REGIONAL #182:  The eye-catching team in this group was the recently acquired, pennant winning 1940 Tigers, the first new entrant in this tournament to come from the Diamond Gems sets because every other DG team existed previously in either regular season or Old-Timer form.  However, they weren’t the only pennant winners in the bunch, as the ‘91 Twins were eager to introduce the Tigers to indoor baseball.  There were also some other teams that might have a say in things, such as a Reds team shortly before they became a Machine, an Indians team from a vintage (the 70s) that had been successful in the tournament, and some other potentially decent representatives from the Nationals, Brewers, and Mariners.  The obvious matchup for the finals seemed to be the two pennant winners, and I guessed that the Twins, who I remembered as having been quite plucky in real life, would best the Tigers for the banner.   The ELO ratings predicted the Tigers would win that matchup, and indicated that I underestimated the Orioles whom I misremembered as having a long losing streak somewhere around that time (it was actually 1988).  I apparently made up for it by overestimating the prospects of the Brewers and Nationals, both tapped as terrible in the ELO numbers.

First round action

The pennant winning 1940 Tigers were newly arrived as part of the 40s Diamond Gems; they had gone 90-64 and were led by Rudy York and AL MVP Hank Greenberg at the plate, and Bobo Newsom (21-5, 2.83) finished 4th to Greenberg in that MVP race.  For the second regional in a row, the top seed drew the bottom seed, and this time it was the 106-loss 2002 Brewers who were seemingly the sacrificial lambs; the Brewers were remarkably underpowered for a team from the height of the steroid era, and although Ben Sheets (11-16, 4.15) wasn’t very good, he was a lot better than the arms that would have to follow if the Brewers could pull off the upset.  Sheets is having some control issues but escapes problems until the top of the 3rd, when he walks the first two batters and Greenberg crushes a double off the top of the wall that scores both baserunners; Greenberg then scores on a 2-out single by Bruce Campbell and it’s 3-0 Tigers.  However, in the bottom of the inning a 2-out error by 3B-3 Pinky Higgins opens the door for a Matt Stairs RBI single, followed by a 3-run homer from Geoff Jenkins, and the Brewers surge into the lead.  In the 7th, Barney McCosky ties the game with an RBI single and Sheets then puts two more runners on, so the Brewers turn to reliever Jayson Durocher and his 1.88 ERA, but Rudy York rips a single that puts the Tigers back on top.  Durocher is then convinced that nice guys finish last when Brewers 1B-2 Richie Sexson drops a grounder that allows another run to score, but finally gets the last out with the Brewers now down by two.  They begin the comeback quickly, with PH Ryan Thompson leading off the bottom of the 7th with a long homer, but Newsom gets out of a 1st and 3rd jam when Lenny Harris misses a SI* 1-3 split that would have tied the game.  Durocher does his job in the top of the 9th, so it’s Newsom against the heart of the Brewers order for the game.   He gets one quick out, but then Sexson singles by hitting the 5-7 result on Newsom that the Brewers have been rolling all game, so Matt Stairs comes to the plate as the potential winning run.  Newsom delivers, it’s on Stairs’ card…groundball A, double play and the Tigers survive a scare from a pesky #8 seed to move on with a 6-5 win.  

I had shortchanged the chances of the 85-win 1993 Orioles, as they turned out to have a solid lineup with Chris Hoiles and Harold Baines at its core, but their rotation consisted of a bunch of pitchers whose best years were either past them or yet to come–with Ben McDonald (13-14, 3.39) being the main exception.  On the other hand, I might have overestimated the 1973 Indians just because their ‘75 version managed to win the very first regional in this tournament in a huge upset, but this version lost 91 games despite the best efforts of Gaylord Perry (19-19, 3.38).   Mike Pagliarulo puts the O’s on the board by leading off the top of the 2nd with a homer, but Perry greases the ball up and holds court until the Indians can get a run in the 4th on a Chris Chambliss single to tie things up.   The O’s get to Perry in the 7th when David Segui leads off with a double on a missed HR split, but scores when a Mike Devereaux grounder gets past Indians SS-3 Frank Duffy; that’s followed by PH Jack Voight reaching the stands for a 2-run homer and Baltimore looks in control.  The Indians get a leadoff walk and a Buddy Bell single to begin the 8th, so the O’s move to closer Gregg Olson, but he yields hard singles to Charley Spikes and backup 2b Tom Ragland but he’s bailed out when the Indians opt to play the infield at double play depth with the tying run on 3rd, and John Lowenstein rewards them with a gbA++ that ends the inning with the O’s still up by a run.   Perry gets in trouble in the 9th but he’s bailed out by a Baines DP ball, and it’s up to Olson to try to sustain the one run lead in the bottom of the 9th.  He gets one out, but Oscar Gamble walks and George Hendrick singles; Gamble takes off for third (1-14) but is cut down and it’s two away, Hendrick taking second on the throw representing the tying run.  Olson pitches, John Ellis grounds out and Baltimore survives with a 4-3 win to play another day.

The 1966 Reds were a mediocre 76-84 team that was not quite the machine that they would be by the end of the decade, although some of the cogs were in place, and Jim Maloney (16-8, 2.80) led the league in shutouts and got some MVP votes.  That was good enough to make them substantial ELO favorites over the 2008 Nationals, who lost 102 games with Ryan Zimmerman the top HR hitter with 14 in an era with far more power, and John Lannan (9-15, 3.91) topping a bad rotation.  However, it’s Maloney who starts rough, allowing two singles and a walk to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 1st.  Zimmerman hits a sac fly to put the Nats on the board, and then Willie Harris misses a HR 1-15 split but the resulting triple scores two more and it’s 3-0 Washington after one.  Deron Johnson strikes back for the Reds by leading off the 2nd with a homer, and in the 4th the unexpectedly powerful Art Shamsky crushes one with Pete Rose aboard to tie the game.  Lannan gets two outs, but then walks two and delivers a HR off his card to Tommy Helms and earns a quick trip to the showers after allowing only 4 hits, three of them homers.  However, Zimmerman finds and converts Maloney’s HR split for a 2-out 2-run blast in the 5th and it’s back to a one run game until Shamsky rips an RBI single on a gbA++ with Tommy Harper being held.  Deron Johnson then scores Harper with a base hit and the Nationals are discovering the downside of trading your closer away in midseason, although Steven Shell does come in to record the third out.  Maloney thus takes a three run edge into the bottom of the 9th, but getting an out he walks two and the Reds summon closer Billy McCool to try to close things out.  That turns out to be a good move, as the next roll is a strikeout on McCool that would have been Maloney’s HR split, and then McCool records another K and preserves the 8-5 victory for the Reds.

The 1991 Twins won the pennant and a Series that is one of those where I remember exactly where I was while watching those games, so I was looking forward to revisiting their lineup.  For a 95-win team playing in the Homerdome it was not really a power-laden lineup, with Chili Davis’s 29 dingers topping the squad, but they had good defense and a solid rotation with Scott Erickson (20-8, 3.18) being the Cy Young runner-up.   The ELO ratings portrayed the 88-win 2007 Mariners as a worthy opponent, the 4th seed in the bracket with Ichiro finishing 8th in MVP ballots although Felix Hernandez (14-7, 3.92) topped a rather lackluster rotation.   Hernandez yields two hits and two walks in the top of the 1st but emerges unscathed because Chuck Knoblach (1-15) is nailed trying to score.  The M’s show them how it’s done in the bottom of the 1st, as Ichiro and Adrian Beltre both double and Seattle leads 1-0.  The Twins tie it in the 3rd when Kirby Puckett races home from 1st on a Chili Davis 2-out double, but Davis is then cut down at the plate (1-9+2) trying to grab a lead on a Shane Mack single.  The Mariners ride that momentum into the bottom of the inning and Beltre and Raul Ibanez go back to back to provide Seattle with a 4-1 lead.  Erickson then settles down, but a one-out double by Ichiro in the bottom of the 7th and the Twins can’t afford any more damage, so closer Rick Aguilera is summoned and Jose Vidro finds the only complete hit on Aguilera’s card to drive in Suzuki and extend the Seattle lead.  Later in the inning, defensive replacement Adam Jones finds the same hit to score Vidro.  From there, it’s all Hernandez as he fans PH Pedro Munoz for the final out in the 6-1 win to notch another case of a pennant winner, and a team that I enjoy playing, getting eliminated in the first round.

The survivors

With the Twins out, this semifinal featured the top two surviving teams in the #1 seed 1940 Tigers and the #3 seeded 1993 Orioles, with both teams having survived close calls to reach this game.  The Tigers would start Tommy Bridges (12-9, 3.37) while the Orioles would counter with Jamie Moyer (12-9, 3.43), a 30 year old who was completing a comeback that would last another 17 years.  The Orioles stake a claim in the bottom of the 1st on a 2-run moonshot by Hall of Famer Harold Baines, but the Tigers claw back in the 3rd when an error by 3B-3 Mike Pagliarulo opens the door for RBI hits from Barney McCoskey and Charlie Gehringer, and then a sac fly by Rudy York puts Detroit ahead.  As is traditional in semifinal games, the O’s immediately retaliate in the bottom of the inning, as a Baines RBI single, a run scoring double from former goat Pagliarulo, and a sac fly by Ripken restores Baltimore’s two run lead.  However, in the top of the 5th McCosky triples into the corner and then SS-2 Ripken throws a Gehringer grounder into right field, and Gehringer scores when York singles just out of reach of 2B-2 Harold Reynolds and it’s a tie game once again.  Chris Hoiles misses Bridges HR split to lead off the bottom of the inning and ends up stranded at 3rd and so the game remains tied at the 5-inning mark.  When the Tigers get a couple of hits with two out in the 6th, the Orioles move to the pen for Jim Poole, but McCoskey rips an RBI single before he can record the third out and the Tigers move back into the lead.  That lasts two outs until PH Jack Voigt comes off the bench to rip a solo homer, his second pinch HR of the regional, and for the 4th time the game is again tied.  The O’s regain the lead in the 7th when Pagliarulo rips a single past the glove of Tigers SS-3 McCosky to score Chris Hoiles, and so in the 8th they turn it over once again to closer Gregg Olson, and he shuts down the heart of the Tigers order to preserve a 7-6 victory and a visit to the finals, although Olson is now burnt and not eligible to try for his third save of the regional.  And, the lone representative of the new 1940s Diamond Gems to make the tournament heads to the storage drawers.

