We almost had a true Cinderella from the South Regional yesterday, as Vermont made it all the way to the Regional Final before falling to Florida. Today we’ll find out the final member of the Final Four as we go through the Midwest Regional. Please check out the summaries of the East, West, and South Regionals if you haven’t already.
As a reminder of the format, each school’s best MLB player, based on WAR, will represent them in Round 1, their second-best in Round 2, and so on. Whichever school’s player had the higher career WAR score wins.
MIDWEST - Round 1
1 Purdue vs. 16 Gambling: If this had been a series, Grambling would have put up a pretty good fight. They’ve had a good group of big leaguers over the years, including Ralph Garr, Cleon Jones, and Lynn McGlothen, and Tommie Agee was a strong Round 1 representative for them with 25.4 WAR. Unfortunately, they had to deal with Bob Friend and his 40.8 WAR, so the Boilermakers advance and the Tigers are headed home.
8 Utah State vs. 9 TCU: Even though this is an 8/9 game, this wasn’t going to be close. TCU has had 47 big leaguers; Utah State has had 6. The best of them, Dyar Miller, had no shot against the Horned Frogs’ Matt Carpenter. TCU advances, 28.9 to 6.6.
5 Gonzaga vs. 12 McNeese State: Jason Bay and Clay Buchholz played in the big leagues at the same time for seven years. They were teammates for parts of a couple of seasons with the Red Sox, but otherwise were on different teams the rest of the time. Despite this, Bay never batted against Buchholz, not even once. They finally squared off for the first time in this contest, with Bay representing Gonzaga and Buchholz McNeese State. Bay’s Bulldogs came out on top, 24.8 to 16.8.
4 Kansas vs. 13 Samford: Before we get to the game, there’s a bit of controversy that needs to be sorted out. I’ve been using Baseball-Reference as my source for which players attended which schools. For the most part it’s an invaluable reference and I couldn’t do my job without it. But when I went to look up the major league players from KU, Baseball-Reference included Smoky Joe Wood, the outstanding pitcher-turned-outfielder for the Red Sox and Indians, and that didn’t seem right to me at all. I’m a KU alum, on top of being a Red Sox fan. If legendary pitcher Joe Wood had played for both my alma mater and my favorite team, I’d certainly remember it. Nothing would make me happier in this exercise than to include Joe Wood among KU’s MLB alumni.
The problem is that I can’t find a scrap of evidence to show he ever went to school there. In fact, I don’t believe he ever went to college, at least not before his career began. He started playing professionally with the National Bloomer Girls (which, as you’ve probably figured out, wasn’t comprised only of women) at the age of 16, then joined Hutchinson of the Western Association at 17, then Kansas City of the American Association at 18, then the Red Sox later that year. There’s no mention anywhere of him playing at KU or any other college, including in his biography for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
So, included in Baseball-Reference or not, I can’t in good conscience claim Joe Wood for the Jayhawks. We can’t have Kansas using an ineligible player again, can we? That means Bob Allison represents them in the first round, which is more than enough for them to get past Samford’s Al Worthington, 34.1 to 16.2, but will have an impact on their later games, as you will see.
6 South Carolina vs. 11 Oregon: The Gamecocks have a good, deep program, churning out several solid major league careers by the likes of Mookie Wilson, Justin Smoak, Whit Merrifield, and Jackie Bradley Jr. Their best over the years was Brian Roberts, who totaled 29.5 WAR mostly for the Orioles, making two All-Star teams and leading the league in doubles twice. But they got a bad draw in the first round, running smack into Hall of Famer Joe Gordon and his 55.6 WAR for the Ducks.
3 Creighton vs. 14 Akron: Chris Bassitt is already, far and away, the best major leaguer ever from Akron. He’s at 16.0 WAR and climbing, and shows no signs of slowing down after leading the league in wins last year and finishing in the top-10 in Cy Young voting for the third time. Barring a really big jump in his production, though, he will not be Bob Gibson. That’s who the Blue Jays got to trot out in the opening round, and he crushed poor Chris Bassitt, 89.2 to 16.0.
7 Texas vs. 10 Colorado State: There are mismatches, and then there are cruelties. Texas (129 major leaguers) versus Colorado State (5 major leaguers) is one of the latter. Tippy Martinez had a perfectly fine career as a lefty relief pitcher for fourteen seasons. He made an All-Star team and got a World Series ring. Those are nice memories. But then some newsletter writer decided to pit his 8.6 WAR against Roger Bleepin’ Clemens and his 139.2 WAR in a weird NCAA tournament summary. Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug. Or, in the case of Colorado State, some days you’re the Rams, and some days you’re rammed. Longhorns advance.
