bases in the top of the 1st, but only manage one run on a Fred Lynn fielder’s choice, as Sheets whiffs Reggie! to end the inning.  The Brewers get that run back immediately when Lyle Overbay, whose error in the top of the inning had loaded the bases for the Angels, smacks a solo homer to make up for it.  In the 5th, Bobby Grich connects for a 2-run shot to put the Angels up 3-1, but in the bottom of the 6th DH Russell Branyan comes up with the bases loaded and clears them with a double to put the Brewers on top, and after a walk the Angels yank Forsch for Luis Sanchez, who immediately converts a DP to prevent further damage.  The game heads into the 9th with Milwaukee clinging to the 4-3 lead, and the Brewers decide that it’s Sheets’ game, but PH Ellis Valentine bats for Tim Foli and crushes a solo shot to tie the game.  Sheets then walks Brian Downing to face Grich, who sends his second 2-run homer of the game into the cheap seats and the Angels reclaim the lead, so it’s now up to Sanchez to hold on in the bottom of the 9th.  With one out, Keith Ginter rolls Sanchez’s 5-5 HR 1-5/flyB split and converts it with a 4, and it’s a one-run game.  Sanchez then whiffs Podsednik, so it comes down to PH Junior Spivey, who rolls in his big 3 column but it’s a 3-12, lomax, and it’s game over.  The Angels take the see-saw 6-5 victory; Sanchez gets credit for the win, but he’s burned up for the regional and there isn’t much else in the California bullpen to shore up their shaky starting pitching.

The 1994 White Sox went 67-46, the best record in the AL Central and the second best in the league.  However, there would be no postseason in that strike year, shortchanging one of the best Sox teams in recent memory, with Frank Thomas as AL MVP along with decent pitching and defense (although I always thought Ozzie Guillen deserved a “1” range, but I guess they were saving up fielding points for Derek Jeter).   They faced a 1983 Mariners team that lost 102 games, making them the #8 seed in the regional and without much to write home about–aside from a pretty fair #1 starter in Matt Young (11-15, 3.27), who would be matched against the Sox’ Jason Bere (12-2, 3.81) in a battle of guys with control problems.   In the top of the 1st, Young issues a walk to Joey Cora which is followed by a blast from Thomas–off Young’s card–and the Sox have a quick 2-0 lead.  Cora then allows .196-hitting Spike Owen to punch a two-out single past him in the 2nd that scores Rick Sweet, but the Sox regain the run in the 4th when Thomas leads off with a blast, this time on his own card, and it’s now Thomas 3, Mariners 1.  However, in the bottom of the inning Owen connects off Bere’s card for a 2-run shot to make it Owen 3, Thomas 3.  In the 6th, the Sox put runners on 1st and 3rd and with two out send PH Joe Hall and his .393 average to hit for Karkovice.  Hall delivers with a single (nestled between two solid HR results) to drive in one, and then Lance Johnson follows by nailing Young’s HR split for a 3-run shot that sends Young to the showers.  However, in the 7th Dave Henderson connects on Bere’s homer result for a 2-run HR that makes it 7-5 and the Sox bring in Jose Deleon to try to stop the bleeding, and he retires PH Richie Zisk and the apparently dangerous Spike Owen to do the job.  Nonetheless in the 8th the Mariners twice find Deleon’s only complete hit on his card and one of them is an RBI single for the other Henderson, Steve, and it’s a one-run game entering the 9th.  The Sox do nothing against Mike Stanton in their half of the inning, so for the bottom of the frame they bring in Paul Assenmacher to try to close things out.  He gets two quick outs, and then fans PH Domingo Ramos to earn the save as the Sox stave off the upset with the 7-6 nailbiter.  Worthy of note:  this completes a first round in which the visiting team won every game by one run.

The survivors

Hall of Slam

The first semifinal featured the #2 seeded 1964 Twins, who barely survived round one in an extra inning squeaker, and the #7 seed 2010 Diamondbacks, who lost one of their best players to injury but who had a bad pitcher come within three outs of a perfect game.   The Dbacks had plenty more bad pitchers to choose from, with Edwin Jackson (6-10, 5.16) seeming to be the least terrible option, while the Twins had a much better choice in Camilo Pascual (15-12, 3.30), who unfortunately is winless in 6 starts in this tournament despite a couple of strong outings.  A Tony Oliva solo shot puts the Twins up 1-0 in the top of the first, and a 2-out triple by Bernie Allen in the 2nd gives them another run, but in both innings Minnesota would have put up crooked numbers if they hadn’t hit into DPs before the big blows.  The Twins load up the bases in the 5th, bringing up Jimmie Hall with one out, and Twins fans cringe awaiting yet another DP, but Hall launches a moon shot for a grand slam and the rather meager crowd at Chase Field begins heading for the exits.  Versalles then singles and Earl Battey delivers the DP ball for the third time in five innings, but it’s hard to complain with a 6-0 lead.  However, that lead and the crowd exodus doesn’t last, as the Dbacks go to town on Pascual in the bottom of the inning, who in the process boots an easy DP ball to make matters worse, and by the time injury replacement 2B Augie Ojeda finally makes the third out the score is now 6-4 Twins after five.  In the 7th, the Twins lose their hero of game one, Don Mincher, to a minor injury, but it seems like both teams are spent from their 4-run 5th innings as neither squad manages a hit thereafter.  So, the Twins survive the 6-4 win and head to the finals, buoyed by the news that Mincher will be available and that their bullpen, taxed heavily in the extra innings of their round one game, is now fully rested thanks to Pascual’s complete game and his first tournament win.

It’s the #1 seed 1994 White Sox and Wilson Alvarez (12-8, 3.45) against the #4 seeded 1983 Angels, starting Bruce Kison (11-5, 4.05), to determine the other team in the regional final, and the Sox load the bases in the bottom of the 1st with nobody out–but fail to convert a single run.  The Sox then load the bases again in the 2nd, with Frank Thomas at the plate, but he flies out and the game remains scoreless.  In the 3rd, the Sox finally push a run across when Lance Johnson’s 2-out single scores 1-16 Darrin Jackson from second, with a 16 split roll.  However, in the 4th Sox 2B Joey Cora goes down with an 8 game injury, and the groan from the crowd can be heard in the Loop.  The groaning gets louder when the Angels load the bases in the 5th with nobody out, including their first hit, a Juan Beniquez double, and unlike the Sox they score them all with a Tim Foli fielder’s choice and a 2-run single from former Sox Brian Downing, and the Angels now lead 3-1.  Doug Decinces then leads off the 6th by converting Alvarez’s HR 1-9/flyB split, and a Fred Lynn double in the 8th chases Alvarez for Jose Deleon, who gets the Sox to the bottom of the 9th with no further damage and the top of the order up against Kison.  A walk to Tim Raines and a single by injury replacement Craig Grebeck brings up Thomas as the tying run with nobody out.  With their best reliever burnt, the Angels decide to stick with Kison, and he walks Thomas so once again the Sox have the bases loaded with no outs.  Kison then walks Julio Franco, and now the tying run is on second and Franco is the winning run on first.  Kison fans Robin Ventura, who thought about charging the mound but decided against it; and then Darrin Jackson rolls the gbA and it’s game over.  The Angels pull off the 4-2 upset for a trip to the finals, and another favorite Sox team heads back in defeat to the card catalogs despite allowing only four hits to the Halos.

BD whacks Twins

The regional finals match the #2 seeded 1964 Twins against the #4 seed 1983 Angels, but those seedings obscure the fact that neither team finished over .500 in their season.   For the Twins, it would be swingman Gerry Arrigo (7-4, 3.86) against Angels workhorse Geoff Zahn (9-11, 3.33), and the Angels draw first blood on an RBI double from Doug Decinces in the 3rd.  That seems to wake up the Twins, as they take the lead immediately in the top of the 4th on a 3-run homer by Zoilo Versalles, and then a two-run shot from Tony Oliva in the 5th makes it 5-1.  However, there are no signs of quit from the Angels, as a 3-run blast from Brian Downing in the bottom of the inning narrows the gap to one run, and with both teams having rested bullpens both starters would be on short leashes entering the 6th.  Thus, when Rod Carew pokes his 4th hit of the game in the bottom of the 6th to put runners on 1st and 2nd, the Twins summon Al Worthington from the pen, and that proves a disaster as Brian Downing crushes his second 3-run shot of the game to give the Angels the lead.  California then loads the bases in the 7th, but Worthington strikes out Tim Foli and the score remains 7-5 until Killebrew leads off the 8th with a moonshot, and when Mincher follows that with a double Zahn is gone and the Angels put their hopes in John Curtis.  He allows a single to Versalles, and with one out the Twins take a chance and send 1-9 Mincher home for the tie–and he’s nailed at the plate.  However, Versalles takes second on the play, and the next batter, Earl Battey, raps another single off Curtis’ card and Zoilo is 1-18 going home with two out and scores easily, game tied.  Worthington retires the side in the 8th–Downing missing a HR 1-5/flyB split–and we enter the 9th deadlocked at 7 apiece.  In the top of the 9th, Allison misses a HR 1-9/DO split; Oliva follows with a single but 1-13 Allison is cut down trying to score.  Foli then handles a Killebrew grounder and the game heads to the bottom of the 9th.  Fred Lynn leads off and gets injured for the remainder of the game; that brings up Decinces, and Worthington delivers:  1-7, a solid walkoff homer for Doug Decinces and a fourth regional win for the Angels, with 1983 joining 1977, 1989, and 2004 in the winner’s circle.  

