REGIONAL #112:  In looking at the teams pulled for this regional, only one really jumped out at me:  the 1953 Indians, one year removed from the epic ‘54 team that won Regional #30.   There was another Indians team, a couple of Blue Jays entries, and the Mariners would have another opportunity to win their first regional, but I was sticking with the ‘53 Indians as my choice, which would give that franchise their 12th regional if it happened.  Not remembering a whole lot about most of the teams in the bottom of the bracket, I guessed the 2002 A’s would be their opponents in the finals.  Although I recalled that there were some good Oakland teams in those years that kept losing to the Yankees in the playoffs, I was surprised to discover that the ELO rankings put those A’s among the best teams of all time, and the rankings also suggested that my selected Indians would have a battle on their hands in the first round against the ‘87 Jays.

First round action:

The 76-86 2015 Mariners were not a great team, but they had a strong bullpen, some big boppers in the lineup, and 18-game winner Felix Hernandez anchoring the rotation.  They looked great next to the 102-loss 1985 Indians, who had one of the worst starting rotations I had run across: it seemed that Vern Ruhle and his 2-10 record was probably their best option.  However, it’s the Indians who jump to the lead in the bottom of the 1st when a 2-out Austin Jackson error opens the door for Joe Carter, who deposits a Hernandez pitch into the deep recesses of the Mistake by the Lake and it is 2-0 Cleveland.  The Indians add three more runs in the 2nd on RBI doubles from Jerry Willard and Brett Butler, but Hernandez finally starts throwing some outs and Nelson Cruz finds Ruhle's solid 5-5 HR result in the 5th to cut the Cleveland lead to 5-2.  When Kyle Seager leads off the 6th with another 5-5 roll, the Indians look frantically through their bullpen but decide that the alternatives are even worse than Ruhle, so they stick with him, but in the 7th the Mariners batter Ruhle for three more runs (two on a Cruz RBI single) and take a 6-5 lead.  When Hernandez allows only his 4th hit of the game in the 8th, the Mariners aren’t taking any chances and turn to Carson Smith out of the pen, who quickly induces a DP ball from Carter to end the inning.   Smith shuts down the Indians in order in the 9th and earns the save in the 6-5 Seattle victory that was closer than it should have been, courtesy of three key Mariner errors.

The Big Bear mauls the Jays

Setting the lineup for the 96-win 1987 Blue Jays convinced me that they were a very good team with solid pitching, hitting, and defense; despite only being runner-up in the AL East; when you have to choose between Willie Upshaw, Cecil Fielder, and Fred McGriff at 1b, you’ve obviously got a team with some good options.  However, the ELO ranks had them almost perfectly matched with the 92-win 1953 Indians, another runner-up in the AL.  The Indians didn’t have quite the long-ball power of the Jays, but their legendary starting rotation suggested that this team could go far in the tournament, as did their 1948 and 1954 brethren.  The pitching matchup of 17-game winner Jimmy Key against 18-game winner Mike Garcia was one of the best in recent regionals, so this promised to be a hard-fought battle.  It was the Indians with the first display of power, as Al Rosen crushed a solo shot in the bottom of the 1st to give the Tribe an early lead.  Both pitchers are in control until the 6th, but when Key allows two baserunners to start the inning (one on a Nelson Liriano error, who had been brought in for his defense replacing Garth Iorg) and Rosen at the plate, the Jays go immediately to their closer Tom Henke to try to stay in the game, who does his job and the score remains 1-0 Cleveland after 6.  The Jays get runners on 1st and 3rd with one out in the 7th on a walk and a Rosen error, but Garcia induces the DP ball from PH Rance Mulliniks to end the inning, and in the bottom of the frame Hegan slaps an RBI single past Liriano and the Indians up their lead to 3-0.  Larry Doby provides another insurance run in the 8th on an RBI single off new Jays reliever Mark Eichhorn, which is more than Garcia needs as he quiets the heart of the Jays order in the 9th to wrap up a CG 3-hitter, a 4-0 victory, and a date with Seattle in the semis.

With one Toronto team already eliminated from the regional, it was up to the 2003 Blue Jays to carry the fortunes of the franchise, and they were solid ELO favorites over a bad 64-89 1948 Reds team.  Still, the pitching matchup was a good one, with Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay (RIP) against 17-game winner Johnny Vander Meer, who got MVP votes for his strong performance on a bad team 10 years after his double-no-hit outings pushed him into baseball history.   The Jays assert themselves early, loading the bases in the bottom of the 1st but are only able to convert one run on a Greg Myers sac fly.  Vander Meer then walks three straight to begin the 2nd inning, and the Jays turn that into two runs to lead 3-0, which seems like it should be adequate the way Halladay is pitching.  Another couple of walks and a Chris Woodward RBI single make it 4-0 in the 3rd, but Halladay seems to catch the wildness bug from Vander Meer and walks the bases loaded in the 5th--escaping unscathed with some timely strikeouts.  The Jays go early to defensive replacements in the 6th, nervous about their porous defense, but the Reds can’t do anything against Halladay until the 8th, when Ray Lamanno finds Halladay’ HR result to make it 4-1, which is how it ends as Halladay finishes out the 3-hitter.   Vander Meer only allows 4 hits himself, but he sunk his chances by issuing 8 walks, seven in the first three innings.  

The 2002 A’s won 103 games and the AL West, and although I thought their ELO ranking as the 57th best team of all time was a bit generous after seeing some of their defensive holes, they were starting Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito supported by a potent offense.  This made them big favorites over the 1959 Cubs, who won 74 games thanks largely to an MVP Award-winning season from Ernie Banks, although 16-game winner Glen Hobbie was a respectable #1 starter to send against Zito.  John Mabry puts the A’s up in the top of the 1st with an RBI single off Hobbie; in the 3rd Miguel Tejada doubles and then the Cubs Walt Moryn turns a Jermaine Dye flyball into a triple, and by the end of the inning it’s 5-0 A’s.  However, in the bottom of the 4th Zito loads up the bases and then delivers a gopher ball to Lee Walls, and suddenly after the slam it’s 5-4; when Al Dark scores Banks on a sac fly in the 5th it’s a whole new ballgame.  From there, both starters assert themselves; the A’s don’t get another hit until the top of the 9th, when they load the bases up for Miguel Tejada, but CF-3 George Altman pulls in Tejada’s flyball to end the threat.  That leaves it to Zito, who also pitches out of a jam to send the game into extra innings.  The 10th passes uneventfully, and now both teams are forced to go to their bullpens, where the A’s have a distinct advantage.  The Cubs turn to Don Elston who gets through the 11 successfully, while the A’s Billy Koch has a scare in the bottom of the inning when Tony Taylor triples, but Koch strands him to continue the game.  Elston is great through his maximum 4 innings, and so Koch is looking at the last of his innings in the bottom of the 14th.  He walks Tony Taylor, and Irv Noren shoots a GBA++ single past the holding 1st baseman, bringing up Ernie Banks, who has 3 hits already, with the winning run on 3rd.  However, the A’s bring the infield in and nail Taylor trying to score on the Banks grounder, and it’s now 2 out and Sammy Taylor at the plate.  Koch delivers, and Taylor knocks it into the Wrigley bleachers for the walk-off victory--Cubs win, 8-5, as the A’s moneyball machine goes bankrupt with only 6 hits in 14 innings. 

The survivors 

The 1953 Indians could trot out good starter after good starter with their rotation, and in this semifinal game it was 21-game winner Bob Lemon’s turn.  The 2015 Mariners, on the other hand, had a more suspect rotation and hoped that Hisashi Iwakuma could handle the Indians, the top-rated team remaining alive in the regional.  Both starters make a successful first pass through the opposing lineups, but in the 4th Luke Easter finds Iwakuma’s solid HR result for a 2-run blast to put the Indians up.  The Mariners try to respond in the 5th but meet with split dice disaster, as Seth Smith misses a HR 1-11 split and 1-15 Austin Jackson is cut down trying to score on the resulting double; when Bobby Avila (1-17) is cut down trying to take an extra base on a Rosen single, the crowd is howling for a new split die.  They don’t get one, but in the 6th Nelson Cruz converts a DO 1-6 and Franklin Gutierrez singles him home to narrow the score to 2-1.   Wally Westlake responds in the bottom of the inning, leading off by finding that solid 5-9 HR on Iwakuma, and when the latter loads up the bases the Mariners bring on first round game-saver Carson Smith, who fans Avila to keep the score at 3-1.   Smith and later Charlie Furbush keep the Indians at bay, but it’s all for naught as Lemon isn’t giving any quarter, wrapping up the 5-hit 3-1 victory to send the Indians to the finals in pursuit of their unprecedented 12th regional win.

Although the ELO rankings favored the 2003 Blue Jays over the 1959 Cubs in this semifinal, the Jays looked a whole lot worse without Roy Halladay on the mound, with #2 starter Kelvim Escobar (who got the snot knocked out of his 2004 self in Regional #109) representing a huge dropoff.  The Cubs actually had an okay starting rotation for a Wrigley-based team, with Darrell Hillman sporting an ERA nearly a full run better than Escobar’s.  Cubs fans get an early thrill when Banks puts one into the bleachers in the bottom of the 1st to make it 1-0.  The Jays try to respond immediately but Frank Catalanatto misses a HR split in the top of the 2nd and bounces it off the top of the ivy, and the Jays strand him at second.   However, in the 3rd Vernon Wells converts a HR 1-19 split (with a 19) for a solo shot and the game is tied.   The Cubs respond in the 5th by loading the bases, and then Tony Taylor rips a double that makes it 3-1 Cubs; when Banks leads off the 6th with a single the Jays move quickly to the bullpen in the form of Aquilino Lopez, who is greeted by a Dale Long triple, and then Sammy Taylor laces a ball through a drawn-in infield and it’s now 5-1 Cubs.  The Cubs add another when Tony Taylor nails his second double past the (bad) glove of Jays 3B Erik Hinske, and Banks singles Taylor home to make it 6-1.  From there on out, it’s all Hillman as he scatters 8 hits in his complete game victory that sends the Cubs to the final in pursuit of their 5th regional win.