Neither the 1966 Reds nor the 2007 Mariners were blessed with deep starting rotations, and although Cincinnati’s Jim O’Toole (5-7, 3.55) was decent and Seattle’s Miguel Batista (16-11, 4.29) was serviceable, both teams were wondering what to do if they were to move on to the finals.  Adrian Beltre would do his best to insure that it would be his team that had to worry about that, as he hits a solo homer in the bottom of the 1st for the second straight game to give Seattle an early edge.  It doesn’t last long, as Leo Cardenas rips a 2-run double in the top of the 2nd to put the Reds up, and in the 3rd the Reds begin the inning with three straight singles, the third a squib hit by Art Shamsky that scores another, although M’s 2B-3 Jose Lopez turns a nifty DP to prevent further damage.  Tony Perez finds and converts Batista’s HR 1-5 split for a solo shot in the 4th, and in the 5th Deron Johnson hits his second homer of the regional, this one with Rose aboard and it’s now 6-1 Reds.  However, in the bottom of the 5th the Reds usually reliable defense begins to falter, as a 2-base error by SS-2 Cardenas sets up an RBI single that gets past 3B-2 Tommy Helms, and the floodgates open with an RBI single from Ichiro and a 2-run single from Beltre; another error by RF-3 Tommy Harper then sets up a 3-run homer from Kenji Johjima and don’t look now but the Mariners suddenly lead 8-6.  A squib single by Cardenas to lead off the 6th and Seattle decides to use their much deeper bullpen to their advantage, yanking Batista for George Sherrill; he comes in to face PH Lee May, who misses a HR 1-14 split but scores Cardenas on the resulting triple, and May scores on a single by Helms and it’s a tie game.  Disaster then strikes the Mariners when Beltre leads off the bottom of the 7th by getting injured for 7 games, but the M’s avenge their fallen comrade with a single, a walk, and an error by Helms that loads the bases with two outs for Ben Broussard, who sets Safeco rocking with a grand slam and O’Toole doesn’t have much of a St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate as he’s finally yanked after allowing 12 runs.  Armed with a four run lead, the Mariners try their own luck with the Irish, summoning Eric O’Flaherty from the pen.  He makes things interesting as Rose misses a HR 1-16 in the 9th, scoring on a Johnson double, but that’s it for the Reds as the Mariners hang on with a 12-9 win to head to the finals in pursuit of only their second regional win–but without their best hitter for the foreseeable future.

The regional final between the #3 seeded 1993 Orioles and the #4 seed 2007 Mariners also turned out to be the Zoom game of the week, with M’s fan Stratfan manning the helm for Seattle and anti-Mariner zealot nacster taking charge of the Orioles.  However, the nacster did not seem enthusiastic about the O’s lineup, benching Harold Baines while impugning his Hall of Fame credentials, and relegating Cal Ripken to the number nine slot in lineup.  The starters for both teams, Baltimore’s Mike Mussina (14-6, 4.46) and M’s Jarrod Washburn (10-15, 4.32) had rather hittable cards, but the ice is broken by a solo homer in the bottom of the 2nd on batter Kenji Johjima’s card to put Seattle up 1-0.  The Mariners were playing without their injured slugger Adrian Beltre, but his replacement Willie Bloomquist belts a solo shot in the 5th to make it 2-0, and Washburn is making full use of his dominating 5 column to baffle the Orioles.  As the game heads into the late innings, nac is orchestrating his trademark flurry of bench-clearing but nothing is taking hold; finally in the top of the 8th Ripken records a single for Baltimore and Stratfan heads to the bullpen for the killer card of JJ Putz to shut down any threat.  Nac finally gives in and points to Baines sitting at the far end of the bench, and Harold steps up to the plate and lofts a blow into the Safeco seats to make it a tie game.  David Segui then almost goes back to back, missing a HR 1-6 split and getting stranded at third, and the game is tied heading into the 9th.  Putz puts down the O’s in order in the top of the inning, so it’s up to Mussina and with closer Gregg Olsen burned, nac sticks with his ace to face the M’s 3-4-5 hitters.  Mussina retires Raul Ibanez to bring up Jose Guillen, one of three Jose’s in the Seattle starting lineup; this one rolls Mussina’s 6-5, HR 1-18 result and converts the easy split, and it’s game and regional over with the walkoff blast that gives the Mariners only their second regional win. Mussina allows only 5 hits, but three of them are solo homers that comprise the entire Seattle offense.

Interesting card of Regional #182:  Given that this was only the second regional win for the Mariners franchise, I thought it fitting to feature a card that was central to their success, both as a leadoff threat as well as a defensive standout in CF.  I have to admit that I tended to undervalue Ichiro while he was playing, as I tend to favor lead-footed outfielders who homer and strike out at prodigious rates, but his career really is remarkable.  He was the first position player from the Japanese major leagues to play in US MLB in 2001, and few felt that his skills would translate from a nine-year career in Japan which included seven consecutive batting titles. However, he didn’t miss a beat, rattling off 10 straight 200-hit seasons in the US as well as 10 consecutive Gold Glove awards. He ended up with over 3,000 hits in MLB, despite spending nearly a decade of his career in Japan–his total number of hits in his entire 28 year career in professional baseball exceeds Pete Rose’s record by more than a hundred.  Leading the Mariners to the win in this regional was fitting because Ichiro was specifically recruited by the Mariners and spent most of the best years of his career there; at the end of his career, he returned to the team and started his last two games in a season-opening series against the A’s played, fittingly, in Japan’s Tokyo Dome.  Playing back where his career began, at age 45 Ichiro became the second oldest player to appear in the starting lineup on Opening Day, leaving the trivia question:  who was the oldest?  (no Googling!)

REGIONAL #181:  This group had a couple of twofers in the Phillies and the Royals, with each having an entry that came a couple of years after successful pennant runs by those teams.  There was also a Mets team that would capture a flag in a few seasons, and representatives from the Rangers, Reds, and Angels that I guessed weren’t terrible but weren’t contenders, either.  I picked the 2013 version of the Phils to take it all, as their squads from that vintage have been killer in this tournament (regional wins from 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014), perhaps the most successful run for any franchise here; I picked them over the Mets in the finals.  The ELO rankings apparently weren’t impressed by the Phils run in my tournament, giving them a chance in the lower half of the bracket only because all four teams were mediocre, but picking the Mets over the Reds for the regional banner.

First round action

The 88-win 1998 Mets were the top seed in the bracket and the only decent entry according to the ELO ranks; they had a solid lineup with big years from Mike Piazza and John Olerud, and Al Leiter (17-6, 2.47) was 6th in the Cy Young voting as the anchor of the rotation.  Although the seeding draws in my tournament are random, in this bracket it worked out in the traditional manner that the top seeded Mets would face the bottom seeded 2019 Royals, who lost 103 games but managed not to finish last in their division, probably thanks solely to AL home run leader Jorge Soler; Brad Keller (7-14, 4.19) was their best option on the mound.  The Mets waste little time in demonstrating their superiority, batting around in the top of the 1st with a 2-run homer from Piazza and a triple from Olerud leading an onslaught that provides a 6-0 cushion before Leiter can throw a pitch.  Edgardo Alfonzo then leads off the 5th with a homer that triggers another onslaught, including a Rey Ordonez triple, and the Mets push out to a 10-0 lead.  However, the Royals come alive in the bottom of the inning and respond with four runs of their own as Leiter loads up the bases with nobody out and a couple of walks and an Adalberto Mondesi single narrow the gap to 10-4.  With the offense showing signs of life, the Royals figure that they may as well move to their closer to begin the 6th, but Ian Kennedy is greeted rudely and a Butch Huskey homer makes it twelve runs for the Mets.  From there Kennedy is flawless, but so is Leiter and the Mets coast to a 12-4 win and a trip to the semifinals.

The 1995 Rangers went 74-70 in that strike-shortened season, which was good enough to earn the #2 seed in this regional of mediocrities; they had some bashers in Juan Gone, Mickey Tettleton and Dean Palmer, while starting Kenny Rogers (17-7, 3.38) wasn’t much of a gamble.  The 2000 Phillies lost 97 games, and aside from notorious Strat-player Doug Glanville their main weapons were Scott Rolen and Bobby Abreu, with swingman Bruce Chen (7-4, 3.29) the best option among a bad rotation.  Chen gets off to a dubious start in the bottom of the 1st, allowing a leadoff homer to Otis Nixon (0 HR in 589 AB) and then Mark McLemore goes back to back with the same roll on Chen’s card (and I use a dice tower, folks).  The Phils put up a run in the 4th as Mike Lieberthal singles in Rolen, but Ron Gant is knocked out of the game with an injury and Glanville grounds into a double play to kill the rally.  Not to be outdone, Pudge Rodriguez also hits Chen’s 4-5 for a third homer, a 2-run shot and the Rangers lead 4-1.  Mickey Morandini leads off the top of the 5th by getting injured for 7 games, and the Phils can do little against Rogers until the top of the 9th, when Pat Burrell scores on a Rogers wild pitch.  But young Jimmy Rollins comes up to pinch hit and Rogers retires him for the final out, with the Rangers advancing with the 4-2 victory.  Chen finishes allowing only six hits, but three of them were homers off his card.

With one Phils team already eliminated, it was now up to the 2013 Phillies to carry the banner, and also they could complete a trifecta as they had two previous regional winners from 2012 and 2014.  However, this version lost 89 games and had an elderly core of the lineup, although 34-year old Cliff Lee (14-8, 2.87) was still effective enough to finish 6th in the Cy Young voting in his next to last season.  He would face a lineup from the 80-82 2006 Reds that boasted seven guys with double digit HRs, paced by Adam Dunn’s 40, and Bronson Arroyo (14-11, 3.29) actually got one vote for MVP.  But Ryan Howard leads off the bottom of the 2nd with a long blast, and Darin Ruf then goes back to back signaling a Ruf night for Arroyo.  The next batter realizes the worst fears of Reds 1B-3 Scott Hatteberg by hitting a grounder to him, which he drops and Jimmy Rollins drives him in with a 2-out double to make it 3-0 Phils after two.  In the top of the 3rd, the Reds strike back with doubles from Edwin Encarnacion and Royce Clayton to put Cincinnati on the board; Hatteberg then misses a HR 1-14 split but the resulting double makes it a one-run game.  In the 4th, Ken Griffey Jr. also misses Lee’s HR 1-14 split and Rich Aurelia (1-12) is nailed trying to score so the Phils hang on, but Encarnacion begins the 5th by finally converting that 1-14 split and it’s a tie game and the Phils are itching to get Lee out of there.  Thus, Jake Diekman is brought in to begin the 6th, as his 5-5 roll is a strikeout, and he does his job, becoming the pitcher of record when Howard hits his second solo homer in the bottom of the inning.  In the 7th, Reds LF-4 Dunn boots a 2-base error and the Reds eye their bullpen but recoil in horror; Arroyo then gives up a double off his card to Carlos Ruiz and their hole becomes deeper.  The Phils call on Antonio Bastardo in the 8th to close things out, and he does so, preserving the 5-3 win for the Phils who win despite only recording five hits–three of them solo homers.  

The 1976 Angels went 76-86, with a dreadful offense that had a fading Bobby Bonds lead the team in homers with 10; however, Frank Tanana (19-10, 2.43) was 3rd in the Cy Young votes to earn the round one start over teammate Nolan Ryan.  The Angels drew a closely ELO matched first round opponent in the 1997 Royals, who lost 94 games but courtesy of the steroid era had four guys with over 20 homers and had a capable Kevin Appier (9-13, 3.40) on the mound.  Tanana has a rough second inning as Yamil Benitez knocks an RBI double, and then Tanana drops a Mike MacFarlane grounder to score a second run; he recovers to record two outs but then Jose Offerman lines a sharp single to score Benitez and the meager Angels lineup now has to overcome a 3-0 deficit.  The hole gets deeper when Dean Palmer puts a two-out pitch into the fountains for a solo shot in the 3rd, and then in the 4th Tanana walks the first two batters with Offerman then finding Tanana’s solid 4-4 homer, and Frank’s day is done; Gary Ross comes in to rack up three straight outs, one of them on a 4-4.  However, in the 5th Benitez finds and converts Ross’s HR 1-7 split for a solo shot and in the 6th the Royals go into wholesale defensive substitution mode.  In the 7th Palmer launches his second homer of the game, a 2-run shot that puts the Royals in double digits.  The Angels can do nothing against Appier who takes a one-hitter into the 9th; California does then knock out consecutive singles but Appier strands them for a 3-hit shutout and the Royals move on with a 10-0 laugher. 