Interesting card of Regional #133:  There may not have been an AL pennant winner in 1994 because of the strike, but there was an MVP, and it was this guy, with his second award in a row.  Of course, this was based upon a partial season, but I wanted to highlight the Big Hurt because it isn’t every season that a White Sox player wins the MVP.  In fact, it wouldn’t happen again for another 26 years–of course, in 2020, another “incomplete” season, this time for pandemic reasons.   Thus, it seems that the best way to get great performances out of Sox players is to not allow the league to have a complete season.  The way things are looking in the current MLB negotiations between the owners and players, I’m thinking that we might have another Sox MVP in 2022–if there are any cards at all.

REGIONAL #132:  My first impression on seeing the draw for this bracket was that I’d get to see a couple of the best power hitters that pharmaceuticals can produce, and that I felt sorry for the few pre-PED era teams in the group.  There weren’t any pennant winners, and the only team that seemed to be within a few years of winning one were the 2000 Giants, who captured the NL two years later.  However, I did remember that three Indians teams from the 1960s had previously won regionals, so I thought that perhaps the 1966 Indians might be good for some surprises.  I also remembered that Mark McGwire single-handedly drove the ‘96 A’s to a regional win, although I didn’t think his ‘95 card represented here would be quite as dangerous.  Even so, I predicted an all-steroids final with the 2000 Bonds/Giants over the 1995 McGwire/A’s.  The ELO rankings agreed with my pick of the Giants, as they ranked their 2000 team as the best in baseball that year despite not winning the pennant.  However, the rankings also suggested that the Giants had a tough road to the finals, where they were expect to face their rivals, the Dodgers, from the same season.

First round action

I was curious to see why the 45-105 1938 Phillies merited inclusion as one of the worst 30 teams of all time, according to the ELO rankings; it turns out that they had no power (Chuck Klein led them with 8 HR), half of the team were “4”s on defense, and their best pitcher was Al Hollandsworth (7-18, 4.36), who might have been a good #4 starter for another team.  They faced the 67-77 1995 A’s, who had no power shortage–I had doubted that McGwire could be as good as the ‘96 version that powered the A’s to the regional win, and this season Mac “only” hit 39 HR–but it was in 317 at bats in a strike-shortened season.  Todd Stottlemyre (14-7, 4.55) was on the mound for Oakland, but he starts dismally with a single and two walks, all off his card, to load the bases, and then Mike Bordick drops a double-play ball to let in one run, Chuck Klein singles for another, and the Phils lead 2-0 before the A’s have seen a pitch.  The A’s don’t do too well in the bottom of the 1st, as CF Stan Javier gets hurt and McGwire hits into an inning-ending DP.  In the 3rd, doubles by Phil Weintraub and Morrie Arnovich, both off Stottlemyre’s card, expand the lead to 3-0, but in the 5th the Phils lose Klein to injury for 5 games, which for this team might as well be for the rest of eternity.  Klein’s replacement, LF-4 Earl Browne, comes in just in time to turn a Scott Brosius fly ball into a triple, and Geronimo Berroa knocks him in to narrow the margin to 3-1.  Brosius singles in Rickey Henderson in the 6th, and it’s now a one-run game, but Stottlemyre allows a walk and a single in the 7th and he’s gone in favor of Jim Corsi, who delivers a walk and a 2-run single to George Scharein and it’s now 5-2 Phils.  However, in the 9th the A’s stage a 2-out rally, and a Bordick double makes it 5-3 and he represents the tying run on 2nd.  The A’s bring in Danny Tartabull to pinch hit with the game on the line….and he rolls in the middle of a 2 column full of whiffs, meaning that the Phils head to the semifinals with a 5-3 upset and this time around McGwire leads the A’s back to the drawers.  

The 86-win 2000 Dodgers were an uneven team, with half of the defense being “4”s but boasting five guys in the lineup with more than 20 HRs, led by Gary Sheffield’s 43, and a couple of very good pitchers, including Chan Ho Park (18-10, 3.27).   The 1966 Indians went an even 81-81 on the arms of a very good rotation, but spotty fielding and offense; Luis Tiant (12-11, 2.79) was tapped for the start.  The Dodgers get a rude awakening in the top of the 1st when Sheffield gets dinged up and has to leave the game, although fortunately for LA their bench seemed to have plenty of DH candidates for an NL team.  The Indians take a lead in the 3rd on a leadoff HR by Chico Salmon, converting a HR 1-4/flyB to move out in front 1-0; Salmon rolls the same result in his next AB in the 5th, but this time fails to make the split.  In the 7th, the Indians try to shore up their defense by bringing in Jim Landis in CF, and he immediately misplays a Dave Hansen single; a rattled Tiant then allows back-to-back triples by Mark Grudzielanek and Alex Cora (one on a 1-4 split, the second on a TR 1/ SI**) and suddenly the Dodgers have a 2-1 lead, but in the process lose Eric Karros to yet another injury–an 8 gamer that likely puts him out of the tournament.  Now armed with a lead, Park is relentless, and closes out a 4-hitter to give the Dodgers the 2-1 victory and a trip to the semifinals, for which Sheffield is expected to return.  Tiant allows only 5 hits in defeat but is undone by some unlucky split rolls, although there is little room for complaint as the Indians’ sole run came from similar luck.

The ELO rankings pegged the 1st-round matchup between the 2012 Orioles and the 2011 Angels as one between two pretty good modern era teams.  The Orioles won 93 games and made the postseason as a wildcard team; they had a powerful core of the lineup and a good bullpen but starting pitching depth was lacking, with Jason Hammel (8-6, 3.43) their best option.  The 86-win Angels didn’t have quite the lineup punch of the Orioles, partially because 19 year old Mike Trout was still finding his groove, but they had some talented arms, led by AL Cy Young runner-up Jared Weaver (18-8, 2.41).  In the bottom of the 1st the Angels move ahead 1-0 on a Torii Hunter RBI single, but lose key hitter 1B Mark Trumbo to injury.  They add a second run on a Peter Bourjos solo HR in the 3rd, and meanwhile the O’s can’t even muster a hit against Weaver until Wilson Betemit singles in the 7th, but he’s immediately erased on a DP.  After a leadoff walk by Vernon Wells in the bottom of the inning, Baltimore moves to closer Jim Johnson to try to stay in the game and he ends the inning without incident, but Howie Kendrick doubles off his card in the 8th and Alberto Callaspo singles him home.  The Orioles’ defense then falls apart, as SS-1 JJ Hardy drops a grounder, and LF-2 Nate McLouth misplays an Erick Aybar flyball into a double, and the Angels lead 4-0 heading into the 9th.  However, Weaver suddenly gets shaky, and a two-out double by Adam Jones scores a run and puts the tying run at the plate in the form of O’s leading HR hitter Chris Davis.  However, Davis fans, as he did 169 times that season, and the Angels escape with a 4-1 win as Weaver completes the 4-hitter. 

The ELO ranks had this as the game of the regional, with the #1 seed 2000 Giants against the #2 seed 2013 A’s.   According to those ranks, the 97-win Giants were the best team in baseball that season, although they lost in the NLDS to the Mets, and they had a steroid-packed lineup and some good relievers who would likely be needed, with Kirk Rueter (11-9, 3.96) getting the nod from a group of unimpressive starter options.  Their cross-bay rivals won 96 games and also won the West division in their league, and like the Giants the A’s lost in the divisional series; they were starting big-boned Bartolo Colon (18-6, 2.65), who came in 6th in the AL Cy Young balloting.  Things go horribly awry in the top of the 1st for Colon, as a walk and two singles through the A’s infield defense load the bases for the Giants; Ellis Burks knocks a sac fly, and then Jeff Kent knocks a deep fly for a 3-run blast and the Giants lead 4-0.  The A’s get one back immediately in the bottom of the inning as Jed Lowrie and Brandon Moss both hit doubles, and a Kurt Suzuki RBI single in the 4th narrows the SF lead to 4-2.  Both pitchers then settle into a groove, but when Colon allows runners on 1st and 3rd in the 8th the A’s move to their closer, Grant Balfour–and he immediately allows a double to Bobby Estalella, although only one run scores as Ramon Martinez is cut down at the plate to end the inning.  Rueter then heads into the bottom of the 9th with a 3-run lead, but a walk and a single puts the tying run at the plate and the Giants bring in closer Rob Nen to face the A’s leading HR hitter in Moss with one out.  Moss singles to bring in one, and now Josh Donaldson at the plate represents the winning run.  The roll is on Donaldson’s card, but it’s a gbA and the Giants survive with a 5-3 win and a trip to the semis.

The survivors

More dangerous in the field than at the plate

In their book “Baseball Dynasties”, Neyer and Epstein rank teams according to the combined standard deviations compared to league averages for runs scored and runs allowed; this regional’s semifinal entrant, the 1938 Phillies, were the 5th worst team since 1900 according to that metric.  Yet, they remain alive, with their leading “power” hitter injured and their winningest pitcher, Claude Passeau (11-18, 4.52) on the mound, ready to face the 2000 Dodgers.  The Dodgers were missing Eric Karros but LA’s top HR hitter Gary Sheffield would return to the lineup after the minor injury suffered in the first round, and Kevin Brown (13-6, 2.58) was licking his chops in anticipation of facing the feeble Phillie lineup.  Things start out grim for the Phils as leadoff hitter and 2B Heinie Mueller gets injured first thing in the top of the 1st, but that seems to spark the team as doubles by Hersh Martin and Buck Jordan, and a big error by LA LF-5 Gary Sheffield, lead to three runs for the Phils before the inning ends.  The Dodgers try to start climbing back into it with a Todd Hundley RBI single in the 3rd and another by Tom Goodwin in the 4th, but in the 6th Sheffield manages to play a Morrie Arnovich flyball into a two-run triple, and the Phillies lead is now 5-2.  Meanwhile, Passeau hasn’t allowed any hits since the 4th inning, but he walks two in the bottom of the 9th to face Sheffield, representing the tying run with one away.  Sheffield has the chance to atone for his atrocious fielding, and….he hits into a double play, game over, and the unlikely Phils move to the finals with two injuries depleting their already feeble lineup.