Although it was an all-50s final, the two regional finalists were very different teams.  To underscore the differences, the 1959 Cubs scored twice as many runs as the 1953 Indians on their way to the finals, but they allowed six times as many runs.  For the Indians, it was clearly all about their great starting rotation and they still had two Hall of Fame starters to choose from for the final game, deciding to go with Early Wynn over Bob Feller.   The Cubs countered with 12-game winner Bob Anderson, who probably didn’t receive many HOF votes.  However, it’s Wynn who shows some cracks in the 2nd, allowing two sharp singles off his card with the Cubs then converting a run on an Al Dark sac fly.  They add to their lead in the 3rd when Ernie Banks rips a 2-run triple and then scores on Dale Long flyball to make it 4-0 Cubs.  In the 6th, Cubs C Sammy Taylor makes his second error of the game which narrows the lead to 4-1, but Walt Moryn blasts a 2-run HR in the 7th to further stretch the Cubs lead.  However, in the 8th the Indians finally begin to solve Anderson, as Wally Westlake singles in Dale Mitchell, and Larry Doby follows with a 2-run shot to make the score 6-4, although George Altman provides a solo shot in the bottom of the inning and it is 7-4 with the Indians coming up in the 9th for their last chance.  Jim Hegan manages a 2-out double, but Anderson gets Bobby Avila to pop out and the underdog Cubs win the regional with three straight upset victories against top tier teams.  They join the 1969, 1974, 1990, and 2017 squads as the fifth Cubs regional victors.  

Interesting card of Regional #112:  Not a lot of players have won MVP awards while playing for a losing team, but in 1959 Mr. Cub was an exception.  Turns out 1959 was a memorable year for baseball in Chicago, with the Sox taking their first pennant in 40 years since the Dead Sox scandal, and the Cubs….well, they won this Regional with Banks leading the way, and in real life Banks was the NL MVP for the second year in a row.    As a Sox fan growing up, I had a certain antipathy for the Cubs but Ernie Banks proved exempt from that, as he just seemed like such a good guy it was impossible to root against him.   Looking back on his career now, it is an interesting one--when he switched from SS to 1B at the age of 31, he actually declined considerably at the plate, as his SEVEN best offensive seasons came while he was playing the more demanding defensive position.   Because those early years were before I was capable of paying attention, I only got to watch him on WGN (with Jack Brickhouse announcing) as a pretty good hitting first baseman, but this card captures what he was in his twenties--one of the best players in baseball, laboring in obscurity on a consistently bad team.

REGIONAL #111:  This group didn’t appear to have any teams within hailing distance of a pennant; I had a strong hunch that certain teams were likely to be pretty bad, and a few others I wasn’t certain about.   The ‘96 Red Sox were a team that I remembered fondly as I spent that summer in the Boston area and took my son to a fair number of their games at Fenway, and he became a big fan of that team--and I remember them as being pretty good, albeit not pennant winners.  In terms of other competitors, I thought that given some success from their ‘96 and ‘98 teams in recent regionals, the ‘97 Rangers should represent well, and I seemed to remember some strong Angels teams in the ‘80s although I had no idea if 1982 was one of them.  As a sentimental choice, I picked the ‘96 version of the Red Sox over the Rangers in the finals.  The ELO ranks indicated that this was indeed one of those strong Angels teams, and they favored those Angels over my Red Sox pick in the finals, but the rankings did agree with my general impression that most of these teams simply weren’t very good. 

First round action

The 1996 Red Sox won 85 games with some impressive offense, having four guys in the heart of their order with SLG% over .500, and at the top of their rotation they had Roger Clemens, who somehow managed to have a losing 10-13 record despite all those bashers behind him.  The 74-88 2015 Padres were a very different team, with an anemic offense--top SLG was .440, and they only had 3 hitters with an OBP greater than .300--but one of the better bullpens I had seen in a long time.  The Padres grab the lead in the 2nd when Jedd Gyorko nails a 2-out triple off Clemens’ card and Amarista singles him in, but it doesn’t last long as a Darren Bragg RBI single ties it in the top of the 3rd.  However, in the bottom of the inning Rene Rivera gets the same TR 1-4 split off Clemens, and he scores on a Grandal single to put the Padres back in the lead.  Not to be outdone, in the 5th John Valentin nails a TR 1-3 off Padres’ starter Ian Kennedy, and Jeff Frye’s sac fly ties it up again, and a Tim Naering single in the 6th gives the Red Sox the 3-2 lead, although Canseco makes the final out trying to score on the hit.   When Frye doubles in the 7th, the Padres dip into their stellar bullpen, and Kevin Quackenbush ducks any damage, but when he loads the bases up in the 9th, the Padres summon Huston Street who keeps the game within a run heading into the bottom of the 9th.  And Clemens hangs on for the CG win, scattering 8 hits as the Red Sox squeak by with a 3-2 win in which their high-powered offense did not make an appearance.  

The matchup between the 76-76 1934 Red Sox and the 56-97 1948 Senators did not look like it would be a slugfest, as the top HR hitter for the Red Sox put up 11 homers while for the Senators the top slugger managed only 7.   Although Boston was not quite as good a team as the ‘96 version that had barely survived the previous game, they certainly looked better than the Senators, who were ELO-wise in contention to be one of the 100 worst teams of all time.  Adding to the likelihood of a low scoring game were two good starters, the Senators’ Ray Scarborough and Red Sox Wes Ferrell, with the latter generally regarded as one of the best hitting pitchers, although that is not an asset in this tournament.  Still, it doesn’t take long for the Senators to score on a Gil Coan sac fly in the bottom of the 1st, and when a Carden Gillenwater liner gets past Boston RF Dick Porter for a double in the 2nd, the Senators lead 3-0.  An RBI single from Carl Reynolds in the 3rd puts Boston on the board to make it 3-1, but then Ferrell loads up the bases in the 4th and Eddie Yost clears them with a double to give the Nats a commanding 6-1 lead.  From there on out, both pitchers are in control and Scarborough cruises to a 7-hit, 6-1 victory that propels the underdog Senators into the semifinals.

The 1982 Angels won 93 games and the AL West, only missing the AL pennant because of a Cecil Cooper single in the deciding game of the ALCS, and they were heavy ELO favorites to win this regional.   The 2016 White Sox went 78-84, a team building towards their current respectability but not there yet--although in Chris Sale they had a strong #1 starter to face the Angels’ Mike Witt.  The Sox get a timely hit in the 3rd from an unlikely source, .205 hitting CF JB Shuck, and jump out to a 2-0 lead, but that lead is short-lived as Fred Lynn raps a 2-out double in the 4th that ties the game.  The Angels dodge a bullet in the 5th when Reggie Jackson misplays a Brett Lawrie line drive into a triple, but Witt fans the next two Sox batters to strand Lawrie at third, and in the 7th Bobby Grich finds Sale’s HR result to give California the 3-2 lead.  Reggie then leads off the 8th with a prodigious HR off the US Cellular exploding scoreboard.  That’s more than Witt needs, and he closes out a 5-hit CG as the Angels move on with the 4-2 win.

The 77-85 1997 Rangers sought to maintain the tradition of first round victories established by the ‘96 and ‘98 teams in the past two regionals, and like those teams their power-packed lineup featured Juan Gonzalez, who did not win the MVP as he did in those two adjoining seasons but was still good for 42 HR and 131 RBI.  They faced a 95-loss 1991 Orioles fronted by an injury-less Cal Ripken Jr., with Bob Milacki getting the starting nod against Darren Oliver, the pick of a bad Rangers rotation.  Oliver escapes a threat in the 1st by retiring O’s DH Sam Horn, but is injured for the rest of the game on the play and Rick Helling, who pitched 10 innings for a win in Regiona #108, gets his chance.   The Rangers then stake Helling to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd, which featured a 2-run single by Rusty Greer with 2 out.  Lee Stevens leads off the 3rd with a HR that makes it 4-0, but the injury bug strikes again and the Rangers lose SS Benji Gil for 6 games, meaning that Billy Ripken, who is already in the game playing for Baltimore, gets to play for both teams.  The Orioles respond with 3 runs in the 4th from a Chris Hoiles HR and a Cal Ripken RBI single, and then tie it in the 5th on a Baltimore Billy Ripken single, making the Rangers turn to their closer John Wetteland to prevent further damage.  He does so, and in the 8th Mike Devereaux misses a HR 1-15 split and gets stranded at third by the 4th Rangers pitcher, Eric Gunderson.  When the Rangers lead off the bottom of the inning with two straight singles, Milacki is gone in favor of Jim Poole, who retires the side without incident and neither team scores in the 9th, so we head to extra innings.   Gunderson gets two quick outs in the top of the 10th, but then it all comes apart, with Cal Ripken and Sam Horn going back to back and the Orioles bring in Mike Flanagan to try to seal the deal against the heart of the Rangers order.  He does so with three quick outs, and the Orioles head to the semis with a 6-4 come from behind win.  