The survivors

When it came to starting pitching for the semifinal between the top two seeds in the regional, the 1998 Mets drew a blank–a blank space where the name Rick Reed (16-11, 3.48) would have appeared if he’d been represented by the MLBPA.  Nameless or not, he still had a better card than that of the 1995 Rangers Roger Pavlik (10-10, 4.37).  Pavlik starts out wild but escapes jams until the 3rd inning, when Brian McRae hits an RBI double and John Olerud adds a 2-out 2-run single to provide the Mets with a lead.  They get another run in the 4th set up by Texas CF-2 Otis Nixon misplaying a single by Jermaine Allensworth, and although Olerud knocks a solo HR in the 5th, the Mets lose their own CF McRae for a 5 game injury that dampens the celebration.   In the 7th the Mets look on in horror as Mike Piazza is injured, but the split roll is a 1 and he stays in the game to the relief of his teammates.  They ponder pulling Piazza for a defensive replacement in the bottom of the inning, but Reed suddenly falls apart, loading the bases with nobody out for Pudge Rodriguez and then giving up a solid homer on Reed’s card, and it’s a one run game and Turk Wendell is summoned from the pen.  Pavlik holds serve but allows a walk and a hit in the top of the 9th, and the Rangers turn to Ed Vosberg to try to keep it close.  Vosberg whiffs Tony Phillips, but injury replacement and .190 hitter Rick Becker finds and converts Vosberg’s HR 1-7/flyB for a three run blast, and the Mets now pinch hit for Piazza just to be safe.  Armed with a four run lead, the Mets save Wendell and bring in their rather terrible closer, John Franco, to close things out in the bottom of the 9th and that doesn’t go well–two hits and a walk load the bases with nobody out, and after getting a strikeout Otis Nixon nails a 2-run single and promptly steals second to put the tying run in scoring position.  The Mets have witnessed enough of Franco and try Dennis Cook, who gets Mark McLemore to ground out and it’s all up to Dean Palmer.  Cook delivers, it’s a 1-9, solid HR on Palmer and it’s an amazing come from behind 9-8 win for the Rangers on the walkoff 3-run shot.  Although Cook gets the official loss, Franco deserves recognition for his 109.09 ERA in his brief appearance. 

The second semifinal was the Zoom game of the week as Philly Phan TT took charge of the 2013 Phillies in an effort to push them to a regional win; with no natural advocate on the Zoom call, the 1997 Royals would be managed by the Nacster simply because he was replaying the ‘97 season.  However, he soon discovered that he had forgotten how bad their pitching staff was, and there was much trepidation in sending out Jose Rosado (9-12, 4.69) to face the better-looking card of Cole Hamels (8-14, 3.60).   The Royals do jump to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st without recording a hit, courtesy of a two-base error by Phils SS-2 Jimmy Rollins, but the worries about Rosado appear merited when the Phils respond with back to back homers in the top of the 2nd by Ryan Howard and Darin Ruf, the latter on a converted HR 1/flyB split.  Another 2-base error by Rollins in the 6th sets up an RBI single by Jay Bell that ties the game, only the second hit of the game for the Royals, but Domonic Brown puts the Phils back on top in the 7th with the third solo homer for the Phils.  Meanwhile, Nacster is impugning Jeff King’s desire to play baseball, but it’s no wonder King is unenthusiastic as he rips two doubles but the “B” stealer King is thrown out both times trying to steal third on Carlos Ruiz.  Down by a run in the bottom of the 7th, Nacster empties the bench in search of the right combination and he comes up with it in the form of PH Jed Hansen, who rolls a 1-2 SI** that drives in the tying run, but by the end of the inning official scorer Fgabs is pulling for anybody that can prevent the game from going to extra innings as there is no blank space left on the scoresheet, particularly on the Royals side.  Rosado seems to get the gopher balls out of his system in the late innings, and it comes down to the bottom of the 9th, with TT eyeing Jonathan Papelbon but electing to stay with Hamels.  Cole gets one out but PH Jon Nunnally singles; Papelbon is ready but Hamels insists on pitching to Jose Offerman, and Offerman promptly drives a double into the gap off Hamels’ card.  The 1-14 Nunnally rounds third, Nacster is wildly motioning him home, and he’s safe–the Royals head to the finals with the 4-3 walkoff win.  Rosado records the complete game win with a 5-hitter--three of them solo homers; that pattern of 5 hits, 3 solo homers exactly duplicates the Phils' offense in their round one win, but this time it wasn't good enough.

It was the #2 seed 1995 Rangers against the #6 seeded 1997 Royals in a regional final between two near-contemporaries, and both teams shared the problem that their number three starters were pretty terrible.  For the Rangers, it would be Bob Tewksbury (8-7, 4.58) against Jim Pittsley (5-8, 5.46) for KC, an alarming option but one chosen by Nacster, whose unconventional approach to managing the Royals got them to the finals, so who I am to argue?  The Royals tweak Tewk in the bottom of the 1st, with a remarkable four SOLID doubles off Tewksbury’s card (Damon, Davis, Palmer and Benitez) for a 3-0 lead.  Jermaine Dye adds a solo homer in the 2nd, but the Rangers get that run back in the 3rd as Juan Gonzalez doubles in Mark McLemore on a missed HR split to make it 4-1.  In the 4th, Jay Bell rips a 2-run single through a drawn in infield and Tewksbury is gone for Roger McDowell, who settles things down.  Meanwhile, Pittsley is in fine form but in the 8th the Rangers mount a 2-out rally and load the bases for Mickey Tettleton, so the Royals bring in Randy Veres as their only decent bullpen option, who records the out with no damage.  Veres then shuts down the Rangers in order in the 9th and the Royals close out the 6-1 win to notch their 7th regional win, and their first for a squad from the 90s.  The Royals take the banner despite having one of the poorer pitching staffs for a regional winner in recent memory, but the combination of a lineup with multiple weapons and some atypically strong pitching performances was enough to push them into the winner’s circle.

Interesting card of Regional #181:  The Mendoza Line was established to designate just how bad a hitter that a good-fielding shortstop could be and still keep a full-time job; I wonder what the comparable threshold would be to indicate just how bad a fielder that a good-hitting catcher could be and remain a regular.   Whatever the line, it’s pretty obvious that Mike Piazza was well over the threshold.  I remember when he first came up, he had cards unlike any catcher we’d ever seen before, setting the MLB record for most home runs by a rookie catcher (35) in 1993 and winning Rookie of the Year despite some misgivings about his fielding.  This 1998 season was rather disruptive for him, as he was traded from the Dodgers to the Marlins to the Mets over the course of the season, and for the first time in his then six-year career he didn’t finish in the top 10 in the MVP voting with this card, coming in 14th despite posting some pretty decent numbers (but a +2 arm).  Piazza never got a break in his defensive ratings from Strat, although some have argued that he was greatly underrated in that department:  he was supposedly among the best in keeping the ball in front of him, one of the best pitch framers of all time, and SABR points out that he was the regular catcher for 11 pitching staffs over his career, with all but one of those staffs finishing in the top five in earned run average.

REGIONAL #180:  I didn’t recognize any pennant winners in this group, but in the prior season the 1920 Reds had won the Series under questionable circumstances, although as a remnant of the deadball era they would have their work cut out for them in trying to outscore more modern offenses.There were two different Blue Jays squads, and Toronto teams had recently put together some nice runs in the tournament so they couldn’t be counted out.   One noteworthy selection that popped out of my randomizer program was the 2022 White Sox, who were still in transit from Glen Head when they were chosen; as for the team, it was generally viewed as a disappointment but could still be a dark horse.  There were also Rockies and Brewers teams that probably had more bats than arms, and a Cards team that might have some remnants of their great teams of the 80s.  Other than the A’s, without doing further research I couldn’t really rule out anybody except maybe the A’s, and so I quasi-randomly picked the Cards over the ‘83 Jays in the finals.  Upon looking up the ELO rankings they indicated that the Reds could take the regional even without gambler interference, and like me saw the ‘83 Jays as runner-up.

First round action

I was surprised to discover that the 1948 A’s were the number #3 seed in this bracket, going 84-70; they had little power and their pitching wasn’t much to write home about, but they did have a knack for getting on base, so they could hopefully put up some runs to support Dick Fowler (15-8, 3.78).  They faced the first (and poorer) of two Toronto teams in the regional, the 76-86 2017 Blue Jays, who weren’t that good at getting on base but had good up-the-middle defense and some power from Josh Donaldson and Justin Smoak, with Marcus Strohman (13-9, 3.09) getting the round one start.  True to form, the A’s begin the bottom of the 1st with three straight hits, two of them doubles, and they jump to a quick 2-0 lead.  Eddie Joost leads off the 4th to extend the A’s lead; in the 5th Ezequiel Carrera misses Fowler’s HR split and it looks like Fowler will escape the inning, but Smoak delivers a two-out two-run double that pulls the Rockies within one.  The A’s cause is not helped when leadoff man Elmer Valo is knocked out of the game with an injury in the bottom of the 5th, but in the 6th Rockies replacement RF-3 Teoscar Hernandez misplays an Eddie Joost single, and a squib hit by Barney McCoskey chases Strohman for reliever Ryan Tepera who wiggles out of the jam with no damage.  Sensing the tide turning, the Jays begin a 2-out rally in the 7th with a walk and three straight singles to tie the game; with the bases now loaded, the A’s look at their pen and see no hope there, so leave Fowler in to face low-AB wonder Hernandez and his .602 SLG%.  And you could see it coming from a mile away; 1-6, HR 1-11, a split of 10 and it’s a grand slam for Hernandez and an instant sizable lead for the Jays.  With a lead and a deep pen, the Jays preserve Tepara and bring in Danny Barnes to begin the 8th, and he delivers two hitless innings as the Jays lock down a trip to the semis with a 7-3 win.  

The 1920 Reds were 82-71 after “defeating” the Black Sox in the Series the year before, and they were ELO favorites for the regional but I couldn’t see it–although elsewhere the Babe was changing the game, it hadn’t reached the Reds as their leading HR hitting had the grand total of 4, and their pitching staff led by Dolf Luque (13-9, 2.51) was decent but hardly overwhelming.  They faced the 1991 Cardinals, the team I had blindly picked to win the bracket, but setting their lineup made me wonder if I had mistakenly pulled out the 1911 Cardinals, as they had no power (Todd Zeile with 11 HR tops on the team), but plenty of speed and defense to support spot starter Jose Deleon (5-9, 2.71).  With two bad offenses, the game is locked in a scoreless tie through five innings, but in the top of the 6th Zeile leads off with a single, advances to second on a groundout by Pedro Guerrero, and then scores when P-3 Luque fields a grounder and throws it into the dugout for a 2-base error.  In the 8th, Zeile leads off by missing his HR split for a double, and then Luque drops another grounder to put men on 1st and 3rd; Tom Pagnozzi responds with a sharp single to score Zeile and Luque unravels, with Ray Lankford and Ozzie Smith knocking in runs before he can get out number three.  A Guererro RBI triple in the top of the 9th adds more insurance, which looks necessary when 3B-3  Zeile makes an error in the bottom of the 9th and the Reds rattle off a series of squib hits that include RBI singles from Greasy Neale and Larry Kopf, and suddenly it’s bases loaded with two out and pinch hitter Charlie See representing the winning run at home plate.  Lee Smith is warmed up in the pen, but the Cards decide to let Deleon try to get the final out; See doubles to score two, and the tying run is now 90 feet away and the winning run is on 2nd, so it’s time for Smith.  Lee comes in, blows three fastballs past Pat Duncan, and the Cards hang on to a 5-4 win as the Reds’ comeback falls just short.

