Playoffs Round 1 (October 1, 2006)  

Zane Smith is away for this week. This week's guest columnist is former Maine Lobster and Austin Outlaw, Mel Hall.--

The Final Four!

Just four DMBL teams have ever won the World Series -- and they're all meeting in the second round this season! The sixth-seeded Arkansas Golden Falcons upset the third-place Carolina Mudcats to set up a fifth-straight post-season show-down against the defending champion Newark Sugar Bears. Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded Marietta Mighty Men finally snapped their two-year first round curse, defeating the fifth-ranked Las Vegas Rat Pack to face the Morris Division champion Vancouver Ironfist. Keep up with the latest news on the Playoff Page.

History of the Wildcard Round (1997-present)
Year	Result
1997	#3 Newark Sugar Bears over #6 Sacramento Seahawks, 3-1 #5 Austin Outlaws over #4 Arkansas Golden Falcons, 3-0
1998	#3 Arkansas Golden Falcons over #6 Louisiana Lightning, 3-2 #5 Jerusalem Rabbis over #4 Austin Outlaws, 3-2
1999	#3 Vancouver Iron Fist over #6 Austin Outlaws, 3-1 #5 Carolina Mudcats over #4 Jerusalem Rabbis, 3-1
2000	#3 Vancouver Iron Fist over #6 Kentucky Hillbillies, 3-0 #5 Austin Outlaws over #4 Newark Sugar Bears, 3-2
2001	#6 Carolina Mudcats over #3 Vatican City Cardinals, 3-2 #5 Arkansas Golden Falcons over #4 Stanhope Mighty Men, 3-1
2002	#3 Vancouver Iron Fist over #6 Tijuana Banditos, 3-0 #5 Wanaque Wolverines over #4 Hoboken Cutters, 3-0
2003	#3 Stanhope Mighty Men over #6 Hillsborough Destroyers, 3-1 #4 Carolina Mudcats over #5 Honolulu Sharks, 3-2
2004	#6 Tijuana Banditos over #3 Carolina Mudcats, 3-0 #5 Honolulu Sharks over #4 Stanhope Mighty Men, 3-2
2005	#3 Vancouver Iron Fist over #6 Stanhope Mighty Men, 3-1 #5 Honolulu Sharks over #4 Philadelphia Endzone Animals, 3-2
2006	#6 Arkansas Golden Falcons over #3 Carolina Mudcats, 3-2 #4 Marietta Mighty Men over #5 Las Vegas Rat Pack, 3-2

Mighty In Marietta

Marietta Mighty Men (#4, 91-71) defeat Las Vegas Rat Pack (#5, 87-75)

For just the second time since the league adopted the three-tier playoff system in 1997, the No. 4 team avoided a first-round upset as the Marietta Mighty Men held off the Las Vegas Rat Pack in a thrilling five-game series, sending the Mites into the second round for the first time since 2003 and the Rats home from their first-ever playoff series.

The Rats stole home-field advantage with a win on the road in Game 1 behind a 3-hit, 13-K performance by Rich Harden, but the Mighty Men bounced back in Game 2 courtesy of a 2-HR, 5-RBI performance by former Rat Jonny Gomes. Marietta then reclaimed home field by winning Game 3 in the desert, relying on Mariano Rivera to nail down the final five outs to take a 2 games to 1 lead. The Rat Pack staved off elimination and evened the series by pounding Kerry Wood in a six-run 1st inning to win Game 4. The winner-take-all Game 5 was a wild back-and-forth affair, with the hometown Mighty Men finally taking the lead for good on a 7th inning two-out RBI single by Ken Griffey Jr. Rivera then nailed it down with his second five-out save of the series.

The first-round exit was just the latest disappointment for the Rat Pack, who spent the first half of the season flirting with the best record in baseball, only to stumble to the fifth-best record. Still, this year goes down in franchise history as the most successful ever, as they'd never before reached the post-season or even had a winning record... The Mighty Men, on the other hand, had appeared to be dead in the water at the mid-season point, and in fact had traded a couple high-profile players to the Rat Pack as they set about rebuilding for next year. But they turned the tables on the Pack, zooming past them for the league's fourth-best record -- and in fact, just a game out of the top wildcard seed. This is the fourth straight post-season appearance for the Mighty Men, but they hadn't survived the first round since 2003.