The survivors

Five RBI to Bragg about

Although the 1996 Red Sox managed to win a pitching duel behind Roger Clemens in round one, their rotation dropped off quickly and if Tim Wakefield’s knuckler wasn’t working, they were going to need their formidable offense to wake up.  Of course, it didn’t look like much would be needed against the 97-loss 1948 Senators, but the Nats had already upset one Red Sox squad and they were optimistic about eliminating another, sending Mickey Haefner to the mound.   The Red Sox don’t like the omens of the top of the 1st, rolling 5 straight results on Haefner’s card and having the inning end with a 1-16 runner cut down trying to score on a Canseco single.  The Senators show how it’s done in the bottom of the 1st, when their 1-16 runner scores on a Gil Coan single, and in the 3rd Bud Stewart gets hold of a floating knuckler for a solo shot and it’s 2-0 Washington.  But the Bosox bats come alive in the top of the 5th, when a Darren Bragg 2-RBI single is followed by a Reggie Jefferson 2-run homer, and Boston moves in front 4-2.  The Senators promptly load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning, courtesy in part from a Mike Stanley dropped popup, but Wakefield holds the Senators to one run on a Coan fielder’s choice.  The Red Sox decide they’ve seen enough of these upstarts, and explode for five runs in the 6th, including a Bragg 3-run blast, and it’s now 9-3.  The Senators try Tom Ferrick on the mound, but that doesn’t work either as Boston scores three more in the 8th, two on a Jefferson double.  The Senators do load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 9th, but Stewart hits into a DP and Wakefield fans Coan to end the game, and the Red Sox move to the finals with a dominating 12-4 performance.

Remembering the great Baltimore pitching staffs of only a few seasons earlier, it was painful to discover that the 1991 Orioles had considerable trouble finding a #2 starter with an ERA below five, with the only one to meet that criterion being Ben McDonald (4.84).   As a division winner, the 1982 Angels had far more rotation depth, and they went with Bruce Kison but actually had four other decent alternatives.  The Angels strike in the 1st with a Doug Decinces solo blast, and were robbed of another when 1-16 Reggie Jackson was cut down at the plate trying to score on a Fred Lynn double.  The Orioles tie it in the 3rd when Cal Ripken misses a HR 1-15 split, but Joe Orsulak scores from 1st on the resulting double and it’s tied at one apiece.  From there on, both pitchers assert control, with McDonald looking strong until the 8th, when he allows two hits and is pulled with two outs for Jim Poole, who won the first round game in relief.  Poole gets the out, and Kison find himself in a similar jam in the bottom of the inning, but he gets out of the jam himself, fanning Cal Ripken with the go-ahead run on 3rd.  Poole then allows two straight singles to begin the 9th, and with 1 out and the go-ahead run on 3rd the Orioles bring the infield in, but Brian Downing rips it past the drawn-in 3rd baseman, Decinces adds a sac fly and the Angels take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th.  Hoiles gets a hit for the O’s, but that’s all as Kison fans Dwight Evans for the final out, wrapping up a 6-hitter and sending the Angels to the finals in pursuit of the 4th regional title for the franchise.  

The 1982 Angels were a well-balanced team with some strong defense, a deep starting rotation, and a core of good hitters, which explained their AL West title.  The 1996 Red Sox were pretty much a one-dimensional team, with that dimension being offense, and the best they could muster for a #3 starter was Aaron Sele and his 5.32 ERA to go against Angels’ 18-game winner Geoff Zahn.  However, things go wrong for Zahn in the 2nd when he allows five straight baserunners to begin the inning, the last one being a bases-loaded triple served to John Valentin, and the Red Sox jump out to an imposing 4-0 lead.  However, the Angels strike back in the 3rd with three runs, with Brian Downing picking up a HR 1-3 split, and it’s looking to be a dogfight.  In the 6th, Fred Lynn makes a costly error on a Valentin single to score two, and Jeff Frye drives him in with a double that chases Zahn for Andy Hassler, Boston now leading 7-3.  However, in the bottom of the inning Carew smacks an RBI single, the Angels load the bases, and Boston doesn’t trust Sele to get out of the jam, turning instead to Mark Brandenburg, who ends the inning by striking out Reggie Jackson but only after a Decinces sac fly makes the score 7-5.   The Angels threaten again in the 7th when Lynn walks and Baylor doubles, Lynn getting the stop sign at 3rd, but Brandenburg strikes out three in a row to quell the uprising.  A Darren Bragg triple in the 8th makes it 8-5, and then the Sox turn it over to closer Heathcliff Slocumb to try to finish things out.  That proves to be frightening, as the Angels lead off the bottom of the 9th with a Lynn double followed by a Baylor homer, and its now a one-run game and the Angels rap out two consecutive pinch-hit singles to put the tying run on 2nd in the form of pinch-runner Juan Beniquez.  Slocumb finally bears down and fans Carew and gets the groundout from Downing, and it goes in the books as an 8-7 victory that gives the Red Sox their 5th regional win, following 1950, 1978, 1983, and 2005.  

Interesting card of Regional #111:   This one was an easy selection, as this regional included  one of the most infamous cards in Strat history.  With no name on the card, you might think this is some sort of personalized card resulting from a twisted imagination, but no--these are the actual statistics of one Rudy Pemberton.  Rudy made his MLB debut in April 1995, which was immediately after the resolution of the 1994 strike, so I’m guessing that Rudy played in spring training games as a “replacement player” and as such was not invited to join the Players Association, which at the time licensed the use of player names to the game company.   Thus, Rudy was a “no-name” card...but not just any such card.  Replacement or not, Pemberton has gone down in history as the player with the highest batting average for any player who had 30 or more at-bats in a major league season.  Remarkably, Rudy only had another 63 MLB at-bats after this season, finishing his “career” with a lifetime .336 batting average--better than Stan Musial, Al Simmons, or Eddie Collins.   Afterwards he bounced around the minors with some stints in Japan, Korea, and Mexico, typically recording good batting numbers but of course never anything like the 1.336 OPS represented by this card.

REGIONAL #110:  Although none of the teams in Regional #110 won a pennant, the 1954 Yankees won the year before and the year after, while the 1989 Twins captured the AL two seasons before as well as two seasons after, so those squads were ones to be reckoned with.   The remaining teams didn’t strike me as particularly distinguished, and I had the feeling that the expansion 1969 Padres wouldn’t fare well.  In picking a winner, I went with the obvious, selecting the Yanks over the Twins in the final, which would avenge the Regional #103 flameout of the WS champ 1953 Yankees in their first round game.   The ELO rankings listed the ‘54 Yanks as the 27th best team of all time (unfortunately for them, the ‘54 Indians were ranked 24th) and thus had them as overwhelming favorites in the finals over a Rangers team that I couldn’t remember much of anything about, but which according to the ELO numbers was the only other “good” team (i.e., top 1000) in the bracket.

First round action

As a first year expansion team, the 52-110 1969 Padres were predictably terrible, ranked as one of the 25 worst teams of all time.  With only Nate Colbert and Downtown Ollie Brown looking ready for the majors, the Padres started 18-game loser Joe Niekro, who unlike his team was better than his record suggested.  The 73-89 1989 Mariners were only good by comparison, as their 19-year old rookie CF Ken Griffey Jr. was not quite the player he would ultimately become and there were other holes in their lineup both on offense and on defense.  The M’s move out in front 1-0 in the 3rd when Jay Buhner singles in Vizquel, and a Dave Valle sac fly in the 4th extends the lead to 2-0.  The Padres load the bases with one away in the 5th, and then Jose Arcia hits a weak grounder to 2B-1 Harold Reynolds...and he boots the sure DP ball and the Padres narrow the lead to 2-1.  Seattle gets the run back in the bottom of the inning when Griffey scores on a Jeff Leonard single, but Alvin Davis is cut down at the plate trying to stretch the lead further to end the inning.  In the 6th Colbert crushes a fastball from M’s starter Scott Bankhead for a solo shot, and it’s 3-2 and the Padres are looking like a team that won’t go down quietly.  Sure enough, in the 7th Ed Spiezio singles in pinch-runner Larry Stahl and it’s all tied up for the 7th inning stretch.  When Buhner hits a 2-out double in the bottom of the inning, the Padres pull Niekro for Frank Reberger, and he retires Leonard to keep things even.  However, in the 8th Reberger’s defense lets him down with two consecutive errors, and then Reynolds makes them pay, missing a TR 1-15 to score one, but again a Mariner is cut down at the plate to end the inning, with Seattle now in front 4-3.  So, it’s now up to Bankhead to get the last three outs, and he does so, finishing up a 6-hit complete game and sending the Mariners to the semis with a 4-3 win, Reberger absorbing the loss on the unearned run.

The 1954 Yanks went 103-51 but remarkably still finished eight games behind a great Indians team.  Even so, the Yankees had a strong rotation and a powerful lineup that really only had one hole--we’re looking at you, Rizzuto, a SS-3 with a .195 batting average who made Willie Miranda, who was also on this team, look like Honus Wagner by comparison.  After agonizing around starting pitching options, I decided to hold off on Whitey Ford, who had lost the first round game that knocked the ‘53 squad out of the tournament, and went with 20-game winner Bob Grim.   They faced a 76-78 1960 Indians team that had nothing in common with the squad that beat out the Yanks in ‘54, and generally looked worse than their record aside from the young starting pitcher that would face the Yanks, Jim Perry.   However, the Indians move to a 1-0 edge in the top of the 1st when a Rizzuto error is followed by singles from John Romano and Woodie Held, and they extend the lead to 2-0 on a Tito Francona fielder’s choice in the 3rd.  The Yanks don’t get their first hit off Perry until the 5th, when Joe Collins leads off by finding Perry’s solid HR result, but the Indians get the run back in the 6th when Bob Hale, playing for injured (for the rest of the tournament) Bubba Phillips, singles in Jimmie Piersall and it’s 3-1.   The Yanks threaten in the bottom of the frame but Hank Bauer hits into an inning-ending DP to squelch the rally, and Yankee Stadium is rocking with boos.   Perry keeps the shackles on until the 9th, when he records two quick outs but then Collins singles, Andy Carey doubles, and the tying run is on second….with SS sub Willie Miranda at the plate.  The Yanks call on Bob Cerv to PH with the game on the line, hoping that his power can deliver the walk-off win--but he grounds out, and once again a highly touted Yankees team from the 50’s crashes and burns in the 1st round, eliminated by the Indians by the final score of 3-1.