The Zoom game of the week saw genuine Canadian Eaglesfly Roy reprise his service as manager of the Blue Jay, which had led to a regional win for them in the previous bracket.  This time it would be the 1983 Blue Jays, a solid 89-win team that once again would have Dave Stieb (17-12, 3.04) on the mound in the first round.  Roy would face Fgabs managing the 89-loss 2002 Rockies, with Fgabs having no dog in this fight but sporting an attachment to Larry Walker; for the Rockies, Denny Stark (11-4, 4.00) appeared to be the best option although most fans would have preferred his brother Tony to get the start.  Things start off a bit rough for the Jays in the bottom of the 1st when Walker hits a double and then SS-2 Alfredo Griffin throws a Todd Helton grounder into the dugout to score Walker.  The Jays quickly respond in the top of the 2nd when Cliff Johnson launches a solo shot into the thin air at Coors, but the Rockies’ unheralded catcher Gary Bennett bounces a Stieb curveball off the top of the wall to push Colorado back into a 2-1 lead.  However, once again the Jays waste no time retaliating, knocking five hits in the top of the 3rd that include 2-run homers from Damaso Garcia and Johnson, his second of the game, and from there Stieb gets serious, allowing only three more hits in the game.  Garcia knocks in his 3rd RBI of the game in the top of the 9th against Rockies closer Jose Jimenez to provide unneeded insurance, as Stieb closes out the 5-hitter and the Jays move on with a 6-2 win.

The 2022 White Sox arrived just in time for their entry into the tournament as an underperforming 81-81 team that drove manager Tony Larussa into permanent retirement, but I had little attachment to this squad which might help them with my enduring Sox jinx.  Their lineup couldn’t get on base well or play much defense, although Dylan Cease (14-8, 2.20) was the Cy Young runner-up with a formidable card that should keep the Sox in any game.  I found that my guess of good bats/no arms was pretty accurate about the 80-82 2009 Brewers, with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder providing plenty of pop but after a solid Yovani Gallardo (13-12, 3.73), the rotation would involve killing time waiting for Trevor Hoffman out of the pen.  It’s a rough start for Cease as Sox RF-4 Gavin Sheets lets a bases loaded single drop in front of him to score two runs, and another comes in when C-4 Yasmani Grandal drops a popup and it’s quickly 3-0 Milwaukee.  The Brewers show some defensive lapses of their own in the 3rd, when 2B-3 Felipe Lopez drops a grounder and then LF-4 Braun turns a Luis Robert flyball into a triple.  Robert scores when Brewer 3B-5 Casey McGehee waves at a Jose Abreu grounder as it goes by him, and Abreu himself comes home when Sheets misses a HR 1-16 split but ties the game with his double.  The Sox then push into the lead on a solo homer from Eloy Jimenez in the bottom of the 5th, and so when the 6th comes they immediately begin to try to upgrade their terrible defense.  However, there is no defense against the blast that Prince Fielder unleashes to begin the 7th and the game is tied, and in the 8th Cease ceases to throw strikes, loading the bases for a 2-out single by McGehee that scores two for a Milwaukee lead.  In the 9th, Sox second string catcher Seby Zavala misses Gallardo’s HR 1-16, the second time the Sox have done so, but he scores when Robert also doubles off Gallardo’s card, and the Brewers, wanting to preserve Hoffman, summon Claudio Vargas and his 1.74 ERA to try to record the final out and save the game.  He delivers to Jimenez, it’s a 2-5 roll, HR 1-18, and the split die is a “1” and the Sox walk it off with two out in the bottom of the 9th for the 7-6 win in which there were four lead changes.  

The survivors

The first semifinal would be another test of Toronto magic, as the franchise had gone 13-1 since Regional #169 in a stretch that included three bracket wins, and the 2017 Blue Jays were one of two Jays squads to make the semifinals here.  This version would send JA Happ (10-11, 3.53)  against the 1991 Cardinals, who had survived round one by the skin of their teeth and were counting on Ken Hill (11-10, 3.57) to allow Lee Smith to rest up.  Ozzie Smith manufactures a run in the bottom of the 3rd with a single, a stolen base, and a dash home on a single from Felix Jose, and that lead holds up until the 6th when Justin Smoak finds and converts Hill’s HR result for a solo shot that ties the game.  Ray Lankford responds in the bottom of the inning with a 2-out RBI triple, and then he scores on a passed ball by C-2 Russell Martin and the Cards move out to a two run lead.  Martin is then injured to lead off the 7th, and when Ozzie leads off the bottom of the inning with a single and a steal, the Jays bring in Ryan Tepara, who strands Smith at third to keep the Jays in the game.  Toronto’s Ezequiel Carerra records a single in the 8th and the Cards start warming up Lee Smith, but decide to let Hill finish out the inning–but Josh Donaldson puts a crimp in that plan with a colossal 2-run blast that ties the game.  A walk to Smoak and that’s one Hill too far, and Smith comes in to get out number three.  In the top of the 9th, PH Teoscar Hernandez pokes a single that falls in front of RF-4 Felix Jose, and Ryan Goins follows that by missing a HR 1-4 split but Hernandez (1-14) scores on the resulting double and the Jays magic is in full flow.  Darwin Barney follows with a single and the Jays press their luck but Goins (1-12) is nailed trying to score, but the Jays take a one run lead into the bottom of the 9th with closer Roberto Osuna in to close things out.  Gerald Perry leads off with a single and he steals second, but the Jays turn on the magic machine and the Cards miss SI 1-15 and SI 1-10 and the game is over, with Toronto guaranteed at least one spot in the finals with the come from behind 4-3 win.  Tepara wins his second straight game in relief but is now burned for the regional final.  

In the second Zoom game of the regional, this semifinal matched Roy from Ontario as the mastermind behind the 1983 Blue Jays against me from Chicago, attempting to overcome my Sox jinx with the contemporary 2022 White Sox, who managed a come from behind walk off win in the first round.  Roy seemed nervous about starting Jim Clancy (15-11, 3.91) who looked pretty good to me, while for the Sox I had Michael Kopech (5-9, 3.54) who barely qualified to start as he battled injuries for much of the year.  Clancy did look worrisome in the bottom of the 1st, with three Sox hits setting up two sac flies from Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn and the South Siders jump out to a quick 2-0 lead.  That lasts until the top of the 3rd, when a hit and an error by absolutely useless Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal sets up a 3-run moonshot by Jesse Barfield and the Jays take the lead.  The Sox tie it back up in the bottom of the inning courtesy of a Vaughn RBI single, but from there the atrocious Chicago outfield defense kicks in with double after double getting past them.  Add in a 2-run homer by Damaso Garcia in the 5th and Barfield’s second homer of the game in the 6th, and from there the Jays coast while Clancy asserts control to finish out a 9-3 win that propels the Jays to an all-Toronto final.  This assures the Jays of their second straight regional win, but they will also lose for the first time since the finals of Regional #169 with the franchise having won 13 games in a row since then.  

In the all-Toronto final, it was the #2 seeded 1983 Blue Jays against the #6 seed 2017 Blue Jays, with the underdog 2017s also having an injured catcher and a taxed bullpen that might be needed to support the less than stellar Joe Biagini (3-13, 5.34).  After extensive consultation with the Zoom committee, the 1983s would go with Luis Leal (13-12, 4.31) to the consternation of the mastermind who had guided the team to the finals.  And Roy looks prescient as Leal allows a 2-run triple off his card to Justin Smoak in the top of the 1st, and Smoak scores when a Leal pitch gets past Ernie Whitt and the favored 83s find themselves down three before they can bat.  A sac fly by Jose Bautista stretches the lead to 4-0 in the 3rd, and the 83s suffer more misfortune when Lloyd Moseby goes down with a serious injury in the 4th.  They finally manufacture a run in the 5th when Dave Collins walks, steals second and scores on a single from Jesse Barfield; Ernie Whitt then doubles in a run and suddenly the 83s have the tying run on 2nd with two away, but Biagini manages to retire injury replacement Barry Bonnell and it’s a 4-2 game after five. In the 7th, Josh Donaldson records the first hit off Leal in four innings, but unfortunately for the 83s it lands in the stands for a solo shot; however, Damaso Garcia responds by leading off the bottom of the inning with a homer off Biagini’s split and after a Cliff Johnson walk, the 2017s turn to their bullpen as they have throughout the regional, bringing in the stingy Dominic Leone.  But Leone walks Barfield and after a groundout, Whitt delivers a 2-run double and the game is tied heading into the 8th.  The 83’s 1B-2 Willie Upshaw kills an attempt at a rally by the 2017s in the top of the 9th with a nifty DP, and Leone survives dropping a grounder by Barfield in the bottom of the inning and fittingly, the game heads to extra frames.  Leal is in his last inning of eligibility in the 10th, but he can’t finish it as he gets injured for the second out and has to leave the game, so Jim Acker has to come in to pitch to supersub Teoscar Hernandez and gets him out.  In the 11th, Leone is toast and the 2017s summon their closer Roberto Osuna, who sets the heart of the 83 order down in order to head to the 12th.  Kevin Pillar leads off the top of the inning missing a HR 1-8 split with a 9, but he’s on 2nd with a double and Donaldson rips a single off Acker’s card that scores Pillar.  Another hard single by Smoak and the 83s turn in desperation to Roy Lee Jackson with nobody out and runners on 1st and 3rd; they bring the infield in for injury replacement catcher Raffy Lopez, who rolls a GBA+++injury for an RBI single and a stint on the DL.  Steve Pearce then lofts a flyball that RF-2 Barfield plays into a 2-base error, Hernandez adds a sac fly and Darwin Barney throws in an RBI single and when the Smoak clears the 2017s are taking a four run lead into the bottom of the 12th.  Aaron Loup enters the game to preserve Osuna and he sets the 83s down in order and the 2017 Jays pull off the extra inning upset, working a 9-5 win that gives Toronto four regional wins in the last eight brackets.   This version of the Jays certainly played better here than their 86 losses in real life, with an all “2” infield, a 1 in CF, big bats in Donaldson and Smoak, a supersub in Hernandez and a deep pen that recorded the decision in all three regional games.  

Interesting card of Regional #180:  The 2017 Jays won the regional with three late-inning comebacks, and although their strong bullpen deserves much of the credit, it did help that under tournament rules this guy was available for duty beginning in the 6th inning.  In 2017, the Astros sent a 24 year old Hernandez to Toronto in a midseason trade for a struggling Francisco Liriano, and while Liriano did little for Houston, Hernandez had a strong showing in the late season service represented by this card.  Although small sample cards like this are typically not representative, this one suggested that Hernandez was a guy with good power who would strike out a lot, and that’s pretty much what he’s turned out to be.  Although he got MVP votes for the Jays in 2020 and 2021, they recently sent him off to the Mariners in another deal for a couple of players; I wonder if this one will work out as well for the Jays as the one that brought him to Toronto.