The top seeded 2000 Giants came into this semifinal game at full strength and with Livan Hernandez (17-11, 3.75), their winningest pitcher, ready to go on the mound.  Meanwhile, their opponent, the #5 seed 2011 Angels, had their top HR hitter, Mark Trumbo, still out with an injury, although Dan Haren (16-10, 3.17) was a pretty solid option as their starter.   Both starters begin strong, with Hernandez getting out of jams caused by three Giants errors in the early innings, but in the 5th Izturis raps a single for the first hit off Livan.  Giants CF-3 Marvin Benard then plays an Alberto Callaspo flyball into a double, so SF brings in the infield to try to keep the game knotted with weak-hitting (.174, to be exact) C Jeff Mathis at the plate.  However, a gbA++ and Mathis brings both runners home to put the southern Californians in the lead.  However, in the 6th Benard hits a leadoff double trying to atone for his fielding, then JT Snow singles him home, followed by a Barry Bonds blast that puts the Giants on top.  Benard does some more atoning in the 7th with an RBI single, and when Bonds doubles to lead off the 8th the Angels bring in Scott Downs, but Ramon Martinez atones for his two errors with an RBI single, Rich Aurelia adds an run-scoring double, and the Giants head to the 9th inning with a commanding 6-2 lead.  The Angels get a single from Vernon Wells followed by an Izturis double, and the Giants take no chances, turning to Felix Rodriguez to close things out.  Callaspo gets a run in on a sac fly, but that’s all the flying the Angels would do as the Giants head to the regional final with the 6-3 win.

No steroids here

This is perhaps the biggest David vs. Goliath regional final in the history of the tournament, with the #1 seed 2000 Giants, the best team in baseball that season, against the #8 seed 1938 Phillies, the worst team in baseball that season and by any metric among the worst in history.  In reading up on the 1938 Phillies trying to figure out how such an objectively terrible team could make the regional finals, I discovered that this was their first season in Shibe Park after moving out of the much smaller Baker Bowl, so I thought that perhaps the team was simply not well-constructed for their new environment.  The team only hit a total of 40 homers, nine less than Barry Bonds by himself, and with injuries to their #1 and #2 homer threats the Phils could only muster 28 for this game.  Of course, a move to a new park didn’t explain why the team was terrible in 1937 also, and the more spacious digs didn’t seem to help their pitching any–it was now time for staff workhorse Hugh Mulcahy (10-20, 4.61), whose efforts earned him the unfortunate nickname of “Losing Pitcher”.  The Giants were getting down into the dregs of their rotation, although surprisingly for a steroid-era team, their problems weren’t homers allowed; it was terrible control, with both Ortiz and Estes allowing more than 100 walks in less than 200 innings.  So the start went to Mark Gardner (11-7, 4.05), but the Phils .196-hitting C Bill Atwood finds and converts Gardner’s HR split in the 3rd to give the Phils a 2-0 lead as the fans at Pacific Bell Park look on in disbelief.  Meanwhile, the Giants don’t even get a hit against Mulcahy until the 5th, and when Gardner allows a 2-out double off his card in the 6th the Giants sense that emergency measures are necessary, and closer Robb Nen is brought in to try to salvage their chances.  Nen promptly walks Del Young, to bring up Atwood.  The roll:  4-5 on Nen’s card, HR 1-2/flyB, and the split die comes up: 1 (my laughter in reaction to that roll had my family members concerned about me).  Atwood thus coaxes a 3-run homer over the wall for his second blast of the game and the Phils lead 5-0, but the dice gods seem aggravated and in the 6th Phils CF Hersh Martin leads off by getting injured for four games–the third Phillie out of the lineup.  The Giants finally get untracked in the 8th and load the bases with nobody out, and with no bullpen to speak of Mulcahy isn’t going anywhere.  Ellis Burks then hits into a DP, which at least scores one, and Jeff Kent adds an RBI single and the gap is narrowed to 5-2 entering the 9th.  The Phils do nothing in the top of the 9th, so it comes down to the bottom of the Giants order.  Rich Aurelia doubles and Marvin Benard draws a 2-out walk, so the tying run comes to the plate in the form of JT Snow, with Bonds on deck.  But Snow grounds out, and the unlikely and injury-riddled Phils hoist the regional flag, with catcher Bill Atwood–a guy who had seven career homers–hitting two in the final to be named the even more unlikely MVP.

Interesting card of Regional #132:  Okay, so I did feature this guy once before back in Regional #103, but it was in his days with the Pirates and so this is sort of a before-and-after look into the steroid era.  Say what you want about his Hall of Fame candidacy, this is a nice looking card, although that 3-9 roll drives me crazy.  It’s also an interesting card in that it’s one of the few that has both the MLBPA logo as well as Bonds’ name on it, as shortly thereafter he decided he would negotiate his name/image/likeness rights separately from the players’ union and the game company no longer included his name on the cards.  Anyhow, in 2000 Bonds finished 2nd in the MVP voting to teammate Jeff Kent; Bonds was higher in WAR and OPS than Kent, although Kent had more RBIs–mainly because he batted after Bonds in the lineup.   At any rate, Bonds made up for any potential slight by then rattling off four straight NL MVP awards, a stretch that probably only ended because he missed most of 2005 trying to recover from knee surgery.  Referring to the half-decade that began with this card, his SABR bio probably puts it best:  “Debates will always rage, but statistically Bonds’ efforts from 2000 to 2004 can be claimed as the greatest five-year period ever for a hitter.”  Perhaps it is karma that his Giants lost in the regional finals to what was by all accounts one of the worst baseball teams of all time.

REGIONAL #131:  In the 1950s, the Yankees dominated the AL, but the performance of those teams in this tournament has been dismal, going zero for six in efforts to win a regional.  For this bracket it’s the turn of the pennant-winning 1958 Yanks team, who will face challenges from Orioles and Dodgers teams that would each win their league in the following season, two 21st century Toronto squads, and a longtime Yankee nemesis, the Splendid Splinter himself.  I suspected that the Yanks would be the rankings favorite but given their previous failures I doubted they would come through this time; instead, I picked the Dodgers over the Orioles in the finals.  As expected, the ELO rankings suggested that the Yanks would break their 50’s drought and finally come through with a regional win.

First round action

The 2010 Blue Jays were a 4th place team with 85 wins, but they had a formidable lineup led by Jose Bautista’s 54 round-trippers and a solid starter in Ricky Romero (13-9, 3.73) to begin the bracket.  As a team of the mid-60s, the 94-win 1965 Orioles couldn’t come close to the Jays power numbers, but were relying on defense and the pitching of Steve Barber (15-10, 2.69) to get them through.  Things start out auspiciously for the Jays in the top of the 1st when leadoff batter SS Yunel Escobar gets injured and has to leave the game, but then Bautista sends a solo shot into the cheap seats at Memorial Stadium and Toronto leads 1-0.  However, the Orioles bat around in the bottom of the inning, with Aparicio making 2 of the 3 outs, and rack up 6 hits–including a missed grand slam by Norm Siebern on a HR 1-10 split–and Baltimore ends the inning leaving the bases loaded but holding a 4-1 lead.   In the 5th, Siebern comes up again with the bases loaded, but only drives in one on a fielder’s choice, although that is followed by Jerry Adair’s second RBI single of the game and the O’s lead is now 6-1.  Meanwhile, Barber is cruising until the 9th, but Lyle Overbay leads it off with a homer and Barber starts to lose his touch, leaving with runners on 2nd and 3rd as Stu Miller is summoned to close things out.  Miller records two straight outs (one a sac fly), and the Orioles move on with a 6-3 win.

The 1955 Red Sox went 84-70 despite the efforts of Ted Williams, who had an OPS of 1.200 despite battling injuries during the season.  Their opponents, the 71-81 1934 Dodgers, didn’t have much pop in their lineup, with their leading HR hitter having only 14, but they did have the infamous Van Lingle Mungo (18-16, 3.37) on the mound to go against Boston’s Ike Delock (9-7, 3.76), who as far as I know did not have any songs written about him.  However, Mungo faces the music in the bottom of the 1st as Billy Goodman and Williams hit doubles and Boston takes an early 1-0 lead.  That doesn’t last, as in the 2nd leadoff hitter Sam Leslie picks Delock for pitcher’s-card homer to tie it, but the Red Sox take back the lead immediately when Norm Zauchin and Jimmy Piersall hit back-to-back doubles (both off Mungo’s card) to lead off the bottom of the inning.  Despite that boisterous start, the game then sinks into a display of offensive ineptitude, with the Red Sox hitting into three rally-killing DPs and the Dodgers unable to get to Delock again.  Brooklyn finally mounts a threat in the top of the 9th as Boston makes two straight errors to begin the inning, but Red Sox 2B-4 Goodman actually makes a key play and Delock fans Buzz Boyle with the tying and go-ahead run both in scoring position to close out the 2-1 Red Sox win.  