Two seasons away from a pennant both forward and back, the 1989 Twins didn’t look as good as I’d imagined before setting their lineup--they looked like the 80-82 team that they actually were.  In contrast, the 1996 Rangers were far better than I’d guessed, winning 90 games and the AL West.  My failure to anticipate this suggests I’m a slow learner since I had just managed the 1998 Rangers successfully to the finals in the regional before last, and the teams had one big factor in common:  Juan Gonzalez, featured previously as an Interesting Card of Regional #108, won the AL MVP in both seasons.  The starters involved Twin Frank Viola against the Rangers’ Ken Hill, whose 16 wins were double that of Viola’s total.   The Rangers get to Viola early when Rusty Greer triples and Gonzalez singles him home to spot Hill a 1-0 lead after one, and things get worse in the 2nd when Darryl Hamilton finds Viola’s HR result for a 3-run shot.  In the 4th, Hamilton and Will Clark add RBI singles and then Viola loads up the bases to face Gonzalez with two out; Twins management can’t stand it any longer and yank Viola for Gary Wayne.   Wayne walks Juan Gone to score another for the Rangers, but then gets Dean Palmer to ground out, and the tally is now 7-0 after four innings.  The Twins finally put up a run on an Al Newman RBI single in the 7th, but although Wayne and later Jeff Reardon keep the Rangers from further damage, the Twin can’t sustain anything against Hill and Texas heads to the semis with a 7-1 win.

For the second game in a row, a Minnesota team enters a first round matchup as the underdog, but the 92-loss 1998 Twins were ranked considerably lower than the ‘89 squad that was just eliminated in a blowout, as they were made up of guys either too early (e.g. David Ortiz) or too late (Paul Molitor, Otis Nixon) in their careers.   Although they didn’t fare much better than the Twins, the 87-loss 2015 Tigers looked to me like a much better team, with strong defense, offensive pop from Miggy Cabrera and JD Martinez, and although they had no depth in the starting rotation, they did have Justin Verlander in the #1 slot who compared very favorably to Twins starter Brad Radke.  It gets ugly fast for the Twins, as in the top of the 1st JD Martinez hits Radke’s HR result for a 3-run shot, and James McCann also hits it for a 2-run blast, and although the Tigers lose DH Victor Martinez to injury for 2 games, they don’t look like they’ll need him in this one with a 5-0 lead.   Radke settles down, but when Rajai Davis, subbing for the injured Martinez, smacks an RBI double off Radke’s card in the 6th the Twins go to their closer, Rick Aguilera, but he allows the two runners he inherited to score and the Tigers are up 8-0, and Verlander isn’t even breaking a sweat.   The Tigers add an unneeded insurance run in the 8th, and Verlander closes out the 6-hit shutout and the 9-0 blowout win.  However, after looking at the rest of the Tigers rotation, I’m guessing they might want to have saved some of those runs for later rounds.

The survivors

Both the 1989 Mariners and the 1960 Indians finished under .500, although the Indians had the superior ranking and defeated a much better team to reach this semifinal game.   The Indians started Bobby Locke against Seattle’s Erik Hanson, and Cleveland explores Hanson’s weaknesses in the bottom of the 1st with an Aspromonte double and a John Romano RBI single, both off Hanson’s card.  Woodie Held drives in another in the 3rd to make it 2-0, although Harvey Kuenn is cut down at the plate to prevent another run from scoring.   The M’s get a run in the 4th on a Henry Cotto sac fly, and tie it up in the 6th when Buhner singles in Griffey Jr., and as is often the case it’s looking like it will be a tightly contested semifinal.  In the bottom of the inning, Romano walks, Francona doubles, and the Mariners bring the infield in and replace Hanson with Mark Langston (despite rumors that he’s about to be traded to Montreal).   Langston comes through, no runners score, and the score remains knotted.  The Mariners mount a threat in the 8th, with runners on 1st and 2nd and one away, so the Indians turn to their relief ace, Johnny Klippstein, to put out the fire, and he does.  Then, Langston makes a 2-out mistake to Jimmie Piersall, who puts it into the grandstand at Cleveland Stadium to make it 4-2 Indians, and the crowd is rocking.  So it’s up to Klippstein in the 9th, and he sets Seattle down in order to propel the Indians into the finals, and dashes the hopes of the Mariners in their quest for their first regional win.  Seattle just had the misfortune of running into one of the most successful franchises in this tournament, as the Indians will be playing for their 11th regional win in the finals.

The 1996 Rangers had the distinction of being the only team with a winning record to make this regional’s semifinals, and as a division winner they are bent on avenging the defeat of the ‘98 team in the Regional #108 finals.  However, to have a chance they have to get past the 2015 Tigers, who blew out their opponent in the first round.  Neither team was blessed with a surplus of good starting pitching, and the matchup of the Rangers’ Roger Pavlik vs. Detroit’s Anibel Sanchez was hardly the stuff of legend.  Juan Gonzalez started things off in the top of the 1st with a solo HR, his first of the regional, but Rajai Davis finds Pavlik’s HR result to lead off the 2nd and quickly ties it up.  Gonzalez then leads off the 4th with his second homer of the game, but back to back errors by Pudge Rodriguez and Dean Palmer hand the Tigers a run and the game is once again tied.   With two out in the 6th, Kevin Elster finds ONE of Sanchez’s HR results, gets the 1-10 split with a 10, and the resulting 2-run blast sends Sanchez to the showers and Alex Wilson is called upon to try to keep things close for the Tigers.  Of course, Rajai Davis again finds Pavlik’s HR result for a 2-run shot that ties it up, and the Rangers have to turn to their weak bullpen, giving Dennis Cook a try, but that is a disaster as Cook allows 5 hits without closing out the inning.  Mike Henneman comes in and does no better, and when the inning finally ends with JD Martinez tagged out trying to score on a Davis single (the Tigers having batted around), Detroit has scored 6 runs on 9 hits in the inning and have an 8-4 lead.   The Rangers narrow the gap to 8-5 on a Dean Palmer RBI single, and the Tigers turn nervously to their gopher-ball prone closer, Joakim Soria.  Soria does his job, and the 2015 Tigers head to the finals with the hope of following in the footsteps of the 2014 Tiger team, winners of Regional #60.

According to the ELO ranks, the regional final matched the 4 vs. 5 seed in a battle of two mediocre squads with differing strengths.  The 2015 Tigers combined strong fielding and decent hitting with terrible pitching depth, while the 1960 Indians had a decent staff (albeit most with control issues) but limited offensive weaponry.  Thus far the Tigers were averaging 8.5 runs a game, while Indians opponents averaged 1.5 runs, contrasting the strengths of the two teams.  Because of their lack of rotation depth, the Tigers had no choice but to start Alfredo Simon and his 5.05 ERA, while the Indians countered with Gary Bell.  Detroit strikes first when Victor Martinez, back from an injury suffered in the first round, hits a solo HR in the 3rd, and the Tigers’ other Martinez, JD, leads off the 4th with a round tripper to make it 2-0.  However, the Indians start the top of the 5th with five straight singles, and by the time Simon gets things under control, Cleveland leads 3-2 and it was only that close because Tito Francona was cut down at the plate.  When the Tigers load the bases in the 6th on single and two walks, the Indians fear more wildness from Bell and decide to go to their closer Klippstein with the game on the line, and he gets the final out of the inning to preserve the lead.  Vic Power lives up to his name, finding Simon’s HR result for a solo shot that makes it 4-2, and the Tigers go to their pen for Alex Wilson, the winner of their semifinal game--and he induces a DP that prevents further damage.  In the bottom of the 8th, Klippstein is burnt after tossing two perfect innings, so the Indians have to turn to far worse bullpen options, selecting Don Newcombe in the hope that he can relive his past glory.  Although he allows two singles to start the bottom of the 9th, Kinsler hits into a DP and Cabrera grounds out to end the game and the regional, which goes to the Indians for the tournament-best 11th time in franchise history.   One of those prior wins was by the 1961 squad in Regional #50, giving that era of Indians an unexpected run of success in this tournament.

Interesting card of Regional #110:  Okay, so his team didn’t get past the semifinals, losing a game in which he hit two homers.  And, Juan Gone was just featured in the regional before last, showing his card from his _other_ MVP season, but this card is probably even better.  Besides, neither of the regional finalist teams had particularly interesting player cards, so I think this MVP-winning season deserves the recognition.   Despite winning two MVPs, Bleacher Report only lists Gonzalez as the 8th best player of the 1990s and the 5th best outfielder, meaning that he wouldn’t even start on the all-decade team in their book.  Even so, this is a card that most teams wouldn’t mind having in their lineup.