REGIONAL #179:  This group included a number of teams that I suspected would be decent, but I didn’t see a clear favorite rising above the competition, which for a change was largely made up of 20th century squads.  There was a ‘63 Cardinals team that would win the Series the following season, a Blue Jays team a few years before their mini-dynasty in the early 90s, a mid-70s Pirates team that was better a few years before and after this version, two teams in the Phillies and the Cubs that were couple of seasons past infamous collapses, and a relatively recent Yankees team that I suspected was expected to do more than they did.  It was not too long ago that I witnessed an early 90s Jays team win their regional, so I guessed that the 1990 version entered here would squeak by the Cards in the finals.  The ELO ratings concurred that this was a pretty solid group of teams, with the expansion Senators as the only bad one in the bunch; those ratings tapped the ‘76 Pirates with a slight edge over the Jays to win the regional banner.  

First round action

On the day after he passed, it seemed fitting that Tim McCarver would get a chance to lead his NL runner-up, 93-win 1963 Cardinals in pursuit of a win against the bracket’s top seed, the 1976 Pirates.  The Cards also had an old Stan Musial and a young Bob Gibson, but they would give the starting nod to Curt Simmons (15-9, 2.47) to be McCarver’s battery mate.  The Pirates won 92 games and were runner-up in the NL East, and they were celebrating Strat’s Opening Day on which their season was being re-released in updated form, although true to my tournament these Pirates were the original issue from the 70s.  They tapped John Candelaria (16-7, 3.15) for the start and were counting on Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, and Richie Zisk for some fireworks.  But it’s Al Oliver who provides the spark in the bottom of the 1st with a solo HR for a quick Pirates lead, but the next batter, Parker, goes down to injury and must leave the game although early reports suggest he could return for the regional final should the Pirates survive that long.  The Candyman keeps a shutout going through six innings, but when the Cards lead off the 7th with a single and a walk, the Pirates can’t risk Candelaria’s longball results and summon Kent Tekulve from the pen to try to preserve the shutout.  Tekulve gets one out, but then PH Mike Shannon finds a single on Tekulve’s card and the game is tied–briefly, as Bill Robinson leads off the bottom of the inning with a homer that wraps around the foul pole.  That is only the third hit allowed by Simmons, but he is rattled and then allows three straight hits, including an RBI poke from Rennie Stennett, and the Cards have to bring in veteran Bobby Shantz to end the inning with the Pirates now leading 3-1.  In the 8th, Parker’s replacement Omar Moreno gets on base, steals second on the late McCarver, and races home on a Zisk single to extend the Pittsburgh lead.  With the insurance run, the Pirates decide to preserve Tekulve and bring in Dave Giusti to close things out, and he tosses a flawless 9th and the Pirates head to the semifinals with the 4-1, but without the services of Parker.

In the first game of a Zoom doubleheader, Philly Phan TT took the reigns of the 87-win 1966 Phillies, who boasted Richie Allen (retrospectively Dick on his re-issued Strat Card) as the league OPS leader and 4th in the MVP votes, while sending out Jim Bunning (19-14, 2.41) on the mound.  Although he had no bone in the fight, StratFan Rick agreed to roll the bones for the 2011 Diamondbacks, who won 94 games and the NL West, and got a monster year out of Ian Kennedy (21-4, 2.88) who was 4th place for the Cy Young Award.  Both starters are sharp to begin the game and things remain in a scoreless tie through five innings, but Bill White drives in a run in the top of the 6th to push the Phils into a slender lead.  That lead doesn’t last long, as Arizona’s own 4th place MVP finisher, Justin Upton, singles in a run to tie things in the 7th and with the scoring drought, the official scorer is getting concerned about an extra inning marathon that would overwhelm his 12-inning scorecard.  There is no need to worry, as Allen takes control in the 8th with a tape measure 2-run homer that shatters Kennedy’s confidence, and even slap hitters like Cookie Rojas and defensive replacement Bobby Wine start teeing off on him until Rick calls for JJ Putz to finally end the inning after the Phils take a 5-1 lead.   However, Allen isn’t done, crushing another 2-run homer in the 9th and Bunning puts his political career on hold to toss a 6-hitter and the Phils march to a 7-1 victory and a trip to the semifinals.

The second game of the Zoom doubleheader saw an authentic Canadian, Eaglesfly Roy, manage the 86-win 1990 Blue Jays against an authentic Chicagoan, me, rolling for the 77-84 1973 Cubs; even though I’m a White Sox fan, I figured that I would reverse jinx the Cubs to a win since I usually want them to lose.  Roy looked to have the advantage with Dave Stieb (18-6, 2.93) who finished 5th in the Cy Young sweepstakes, while I countered with Bill Bonham (7-5, 3.02) for the Cubs, a swingman with a pretty nice card himself.  Unfortunately, Bonham’s card didn’t help much in the top of the 1st when George Bell blasted a 2-run homer off his own card for a quick lead, and then Kelly “Hans” Gruber goes Nakatomi for a back-to-back shot and the Jays have a 3-0 lead before Jack Brickhouse can figure out how to turn on the microphone.  The Cubs show some spark in response in the bottom of the 1st as Billy Williams rips a double that scores the fleet Jose Cardenal and after a walk Stieb is looking mortal.  However, Ron Santo then hits into his first of multiple double plays and the rally is killed–and so is the Cubs offense.  Stieb asserts control, as does Bonham, and after 8 scoreless innings the game ends as it began–the Jays win 3-1, Stieb allowing only 5 hits, Bonham allowing only four, but half of those ended up on Waveland Avenue and the Cubs head to the storage drawers while the Jays move on.

The 84-win 2016 Yankees featured guys who were either too old (ARod) or too young (AJudge) to be useful, so they were relying on a formidable card from DH/backup catcher Gary Sanchez and ideally a good start from Masahiro Tanaka (14-4, 3.07) who finished 7th for the Cy Young.  They didn’t seem to have much of a challenge in the 106-loss 1963 Senators, who couldn’t really field, get on base, or hit for power, and their best hope was for a dominating game from swingman Tom Cheney (8-9, 2.71).  The Senators use smallball to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd on an Ed Brinkman single, but in the 6th Starlin Castro singles in a run for the Yanks and then scores on a Brian McCann sac fly to put New York in front.  The Senators attempt to counter in the bottom of the inning is derailed when Chuck Hinton is caught stealing for the second time in the game, but when Jim King leads off the 7th with a double off Tanaka’s card, the Yanks move to their deep bullpen and Tommy Layne comes in to try to hold the lead.  He issues a walk but then gets two out, and the Senators trot out 39 year old pinch hitter Minnie Minoso, who shows he deserves his recent HOF induction with a single and King beats the throw home to tie the game.  Chaney gets the job done in the top of the 9th, so with the game on the line the Yanks bring out closer Aroldis Chapman for the bottom of the frame, and he blows through the Senators to send the game to extra innings.  Cheney is perfect in his final inning of eligibility, and Washington fares no better against Chapman in the 10th, so the Senators are forced to go to their closer, Ron Kline, to begin the 11th; he retires three straight, and the Yanks seek to preserve Chapman and summon Dellin Betances to pitch the bottom of the 11th, and he strikes out the side in impressive fashion.  In the 12th, Kline walks McCann and then Chase Headley singles him to 3rd and the Senators bring the infield in with one away; Texeria grounds out for two away, Headley heading to second, and then Aaron (not Judge) Hicks finds a single on Kline’s card, and both runners score to put the Yanks ahead.  Betances mows down the Nats in order to pick up the win and the Yanks head to the semifinals with the 4-2 win in which there were as many innings (12) as there were hits in total.  

The survivors

In an all-Pennsylvania semifinal it was the 1976 Pirates, minus an injured Dave Parker, against the 1966 Phillies and 20-game winner Chris Short (20-10, 3.54), who got some votes for MVP.  Pirates starter Bruce Kison (14-9, 3.08) was also plenty capable, and Pittsburgh was hoping he could go deep in the game after needing to use their bullpen in the first round.  Nobody gets a hit until the top of the 3rd, when the Pirates get three hits out of Short, with an RBI single from Parker’s replacement Omar Moreno and a sac fly from Bill Robinson leading to a 2-0 lead for the Bucs.  The Phils try to strike back in the bottom of the inning, but they hold John Briggs at 3rd on a Tony Gonzalez double not wanting to take the bat out of Dick Allen’s hands, although Allen fans and the Phils remain scoreless.   From there, Short is masterful, allowing only one more hit in the remaining six innings, but he nonetheless comes up Short as Kison is even better, finishing out a 3-hit shutout (two by Gonzalez, none by Allen who whiffs 3 times) and the Pirates sail to the finals where they will be rejoined by Parker in the decisive game.  

Both the 1990 Blue Jays and the 2016 Yankees had trouble mustering much offense in round one, only managing 10 hits between the two of them, but they each were hoping for more success against the number two starters, the Jays David Wells (11-6, 3.14) and the Yanks CC Sabathia (9-12, 3.91).  It stays scoreless until the bottom of the 4th, when Kelly Gruber leads off with a double and John Olerud singles him home to put the Jays on top 1-0.  Wells has the Yanks stymied until the 7th, when he starts to lose control; Tony Fernandez turns a clutch DP to help out, but then Wells allows a single and a walk and the Jays summon Duane Ward from the pen to try to get the final out, even though Wells has only allowed 3 hits.  Ward retires Chase Headley to preserve the slender lead, and then when Tony Fernandez leads off the 8th with a double it’s the Yanks turn to move to the pen, bringing in game one winner Dellin Betances and he succeeds in keeping it a one run game entering the 9th.  Ward records two quick outs, but to preserve his eligibility for the final the Jays must bring in Tom Henke (with a somewhat frightening HR result) to try to get the final out, and he gets Didi Gregorius to hit a lazy fly and the Jays head to the finals winning the 1-0 duel, with only 8 hits managed between the two teams.

For the second straight regional in a row, the finals matched the top two ELO seeds in the bracket, with the #1 seed 1976 Pirates against the #2 seeded 1990 Blue Jays for all the marbles.  Both teams had reached the finals by only allowing a total of one run in the first two rounds, while scoring little themselves, and so it would be up to Pittsburgh swingman Larry Demery (10-7, 3.17) and the Jays’ Todd Stottlemyre (13-17, 4.34) to try to continue the trend.  However, in the top of the 1st Dave Parker celebrates his return from injury with a solo blast off Stottlemyre’s card, and hits keep coming as Al Oliver contributes an RBI single although Bill Robinson (1-14) is cut down at the plate trying to score on a Richie Zisk base hit, so it’s 2-0 after half an inning.  In the 2nd, Parker comes up with two away and Richie Hebner on second, and he rips a base hit but once again the split die don’t cooperate and Hebner (1-14) is nailed at home to keep the Jays in the game.  They take advantage in the bottom of the inning as after two quick outs, Pat Borders bounces a triple past inept LF-4 Zisk, and Junior Felix follows by converting a HR split on Demery’s card and the game is tied.  There’s more bad news for the Pirates in the 3rd when Willie Stargell is knocked out of the game with an injury, and then the Jays pile on in the bottom of the inning as Kelly Gruber rolls Demery’s HR result with two men on; he misses the split but two runs score and the Jays take a 4-2 lead.  In the 6th, the injury bug hits the Jays as C Pat Borders is hurt, and in the 7th Parker’s third hit of the game is followed by an error from Jays 1b-3 McGriff, and Toronto turns to their already taxed bullpen and Duane Ward comes in and shuts down the Pirates.  For the second straight game Ward tosses two perfect innings, and once again the Jays nervously bring in Tom Henke to try to close things out in the 9th.  Henke allows a single to Frank Taveras, but then retires Parker for the 1st time of the game; however, 3b-2 Gruber then boots a grounder for the third Jays error of the game and the go ahead run comes to the plate with two away in the form of Richie Zisk.  It’s a grounder to 2b-3 Manny Lee, and he fields it cleanly, tosses to McGriff and the Jays wrap up the 4-2 win and their 7th regional title, with five of them coming from teams between 1984 and 1993.