The best overall numbers from the Mighty Man batters came from Derek Jeter (.389, .899 OPS, 1 2B, 4 R) and Todd Helton (.389, 1.111 OPS, 1 HR, 5 R), but despite their low batting averages, Marietta may not have won this series without the long-ball heroics of Jonny Gomes (.250, 3 HR, 7 RBI), Morgan Ensberg (.235, 2 HR, 5 RBI) and Victor Diaz (.176, 3 HR, 6 RBI)... The best Marietta pitcher was Mariano Rivera, who appeared in four games and nailed down two five-out saves (0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 7 K in 6.0 IP). The rest of the bullpen -- Trevor Hoffman, Chris Ray and Dan Wheeler -- combined for a 1.00 ERA, 11.0 R/9 and 12 K in 9.0 IP. Mike Hampton was just good enough to win in his only start (3 ER, 8 H, 3 BB, 1 K in 7.0 IP), while A.J. Burnett had two mediocre outings, one resulting in a win and the other a loss (4.80 ERA, 13.2 R/9). Jon Lieber gave up 6 runs (5 earned) in his only start but the Mites exploded for 11 runs that day anyway. Kerry Wood was embarrassed in his only start (6 ER, 5 H, 1 BB in 0.2 IP) and is unlikely to get a chance to redeem himself in Round 2.

The Rat batters spread out their attack, but Joe Mauer had the best numbers (.333, 1.011 OPS, 1 HR, 5 RBI). Their three imported superstars -- Derrek Lee, Reggie Sanders and Gary Sheffield -- performed a little better in the series than they did in the regular season, combining to hit .265 with 3 2B, 3 HR, 9 R and 10 RBI... Ryan Freel (1-for-15, 3 BB, 3 SB, 1 CS) and Pat Burrell (3-for-18, 1 HR, 5 RBI) will get a lot of criticism, but the biggest goat may have been Mark Teixeira, who hit a very empty .250 (.523 OPS!). For many Rat fans, the enduring memory of their first and only post-season appearance will be Teixeira coming to the plate in the 9th inning of Game 5, with the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first, and topping a weak grounder to second for the final out of the series... It's a bad sign when your only decent pitching performances come from your middle relievers. Aaron Fultz, Justin Duchscherer, Joe Blanton and Bobby Howry combined to give up 2 H and 3 BB in 7.2 scoreless innings; the rest of the team posted a 7.64 ERA. Rich Harden was terrific in Game 1 (2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 13 K in 8.0 IP) but terrible in Game 5 (5 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 3 K in 6.1 IP), for an overall 4.40 ERA, 10.0 R/9. Freddy Garcia should have been paid overtime for his work in this series, as he started Game 4 after appearing as a reliever in Games 2 and 3. His work as a starter (1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 9 K in 6.0 IP) was much more impressive than what he did out of the 'pen (6 ER, 10 H in 3.1 IP)... Brett Myers (5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB in 5.1 IP) and Derek Lowe (7 ER, 7 H, 4 BB in 4.1 IP) each got pounded, as did closer Arthur Rhodes (4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB in 2.0 IP).

Falcons Soar On

Arkansas Golden Falcons (#6, 86-78) defeat Carolina Mudcats (#3, 92-70)

It's actually less of an upset to have the No. 6 seed defeat the No. 3 seed -- which has now happened three times in the 10-year history of the three-tier playoff format -- than to have the No. 4 team hold off the pesky No. 5 squad, which has only happened twice. And, as you might expect, it's never happened in the same year. But that was the scenario this season, as the Arkansas Golden Falcons continued a remarkable two-month run by defeating the Carolina Mudcats in a series that also went the distance. (And, if you were wondering, it's just the second time that both first-round series went five games!)

Home-field advantage proved to be a misnomer in this series as every game was won by the road team (which also happened last year in the Sharks-Animals first-round series, as well as in the 2004 World Series). Game 1 went to the Falcs behind a complete-game 5-hitter from Roger Clemens. The trend continued in Game 2 as Pedro Martinez held the 'Cats to just 2 runs and 5 hits while striking out 10. The Carolina bats finally woke up in Game 3 as Travis Hafner went 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs to stave off elimination. They kept it going in Game 4 as Felipe Lopez delivered a 9th inning bases-loaded double to knock in three runs. In the decisive Game 5, the Falcs returned the favor as Antonio Perez came through with a two-run single in the top of the 9th to give Arkansas the series win.