REGIONAL #109:  No pennant winners in this draw, although there were two division winners from the present millennium: a Braves team and a 2004 Angels team that had won the AL two years previously.  There was also a 1980 Brewers team that won the AL two years later, and I suspected that the 1949 Red Sox would be a good hitting team with the Splendid Splinter in the lineup, so the bottom half of the bracket looked to be where the tough competition was going to be.   I called a win for the Brewers, which would be the first regional win for that franchise in this tournament, with a wild guess that they would defeat the Twins in the finals.   I was surprised to then discover that the ELO ratings had the 1949 Red Sox as the 69th best team of all time, making them prohibitive regional favorites according to those rankings.

First round action

The 2005 Braves won 90 games and the NL East, and though they only retained one member of their storied rotation from previous years, John Smoltz was still a formidable starter and he could look forward to run support from the Joneses, Chipper and Andruw.   It didn’t seem like he would need much support facing the last place, 105-loss 1964 A’s, ranked as the worst team in the regional and having almost no weapons other than Rocky Colavito, who had to be wondering what he had done to deserve playing on this squad.  A’s starter Orlando Pena does a decent job until the 4th, when he issues three walks and two doubles to Adam Laroche and Todd Hollandsworth, and the Braves stake Smoltz to a 3-0 lead.  In the next inning, Andruw Jones and Jeff Francoeur contribute homers to make it 6-0 to chase Pena in favor of Wes Stock, but in the bottom half of the frame the A’s finally get on the board on a Doc Edwards sac fly.  Stock does his job in holding the Braves, but Smoltz is in control and finishes things out with a 5-hitter as the Braves move easily into the semis with a 6-1 victory.

The 1975 Rangers won 79 games, which wasn’t good enough for manager Billy Martin to keep his job.  In this first round game they were putting their hopes on the creative pitches of 18-game winner Gaylord Perry, as they faced an 85-win 2001 Twins team that had a steroid-era lineup with 8 hitters having SLG% exceeding .400.   Things remained scoreless until the 4th, when Texas CF Dave Moates finds Twins’ starter Joe Mays’ HR result to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.  However, the porous Texas defense lets Perry down by starting the 6th with consecutive errors, setting up RBI from Cory Koskie and super-PH Matt LeCroy that tie things up.  Another Ranger error in the 7th and Perry starts to come undone, loading up the bases and then watch a LeCroy liner get past RF-4 Jeff Burroughs for a triple--a play on which Perry is injured, which may have been feigned simply to get him away from the Rangers’ efforts at defense.  Stan Thomas comes in and promptly grooves one to Torii Hunter for a 2-run blast, and by the time the smoke clears the score is 9-2.  From there on out, Mays simply has to lob it in and the Rangers can’t do anything with it, and the game ends with a 10-2 Twins victory, Mays finishing out the 6-hitter.

The ELO rankings placed the 1949 Red Sox as one of the best 70 teams of all time, winners of 96 games and finishing just one game off the AL pennant.  Although I accurately figured that Ted Williams would be a big factor, they also had big years from Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr, and with two 20-game winners in the rotation they were favorites to win the regional.  However, the 2004 Angels were no patsies, winning 92 games and the AL West with some steroid-era offense, and although their starting pitching was the disaster typical of that era, they had some quality help in the bullpen.   Furthermore, this was the third straight matchup of 20th century vs. 21st century teams in this regional, and the latter had won all of them in prior games.   And the 21st century treats 25-game winner Mel Parnell roughly in the top of the 1st when Sox ss-2 Vern Stephens boots a grounder by the leadoff hitter, Parnell issues a walk, and then Vlad Guerrero misses a HR split but drives in both runners on the resulting double.  The next batter, Troy Glaus, knocks the ball over the Green Monster and it’s 4-0 before an out is recorded.   Another Boston error and some walks load the bases back up, David Eckstein and Adam Kennedy rap singles, and when the dust settles the score is 7-0 and the Red Sox are still waiting to have their first at-bats.   However, Boston shows that they won’t go quietly, as they start against Angel’s starter Kelvim Escobar with five straight hits, ultimately also batting around but leaving the bases loaded with the score 7-3 after one inning.   The Red Sox score another three in the 3rd courtesy of doubles from Pesky, Batts, and Tebbetts, and suddenly it’s a one run ballgame with a long way still to go.  When Williams doubles in the 4th, the Angels can tell that Escobar isn’t the answer, and they go very early to their closer Troy Percival in a desperate attempt to try to staunch the Boston momentum.   Percival does his job to end the threat, and the Angels come back to score three on RBI singles from Eckstein and Benji Molina in the top of the 5th to give them some breathing room with a 10-6 lead.  That doesn’t last long, as the Sox answer with 3 of their own in the bottom of the inning with RBI singles from Williams and Tebbetts, and the Angels are wondering what it is going to take to put the Red Sox away.  When Boston starts the 6th with two straight singles, Percival is yanked (after allowing 7 hits in recording 5 outs) and Francisco Rodriguez gets his chance to try to stop the Sox, but he surrenders a single to Billy Goodman and the game is tied at 10 apiece and there are still three innings left to play.  The Angels load the bases in the 8th with two out and summon .344 hitting Robb Quinlan to pinch hit, but Parnell strikes him out to keep the game deadlocked.   However, FRod is striking out the Red Sox himself, and the game remained tied after nine.  Chone Figgins rips a triple to lead off the 10th, and the Sox let Parnell try to work his way out of the jam, but then Ted Williams drops a Glaus flyball to give the Angels the lead.  With FRod burnt, the Angels turn to their 4th pitcher, Brendan Donnelly, to try to save the game, with Ted Williams staring at him to leadoff the bottom of the 10th.   But Chone Figgins makes a great play on a Williams grounder, Stephens pops out, and Donnelly fans Batts to send the Angels to the semis with a hard-fought 11-10 win.

I had picked the 1980 Brewers to win the regional because the ‘82 Harvey’s Wallbangers squad was a favorite of mine and I guessed that the ‘80 team had many of the same assets, and this time my guess was correct, as they had strong years from Cooper, Molitor, Yount, Oglivie et al., and a capable Moose Haas ready to start for the first round.  In fact, after setting the lineup I thought that they looked better than an 86-win team, and sure enough their Pythagorean projection indicated that they should have been good for 94 wins, which might be why they fired Buck Walters in ‘82 so that Harvey Kuenn could then lead them to the AL pennant.  They faced a near-contemporary AL team in the 1981 Angels, who went 51-59 in that strike year and relied primarily on Bobby Grich to provide offensive spark.   And he does so in the top of the first, missing a HR 1-13 split but driving in Carew on the resulting double, and the Angels have a quick 1-0 lead.  The Brewers get it back in the 2nd when Angels starter Ken Forsch flubs a Gorman Thomas grounder, and Charlie Moore drives Thomas in to tie it up.   This pattern is repeated in the 4th, when Angel C Ed Ott drops a popup and Moore drives him in to give Milwaukee a 2-1 edge, with both runs off Forsch unearned.  With the Angels threatening in the 6th, Cecil Cooper makes a dazzling stab to convert the DP and maintain the slim lead, and from there on out both pitchers are untouchable.  Forsch allows no earned runs and only 5 hits, but that’s not good enough as Haas closes out a 3-hitter and wins the 2-1 duel to send the Brewers to the semis.

The survivors

The 2005 Braves and the 2001 Twins had both cruised easily through their first round games, and although neither team was blessed with a particularly deep starting rotation, both could send out decent options in their #2 slot, with Atlanta’s Tim Hudson facing the Twins’ Brad Radke.  The first run of the game is driven in by a Jones, but it isn’t either of the Braves stars--rather, it’s Minnesota’s Jacque Jones that gives the Twins a 1-0 edge in the 4th.  However, in the 6th back to back doubles by Todd Hollandsworth and Johnny Estrada, coupled with an error by Twins RF Matt Lawton, gives the Braves a 2-1 lead.  Another double by Adam LaRoche in the 7th and Radke is pulled for Eddie Guardado, who prevents the run from scoring.  However, a Jeff Francoeur RBI single in the top of the 9th gives the Braves an insurance run, so it’s just up to Hudson to record the final three outs against the top of the Twins order.   A Lawton walk and a Torii Hunter single puts the winning run at the plate with two out in the form of Cristian Guzman, but Hudson strikes him out and the Braves head to the finals with the 3-1 win.

Both the 1980 Brewers and the 2004 Angels survived one-run games to make this semifinal--the Angels surviving a slugfest and the Brew Crew squeaking by in a pitchers’ duel.  One difference was that the Angels bullpen was severely taxed in their win, and they were hoping that Jarrod Washburn would be able to go deep in the game to give their relievers some rest.  The Brewers had a fresh pen and sent Reggie Cleveland to the mound, and they spotted Cleveland a solid lead by rapping five hits in the 1st inning, including a Molitor leadoff HR and a Don Money 2-run double that eluded Angel RF Vlad Guerrero, and the Brewers have a quick 4-0 lead.  When Yount smacks a 2-run shot to make it 6-0 in the 2nd, the Angels are already eyeing their pen, but they also rip five hits in the 3rd, including a Guerrero RBI double and a Troy Glaus 3 run HR, and it’s 6-4 and clearly anyone’s game.  A solo shot by Benji Molina in the 4th makes it 6-5, and he adds an RBI double in the 5th to tie things up.  Meanwhile, Washburn has recovered and is now tossing scoreless innings, although he has a scare in the 7th when Yount is cut down at the plate trying to score on a Cecil Cooper double.  A one-out double by David Eckstein in the 8th sends Cleveland to the showers, with Milwaukee bringing out Bob McClure to try to stop the Halos, and although he does so, in the top of the 9th Garrett Anderson finds McClure’s HR 1-6/flyB result and rolls the 6, giving the Angels their first lead heading into the bottom of the 9th.  Gantner leads it off with a single, so Anaheim pulls Washburn and gives Brendan Donnelly the chance to earn his second save in a row.  Molitor pushes a single past Angels SS Eckstein, and with two out Cecil Cooper comes to the plate with the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at first.   But Donnelly strikes Cooper out, earning the save and sending the Angels to the finals with a scrappy 7-6 comeback victory.