Interesting card of Regional #179:  According to my Strat crony N/O, this is the card that forced the game company to incorporate the e-rating as part of fielding in the Advanced game.  As can be seen, Mr. Parker was the recipient of a RF-4 (a -2 arm, though) in his original 1976 card, which was Strat’s worst fielding rating at the time.  This was prior to the existence of the e-rating.  However, in 1977 Parker won the vote for the Gold Glove in RF, which presented the game company with a dilemma, because they traditionally (but not always) would assign a “1” rating to Gold Glovers:  they could either admit they made a mistake in his rating in 1976, or they could persist in their view of Parker as a lousy fielder in contrast to the voting of manager and coaches.  They went for a third option–inventing an “e-rating” that would separate fielding range from the propensity to make errors, and Parker thus became a RF-1 e16 (-5 arm, though!), their best range and their worst outfield e-rating available in the original 1977 cards.   Thus, Parker went from a 4 to a 1 in a single season in Basic, because when they were first introduced the Basic fielding rating was always the same as the ADV “range” rating, although they eventually allowed them to differ.  Since I like the original sets, I didn’t order the newly SADV-ed 1976 cards and I’m curious to know how they rated Parker in it–I’m guessing probably not a “4”.  Many know that Strat card creation (Basic only) is a hobby of mine, and when I run Parker through my algorithms, he is rated as a RF-3 for 1976 and a RF-2 for 1977–both of which I think are more accurate Basic ratings than what the game company originally provided.   I’m never quite sure how Strat arrives at their Basic fielding ratings, although a good rule of thumb is to improve any Yankees by a point or two.

REGIONAL #178:  There were two teams in this group that made me take notice, and unfortunately they would face off in the first round; it would be a pairing of two of the most formidable hitters in baseball history, Ted Williams against Barry Bonds.  Beyond those two teams, there was little that stood out to me; there was a late 50s Tigers team that might have been building towards their excellent squad from 1961, but I thought that most other entrants were mired in fairly bleak periods in franchise history.  I suspected that Bonds would have more support than Williams and thus picked the Giants over the ‘58 Tigers in the regional final.   The ELO ranks identified the Splinter’s Red Sox as the best team in the bracket, appreciably better than the #6 seeded Giants, and pegged them to win in the finals against a recent Rockies team that I had overlooked, probably because two Colorado teams were quickly eliminated in the first round in the last regional.  

First round action

The Zoom game of the week involved the marquee matchup between Ted Williams and the 1941 Red Sox against Barry Bonds and the 1997 Giants, with both teams being co-managed by participants, meaning that my typical jinx should have no bearing on the outcome.  The BoSox were 84-70 and runners-up in the AL, with Charlie Wagner (12-8, 3.08) on the hill, while the Giants went 90-72 and won the NL West before getting swept by the Marlins in the NLDS, and they would start Shawn Estes (19-5, 3.18) in his career year.  However, in the top of the first the Red Sox make Estes ponder a different career as they bat around, knocking 5 hits including a bases-loaded double by Lou Finney that makes the score 4-0 before the Giants can swing a bat.  Estes then settles down, and the Giants begin the task of chipping away at the lead, getting an unearned run in the 2nd courtesy of an error by Boston 3B-4 Jim Tabor, and another run in the 3rd when Bill Mueller singles home the intentionally walked Barry Bonds.  However, the biggest blow suffered by the Red Sox occurs when Ted Williams is injured in his second plate appearance, out for seven games to prove that I can jinx teams even when not managing them.  From there, the burden falls on Wagner and he rises to the challenge, shutting down the powerful SF offense and benefitting from a Joe Cronin solo homer in the 6th involving a converted HR 1-2/flyB off Estes’ card.  That provides the final 5-2 margin as the Red Sox move on to the semifinals–but missing one of the best cards in Strat history, almost certainly for the rest of the tournament.

In the least eagerly anticipated matchup of the first round, it was the #7 seed 66-96 2001 Tigers against the even worse #8 seeded, 105-loss 2019 Marlins.   Unusually for a team from the heart of the steroid era, the Tigers had nobody that cleared 20 HR and they had a largely terrible defense to support their one decent starting pitcher, Steve W. Sparks (14-9, 3.65).  Although the Marlins had a few players who could actually field their position, they also had two guys in the lineup hitting below the Mendoza line but they did similarly have one decent starter, Sandy Alcantara (6-14, 3.88) who was better than his record would suggest.   The Tigers lose one of their best hitters and fielders when Bobby Higginson goes down with an injury in the 3rd; Tony Clank then responds with a double but Damion Easley (1-12+2) is cut down at the plate for the third out and the game remains scoreless.  The Marlins finally break the ice in the top of the 6th when Tigers CF-3 Jose Macias commits a 2-base error and Brian Anderson doubles in the run off Sparks’ card; Starlin Castro then finds a Starks single to score Anderson and the Marlins lead by two.  When Sparks walks two in a row to begin the 8th, the Tigers bring in their own Mr. Anderson, closer Matt; he gets a double play ball out of Castro to end the inning, but yields a run in the top of the 9th on a Miguel Rojas sac fly.  That put the game in Alcantara’s hand for the 9th; he allows a leadoff double to Clark and activity begins in the Marlins pen.  Alcantara whiffs Robert Fick but then Shane Halter triples and Miami moves to Jarlin Garcia with the tying run at the plate.  He gets two in a row, striking out Macias to end the game, preserve the shutout and the four hitter, and the Marlins head to the semifinals with a 3-0 win.    

The 2018 Rockies won 91 games and made a brief postseason appearance as a wildcard team, and they combined the typical Rockies offense–four guys with .500+ SLG%--with some atypically decent pitching, Kyle Freeland (17-7, 2.85) finishing 4th in the Cy Young ballots.  However, the 2007 Cubs looked like an even matchup, as they won the NL Central with 85 wins;  these Cubs also had four .500 sluggers in their lineup and starter Carlos Zambrano (18-13, 3.95) was 5th in the Cy Young sweepstakes, with the main difference between the clubs being the far greater defensive skills of the Rockies, with three 1s in the infield.  Zambrano starts out a bit rough in the top of the 1st with the Rockies getting a leadoff single, followed by a Zambrano error, and then with 2 outs David Dahl and Carlos Gonzalez nail back to back RBI singles for a quick Colorado lead.  The Cubs respond in the bottom of the inning with a pair of singles, but only get one run that scores on an Alfonso Soriano double play ball.  Ian Desmond then converts Zambrano’s HR split to lead off the 2nd to extend the Rockies lead, and a nifty DP turned by Rockies 2B-1 DJ Lemahieu kills a Cubs rally in the bottom of the inning.   Gonzalez also finds Zambrano’s homer to lead off the 4th, and the Cubs are just waiting for the 5/5 rule to take effect so they can try someone else; they don’t have to wait long, as Charlie Blackmon singles home Lemahieu later in the inning for run number 5 and the Cubs put Zambrano on ice, trying another Carlos in Marmol and his 1.43 ERA and he fans Trevor Story to end the inning but the Rockies now lead 5-2.   The Cubs get to Freeland in the 6th, and Adam Ottavino comes in with the bases loaded and two out to walk Daryle Ward for a run, but then whiffs Derrek Lee to prevent further damage.  An RBI single from Story provides some insurance in the top of the 7th, but the Cubs strike back in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases for a 2-run single from Cliff Floyd, although Ottavino then whiffs Aramis Ramirez and Ward in succession to strand another potential run on 3rd, so it’s 6-4 Colorado heading into the 8th.  Ian Desmond singles in the 8th, steals second on backup catcher Geovany Soto, and scores on a Lemahieu base hit, and Marmol exits having been burnt for the regional with the Rockies up by three.  Wanting to preserve Ottavino, the Rockies summon closer Wade Davis, who recorded 43 saves but his 4.13 ERA is worrying.  Davis is perfect in the 8th, but in the bottom of the 9th he allows a couple of hits to bring up Ramirez with two outs as the tying run; Ramirez lofts a fly ball but there’s not enough wind at Wrigley and the catch is made to seal the 7-4 win and a semifinal berth for the Rockies.   

The 1958 Tigers finished an even 77-77, with Gus Zernial appreciating this DH rule and 23-year old Al Kaline showing some promise, supporting a solid rotation with Paul Foytack (15-13, 3.44) getting the first round nod.  They were slight ELO favorites against the strike-year 1994 Royals, but I didn’t really see it as the Royals had a better 61-54 record, being built on speed, defense and pitching with David Cone (16-5, 2.94) awarded the Cy Young that season. However, it’s Foytack who impresses early, striking out the side in the top of the 1st while Cone gives up a leadoff single, a walk, and then an RBI hit to Kaline that sets up a 3-run blast by Gail Harris into the upper deck at Briggs Stadium and the Tigers lead 4-0 after an inning.  Four more hits in the 3rd for the Tigers lead to two more runs, although the Royals do get on the board in the 4th with a Mike MacFarlane sac fly although it’s matched with a Charlie Maxwell sac fly in the 5th.  Cone then seems to settle down, and the Royals try to chip away at the Detroit lead as Wally Joyner pokes a leadoff homer in the 6th   A 7th inning injury to Tiger catcher Red Wilson causes some consternation as they have no backups who clear the Mendoza line, although Wilson should be ready for the regional final if the Tigers can get that far.  The Royals then try to assure that they won’t, opening the 8th with three straight hits, the last a 2-run single from Felix Jose; after a conversation with Foytack on the mound, they leave him in and he retires three straight to maintain a three-run edge.  Although Foytack drops a grounder by PH Dave Henderson in the 9th, he keeps his composure and closes out the 7-4 win and the Tigers move on.

The survivors

It was hard to consider the 1941 Red Sox as bracket favorites with their .400-hitting Hall of Fame leftfielder lost to injury, but even without Ted Williams they should probably be favored against the bottom-seeded 2019 Marlins.  In particular, Boston’s Mickey Harris (8-14, 3.25) was quite a bit better than the Marlins’ Trevor Richards (3-12, 4.50) so the Miami team was hoping that they could get five decent innings out of Richards to get to their main advantage, a deeper bullpen.  Jim Tabor and Joe Cronin lead off the top of the 2nd with consecutive doubles, and after a couple more hits Dom Dimaggio and Jimmie Foxx also put up back to back doubles and by the time Richards records out number three, it’s 5-0 Boston.  When Tabor singles to lead off the 3rd, Richards is out and Sergio Romo retires the side without damage.  Romo goes four strong innings, but he’s now burnt and Austin Brice comes in to begin the 7th and is greeted by a walk and two singles with Bobby Doerr driving in a run with one of them; Brice then walks the bases loaded for Joe Cronin, who muscles a grand slam through the Miami humidity to give Boston a double digit lead.  Foxx doubles to lead off the 8th and Tabor singles him home and the Marlins can’t take any more of Brice and send in Nick Anderson to mop up.  The Marlins never can figure out Harris, who completes a 2-hit shutout and the Splinter-free Red Sox have no trouble scoring in disposing of the Marlins by an 11-0 margin and move on to the finals.  