2 Tennessee vs. 15 St. Peter’s: The Volunteers had the luxury of sending a new Hall of Famer out in Round 1, Todd Helton. His 61.8 WAR up against the 2.7 WAR of the Peacock’s Bill Foxen was sort of like killing a fly with a howitzer. The Vols move on to a massive battle against Texas in Round 2.
MIDWEST - Round 2
1 Purdue vs. 9 TCU: The top-seeded Boilermakers aren’t known for being much of a baseball school, and Indiana doesn’t have the kind of weather in the early Spring that they get in Fort Worth, but don’t tell that to Moose Skowron. The Purdue alum and five-time World Series winner was able to squeeze past the Horned Frogs’ Jake Arrieta, 27.1 to 22.8, and the Boilermakers are now in the Sweet Sixteen.
4 Kansas vs. 5 Gonzaga: The Jayhawks may not have been allowed to suit up Smoky Joe Wood, and no one would confuse Steve Renko for Wood, but his 23.6 WAR was still more than enough to send the Bulldogs back to Spokane empty-handed. Their alum, Leon Cadore, long-forgotten pitcher for Brooklyn Robins, didn’t have enough (19.4 WAR) to get it done. Rock Chalk!
3 Creighton vs. 11 Oregon: This was a remarkably close battle between two schools that shot their respective wads in Round 1. This wouldn’t be a matchup of Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Joe Gordon. No, this would be a thrilling test of mediocrity between two lefty pitchers; Dennis Rasmussen of Creighton and Tyler Anderson for Oregon. Rasmussen managed to win 91 big league games for five teams despite a career ERA of 4.15 that was a bit higher than league average. Anderson, still active with the Angels, is 50-49 for his career, with a 4.35 ERA that’s barely better than league average. Anderson’s All-Star season in 2022, when he went 15-5 for the Dodgers with a 2.57 ERA, proved to be the difference, boosting him 11.8 WAR, just enough to squeak by Rasmussen’s total of 11.1. The Duck’s advance by the skin of their teeth. (Do ducks have teeth?)
2 Tennessee vs. 7 Texas: This one shaped up to be a slugfest. Two really deep programs that produced over 200 major leagues between them. You’d think Texas would have the edge, but they have a remarkable drop between the 139.2 WAR Roger Clemens gave them in Round 1 and the comparatively tame 35.6 provided by Burt Hooton in Round 2. Still, that’s a respectable total, but it wasn’t enough get it done. The Volunteers countered with the underrated Tommy Bridges of the Tigers with his 194 career victories, two World Series rings, and 50.4 WAR. It’s Horns Down for Texas as the Vols move on.
MIDWEST - Sweet Sixteen
1 Purdue vs 4 Kansas: These were two teams running on fumes. After leading with Bob Friend and Moose Skowron, the best the Boilermakers could muster against Kansas was Bernie Allen’s 9.3 WAR as a utility infielder for the Twins and Senators. But the Jayhawks were spent, too. Thanks to the ineligibility of Joe Wood, the Hawks had to go with lefty swingman Tom Gorzelanny. His 5.4 WAR simply wasn’t enough, and Kansas is sent home trying to find a way to create a transcript for Wood for future tournaments.
2 Tennessee vs 11 Oregon: The Ducks were a good story to get this far, but when the best you can do against a powerhouse like Tennessee is poor Carson Bigbee, things are going to get ugly quickly. They did. The Vols were able to turn to Phil “Scrap Iron” Garner. Do you think a guy named Scrap Iron is going to lose to Carson Bigbee? Of course not. Garner and the Vols roll into the Elite Eight, 29.7 to 11.6.
MIDWEST - Regional Final
1 Purdue vs. 2 Tennessee: Wow, a matchup between the 1-seed and 2-seed in the Regional Final. The selection committee got this one right! Unfortunately for Purdue, they were cooked before this one even started. Down to yet another utility player, Red Killefer, they came to this match with their bags packed. Tennessee’s Ed Bailey had six All-Star appearances in his career, and the first one, in 1956, would have been enough to beat Killefer all by itself. In the end it was 27.2 to 4.3 for the Volunteers, punching their ticket to the Final Four.
Tomorrow we’ll find go through the Final Four as part of the usual Friday Stuff edition. Get ready for the results of San Diego State vs. Arizona and an all-SEC matchup between Florida and Tennessee.
Enjoyed this series way more than I expected. Some great old names coming up along with quite a few not so greats. Zach Edey might win a title this year but I doubt if he will catch Moose.