Although neither the ELO rankings nor I predicted it accurately, the pairing for the regional final seemed obvious--the two teams in the group that won their divisions.  In fact, with the two teams being from successive years, this matchup is a bit of an alternative World Series if some postseason games had gone differently.    Starting pitchers included Big Sexy Bartolo Colon for the 2004 Angels, and Horacio Ramirez for the 2005 Braves, two similar workhorses who both allowed too many hits and too many HRs for comfort.  The Angels get on the board in the bottom of the 1st when Atlanta LF Ryan Langerhans mishandles a Chone Figgins single, and Vlad Guerrero knocks him in on the next pitch for a 1-0 lead.  Four straight hits in the 2nd, including a Figgins 2-RBI single, and the Angels lead 3-0 and the Braves are in unfamiliar territory, having only allowed one run in each of their prior regional games.   In the 4th, the red-hot Figgins rips a triple to score Eckstein, and Guerrero singles him in again and it’s 5-0 Angels, and when Ramirez allows a single in the 5th the Braves bring in their closer Kyle Farnsworth in a desperation move to try to stay in the game.  That meets with limited success, as in the 6th Troy Glaus takes Farnsworth deep for a 2-run HR, Glaus’s third homer of the regional, and it’s now 7-0 Angels.   Although Colon had managed to strand numerous runners in scoring position, his luck runs out in the 7th when the Braves rap three straight hits against him, the last being an RBI double by Chipper Jones, and the Angels turn to Troy Percival to try to close things out.  He escapes the jam in highly efficient fashion, as Jeff Francoeur rolls the dreaded LOMAX and the Braves are immediately shut down courtesy of the triple play.  However, Percival struggles in the top of the 9th, and 3rd string catcher Eddie Perez rips a 2-run double that narrows the score to 7-3.  Although the Angels think about going to Brendan Donnelly again to see if he might be able to record a 3rd straight save, they stick with Percival and he gets the final two outs to give the Angels the 7-3 victory and the third regional title (with 1977 and 1989) for the Halos.  Glaus’s three homers and nine RBI earn him the regional MVP recognition, and the Angels thank the heavens that he never hit that ominous 2-6 injury roll in the bracket.

Interesting card of Regional #109:   Although regional MVP Troy Glaus had an interesting card with lots of power and a horrible injury roll, I had to go with Twins low-AB wonder boy Matt LeCroy, for obvious reasons.  Restricted to late-game PH duties because of his ABs, LeCroy wreaked havoc upon the Rangers in the first round but was unable to get his Twins past the semifinals.  As a kid, I played the heck out of those original Basic-only Hall of Fame cards and this card would have been formidable even in that set.   Who wouldn’t want a catcher that hit .425 with power and doubles scattered everywhere?  Okay, so he couldn’t draw a walk to save his life, and he was pretty terrible in the field, but I think I could overlook that.  He was age 25 during this season, and although he never lived up to the numbers he put up in these 40 at-bats, he did prove to have some power and eventually learned to draw a walk later in his career, although he never came within 150 points of this batting average again.   Now the manager for the Nationals’ AAA team in Rochester, LeCroy should just wave this card around if any of his players ever question his decisions.

REGIONAL #108:  I was beginning to wonder about my random team selector for this regional, as it seemed to keep picking Giants and Phillies teams, with two of the Giants teams just one year from a pennant and one of the Phillies teams being two seasons away.  I figured that the random number generator was trying to tell me something, so I guessed it would be a Giants (1963 version) vs. the Phillies (2006 version) final, with the Giants prevailing.  Unusually, the ELO ratings predicted the same result that I did, perhaps unduly impressed with my extremely rare accurate picks in the prior regional.

First round action:

The main attraction on the 85-win 2006 Phillies was the monster card of one Ryan Howard, a basher of Ruthian proportions.  However, they also suffered from a dearth of starting pitching and figured that 22-year old spot starter Cole Hamels was probably their best option.   The 1930 White Sox lost 92 games despite having two Hall of Famers on the pitching staff, but neither Ted Lyons or Red Faber got the nod, as the Sox instead went with Pat Caraway.  The Phils move out front in the 2nd when Jeff Conine doubles in Jimmy Rollins, and in the 3rd Howard launches a bases-empty blast into the upper deck of Comiskey to make it 2-0.   Caraway settles down, but Hamels is in control of the Sox until the 9th, when two squib hits (one a converted SI* 1-3 by Bennie Tate) chases Hamels for Fabio Castro.  However, Bobby Abreu can’t get to a Fothergill liner, which scores Reynolds to make it 2-1, making it 1 out with the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 1st.  The Phils bring the infield in, and the lead runner is nailed at the plate on a Cissell gbB, and then Castro retires the final Sox batter to send the Phillies to the semifinals with the nail-biter win in which they managed only 5 hits.  Regarding the crucial infield in play, this was unusual in that it seems my managerial decisions have been much more likely to lead to a team losing than to one winning.

You have the right to remain hitless

The 1957 Orioles went an even 76-76 by combining a pretty solid starting rotation with an anemic offense that had only two players in double digits for HR, and both of them with less than 20.   One example of the O’s offense was starting SS Willie Miranda, who possessed an impressive .204 SLG%--yes, slugging percentage, not batting average--which might be the worst that I’ve seen for someone in the starting lineup in this tournament.  The 83-win 1988 Giants were a more balanced team, with a decent rotation and a lineup with some weapons such as Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell, and they sent capable swingman Don Robinson to face the Orioles’ Connie Johnson.   The Giants get things going in the 2nd when Robby Thompson singles home Ernest Riles for the early lead, and in the 4th Mitchell misses a HR 1-13 split, but the resulting double is good enough to score Clark to make it 2-0, and that is all the Giants can do against Johnson for the rest of the game.   However, that was enough, as Robinson tosses a CG 6-hit shutout and at least one of the three Giants teams in this regional makes the semifinals.

As is customary, my selection of the 1963 Giants to win the regional was made sight unseen, and after looking at their lineup I was struck by how some of the team was killer (the heart of the order of McCovey, Mays, Cepeda was frightening) and how the rest of the team was very much not (Pagan and Hiller were a terrible DP combo, for example).  The team did win 88 games to finish 3rd in the NL, and with 25-game winner Juan Marichal on the mound, it was hard to bet against them.  They faced a 77-win 1999 Phillies team that shared few starters with the other Phillies squad in this regional, but they had some other weapons and their starter Curt Schilling was not shy about comparing his credentials favorably to Marichal’s.  And he may have been right, as Marichal comes unglued in the 4th inning, allowing 5 hits (one of them a 3-run homer by Scott Rolen) and a 3-0 lead that could have been worse as TWO Philadelphia baserunners were gunned down at the plate in the inning.  SF catcher Ed Bailey launches a solo shot in the 5th to make it 3-1, but the Phils get the run back in the 7th when Ron Gant slaps a 2-out double and Mike Lieberthal singles him home.   The run proves to be unnecessary, though, as Schilling lives up to his own billing, holding the Giants to only 4 hits and striking out 12 as the Phillies send their second team of the regional to the semifinals with the 4-1 win and put the bracket favorite back into storage.

The 78-76 1948 Giants seemed familiar to me, mainly because the 1949 team had survived a round in the previous regional before getting eliminated by the eventual winner in the semifinals.   The two teams were similar in that aside from Johnny Mize, there wasn’t too much impressive about the team, although 18-game winner Larry Jansen was a credible #1 starter.  Unlike the previous regional, however, these Giants were facing a team with some weapons, the 88-win AL West champs 1998 Rangers, who boasted some steroid era punch from Juan Gonzalez, Will Clark, and Pudge Rodriguez, but who also had a 20-game winner in Rick Helling on the mound. After setting their lineup, I felt that the ELO rankings shortchanged the Rangers and in my mind they seemed to be a clear favorite over the Giants even though the latter was ranked as better.  Of course, the Giants find my lack of faith disturbing, as the first batter of the game, Whitey Lockman, parks one in the far reaches of the Ballpark at Arlington, while Jansen strikes out the side in the bottom of the inning and it’s Giants 1, Rangers 0.  In the 4th Bobby Thomson launches a solo shot heard round the metroplex, Walker Cooper adds a 2-run blast in the 6th, and it’s the Giants that are looking like the steroid-era squad.  Finally, in the bottom of the 7th Ranger DH Mike Simms smacks a 2-run homer to narrow the lead to 4-2, and PH Roberto Kelly makes it 4-3 with a solo blast in the 8th.  However, when Jack Lohrke hits a 2-run HR in the top of the 9th, things are looking bleak for the Rangers, but Jansen (a “1” fielder) boots a grounder and Will Clark crushes his next offering to make it 6-5; Rusty Greer follows with a double and the tying run is in scoring position with nobody out.  The Giants don’t like the looks of their bullpen alternatives and after conferring with Jansen, agree to let him try to close out the game.  He gets two quick outs, but then Lohrke can’t get to a McLemore single and Rigney can’t get to a Goodwin single, and the game is tied; Jansen does then retire Juan Gonzalez and we head to extra innings.   Helling retires the Giants in the top of the 10th without incident for his final inning, and then Jansen allows two squib singles to put the winning run on 2nd with 2 out, and Luis Alicea, the third guy to play 3B for the Rangers, at the plate.   With no remaining 3B available, Luis has to bat, and he rips a single into the corner to score Simms and give the Rangers their first and final lead of the game, a 7-6 win that punches their ticket to the semifinals.