The 2019 Blue Jays had some great names that I was familiar with–Vlad Guerrero, Biggio, Bichette–although it was mainly because of their fathers; it was easy to see why they lost 95 games as they had no pitching depth, with only two starting pitchers with 100 innings or more.   Although Marcus Strohman (6-11, 2.96) was not terrible as their top option, the Jays still would have liked to borrow a couple of starters from the 95-win 1973 Dodgers, who had five good ones, paced by Don Sutton (18-10, 2.43) who was 5th in the Cy Young voting that year.   A Freddy Galvis solo shot in the 2nd gives the Jays the early lead, and the Dodgers’ attempt to strike back in the bottom of the inning ends in disaster as Joe Ferguson and Ron Cey are both cut down at the plate in consecutive at-bats.  Things stay status quo until the 7th, when Toronto C Danny Jansen nails Suttons HR split for a solo blast that makes it 2-0, but when Bill Buckner leads off the bottom of the inning with a single the Jays take no chances and move to their closer, Ken Giles, and his 1.87 ERA.  However, that doesn’t go well as Giles allows a hit to Russell and then Davey Lopes converts Giles’ HR 1-5 split for a 3-run shot that gives the Dodgers their first lead.  The Jays do get the tying run in scoring position in the top of the 9th, but Sutton bears down and closes out the 3-2 comeback win.

The 1958 Yankees went 92-62 and won the AL by 10 games as well as a tough 7 game World Series against the Braves.  Although starter Bob Turley came in 2nd in the MVP voting, I opted to go with young Whitey Ford (14-7, 2.01) because skipping over him in past matchups for 50s Yankee teams has not worked well for them.  He would face a strong lineup from the 97-loss 1999 Royals, featuring typical steroid-era power but a largely terrible pitching staff, with Jose Rosado (10-14, 3.85) by far their best option to start.   The Royals get on the scoreboard first when Johnny Damon’s sac fly scores Carlos Febles in the 3rd, but in the bottom of the inning the Yanks respond when Enos Slaughter contributes a sac fly of his own to tie it up.  KC regains the lead on a Joe Randa RBI double in the 6th, but once again the Yanks respond in kind with a Bill Skowron RBI double that knots it at 2-2.   New York threatens in the 7th when Tony Kubek hits a one-out triple; the Royals eye their terrible bullpen but stick with Rosado, who rewards them by stranding Kubek at third and the score remains even.  However, the Yanks break through in the 8th when Hank Bauer raps a clutch two-out single that scores two, and Rosado never recovers as two batters later Kubek adds a two run double to make it 6-2 New York.  The Royals put men on 2nd and 3rd in the 9th, but PH Sal Fasano lines into a double play and the Yankees escape the first round with a 6-2 victory, Ford tossing a 6-hitter.  

The survivors

The 1955 Red Sox and 1965 Orioles were winning teams from a decade apart, but they were miles apart in team construction with the pitching/defense O’s against the offense-minded Bostonians, led by Ted Williams who didn’t believe much in either defense or pitching.   Still, the Red Sox had a decent #2 in Frank Sullivan (18-13, 2.91) to go against the O’s Milt Pappas (13-9, 2.61), although Brooks Robinson converts a solo HR 1-5 in the top of the 1st to give Baltimore the early edge.  In the 3rd, the O’s get two straight hits against the Red Sox defense, one a Charlie Lau RBI single, but the Red Sox retaliate in the bottom of the inning with four hits and three runs, including a 2-run single from Jackie Jensen, and things could have been worse but the Sox killed the rally by hitting into a DP.   A Curt Blefary RBI single ties it up in the top of the 5th, and in the 7th the O’s load up the bases but Sullivan fans Norm Siebern and the score remains tied.  In the bottom of the inning, Billy Goodman avoids the DP and instead smacks an RBI single to give the Red Sox a one run lead, and when Jensen leads off the bottom of the 8th with a walk Pappas is gone in favor of Stu Miller, but the Red Sox still score when lumbering LF Boog Powell can’t get to a Sammy White line drive.   That puts the O’s down by two entering the 9th, and all they can muster is a Robinson single and Sullivan closes things out to give the Red Sox the 5-3 win and a trip to the finals in search of their 6th regional crown.

Turley twirls a two-hitter

The 1958 Yankees’ quest for dynasty redemption moves into the semifinals, riding the arm of AL MVP runner-up Bob Turley (21-7, 2.97).  However, they would face another solid arm, that of Andy Messersmith (14-10, 2.70) fronting the 1973 Dodgers, who had generated all of their runs in the first round game on a single roll off the pitcher’s card.   The Dodgers take a 1-0 lead in the top of the 3rd with two-out back-to-back doubles from Bill Russell and Davey Lopes, but in the 5th Hank Bauer whallops a 2-run HR to give the Yanks the lead.  In the bottom of the 8th, a Mantle double puts men on 2nd and 3rd with one out, but Messersmith delivers two whiffs in a row and the game heads into the 9th with the Dodgers down a run.  And Turley sets the heart of the LA lineup down in order to preserve the 2-hitter (those two doubles in the 3rd) and the Yankees head to the finals with a 2-1 win to face their longtime rivals.

It was an all-50s regional final featuring an epic matchup between two bitter rivals, the world champion 1958 Yankees and the 1955 Red Sox, with Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams facing off in their prime.  Neither of those stars had been a major factor in their teams reaching the finals, but fans of both were waiting for a breakout in this game.  The game would be played in Yankee Stadium, which is of particular note as the home team had won every game thus far in the regional, and the pitching matchup was a good one for #3 starters, Don Larsen (9-6, 3.07) for NY and George Susce (9-7, 3.06).  The Yanks lose Yogi Berra to injury to lead off the top of the 2nd, and it looks like he’ll be out for multiple games, but fortunately for them they have Elston Howard ready to come off the bench–who is arguably better.   The game remains scoreless until the 5th, when a two-out single by Gene Stephens is followed by a missed HR 1-7 split on Sammy White, but Stephens races home on the resulting double and the Red Sox lead 1-0.  In the bottom of the 6th, Enos Slaughter hits a leadoff triple and Susce walks Mantle, but records two straight popouts and it’s looking like he’s going to escape the inning.  At the plate is sub Elston Howard–and he finds and converts Susce’s HR 1-12 result and the Bronx erupts.  In the top of the 8th, a single, a walk, and an error by Yank 3B-1 Andy Carey loads the bases with one out for Williams.  New York eyes wild man Ryne Duren in the pen, but his wildness is an issue with the bases jammed, and so Larsen is told to get out of his own jam.  Williams hits a sac fly and one run is in, but then Yanks 2B-2 Gil McDougald drops a Jackie Jensen grounder and the bases are loaded once again.  This time, Larsen fans Norm Zauchin and New York clings to a one-run lead.  They get some insurance in the bottom of the inning when Mantle doubles, and Carey atones for his fielding miscue by shooting a single past SS-3 Billy Klaus that scores Mantle.  Susce can’t recover, allowing two more hits including a Bauer 2-run double, and by the time Tom Hurd can record the third out the Yanks have expanded their lead to 7-2 and the Sox face their final chance in the 9th.  When Jimmy Piersall singles and Sammy White doubles, the Yanks take no chances and now summon Duren, who strikes out two in a row to lock down the win and the regional title for the Yanks.  And, for the first time in many tries, a pennant-winning Yankee team of the 50’s emerges victorious and will ultimately proceed to the super-regional level.

Interesting card of Regional #131:  I present to you the 5th-place finisher in the AL MVP voting in 1958, a vote that was won by Jackie Jensen of the Red Sox.  I bring this up because I find that vote puzzling.  Jensen certainly had a good year, and led the league in RBI, but Mantle led the league in homers, walks, runs scored, and WAR (which was almost double Jensen’s); Mantle bested Jensen in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, hits, and stolen bases, and although both were outstanding fielders, Mantle played a more demanding position.  And then, of course, there was the simple fact that Mantle’s team won the pennant and Jensen’s team finished 16 games behind them.  Once might argue that Mantle had to “split votes” with teammate Bob Turley, who finished 2nd in the voting, but then the same claim could be made about Jensen and Ted Williams, as the Splinter finished 7th in the voting and actually led the AL in batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS.  Finally, add to this a supposed “New York bias” among the baseball writers, and the fact that Mantle was an immensely popular player, and I’m just baffled that he finished FIFTH–behind Bob Cerv, of all people!  Perhaps it was some redemption that both Mantle and Jensen played in the finals, with Mantle helping his team to the regional win over Jensen’s squad.  Regardless–it’s a pretty good card.

REGIONAL #130:  I always dread it when one of my favorite teams comes up in this tournament, because they invariably lose early, typically to a worse team, and then they’re out of this project forever.   My fears this time centered on the “winning ugly” 1983 White Sox, for whom I witnessed in person their real-life win-or-go-home moment when they lost to the Orioles in game 4 of the ALCS in an extra-inning game that was scoreless after nine innings.  Although they wouldn’t be facing any pennant winners, my initial scan of the competition suggested a number of teams that could knock them off, including a Royals team from the same season that was between pennants, a Twins team that would win the World Series the following season, a Hank Aaron-led Braves squad, and what I suspected would be competitive outfits from the Red Sox and the Angels.  Figuring that with my luck the Sox would lose in round one, I guessed that the Angels would make the finals but lose there to the Twins.  The ELO rankings added to the kiss-of-death tally by naming the Sox as the bracket favorites over the Royals in the finals, although by the rankings their first round opponent Angels should be their biggest challenge.  