Unlike the previous semifinal, this one featured two competitive teams ranked among the top 1000, the #2 seed 2018 Rockies against the #3 seed 1958 Tigers.  It was German Marquez (14-11, 3.77) for the Rockies against Detroit’s Jim Bunning (14-12, 3.52), who would be without his usual batterymate Red Wilson who had not recovered from his first round injury.   Unfortunately for the Rockies, they end the top of the 1st with an injury to their All Star shortstop Trevor Story, and their vaunted infield defense suddenly gets much worse.  However, DJ Lemahieu records the first hit for the Rockies in the 3rd, a long home run off Bunning’s card, and then a rattled Bunning commits an error, walks the bases full, and then gives up a double to David Dahl; two runs score but Nolan Arenado (1-10+2) is cut down at the plate for the third out.  The Tigers get one back in the bottom of the inning when a 2-out Charlie Maxwell single scores Harvey Kuenn on a close play at the plate, but Bunning gets sloppy again and loads the bases in the 5th, which Carlos Gonzalez clears with a double and the Rockies now lead 6-1.  A single in the 6th and Bunning leaves to run for Senate, while Hank Aguirre comes in to end the inning.  Al Kaline contributes a 2-run blast in the bottom of the inning to make it a three-run game, but replacement SS-4 Ian Desmond makes his third straight X-chart play to prevent any further damage.  Marquez holds serve into the 9th, when Kaline gets injured to make the 2nd out; that seems to catalyze Gus Zernial who pokes a solo shot but Marquez fans Gail Harris and the Rockies move on with a 6-4 win, and with the good news that Story will be back for the regional final.  

The finals result in a rare matchup of the #1 and #2 seeds, a particularly unusual outcome given that both the 1941 Red Sox and the 2018 Rockies had to overcome injuries to key players to get this far.  However, the Rockies would be back at full strength with Trevor Story back in the lineup and with a fully rested bullpen that might be needed given the minefield that was Tyler Anderson’s (7-9, 4.55) card.  The Red Sox would send out Dick Newsome (19-10, 4.12), apparently no relation to Skeeter Newsome, the .225 hitting shortstop who was filling in for Ted Williams.  The Red Sox begin the top of the 1st with three straight hits, including a Jimmie Foxx RBI single, and Bobby Doerr adds a sac fly to provide a quick 2-0 Boston lead.  The Red Sox had gotten off to big starts in their two previous games, but they had never encountered a counterpuncher quite like the Rockies; in the bottom of the 1st Nolan Arenado gets Colorado on the board with an RBI single, and then David Dahl punches a three-run homer, immediately followed by another blast from Carlos Gonzalez and it’s suddenly 5-2 Rockies with eight innings still to play.  An Aranado double in the 3rd sets up a Gonzalez RBI single to extend the Colorado lead, but Boston narrows the gap in the 5th with back to back 2-out doubles from Doerr and Jim Tabor that make it 6-4.  When Boston leads off the 6th with two straight singles, the Rockies take no chances and summon closer Wade Davis in relief of Anderson, who allowed 11 hits in his 5 innings; that goes spectacularly badly, as after getting two outs Davis allows back to back doubles to Dimaggio and Foxx, and then a 2-run homer to Doerr.  A walk and a single to Joe Cronin and the Rockies can take no more, with Adam Ottavino coming in to get the final out but Boston has now regained a 9-6 lead.  However, in the bottom of the 6th, P-2 Newsome commits an error setting up a 2-out 2-run homer from number nine hitter Chris Ianetta, and it’s a one run game heading into the 7th.  Newsome allows a walk and a sharp single in the 7th and the Red Sox feel they have to move to what passes for a bullpen, trying Bill Fleming and bringing the infield in to try to keep the tying run from scoring.  That frees up Dahl to try to steal second and stay out of the DP, but he’s nailed and Fleming gets out number three to maintain the lead.  In the top of the 9th, Rockies 2b-1 DJ Lemahieu makes an unexpected error, and Dimaggio doubles the runner home to provide an insurance run for Fleming entering the bottom of the 9th as he faces the top of the Colorado order.  However, he doesn’t need the help, setting down the Rockies in order to preserve the 10-8 win and secure the 7th regional crown for the Red Sox, who manage to pound out the runs with aging talent like Jimmie Foxx and Joe Cronin, despite being without one of the biggest offensive weapons in baseball history.

Interesting card of Regional #178:  Imagine having this guy in your lineup in a single-elimination tournament and losing him to a seven-game injury in his second at-bat.  That was the predicament of the ‘41 Red Sox in this bracket, and somehow they managed to overcome that setback to go on to win the regional; if they can eventually win their super-regional and I live long enough to play those games, they just might get Williams back someday.  I know there are some of you that are a bit tired of the 1-column pattern for a team’s best hitter, so to break up the monotony I thought I’d also include Ted’s vintage Hall of Fame series card, which also presented his 1941 year as his best season but used a different, classic card format.  As for me, I’d be willing to put either card in my lineup, but after this regional, I’d prefer it if they could print one that didn’t have an injury result on it. Oh, and by the way–this season apparently wasn’t good enough to qualify Ted as the league MVP; that award went to a brother of one of Ted’s teammates, even though Ted led the league in homers, batting average, walks, slugging percentage, on-base percentage (and OPS, obviously), and WAR.  I guess that’s what a hitting streak (and a pennant playing in New York) will do for you.

REGIONAL #177:  There were a number of teams in this largely post-steroid era bracket that caught my attention while they were being selected.   The 2009 Yankees were the last squad from that franchise to win the AL to the current day, and they had an interesting subway-series matchup against the 2017 Mets as I still remembered the 2019 version of the Mets bashing their way to a regional win nearly 70 brackets ago.  I knew that the 1983 Padres would win the NL the following season, and I thought I remembered the 1998 Astros making a serious run at the pennant.   There would also be a couple of 90s entries from the Rockies, whom I guessed sported a mile-high offense and pitching staffs with mile-high ERAs.  I thought the Padres would have a smooth path to the finals in the top half of the bracket, while the bottom would be extremely competitive, but my hunch was that the ‘98 Astros would handle the Yanks and then best the Padres in the finals.   The ELO rankings had the Yanks as one of the best 50 teams in history, with the ‘98 Astros almost making the top 100 with those two ranked as the best teams in the group by far; the Yanks were thus heavy ELO favorites to beat the Padres in the final.

First round action

The main thing I noticed about the 79-82 2000 Marlins is that they seemed to have a lot of guys with no names on their cards, and since none of them were Barry Bonds I had the feeling it was not a good sign.  Still, they had six players in the lineup with double digits homers and Ryan Dempster (14-10, 3.66) was decent by the standards of this era.  Even so, their offense paled compared to that of the 83-79 1996 Rockies, with Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga, and Vinny Castilla all with 40+ HR and a total of five guys with SLG% over .500.  However, their pitching was painfully bad, with Kevin Ritz (17-11, 5.28) apparently able to win high-scoring games.  The Marlins seem to like the thin Denver air, as in the top of the 1st a Derrek Lee RBI triple and a 3-run blast from Preston Wilson and it’s a 4-0 lead for the Florida men.  Eric Young narrows the gap with a 2-out 2-run shot off Dempster in the 3rd, but in the 5th Lee converts a Ritz-y double to score Cliff Floyd to add to the Marlins lead.  Alex Gonzales triples to lead off the 6th, and Luis Castillo singles him home, with both off the pitcher’s card, so with Ritz crackered they bring in Bruce Ruffin, who they figure can’t be much worse.  Castillo responds by promptly stealing second and then scoring on a Mark Kotsay single that makes it 7-2, but Ellis Burks reduces the lead by a run with a solo shot in the bottom of the 6th.  The Marlins get another run on an RBI double from Mike Lowell in the 7th, but when Burks nails a 2-run shot in the 8th for his second homer of the game, Florida nervously eyes a bad bullpen but stays with Dempster and he gets a DP ball from Larry Walker to end the inning still holding a 3-run lead.  Dempster gets through the 9th unscathed and the Marlins move on in a minor upset with the 8-5 win.

The 2013 Astros were the bottom seed in this bracket, with an ELO ranking among the 50 worst teams of all time, and it was hard to imagine that this 111-loss team would win the World Series in four years, with Dallas Keuchel (6-10, 5.15) still being a key part of that championship staff.  Still, after looking at the lineup of the much better-ranked 81-81 1983 Padres, I didn’t see a huge advantage in the SD lineup even though they won the NL the following season.  However, swingman Mark Thurmond (7-3, 2.65) looked like a much better option than Houston could muster, but Keuchel holds his own until the bottom of the 3rd when he gives up a 2-out double to Steve Garvey that scores one, but Tony Gwynn is out at the plate to end the inning.  A 2-base error in the 5th by Astros 3B-2 Matt Dominguez sets up an RBI single from Gwynn, and then with Gwynn held Garvey nails a gbA++ to score another, and a 2-out single by Luis Salazar brings in a third run.  Keuchel desperately tries to go his 5 innings, but the next batter, Gene Richards, converts a HR 1-2 split for a 3-run shot and it’s time for Dallas to go into reruns.  Brett Oberholzer comes in to get the third out, but it’s now 7-0 Padres and Thurmond is looking strong against the whiff-prone Houstonians.  Two SD hits to lead off the 7th and the Astros try their best reliever, Kevin Chapman, and he escapes the jam without further damage; however, in the 8th the Astros best hitter, Jason Castro, leaves the game either with an injury or a desire to beat the Southern California traffic.  Thurmond cruises from there to finish up a 6-hit shutout and the Padres progress with a 7-0 win.

The 1998 Astros won 102 games and the NL Central but were upset in the NLDS; they had a strong lineup with Bagwell, Biggio, and Moises Alou, who finished 3rd in the MVP votes.  With a possible semifinal matchup against a championship Yankee team, the Astros decided to save a formidable Randy Johnson and went instead with the far less impressive Jose Lima (16-8, 3.70) figuring he would be better than anyone the 1999 Rockies could start.  And they were correct; the Rockies lost 90 games largely because of a terrible starting rotation.  Although Larry Walker and Todd Helton had big years, they were hoping that Brian Bohanon (12-12, 6.20) could keep the Astros in single digits.   Bohanon issues three walks in the top of the 1st but gets out of the inning unscathed thanks to a GIDP from Sean Berry, and in the 3rd it’s the Rockies who strike first when Brian McRae converts a HR 1-4/flyB split for a solo shot and a one run lead.   They extend it when Walker doubles to lead off the 4th and races home on a Helton single, but the Astros strike back in the 5th with a 2-out rally when Biggio walks, Alou doubles, and Bagwell singles, but Alou (1-14) is nailed at the plate trying to tie the game.  With their offense having unexpected trouble scoring against Bohanon, the Astros go to their bullpen and Doug Henry in the 6th to try to keep it close; he allows a double to McRae in the 7th but Henry Blanco (1-10) is cut down at home and it remains a 1-run game.  In the 8th, Bohanon’s magic runs out and Bagwell leads off with a towering blast that ties the game, and then Sean Berry goes back-to-back for a Houston lead and Rockies closer Dave Veres is summoned to staunch the bleeding.  He does so, and in the process Brad Ausmus is injured (the second straight game in which the Astros lose their catcher) and will miss the following game if the Astros can hang on.  To assure that happens, they bring in closer Billy Wagner to begin the 8th, and he makes the inning exciting by walking the first two batters he faces, but he’s bailed out by a nifty DP turned by Biggio.  Wagner also survives the 9th, and the Astros survive an unexpected pitching duel to gain the semifinals with a 3-2 win.  