The survivors

I predicted a Giant/Phillies final matchup for this regional, and although that has been eliminated as a possibility, we do get such a matchup here for the first semifinal game.   The 1988 Giants, the only one of three Giants squads to survive the first round, sought to carry the torch for the franchise, while the 2006 Phillies were the top-ranked team remaining and were hoping to make the finals an all-Philadelphia story.  It was 19-game winner Rick Reuschel for the Giants against Brett Myers for Philly, but things start off somewhat rocky for Philly in the 2nd as C Mike Lieberthal (with his injury at a roll of 1-7) gets hurt for four games.  The Phils then rise up and score two in the 3rd on RBI singles from David Dellucci and Chase Utley, but Bob Melvin doubles in Ernest Riles in the 5th to narrow the score to 2-1.  Brett Butler then leads off the 6th with a triple, but Myers fans the next two batters and leaves him stranded at third to keep the Phils in the lead, and then the Phils notch three insurance runs in the 7th on a 2-run Rollins single, and Jimmy steals second and scores on a Coste (in for the injured Lieberthal) single.  A Dellucci fielder's choice adds another run in the 8th, and Myers is on cruise control, finishing out an 8-hitter with 9 strikeouts to send the Phillies into the final, with Philadelphia rocking Giants pitching for 17 hits in the 6-1 win.  The three Giants teams in this batch thus only win one of four games, a poor showing for a franchise that has won eight previous regionals in this tournament.

Two near-contemporaries faced off in the second semifinal, with the 1999 Phillies trying to complete an all-Philly final and the 1998 Rangers seeking to represent as the only division winner in this regional.  Befitting a division champ, the Rangers boasted a fairly decent rotation despite it being the peak of the steroid era, and Todd Stottlemyre seemed to have fewer long ball issues than his counterpart for the Phils, Paul Byrd.  However, it’s Philadelphia’s sloppy fielding that gives the Rangers the early lead in the 2nd, with an Alex Arias error and a single that gets past Byrd setting up a 2-run Royce Clayton single, and Tom Goodwin finds Byrd’s HR result for a solo shot in the 5th that makes it 3-0 Rangers.   Three straight hits to start the 6th finally chase Byrd, but two more score, although Rico Brogna finally gets the Phils on the board with a leadoff HR in the 8th that makes it 5-1.   That seems to break the ice for Philly, as Gant leads off the 9th with a triple, scores on a Lieberthal single, and then Abreu brings them home with a 2-run blast and it’s suddenly a one-run game and the Rangers head to the bullpen for John Wetteland and his 42 saves.  He needs to get two outs, and he gets them promptly, fanning Brogna to end the game and send the Rangers to the finals with a 5-4 win.

Only one Rangers team had previously won a regional title, and the 1998 Rangers sought to be the second.   Although the Phillies are a much older franchise, they themselves had only won three regionals, but two of them--2005 and 2008--bracketed the 2006 Phillies team trying to win this one, underscoring that the Phils of that vintage seemed to have what it takes to succeed in this format.  Another interesting aspect of this matchup is that it pits the AL MVP, Juan Gonzalez, against the NL MVP, Ryan Howard, in an epic faceoff of two bashers.   Really, neither of these sluggers had been major factors to this point, and it seemed to me that whichever one could get hot would determine the regional winner.   Starters Aaron Sele for TEX and Cory Lidle for PHI both were strong in the early going and it was a scoreless tie after five.  However, in the 6th Victorino singled and Howard doubled him to 3rd, and with nobody out the Rangers went early to closer John Wetteland to try to get out of the jam.  That did not go well, as the next batter, David Dellucci, send the ball into the streets of Arlington and the Phillies have a 3-0 lead.  When Lidle yields two straight hits to start the 7th, the Phillies summon Fabio Castro to head off any Texas comeback efforts, and although one run scores when Greer hits into a DP the Phillies maintain their lead.  Entering the 9th, the Phils decide to leave Castro in and burn his eligibility rather than turn to longball-prone closer Tom Gordon, and Castro retires the Rangers in order to earn his second save of the regional, and put the Phillies in as regional winners with the 3-1 victory.  With regional winners from 2005, 2006, and 2008, this era of the Phillies is perhaps the most successful dynasty in the tournament thus far.

Interesting card(s) of Regional #108:  I had to have a dual feature here, because the regional final involved a duel between two MVP winners, even though neither one played a huge role in the outcome of the tournament.  Howard had won the Rookie of the Year award in his prior season, and no sophomore slump here, with an MVP season in which he set the all-time HR record for a second year player.  He would never quite duplicate this Ruthian card again, although he finished as MVP runner-up in the Phils 2008 championship season.  For Juan Gone, his 1998 MVP was actually his second such award, as he’d won two seasons earlier.   Like Howard, Gonzalez led his league in RBI, although not in homers like Howard--but Juan did lead in doubles, with his 50 two-baggers being a number he never approached before or since.  Both players had rather abrupt declines in their careers after injuries--Howard perhaps most famously by rupturing his Achilles tendon while making the final out of Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS.  Gonzalez attracted little support for the Hall of Fame when he became eligible, and with Juan’s career numbers slightly better than Howard’s, it’s likely that Howard will meet the same fate this year.  Even so, these Strat cards will always be ones to admire.

 

REGIONAL #107:  This regional featured no pennant winners but had versions of the Rangers, Giants, and Mets who were building towards one, and a Yankees team that was just coming off a string of legendary winners.   Given the way that the 1934 Yanks had blown through Regional #97, it seemed to me that the 1930 version was likely to be even better with Ruth closer to his prime, so I picked them over the 2008 Rangers in the finals.   The ELO ranks agreed that the Yanks were a no-brainer favorite, identifying the Bronx Bombers as really the only good team in the regional--a designation that often turns out to be the kiss of death.

First round action:

The 1990 Expos won 85 games and struck me as a decent team, with many good players but who were not having their best years.  They did have lots of team speed, with four AA stealers, and Dennis Martinez had a good season and represented a formidable #1 starter.  They faced a 79-win 2008 Rangers team that had some eye-opening hitters (5 guys in the starting lineup with over .500 SLG%) and painfully bad starting pitching, so you had the feeling that those 79 wins were probably high-scoring affairs.  But it’s the Expos who start off the fireworks, with Larry Walker and Mike Fitzgerald each hitting solo HRs in the 2nd--off their own cards, not Ranger starter Vincente Padilla’s, who gives up quite a few of his own.  The Rangers respond in the bottom of the 2nd, with a two-out David Murphy single scoring Milton Bradley, and it’s 2-1 Expos.  The Montreal team speed results in a run in the 3rd when Deshields walks, steals second, and scores on a Tim Wallach single, but the wheels come off for Martinez in the bottom of the inning when he loads the bases and then allows the grand slam to Bradley off the pitcher’s card, and the Rangers lead 5-3 after three in what is promising to be a slugfest.  Sure enough, Galarraga blasts a 3-run shot off Padilla’s card in the 6th and the Expos reclaim the lead, and when Otis Nixon walks and steals second in the 7th, the Rangers leaf through their bullpen and select Frank Francisco as the best option.  Francisco is masterful, but the Rangers come down to their last chance in the bottom of the 9th still down by a run.   Martinez records two quick outs, but then Ramon Vasquez finds Martinez’ HR result, gets the split, and ties the game with a solo shot.  Ian Kinsler follows with a double, and the Expos summon Steve Frey to try to keep the winning run from scoring.  What happens next is a strange confluence of events.  Frey has to face Hank Blalock, only in at DH because Milton Bradley (he of the grand slam earlier in the game) had suffered a minor injury in the 8th that knocked him out of the game.  Blalock rolls the 5-10--the same number that Vasquez and Bradley had rolled on Martinez’ card for the HRs, but there is no HR there on Frey.  Instead, it’s a GB(3B)X...however, because Tim Wallach (3B-1) had suffered a minor injury that had knocked HIM out of the game in the 8th, Junior Noboa (3B-4) was in there as the Expos' only option.  Result:  2 base error, Kinsler scores the winning run on the error, and the Rangers move on to the semis with the 7-6 comeback/walkoff win.

Two fairly bad teams faced off in this first round game, with the 78-win 2002 Reds paired against the 1981 Mets who went 41-62 in that strike year.  The Reds strike first in the 3rd inning when Adam Dunn sends a Mike Scott scuffball into the far reaches of Shea Stadium to give Cincinnati a 2-0 lead, and Ken Griffey Jr. adds a solo shot in the 4th to make it 3-0.   Meanwhile, the Mets don’t get their first hit off Reds starter Elmer Dessens until the 6th when Lee Mazzilli singles, steals second, and scores on a Mookie Wilson base hit to narrow things to 3-1.   The Reds get that run back in the top of the 7th on a solo shot by PH Brandon Larson.  When Scott allows an RBI double to Todd Walker in the 9th, Terry Leach comes in, but by then it’s too little too late as Dessens closes out his 5-hit CG in the bottom of the 9th and the Reds head to the semis with a leisurely 6-1 win.