First round action

For the first game of the regional I’m having to hope that the 99-win 1983 White Sox can survive the consistently bad luck that befalls any of my favorite teams that play in this tournament.  Of course, their first misfortune is in drawing the 2007 Angels, the second best team in the regional and every bit as good as the Sox on paper, as their opponent in the first round.  With solid hitting, good defense, and a couple of very strong starters, it was easy to see why the Angels won 94 games and, as did the Sox, won the AL West.  For the starting pitcher, despite some misgivings I had to go with LaMarr Hoyt (24-10, 3.66 ), the AL Cy Young winner that we lost in the past year, as I felt Dewey deserved his shot.  For the Angels, John Lackey (19-9, 3.01) finished 3rd in the Cy Young balloting and was a bit less prone to the longball than Hoyt.  In the 3rd, Reggie Willitts doubles off Hoyt’s card and Orlando Cabrera scores to give the Halos a 1-0 lead, but Willitts gets injured on his next AB and will be out for one more game.  Meanwhile, in both the 4th and 6th inning, Greg Luzinski comes up with two runners on and two out–and he whiffs both times, highly reminiscent of his performance in Game 4 of the 1983 ALCS (I’m guessing they were both called third strikes).  It finally comes to the Sox last chance in the top of the 9th, down by a run but with the heart of the order up:  Fisk, Baines, Luzinski.  And down they go, in order, with Luzinski whiffing for the 3rd time of the game as the last out, and as I feared the Sox lose ugly and head back to storage while the Angels move on with a 1-0 win in which they only get 5 hits, while the Sox only manage 6.  

After watching one of my favorite teams get eliminated immediately in the prior game, I was worried about the prospects for one of my favorite players, Hank Aaron, as the 1967 Braves took the field against the 88-win, AL East division winning 1990 Red Sox.  The Braves went 77-85 even though Hammering Hank finished 5th in the MVP voting, and starter Phil Niekro (11-9, 1.87) was imposing, but after that the supporting cast had big holes.   Plus, they had the challenge of going against Roger Clemens (21-6, 1.93), who like Niekro also led his league in ERA while finishing 2nd in the Cy Young vote.  Not surprisingly, the game develops into a hell of a pitchers’ duel:  Clemens has a perfect game going until 1 out in the 8th, when Clete Boyer drills a hard single, and a rattled Clemens then allows another single to Felipe Alou and a double to Rico Carty and the Braves score the first run of the game.  Woody Woodward then squibs a single past SS-3 Luis Rivera to score another, and Clemens loses it, walking two in a row to score another run.  At that point, Boston has to get their roid-raged ace out of the game, and they send Larry Andersen in to face Aaron with the based loaded.  Aaron whiffs, so the inning that started with a possible perfect game finally ends with the Braves up 3-0.  Just to be safe, Boyer adds a solo homer in the top of the 9th, but it turns out to be unnecessary as Niekro finishes out the 5-hit shutout for the 4-0 win.  The Braves only muster 5 hits themselves, but they were nicely bunched after seven innings of helplessness against Clemens.

The 1985 Mariners only went 74-88 but they had a core of good players like Alvin Davis, Phil Bradley, and Jim Presley that I remember being quite useful in my draft leagues back in the day, plus they had a very solid #1 starter in Mike Moore (17-10, 3.46).  They faced the 2004 Rays (who were still Deviled at the time), who lost 91 games, which was actually the best season in the history of the franchise at that point, and the best pitcher they could muster was Rob Bell (8-8, 4.46).  The Rays score in the top of the 2nd on a couple of walks and a couple of squib singles, but leave the bases loaded and only take a 1-0 lead.  However, in the 3rd the Mariners move on top 2-1 courtesy of a Jack Perconte RBI triple followed by a Davis sac fly.  The Rays strike back in the 5th when Rocco Baldelli hits a 2-out double with two men on, but Tino Martinez is cut down at the plate and the score is knotted at 2-2 temporarily, until Bob Kearney finds Bell’s HR result for a solo shot in the bottom of the inning and the M’s regain a 3-2 lead.  Bell loads up the bases in the 6th and Al Cowens converts a SI* 1-6 to give Seattle another run, but Tampa closer Danys Baez comes in and retires the side without further damage.   However, Baez gets wild in the 8th, loading up the bases and the M’s bring in Ivan Calderon to pinch hit.  He misses a HR 1-9 split for the grand slam, but the resulting double clears the bases and the M’s have a commanding lead.  Moore sets the Rays down in order in the 9th for the 5-hit complete game 7-2 win; the M’s do lose DH Gorman Thomas to a serious injury but he will be replaced by his doppleganger, Ken Phelps.  

The 1983 Royals had to be a little nervous given that the winner of their division had just been eliminated from the tourney without scoring a run; KC did finish second to the White Sox but had a losing 79-83 record.  However, they faced the 1990 Twins, who had a worse record at 74-88 and finished last in their division.  On the mound were KC’s Paul Splittorf (13-8, 3.63) against the Twins’ Scott Erickson (8-4, 2.87), and Willie Wilson wakes up Erickson in the top of the 1st with a leadoff triple–but fails to score as Erickson fans the heart of the Royals lineup.  Trying to show the Royals how its done, Shane Mack leads off the bottom of the inning with a triple of his own, but Splittorf records two quick outs before a CATCH X ends up in a passed ball charged to John Wathan, and the Twins lead 1-0.  Doubles by Gary Gaetti and Gene Larkin in the 4th make it a two-run lead, although Wathan strokes an RBI single in the 5th to atone for his mistake and narrow the score to 2-1.  Hal McRae’s sac fly in the 6th scores Frank White to tie the game, but when Splittorf allows 2 hits to start the bottom of the 7th, the Royals elect to go to closer Dan Quisenberry.  That doesn’t go too well as Quiz allows 2 more hits, but the Twins only get one run out of it as Kirby Puckett (1-15) is nailed trying to score.  The Royals waste no time in retaliating as George Brett and Willie Aikens go back-to-back in leading off the 8th, and it’s the Twins turn to summon their closer, Rick Aguilera.  The closers hold court until the bottom of the 9th, when Quisenberry fails to lock up the game as a Dan Gladden single scores a lumbering Kent Hrbek (1-9) from second, which ties the game and sends it to extra innings.  The 10th passes uneventfully, but in the top of the 11th pinch hitter Butch Davis starts a 2-out rally with UL Washington doubling, Willie Wilson driving them both in with a single; Wilson then steals second and White knocks him in and the Royals take a three-run lead into the bottom of the 11th.  However, at this point Quisenberry is burned for the regional and the remaining KC bullpen options are frightening, with Mike Armstrong seeming to be the best of the lot.  Junior Ortiz immediately finds Armstrong’s solid 6-4 HR result to lead off the inning; he gets two outs and then Dan Gladden rips a triple, but Gene Larkin pops out and Quisenberry gets the sloppy win, Armstrong gets the sloppy save, and the Royals move on with a 7-5 win.

The survivors

Having shut out the regional favorite in the first round, the #2 seed 2007 Angels now get to assume the mantle of favorite, and they face the 1967 Braves, who came within 5 outs of having a perfect game thrown against them.  The Braves were not pleased that the Angels had yet another very good starting pitcher, Kelvim Escobar (18-7, 3.40), available to go against Atlanta’s Ken Johnson (13-9, 2.74).  In the 2nd, the Angels lose 2B Howie Kendrick to injury, and with LF Reggie Willetts already out from a first round sprain their team depth is being tested.  In the bottom of the 3rd, Willetts’ replacement in LF, Garrett Anderson, can’t get to a two-out Denis Menke flyball and it falls for a double, scoring Carty; that opens the door for an onslaught that includes two more doubles from Mack Jones and Clete Boyer, and an RBI single from Aaron, and by the time Escobar gets Alou for out number three, it’s 5-0 Braves.  The Braves threaten again in the 4th but Felix Millan (1-16) is nailed trying to score for the third out.  As the game heads to the 7th, the Braves bring in Bob Costas’ favorite Strat card, Gary Geiger, as a defensive replacement in CF.  In the 8th, Braves 2B Woody Woodward comes up with two on and two out, and not only does he make the third out, he gets injured and will miss the regional final–meaning that for the remainder of this game at least, the Braves now have an all-”4” DP combo because Millan started at DH. But at least Johnson assures that the Braves will get to that final, as he wraps up a 3-hit shutout (making two in a row for Atlanta) and they advance with the 5-0 win.

It was 80s night for this semifinal with two sub-.500 squads, the 1983 Royals and Bud Black (10-7, 3.79) against the 1985 Mariners and Matt Young (12-19, 4.91), with the underdog Mariners hoping to stay alive and maybe win the first regional for the franchise.  The Royals strike with speed in the bottom of the 1st when Willie Wilson singles, steals second against a hapless Seattle C-4 Bob Kearney, and scores on a George Brett single.  It gets worse for the Mariners when Jim Presley gets injured leading off the top of the 2nd, and with Gorman Thomas already laid up the M’s have no decent bench to cover.  A 2-run Wilson double and a fielder's choice score three more in the 2nd, and when Pat Sheridan whacks a 3-run homer in the 3rd the rout is on and Young exits with a 31.50 ERA for his efforts.  An Al Cowens RBI double in the 5th gets Seattle on the board to make it 8-1, and Jack Perconte adds another in the 8th with a 2-out RBI single, but the Royals aren’t worried–yet.  However, in the 9th Black muffs a Kearney grounder and throws it into the dugout on what would have been the 3rd out, allowing 2 runs to score and opening the door for the Mariners with no real help in the pen.  Ultimately, however, Black gets out number three, and the Royals escape with an 8-5 win and a date with the Braves in the finals.