The 2009 Yankees won 103 games, the AL, and the World Series, and they were favored in this bracket sporting an ELO designation of one of the best 40 teams in history.  However, Yankee pennant winners have traditionally fared poorly in this tournament, with the Jeter-era teams particularly underperforming, so they were looking to change that narrative with Mark Texiera and Jeter finishing 2nd and 3rd for MVP and CC Sabathia (19-8, 3.37) 4th in the Cy Young ballots.  This was a subway series against the 2017 Mets, who might have had a dismal 70-92 record and rather atrocious fielding, but they had power and Jake DeGrom (15-10, 3.53) also got some Cy Young votes, winning it the next season.  As it featured the top seed, this was the Zoom game of the week, and with a well-attended session the decision was made to revive the College of Coaches approach last seen with the ‘62 Cubs–a committee of four would call the shots for the Yankees, while I would manage the Mets to avoiding jinxing the bracket favorites since I had failed to score a run in my two previous Zoom appearances.  That streak ended quickly, as the Mets exploded out of the box in the top of the 1st with a couple of doubles and some sloppy Yankee fielding by 1B-1 Texiera to take a 2-0 lead.  However, the Mets return the favor by committing three errors–two of them by DeGrom–in the bottom of the inning and the game is tied.  Texiera atones for his fielding miscue with an RBI single in the 2nd to give the Yankees an edge, but then DeGrom finds his groove, striking out Yankee after Yankee.  That give Jose Reyes the chance to tie it, which he does leading off the 4th by converting Sabathia’s HR 1-5 split.  But from there, CC also settles in, at one point retiring 12 in a row and the pitchers are locked in a duel as the game enters the 9th.  In the top of that inning, the Mets get a leadoff single and it’s time for Mariano Rivera, who is bailed out by a key DP and the Mets leave the go-ahead run stranded at 3rd.   That brings up the top of the Yankees order in the bottom of the 9th, with the Mets sticking with DeGrom who has fanned 13 batters.  Jeter leads off with a single, and swipes second to put the winning run in scoring position.   That brings up Johnny Damon, who is 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts, and the College of Coaches goes into conference; after forming three subcommittees, developing four strategic plans, and consulting extensively with the Risk Management office, the College decides to let Johnny swing away.  And the roll is a 2-6, solid home run, and there’s bedlam in the Bronx as the Yankees move on with the 5-3 walkoff win.

The survivors

After cruising through the first round against a bad team, the 1983 Padres would now face a somewhat better squad in the semifinal in the form of the 2000 Marlins.  The Padres couldn’t be blamed for looking ahead to a possible matchup in the finals against a dominant team, but they felt that Dave Dravecky (14-10, 3.58) would be able to get them there.   The Marlins have to dig deeper in their no-name pitching staff and draw a blank–literally, their starter has no name, just a blank space.  A little bit of research reveals that this horse with no name is actually called Chuck Smith (6-6, 3.23), which is probably an alias anyway, but whoever he is the Marlins give him a quick lead in the top of the 1st with a Luis Castillo single, who steals second and scores on a Mark Kotsay single, both coming from the same roll on Dravecky’s card.  The Marlins add another run in the 2nd on a Castillo RBI single, but they also lose their top hitter, Cliff Floyd, to injury for the rest of the regional, replacing him with yet another no-name player.  The Padres load the bases in the bottom of the inning with nobody out, but fail to score thanks to a Garry Templeton GIDP.  They do break the ice in the 3rd with three straight hits to lead off the inning, the third a 2-run double from Tony Gwynn, and it’s a tie game.  Not for long, as another RBI single from Kotsay puts the Marlins back on top in the 4th, and both pitchers then settle into a groove.  When Smith issues a one out walk in the bottom of the 7th, the Padres pinch run Bobby Brown, and it’s his prerogative to steal second which he does; the Marlins eye their bullpen and see no names there either, so Smith stays in and he ends the threat still clinging to the one run lead.  However, Smith issues a walk to Steve Garvey to lead off the bottom of the 8th, and then hangs a curve to Terry Kennedy, who crushes it for a 2-run homer and a sudden Padres lead.  The Padres then summon Luis DeLeon to pitch the 9th against the top of the Marlins order, and DeLeon mows them down in order so the Padres move to the finals with the come-from-behind 4-3 victory.  

This was the matchup that had been anticipated since the regional draw, with the #1 seed and World Champion 2009 Yankees against the NL West winning #2 seeded 1998 Astros, and although the Stros would be without C Brad Ausmus for the game, they would have the intimidating Randy Johnson (19-11, 3.28), who compared favorably to the nonetheless solid Andy Pettitte (14-8, 4.18).  After Pettitte gets two quick outs in the top of the 1st, Moises Alou greets him with a moon shot, and the rattled Pettitte grants a double to Jeff Bagwell who scores on a Sean Berry single giving Houston an early 2-0 edge.  It proves to be short-lived, as ARod finds and converts Johnson’s HR result for a 2-run poke in the bottom of the inning to tie the game.  After making some nifty fielding plays in the 2nd, Craig Biggio leads off the 3rd with another long homer to put the Astros back on top, and then two batters later Berry converts Pettitte’s HR split for a solo shot.  Derrek Bell then doubles, Carl Everett follows with a triple,  and it’s looking like Andy is tossing batting practice out there; by the time he records the third out, Houston leads 5-2 and the Yankee bullpen is on red alert.  When Bill Spiers singles in the top of the 4th, Pettitte is gone, allowing 8 hits in 3+ innings with most of them for extra bases, and David Robertson gets the call, but Alou takes him to the corner with a triple and Houston extends their lead.  In the 6th, Jeter converts Johnson’s HR split for a solo shot and the Yanks narrow the gap to three, and in desperation they then decide to burn Mariano Rivera for the regional, bringing him in to begin the 7th.  Rivera is perfect in the top of the 7th, and ARod leads off the bottom of the 7th with his second homer of the game, and the next batter Matsui misses a HR/flyB split and the Astros are beginning to worry about Johnson, who is adamant about remaining in the game.  Everett gives the Big Unit some padding in the 8th when he converts Rivera’s HR split for a solo shot; in the bottom of the inning PH Eric Hinske draws a walk, but Astros defensive replacement SS-2 Tim Bogar converts a DP to send the game into the 9th with a three-run Houston lead.  With Rivera burnt, Alfredo Aceves comes in to walk the first two batters but escapes the inning with no damage, and so it’s Johnson’s game in the bottom of the 9th.  Damon and ARod single, and Damon scores when a ball gets past injury replacement C-4 Tony Eusebio, but Posada makes the final out missing a SI 1-12 split and the Astros triumph in the battle of the titans 7-5, and another Jeter-era Yankee pennant winner joins their colleagues in the storage drawer. 

Having disposed of the top seed, the #2 ranked 1998 Astros would now face the #3 seed 1983 Padres with both squads looking to win the 5th regional title for their franchise.  The Astros would be back at full strength getting Brad Ausmus back from injury, and they would have Shane Reynolds (19-8, 3.51) on the mound, who won a lot of games despite allowing a lot of hits.  The Padres would counter with a very good swingman in Andy Hawkins (5-7, 2.93) who would try to keep the powerful Houston lineup in check.  However, Hawkins has a rough time in the bottom of the 1st, with a single to the leadoff hitter Bill Spiers, followed by a double by Craig Biggio, and then Moises Alou ups the stakes with a long 3-run homer.  The Padres respond immediately, with Garry Templeton knocking one in with a sac fly and then Juan Bonilla converts Reynolds’ HR split for a 2-run shot and it’s a tie game.  The Astros move back in front when Biggio leads off the 3rd with a single off Hawkins’ card, steals second, and scores when Alou pokes a double past Padres CF-2 Ruppert Jones.  Once again the Padres strike back, with Templeton converting Reynolds HR split again for a solo shot for another tie, and in the 5th Luis Salazar singles in Steve Garvey to give the Padres their first lead, and the Astros have had enough of watching Reynolds rapped and Jay Powell comes in to end the inning with a DP ball.  When the Padres put together a two out rally in the 7th with a single followed by a 2-base error by LF-2 Alou, the Astros summon closer Billy Wagner to try to keep it close, but he allows a sharp single that scores both runners and the deficit grows to three.  Biggio narrows it with a solo blast in the bottom of the 7th, Alou walks, and then Bagwell puts one in the Crawford Boxes and the game is tied yet again; after a mound conference the Padres lets Hawkins pitch and he ends the inning to head to the 8th with the score knotted at seven apiece.   Wagner blows through the Padres in the top of the 8th, and when Derek Bell leads off the bottom of the inning with a double Hawkins is gone for Luis DeLeon.  He walks Ausmus and defensive replacement Tim Bogar bunts the runners into scoring position; the infield comes in to retire Spiers on a grounder with both runners holding for two out, but then DeLeon hangs one to Biggio, who crushes it for his second homer of the game, a three run shot that gives the Astros the lead.  With some padding, Houston decides to preserve Wagner for later rounds and brings in Doug Henry to close things out, and although he walks Garvey he handles the rest of the San Diego lineup to clinch the 10-7 win and the regional for the Astros.  In addition to providing the fifth win for the Astros franchise (joining 1969, 1972, 1980 and 2004), the victory also provides a measure of revenge for this ‘98 team, who were upset in the NLDS by none other than the San Diego Padres.  

 

Interesting card of Regional #177:  The 1998 Astros were the regional winners, and they reached the finals mainly because one Big Unit managed to best the bracket favorite 2009 Yankees in the semifinal round.  That big result was only fitting because Houston acquired Johnson at the trading deadline in 1998 in a push to win their first pennant in franchise history.   At the time, Johnson was in the last year of his contract with Seattle and constant trade rumors seemed to be disrupting his performance, as he had a mediocre (9-10, 4.33 ERA) record with the Mariners.  However, he was traded for Freddy Garcia, John Halama and Carlos Guillen at the July 31 deadline, and his enthusiasm about his new location is evident in this card, which represents his Astros-only performance.  Now, tournament rules require that a player with two cards for the same team must use the higher IP/AB version, so the card that beat the Yankees was good, but not this good.  It certainly looked like the Astros got what they bargained for, as they marched to 102 wins and took the NL Central by 12+ games.  However, when they hit the NLDS, the Astros were upset by the Padres in four games, with Johnson losing two of them.  With his contract now up, Johnson became a Diamondback the next season and the Astros were left with this rather good Strat card as consolation–as well as a win in Regional #177 of this tournament.