I was looking forward to exploring the 73-81 1949 Giants, being quite familiar with the legendary 1954 old-timers team as well as the ‘51 playoff winners, but also knowing that Willie Mays wouldn’t begin his long tenure in CF until the following season.   Turns out that the Giants weren’t quite yet ready for prime time, with a weak infield and so-so starting pitching, with Dave Koslo getting the nod for the first round.  However, they faced the worst rated team in the regional in the 51-64 1994 Marlins, who were only in their second year of expansion existence and had their season mercifully shortened by the players’ strike.  Things don’t go the Marlins’ way quickly, as their best hitter Gary Sheffield is injured for 4 games in his first plate appearance.  Then, in the 2nd Marlins starter Pat Rapp issues 3 straight walks, followed by a GBX to 3b-4 Jerry Browne (who apparently could field 5 positions about as well as the former Governor of California) that turns into a double, and the Giants lead 3-0.  A Jack Lohrke fielder’s choice scores another run in the 3rd, and when Rapp issues a bases loaded walk in the 4th inning to Bobby Thomson, Rapp’s 3rd BB of the inning, he’s replaced by Luis Aquino, who ends the inning without further damage, but it’s now 5-0.  The Marlins put up a run on a Kurt Abbott solo shot in the bottom of the 4th, and get another one in the 5th when Greg Colbrunn pushes an RBI single past Giants 2b-4 Hank Thompson, and the sparse crowd at Joe Robbie Stadium is starting to show signs of interest in the game.  However, in the 7th Bobby Thomson rips a triple followed by a Lohrke sac fly, and the Giants hold the 6-2 lead at the 7th inning stretch.  Unfortunately, in the bottom of the inning that stretching seemed to injure the Marlins replacement for Sheffield, Carl Everett, and he’s out of the game, and Florida is trying to talk some of the few remaining fans into playing RF.  However, the Marlins put together a 2-out rally in the bottom of the 8th, with a Chuck Carr single and a Johnny Mize error leading to two Florida runs, and we have a game entering the 9th inning, with the score now 6-4.  The Giants promptly get to Marlins new reliever Robb Nen for two more runs, keyed by a Bobby Thomson double, and it’s up to Koslo to hold the Giants lead as there isn’t much help in the pen for New York.   He sets the Marlins down in order, and the Giants move on to the semis with the 8-4 win.

With Ruth and Gehrig in their primes and a remarkable 9 Hall of Famers on the team, it was remarkable that the 1930 Yankees only managed to win 86 games to finish 3rd in the AL.  Their opponent, the 2008 Braves, lost 90 games but they did have two carded HOFers of their own--Chipper Jones who had a monster year, and a 42 year old Tom Glavine who was ineffective and retired after the season.   The Yanks were starting one of their HOFers in Red Ruffing, and they had the added incentive for payback in that the vaunted 1927 Yanks had been eliminated from the tournament by a Braves team.   The Yanks flex their muscles early when in the bottom of the 1st Earle Combs doubles, and Braves starter Jarr Jurrjens walks both Gehrig and Ruth wanting no part of pitching to them.  However, Ben Chapman makes him pay by slicing a triple into the corner to score three, Bill Dickey singles Chapman home, and it’s 4-0 after one inning.  The Braves show some life in the 2nd when Mark Kotsay triples and scores on a Kotchman sac fly, but the Yanks punish them in the bottom of the inning with 3 straight 2-out hits that include another Combs double and a Gehrig triple, and the score is now 6-1.  Two more NY runs in the 3rd and Jurrjens has to be removed to preserve his sanity, and the Braves summon Will Ohman from the pen, as in “Oh man, can’t you pitch somebody else?”  Chipper Jones scores on a Kotchman fielder’s choice in the 4th to make it 8-2, Ohman pitches four shutout innings, but the brief glimmer of hope for the Braves fades when Combs triples in Harry Rice in the 8th off Ohman’s replacement, Buddy Carlyle.  However, Ruffing can’t get the CG as he is injured for 2 games in the 9th, leaving the Yanks to pull something out of an atrociously bad bullpen.  They go with Roy Sherid and his 5.23 ERA as the best option, and he records the final two outs as the Yanks cruise to the semifinals with the 9-2 win.

The survivors

Milton Bradley gaming

The 2008 Rangers had persevered with two comebacks in their first round win, but they burned their best reliever in the process and in this semifinal they were now forced to dip deeper into an extremely shallow rotation, with Kevin Millwood getting the start.  Fortunately for them, the 2002 Reds had an even poorer ELO rank and their starter, Jimmy Haynes, wasn’t much to write home about either.  The Reds start the scoring in the bottom of the 1st with an Adam Dunn solo HR off Millwood’s card, Dunn’s second dinger of the regional.   That lead is extended in the 2nd when Griffey Jr. hits HIS second HR of the regional, a 2-run shot also off Millwood’s card, and it’s 3-0 after two.  In the 3rd, the Rangers rack up three hits but only score one on Milton Bradley’s RBI single, but in the 5th Bradley nails a 2-run blast off Haynes’ card to knot the game at 3-3.   In the 6th, back to back doubles by PH Taylor Teagarden and 3b Ramon Vasquez put the Rangers on top, and two batters later Nelson Cruz contributes a 2-run double that sends Haynes to the showers in favor of Scott Williamson, but the Rangers now hold the 6-3 lead.  For added insurance, Josh Hamilton crushes a 2-run blast in the 9th, and Millwood recovers from his shaky start, only allowing one hit in the final five innings to earn the Rangers the 8-3 win and a spot in the regional final.

Both the 1930 Yankees and the 1949 Giants won their first round games easily, but each team expected a greater challenge in their Subway semifinal matchup.   It was the Yanks’ George Pipgras against the Giants’ Sheldon Jones on the mound, and it was the Giants who struck quickly against Pipgras in the top of the 1st, with Sid Gordon singling in Hank Thompson for a 1-0 lead.   Jones shackles the Yanks until the 5th, when Lyn Lary, the least likely slugger on the the team, nails the HR split on Jones’ card to tie the game, but the Yanks are stymied in the 6th when Dickey misses a TR 1-8 with a 9, and Chapman (1-17 with 2 out) is nailed at the plate on the resulting double to end the inning.  The splits are more fortunate for the Giants in the 7th when Whitey Lockman gets a double on a 1-3 split and then gets the split to score on Bobby Thomson’s single, and they regain the lead 2-1.   Facing the top of the Yankee order in the 8th, Jones insists on pitching to Ruth with 2 out and Jimmy Reese on 3rd, and Jones gets Ruth to hit a grounder to Sid Gordon, 3b-4, who boots it and allows the tying run to score.  Pipgras sets the heart of the Jints lineup down in order in the 9th, and then Jones, facing the bottom of the Yankee order in the bottom of the 9th, has Harry Rice find Jones’ HR result, Rice gets the split, and the Yankees get the walk-off, come from behind 3-2 victory to earn a trip to the regional final.  It’s worth noting that the powerful offense of the Yanks scores all of its runs off Giants’ pitching and defensive lapses.

The 2008 Rangers had no options other than Scott Feldman to pitch the regional final, giving him the unenviable task of facing the 1930 Yanks Murderer’s Row lineup and Herb Pennock on the mound, but Texas had come back from deficits in both previous games proving that they were not easily daunted.  Sure enough, they begin the game with two straight singles and a sac fly from Nelson Cruz and take an early lead, but the Yanks load the bases in the bottom of the 1st and tie it up on a Ben Chapman sac fly.  A David Murphy solo shot puts the Rangers back up in the 2nd, but that lead is equally short-lived as Josh Hamilton misplays a Lazzeri single, and Harry Rice drives Lazzeri home to knot the score at 2-2 after 2.  Rice goes down to injury in the 4th, replaced by Sammy Byrd, but the Rangers run into some bad luck of their own when Cruz lines into a triple play to bring a quick end to the 5th inning.  When Feldman allows a walk and a single to start the 6th inning, the Rangers waste no time in bringing in Frank Francisco, their relief hero from the first round win, and they get their money’s worth as Francisco retires three in a row to keep the game tied.  However, the Yanks do pull ahead in the 7th when, with runners on 1st and 3rd and the infield back, Ian Kinsler fails to complete a DP that allows Combs to score from 3rd.  When the Rangers load the bases with one out in the 8th, the Yanks remember the previous inning and bring the infield in for Chris Davis, who promptly rolls the gbA that would have ended the inning--but Hamilton whiffs anyway and the Yanks escape still holding the one run lead.  The Rangers begin their last chance in the 9th with a David Murphy double, but Pennock bears down to retire the next three in order, aided by two great fielding plays from ss-3 Lyn Lary, and the Yanks squeak out the 3-2 win to capture the regional--without a single long ball from either Ruth or Gehrig in any of the games. Worthy of note: this was the first time since Regional #94 that I accurately predicted the result of the regional final, including which teams would be playing. 

Interesting card of Regional #107:  As much as I wanted to highlight Babe Ruth for this feature, the Yanks won the regional with almost no contribution from the Bambino, with no homers or RBI in support of his teammates.   Plus, by the end of the regional final, the Babe didn’t even have the best HR card in the game.   No, that honor belonged to this pinch hitter, Taylor Teagarden, who is probably somewhat lower on the household name scale than Ruth.   This was Teagarden’s first Strat card, and it was steeply downhill from there; his .2008 SLG of .809 never got higher than .374 again, and his .319 BA never exceeded .235 in subsequent years.  His career came to an ignominious end in 2016 when he was handed an 80 game suspension for PED use, and he never played in the majors again, after a career in which he hit 21 homers.  Even so, for these 47 brief, shining at-bats, Teagarden could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Babe.