The finals matched the #4 seeded 1967 Braves, who had been underdogs in every game they won, with the #5 seed 1983 Royals, who despite being ranked lower than the Braves had nonetheless been favorites in both of their prior games.  That wasn’t the case here, especially with a dropoff in the Royals’ rotation that meant a start for Steve Renko (6-11, 4.30) against Atlanta’s Denny Lemaster (9-9, 3.35).  Both teams were shorthanded, with Royals closer Quisenberry burnt for the regional and Braves 2B Woody Woodward injured, the latter hole filled by Bob Costas’s hero, Gary Geiger and his .162 average (Millan to 2nd, Carty to DH, Jones to LF, Geiger to CF).  Geiger gets a clutch 2-out single in the 2nd, but is robbed of an RBI when Alou (1-16) is out at the plate to end the inning.  The Royals show them how it’s done in the bottom of the inning, as they load the bases with two-out for their #9 hitter, U.L. Washington, and he delivers a clutch single and Hal McRae takes the extra base so KC leads 2-0.  Denis Menke responds for the Braves with a homer to lead off the 3rd to narrow the gap to one run, but the Royals get it back in the bottom of the inning with a Willie Aikens solo shot.  That lead dissipates in the 3rd as Rico Carty’s two-run blast ties things up, and then the Braves move in front when KC SS-2 Washington drops a Millan grounder and Menke singles Millan home.  Both pitchers ride it out from there but Lemaster is the master, completing a 4-hitter and the 4-3 victory that gives the Braves the regional, completing a nice little dynasty of 1967, 1968, and 1969 Braves teams that have done so.  However, on their last at-bat of the game, Felipe Alou is injured and he will miss the first game of their eventual (if I last that long) super-regional appearance. 

Interesting card of Regional #130:  In 1983, Butch Davis was a 25-year-old making his first MLB appearance for the Royals, and as you can see it went pretty well.  By tournament rules, Davis was eligible to DH because he had at least 100 ABs, but because KC already had Hal McRae serving effectively in that role, he was relegated to pinch-hit duties, and he did deliver an important one to help get his Royals to the regional finals.   But notice his stat line–how many modern-era players can you think of that had more triples than doubles AND homers combined, with at least 100 AB?  That stat line lends itself to an interesting card, and that solid 3-7 TRIPLE is a nice feature, but what I find particularly eye-catching is that 3-4:  HR 1-6/fly B.  Why did they give him an out as the second part of the split?  He had plenty of triple points to spare that could have been used to complete the split–my impression was that Strat would always complete a HR split with an extra base hit if the player merited sufficient points to do so.  If you’re thinking that the game company never has a HR/TR split, any classic Strat C&D player should remember the Old Timer 1927 Yanks and Earle Combs, with his 1-10 HR 1-5/TR split outcome.  At any rate, Butch never had much of a shot at another card like this, as he never hit above .245 again and the most ABs in a season he would ever get was 159–10 years after the card represented here.    

REGIONAL #129:  This bracket promised to be an interesting mix of teams, with the feature attraction being the 1992 Blue Jays, a pennant-winner and WS champs.  Plus, if they were to be upset, there was backup, because the 1994 Jays were also here–from a season in which there was no Series.  There was also a Royals team that had won a pennant a few seasons earlier, versions of the Orioles and Yankees that were in-between pennant runs, Angels and Cubs squads that were probably decent, and a bad 1968 Yankees team from their CBS years in the wilderness.  Other than those Yanks, I thought that anyone could win this, but I took the easy way out and picked the champion ‘92 Jays over the Orioles in the finals.  For the first time in a while, the ELO numbers agreed with my picks, although I found it interesting that the ‘92 Jays were only ranked as the 5th best team that season.

First round action  

The matchup between the 2017 Royals and the 1994 Blue Jays featured two teams in decline after having won pennants two years prior.  The Royals went a mediocre 80-82 and although they still had some weapons, their starting rotation was not what it had been, with Jason Vargas (18-11, 4.16) getting the #1 starting role.  The Blue Jays went a similar 55-60; at the plate they were still led by Joe Carter, and Pat Hentgen (13-8, 3.40) was on the mound, but he had a rough introduction as the Royals 1 and 3 hitters, Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas, both hit solo HRs in the top of the 1st to give KC a quick 2-0 lead.  That lead evaporates in the bottom of the inning as the Jays rap three hits, including a leadoff triple by Mike Huff, and CF-2 Cain makes a two-base error, and the game is tied up 2-2.  Things stay that way until the 5th, when Paul Molitor finds Vargas’ solid 5-9 HR result; Vargas stays in until the 6th when a LF-4 Melky Cabrera error puts two Jays in scoring position, but Mike Minor comes in to a similar RF-4 Jorge Bonifacio error, and Minor simply loses it as the Jays bat around and leave the inning with a 9-2 lead.   It ends that way as Hentgen recovers from his first inning beating to hold the Royals to three hits the rest of the way.

The 1976 Orioles won 88 games to finish in the AL East; they had two 20-game winners and Reggie Jackson–who I had forgotten made a brief stop in Baltimore between the A’s and the Yanks– so you’d think they’d be a pretty good team, but it was testimony to the dropoff in their lineup that good field/no hit SS Mark Belanger actually had the 3rd highest batting average on the team.  The 1991 Yankees, on the other hand, lost 91 games and they had one decent starting pitcher, Scott Sanderson (16-10, 3.81) who nonetheless did not compare favorably to the O’s Jim Palmer (22-13, 2.51).   The bottom of the 1st has both good news and bad news for the Yanks, as Steve Sax and Mel Hall both hit doubles off Palmer’s very good card to give NY a 1-0 lead, but they lose cleanup hitter Matt Nokes to injury for the rest of the regional.  Meanwhile, Sanderson is perfect until a walk to Ken Singleton in the 5th, but that leads to nothing and then a Pat Kelly solo HR, again off Palmer’s card, makes it 2-0 in the bottom of the inning.  In the 7th, Singleton misses a SI* 1-16 split with a 19 roll, and the no-hitter persists.  In the bottom of the 7th, Jesse Barfield crushes a moon shot to lead off the inning, and the Yanks put in all the defensive hands they can muster to try to support Sanderson.  He puts the O’s down 1-2-3 in the 8th, and so in the 9th it’s the heart of the Baltimore order standing in the way of the tournament’s first gem.  Belanger goes down; Reggie whiffs in spectacular fashion, and the last remaining obstacle is Lee May:  the roll, 3-11, another whiff and Scott Sanderson becomes the first pitcher in tournament history, after more than 800 games and 1000 different teams played, to pitch a NO-HITTER.  He allows only three baserunners on walks, and the Yanks move on with a landmark 3-0 win.

The 1992 Blue Jays were the lone pennant winner in the bracket, but although they won 96 games and the Series, the ELO ranks listed them as only the 5th best team in baseball that season–far behind the Braves team that they defeated in six games in the WS.  They had a solid rotation, and gave the start to Juan Guzman (16-5, 2.64).   The Jays would face Greg Maddux (18-8, 3.18) and the 77-85 1988 Cubs, but Maddux has a rocky 3rd inning when RBI doubles from John Olderud and Dave Winfield, and a 2-run single by Joe Carter, make it 4-0 Jays.   They add another run in the 7th when Roberto Alomar singles, steals second, and scores on an Olerud single, but the Cubs get that one back in the 8th with a leadoff triple from Ryne Sandberg, who scores on a Vance Law single that makes it 5-1.  However, the Jays then pour it on in the bottom of the inning, including a 2-run Kelly Gruber triple, and by the time the inning is over Goose Gossage is on the mound struggling to end the inning and the Jays lead 9-1.  The Cubs go down meekly in the 9th and head back to storage as a second Jays team reaches the regional semifinal with Guzman’s 3-hit, 9-1 win.

The 2012 Angels went 89-73, but they looked like a better team to me, paced by a remarkable 20-year-old rookie named Mike Trout and able to send Jered Weaver (20-5, 2.61), who finished third in the AL Cy Young balloting, to the mound in the first round.  Their opponent was the 1968 Yankees, whose 83-79 record was better than I remembered, and after looking at their punchless Year of the Pitcher lineup, probably better than they deserved.  However, given the year it’s not surprising that Mel Stottlemyre (21-12, 2.45) was a plenty capable starter, who in fact finished 10th in the MVP voting.  The Yanks manufacture a run in the 4th when Mickey Mantle walks, takes third on a Joe Pepitone single, and then scores on a sac fly from Andy Kosco.  They get another in the 6th from a Roy White triple followed by an error from Angels’ SS-2 Eric Aybar, but the Angels get that one back when Trout walks, goes to 3rd on a Pujols single, and scores on a Mark Trumbo sac fly.  However, a developing rally is killed by a Howie Kendrick gbA, and the Yanks cling to a 2-1 lead after six.  On a whim, the Yanks decide to pinch hit for Jake Gibbs with aging slugger Rocky Colavito, ineligible to start with only 91 ABs, but Rocco makes Ralph Houk look like a genius with a soaring solo blast to give NY some padding.  It immediately looks like it will be needed, as in the bottom of the inning the Angels load the bases on 2 singles and a walk; Aybar hits a fielders’ choice to score a run, and then with two outs Pujols crushes a double off the top of the wall and two more runs score to give the Angels their first lead at 4-3.  When Weaver walks Roy White to lead off the 8th, the Angels take no chances and bring in closer Ernesto Frieri to try to finish things out.  Frieri whiffs Mantle, but then grooves one to Joe Pepitone, who crushes it for a 2-run homer and the Yanks regain the lead.  In the 9th, a Frieri error and a Horace Clarke single give NY another run, so the Angels come up in the bottom of the 9th down two with the top of the order up and Stottlemyre trying to finish what he started.    He does so, setting down the Angels in order for the 6-4 win, and sends another Yankee team to the semis, where they will each wrestle with Blue Jays teams to see if one franchise can score a regional sweep.

The survivors

The first of the two New York-Toronto semifinals featured the 1994 Blue Jays against the 1991 Yankees.  The Yanks were trying to figure out how to follow-up on their first round no-hitter, but the dropoff in their rotation was substantial and it seemed like swingman Greg Cadaret (8-6, 3.62) would give them their best shot at the finals.  The Jays decided to go with a “like father, like son” theme, starting Todd Stottlemyre (7-7, 4.22) whose dad had won for the other Yankee team in the first round.  However, Todd does something in the bottom of the 1st that his father didn’t do in his game:  allow a home run, a 2-run blast by Mel Hall and the Yanks grab an early lead.  Caderet’s wildness loads up the bases for the Jays in the 2nd, and another walk and a squib single by Mike Huff quickly ties the game back up.  NY puts together a rally in the 5th and RBI singles from Hall and Roberto Kelly give them a 4-2 lead, and Cadaret just gets better and better, not allowing a hit after that second inning.  However, when he walks Joe Carter to lead off the 9th, the Yankees move to their erratic closer Steve Howe, and he sets the Jays down 1-2-3 to clinch the 4-2 win for the Yanks and an unexpected trip to the finals after two upset wins.

It’s now the second of the two New York-Toronto semifinals, and the 1968 Yankees are once again underdogs to the top-seeded, pennant winning 1992 Blue Jays, although a very different Yankee team upset a very similar Jays squad in the other semi.  The Jays had Jack Morris (21-6, 4.04), 5th in the Cy Young voting at age 37, on the mound but NY’s Stan Bahnsen (17-12, 2.06) probably had the better card.  And the Yanks find some of the problems with Morris’s card in the bottom of the 1st, rapping 5 hits, including a 2-run homer by Mickey Mantle and an RBI triple from Bill Robinson, and the upstart New Yorkers jump to a 4-0 lead.  The Jays finally get something going in the 5th, and Roberto Alomar’s 2-run triple narrows the NY lead to 4-2.  In the top of the 7th, Pat Borders misses a HR 1-13/DO split but scores on a Manuel Lee single, but the Yankees increase the gap with a 2-run blast from Andy Kosco in the 8th that chases Morris.  The Bahnsen Burner then puts the Jays down quietly in the 9th, and the Yanks win 6-3 to go on to a final that is all New York, New York.

The list of Yankee pennant winners who failed to capture their regional is lengthy, and includes some of their most famous teams, such 1927, 1936, 1961, and virtually all of the pennant winners from the 50s and the Jeter years.  Given their history of success, their opportunities for disappointment are also extensive, but this regional suggests that maybe the secret for tournament success isn’t in their great teams, but in their mediocre ones.  And so it is that the regional final pits the #5 seed 1968 Yankees against the #8 seed 1991 Yankees.  Given than the ‘91 team had only allowed a total of 3 hits in the two previous games, it might be difficult to believe that their bad pitching earned them their low ranking–but by the time they get to a third starter, with Eric Plunk (2-5, 4.76) chosen, the options are not good.  In contrast, the ‘68 team has a deep rotation, with Fritz Peterson (12-11, 2.63) better than many #1 starters in recent regionals.  Things are quiet until the bottom of the 4th, when Joe Pepitone leads off with a long homer, and Bill Robinson later adds his second RBI triple of the regional and the ‘68s take a 3-0 lead.  A 2-run blast from Mickey Mantle makes it 5-0 and chases Plunk in favor of John Habyan, who slows down the ‘68s for a while, at least until the 7th when back to back doubles from Andy Kosco and Robinson, and a 2-run homer from backup catcher Frank Fernandez, and it’s now 9-0 in favor of the ‘68s.  Peterson loses his shutout in the 8th when he drops a 2-out Mel Hall grounder that opens the door for a 2-run Roberto Kelly homer, but that all the ‘91s can do as the 1968 Yankees win 9-2 and capture the regional as the team I had singled out as LEAST likely to do so.  The Yanks award the MVP to Mickey Mantle for his pair of two-run homers in the regional, perhaps out of sentiment for his final season, but arguably Pepitone and Kosco were equally deserving.

Interesting card of Regional #129:  In July 2000, I went to a Rockies-Dodgers day game at Coors Field with my dad, my brother (both sadly now gone), and my oldest son.  We had pretty good seats, maybe 15 rows from the field down the right field line, and although I was by far the biggest baseball fan in the group, everyone was enjoying the festivities as it was an unusual Thursday day game on a beautiful clear day.  My son, who was probably about 13 or 14 at the time, decided he wanted to visit concessions and was walking down a large aisle parallel to the field, with his back to home plate–where Shawn Green of the Dodgers was at bat.  Green promptly rips a screaming liner into the stands in our area, where it clocks some poor woman, ricochets high into the air, and drops neatly into the hands of my surprised son, who after all was a Little League first baseman.  He’s about 20 feet away, and turns to us waving the ball triumphantly, while behind him Coors Field medical staff is helping the woman to the infirmary.  To this day, I’ve never landed a ball from an MLB game, and this ball (pictured) is the only one that anybody going with me has ever snagged.  I hope the woman who got the assist was and is okay; I will say that she probably would have been a lot safer if this Shawn Green card, his first, was at bat that day.  Although you wouldn’t guess it from this card, Green turned out to be a very good hitter, retiring with a career .850 OPS–quite a bit better than the .239 OPS he put up in 1994. 

REGIONAL #128:  This group includes the 1,024th team to play in this tournament, which means that the ultimate survivor among all those teams will have to win 10 games in a row to stay alive.  However, for this particular regional only three wins are required, and this bracket was the inverse of the prior regional in that 7 of the 8 teams were from the 20th century.  And they looked to be pretty interesting teams at that; there were Braves and Marlins teams that were one season removed from a pennant, two different Giants teams that were two years removed from one, and Diamondbacks and Senators that each had won a pennant three years prior.  I felt that the bottom of the bracket was stronger than the top, and I put my chips on the lone 21st century team, the Diamondbacks, over the ‘91 version of the Giants in the finals.   The ELO rankings found my pick of the Dbacks laughable, as they were ranked as the worst team in the regional by far and one of the 100 worst of all time.  Instead, those rankings selected the Senators to take the final over a middling 1955 Reds team.

First round action

The 80-82 1996 Marlins and the 75-79 1955 Reds both had solid lineups anchored by a slugger who couldn’t field, Ted Kluszewski for the Reds and Gary Sheffield for the Marlins.   However, one big difference in the teams was that the Marlins had Kevin Brown (17-11, 1.89), runner-up for the NL Cy Young award.   The Reds rotation wasn’t bad, but Joe Nuxhall (17-12, 3.47) would need his best knuckler to keep pace with Brown.  That doesn’t seem to be happening, as two singles and a walk to lead off the top of the 1st brings up Jeff Conine, who crushes a non-knuckler into the cheap seats of Crosley Field for a grand slam and a 4-0 lead before an out is recorded.  The Reds get one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Wally Post fielder’s choice, although both pitchers then settle in.  However, a bit of wildness from Nuxhall loads the bases for the Marlins in the 6th, although they can only convert for one run on an Edgar Renteria sac fly, and it’s now 5-1 and Florida is putting in the defensive replacements.  Gus Bell then hits the first pitch of the bottom of the inning out of the park, and the Marlins wonder if it might have been too early, although the next batter hits a fly out to defensive replacement Jesus Tavarez and he makes a great play on the ball to keep the score at 5-2.  In the 7th Sheffield scores on a Devon White single, but in the bottom of the inning the Reds put together a two out rally that culminates in a 3-run homer by Wally Post, and suddenly it’s 6-5 and the Marlins are wondering if Brown is really up to the task of finishing out the game.  A walk and a single in the bottom of the 8th helps them decide that the answer is “no”, and Rick Helling comes in to try to quash the rally.  A squib single by Johnny Temple loads the bases, but once again Taverez makes a great play on a Bobby Adams flyball to end the inning and the Marlins still cling to the lead.  Nuxhall does his job in the top of the 9th, and so in the bottom of the 9th it comes down to Helling vs. the meat of the Reds order.  Big Klu leads off with a single, but the horribly slow Reds bench has no reasonable pinch-runners so he’s on his own out there.  Post then draws a walk to bring up Gus Bell.  Helling delivers, 3-5, HR 1-14, Bell converts the split and it’s a walk-off homer as the Reds complete an amazing comeback to take the 8-6 win against what may be the best starter in the regional.

The 1991 Giants went 76-87 and had a good core in Will Clark, Matt Williams, and Kevin Mitchell, but from there the supporting cast was uneven.  Still, that seemed like more weapons than the 72-81 1955 Cubs, who had Ernie Banks and not a whole lot else.  The pitching matchup between the Giants’ Trevor Wilson (13-11, 3.56) and Chicago’s Bob Rush (13-11, 3.50) looked quite even, but Wilson gets torched for five hits and four runs in the top of the 1st, including a 3-run homer by Jim King.  A Kevin Mitchell sac fly in the bottom of the 4th puts the Giants on the board, and a solo shot by Will Clark in the 6th narrows the score to 4-2.  Wilson has settled down in the meantime and pitches seven shutout innings, but when he allows a hit in the top of the 9th the Giants turn to Dave Righetti to stymie any insurance for the Cubs.  He does so, and it now comes down to Rush against the heart of the Giants order in the 9th.  Singles by Clark and Mitchell brings up Kevin Bass with one out, and Bass rips a triple that ties the game and puts the winning run on 3rd.  Backup catcher Terry Kennedy is up and the Giants have no decent PH options on the bench; Rush delivers and Kennedy lofts a deep fly to RF, Bass tags and scores easily, and the Giants take the walk-off win 5-4.  This marks the second game in a row where a team scoring 4 runs in the top of the 1st manages to lose the game in a walk-off.  

I make my predictions for regional winners totally blind, with no research and without looking at the cards, and nowhere was this more apparent than in my selection of the 2004 Diamondbacks to win this bracket.  See, I knew the Dbacks had won the NL sometime early in the 2000s, and the 2007 team that had made the semifinals in the previous regional wasn’t too bad, plus the steroid era teams usually carry an advantage.  Little did I know that they went 51-111 and were the #8 seed according to ELO ranks, one of the 100 worst of all time.  However, they did have Randy Johnson (16-14, 2.60) who was the NL Cy Young runner-up despite playing for the league’s worst team; with his opponent being the 1949 Braves’ Warren Spahn (21-14, 3.07), the NL leader in wins and 7th in MVP voting, it was a high-powered pitching matchup.  The Braves had won the NL pennant the prior year but this squad was a mediocre 75-79, although they had a potential secret weapon in Jeff Heath.  The Braves jump to a quick lead on a 2-run homer by Bob Elliott in the top of the 1st, but that proves short-lived as Spahn’s wildness in the bottom of the inning loads the bases for the Dbacks, which are then cleared by a Chad Tracy grand slam off Spahn’s card.  The Braves load the bases against Johnson in the 5th, but only convert for one run on an Elliott squib single, although when the Dbacks Robby Hammock misses Spahn’s HR 1-12 split and gets stranded at second in the bottom of the inning, the Braves feel like the momentum might be shifting.  But Johnson wasn’t going to allow that, striking out 13 Braves and holding them hitless for the final four innings.  He does issue a walk, and with two out Elbie Fletcher hits Johnson’s 4-7 DO 1-9/flyB roll with Al Dark (1-18 with two out) on first off with the pitch, but the split roll is a 12 for the final out and the Dbacks score a 4-3 win, with both pitchers ending with 5-hitters despite rocky first innings.

By the ELO rankings, the best matchup of the first round had the #1 seed 1927 Senators against the #3 seed 1953 Giants.  The Senators went 85-69, good for 3rd place in the AL, led by Tris Speaker and Goose Goslin, although a 39 year old Walter Johnson was ineffective and was unlikely to make an appearance.  The Giants did not fare as well in their season, going 70-84 and seriously missing Willie Mays, who was in military service, although even without Mays the Giants had five guys on their team with more homers than the Senators’ leader.  It was the Nats’ Hod Lisenbee (18-9, 3.57) against NY’s Ruben Gomez (13-11, 3.40), and they both get through the first inning without allowing a run, the first time in this regional that has occurred.  The Giants do score in the 2nd when DH Bobby Hofman laces a leadoff triple and scores on a Monte Irvin sac fly; the Senators then threaten in the 3rd but the inning ends disastrously for them when Speaker (almost literally) kills the rally with a tournament-ending injury (split of 20).  The Nats have a chance to tie it again in the 6th but Earl McNeely, in for the injured Speaker, is gunned down at the plate trying to score from second (1-15) on a Joe Judge single.  Another Washington threat in the 8th has the Giants warming up Hoyt Wilhelm, but they decide to stick with Gomez and he records the third out with a roll that would have been a game-tying hit on Wilhelm.  The Nats make one more effort in the 9th when Ossie Bluege pushes a double into the gap that Don Mueller can’t get to, but Gomez bears down and finishes out the inning to clinch a 1-0 win for the Giants, one in which both starters toss 6-hitters.

The survivors

Oliveras didn't have a Klu

The first semifinal matches two teams that came back from big deficits to score walkoff wins in round one, with the #5 seed 1991 Giants glad to be at home and batting last against the #4 seed 1955 Reds.  The Reds go with swingman Johnny Klippstein (9-10, 3.39) against the Giants and Bud Black (12-16, 3.99), and it’s the Reds double play combo that puts them on the board first when SS Roy McMillan doubles to lead off the 3rd inning and 2B Johnny Temple singles him home.   The 4th inning goes similarly for the Reds, with this time Stan Palys leading off with the double and Chuck Harmon singling in the run, and it’s now 2-0 Cincinnati.  And, in the 5th it’s Bobby Adams who leads off with the double, and although Kluszewski’s single isn’t enough to bring him home, the succeeding Wally Post fielder’s choice does and the Reds have a three-run lead.  In the bottom of the 5th, Klippstein issues his 4th and 5th walk, and Willie McGee adds an RBI single that is the Giants’ first hit of the game to make it 3-1.  However, in the 6th Chuck Harmon swats a solo HR into the teeth of the wind in Candlestick, and the Giants yank Black for Jeff Brantley, but LF-4 Kevin Mitchell horribly misplays a McMillan flyball and Bobby Adams find’s Brantley's HR result, and when the dust clears it is now 6-1 Reds.  Things don’t get any better for the Giants when they lose Matt Williams to injury, and then Brantley walks the bases full in the 7th and then walks in a run, so it’s Dave Righetti’s turn.  Righetti holds the Reds scoreless in the 8th (for the first time since the 2nd inning), and the Giants try to mount their comeback in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff triple from Robby Thompson; he scores on a Will Clark single, and then a Mike Felder single is followed by a 3-run Kevin Mitchell blast and suddenly it’s 7-5 with still nobody out.  The Reds eye their bullpen but hope that Klippstein can recover his form; two straight walks and they have to try something different, so Bud Podbielan takes the mound.   Steve Decker greets him with an RBI single, Podbielan issues a walk to load the bases and then a passed ball by Smokey Burgess and the game is now tied.  McMillan finally turns a DP to end the inning, but it’s a whole new ballgame.  Righetti sets the Giants down in the 9th in order but he is now burned for the regional, so it comes down to Podbielan against the 3-4-5 hitters for the Giants in the bottom of the 9th–but with Matt Williams missing from the cleanup spot.  They get singles from Clark and Kevin Bass, but can’t score, and the game heads to extra innings.  The Giants bring out Francisco Oliveras as their 4th pitcher, and he sets the Reds down in order in the 10th but Podbielan does likewise.  In the 11th, Oliveras hangs a curveball to Kluszewski, who deposits it deep in the stands for a solo shot, and the game heads to the bottom of the 11th with Podbielan in his last inning of eligibility for the regional.  He gets the first two out to face Mike Felder, in for the injured Williams, and Felder squibs a SI* 1-15 with a 13 split to get on base as the tying run and Mitchell at the plate.  But Mitchell grounds out to defensive replacement 3B Rocky Bridges, and the Reds seal the deal with an extra-inning 8-7 classic.  

The semifinal between the 2004 Diamondbacks and the 1953 Giants featured two squads that pulled off upsets in the first round.  The Dbacks were aided in that effort by Randy Johnson, but that weapon was used up and it was now Brandon Webb (7-16, 3.69) against NY’s Al Worthington (4-8, 3.44), who had similar cards with identical patterns.  The Giants rack up five hits in the 2nd, some courtesy of bad Arizona fielding, but only push across two runs as they leave the bases loaded.  The Dbacks strike back in the 4th, when an error by Giants 2b-2 Davey Williams opens the door to triples from Chad Tracy and Shea Hillenbrand, and Arizona takes the lead 3-2.  Bobby Hofman ties it in the 5th with a solo shot which could have been more if not preceded by the Giants third GIDP of the game.  Webb is yanked after allowing three singles in the 6th to relinquish the lead, and Greg Aquino comes in and prevents any further damage.  A walk and a single in the top of the 8th pushes the Giants to bring in Hoyt Wilhelm, and he fans Alex Cintron so the Giants cling to the one run lead.  They try to add insurance in the bottom of the inning and get runners on first and third with one out, and the Dbacks summon Jose Valverde, whose card is pretty much either a strikeout or a home run, and Jose lands two of the strikeouts to send the game into the ninth with Arizona still down by just one run.  However, Wilhelm is in command and notches the save as the Giants move on with a comeback 4-3 win; they outhit Arizona 13-5 but the double-play ball killed multiple rallies, an issue they would like to correct for the finals.

 The regional final matched two NL teams from the ‘50s, and featured two workhorses on the mound with the 1955 Reds and Art Fowler (11-10, 3.90) against the 1953 Giants and Jim Hearn (9-12, 4.53).  Things start out rough for Hearn in the top of the 1st when leadoff hitter Johnny Temple finds Hearn’s HR result, but 2B-2 Temple taketh away in the 3rd when he drops a 2-out grounder with the bases loaded.  That opens the floodgates, culminating in a 3-run triple by Al Dark, and the Giants take a commanding 5-1 lead.  Given the runs, Hearn turns unhittable, allowing only two hits in the final eight innings to close out the game with a 4-hitter and the Giants take the regional by that 5-1 score.  The Giants decline to designate an MVP as the three wins were very much team efforts, but a pitching staff that only allowed five runs in the three games deserves special mention. 

Interesting card of Regional #128:  This card represents the final season for an outfielder who seemed like he could have been one of the all-time greats.  Instead, he had an erratic career and he was apparently an erratic and difficult person, frequently missing spring training by holding out and repeatedly getting into fistfights with teammates.  After wearing out his welcome following a long stint with the Indians and a few seasons with the Browns, none of which led to a World Series appearance, Heath was traded to the NL Braves and promptly led the Braves to their first NL Pennant in four decades.  As fate would have it, their opponent in the Series would be those same Indians who had given up on Heath a few years previously, setting up an eagerly awaited chance for retribution–but it was not to be.  With the pennant wrapped up and four games left in the season, Heath slid awkwardly into Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella trying to score, resulting in a gruesome compound ankle fracture and Heath left the field on a stretcher.  Thus, he was on crutches as his remaining teammates could hit only .230 against the Indians pitching staff, losing the Series in six games.  Sadly, Heath never fully recovered from this injury (note his 3-8 roll).  In the following 1949 season in which Heath appeared as DH in this regional, he made his first start on July 15th and, although he obviously could still hit, he was largely immobile and the Braves released him at the end of the season.  Even as DH, Heath was unable to prevent his Braves from making a quick exit from this tournament, but as the final Strat card of his career this one isn’t a bad way to go out.