As noted above, it's just the third time in league history that the No. 6 seed has defeated the No. 3 -- and all three occurrences have involved the Mudcats! In 2001, sixth-ranked Carolina was the first team to ever pull off the upset, taking out the third-ranked Vatican City Cardinals in five games. In 2004, the situation was reversed as the third-seeded Mudcats were shockingly swept out of the first round by the sixth-ranked Tijuana Banditos... Arkansas, which is in the post-season a league-record 14 times, has lost just one first round series, when they were swept in 1997 by the Austin Outlaws. But in six of their last seven post-season appearances, they got to skip the first round as the division winner. But this year's playoff run may be one of the sweetest, as it was so unexpected -- on August 14, with just 18 games left in the season, they were in 10th place, four games under .500. But they would end the season with a remarkable run, winning their last seven games -- including back-to-back wins in one-game playoffs -- to claim the No. 6 seed.

Arkansas's top batter was little-known Antonio Perez, who not only delivered the game-winning hit in Game 5 but also went 7-for-12 (.583 BA, 1.333 OPS) in the series. Perez, who hit just .261 with a .635 OPS in the regular season, platoons at second base with Aaron Hill, who didn't enjoy his partner's success (1-for-6, 1 R). Other leading hitters were Juan Encarnacion (5-for-8, 2 R), Kenny Lofton (.364, 4 R, 1 SB) and Rafael Palmeiro (.300, 1.017 OPS, 1 HR, 3 RBI)... Arkansas's pitching, as a whole, was the best in the first round (3.60 ERA, 10.2 R/9), with terrific efforts from Roger Clemens (1-0, 2.30 ERA, 8.6 R/9, 18 K in 15.2 IP) and Pedro Martinez (1-0, 2.57 ERA, 6.4 R/9, 10 K in 7.0 IP). Set-up man Eddie Guardado was nearly perfect in three relief appearances (1-0, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 5 K in 5.2 IP), while closer Brad Lidge picked up a save in two shakey appearances (1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 K in 2.0 IP).

The Carolina pitchers clearly weren't the problem, as their 3.80 ERA finished behind only the Falcons. Their 2006 post-season was examplified by Roy Halladay, who posted a 3.52 ERA and 11.7 R/9 in two quality starts, but was handed a loss and a no-decision as the offense gave him just 4 runs total in the two starts. Andy Pettitte also got a no-decision in his only start despite allowing just 1 earned run over 7 innings. Closer Francisco Cordero nailed down a tough save in Game 4 (0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K) but will be better remembered for his Game 5 melt-down (2 H, 2 BB in 0.2 IP) that allowed the tying and go-ahead runs to score... As a team, the Mudcat batters hit just .220 (.635 OPS) -- just 36 hits against 47 strikeouts! The only decent batting performance came from Travis Hafner, who hit .333 (1.020 OPS) with 2 2B, 1 HR and 5 RBI; the only other batter to break .300 was Toby Hall (.357, .714 OPS, 3 R). Bill Hall was next at .267 (.686 OPS); everyone else hit .200 or less. The biggest disappointment may have been rookie Grady Sizemore, who hit just .150 (3-for-20) with 8 Ks in 5 games.

Meanwhile...

The Hanover Division champion Newark Sugar Bears prepared for the second round of the playoffs by taking on the Livingston Little League All-Stars for the second straight year. After last year's 33-0 pounding, the Livingston team was out for revenge. Things got heated early when fifth-grader Justin Prescott dusted Craig Counsell with the first pitch of the game, leading to the first of three bench-clearing brawls. When the two teams were playing, the vaunted Sugar Bear offense took care of business, with Carlos Guillen and Chipper Jones each hitting for the cycle -- in the third inning. The Sugar Bears would go on to win 42-2, with Livingston scoring both their runs after Randy Johnson hit six consecutive batters, sending three to the hospital. "They've got such little heads, it's hard to hit a vital area," Johnson groused. The only bad news for the Sugar Bears was yet another injury to Nick Johnson, who went down in the 3rd inning after colliding with 11-year-old Jill Markowitz. Johnson hopes to be back in time for the start of the second round.

Meanwhile, the Morris Division champion Vancouver Ironfist tuned up by taking on Team Buddah. The Fisters had trouble with the unorthodox delivery of pitcher Erik "The Head" Andersen, who held Vancouver to just two runs over the first seven frames. But the Buddahs were held scoreless by Jake Peavy, who seemed to have quickly mastered the art of high-arc softball. Outfielder Keith Roth finally broke through in the 8th inning with a two-RBI double to tie the game. The game remained tied until the top of the 9th, when David Ortiz banged a clutch two-out single through the shift to score Michael Young from second base. Billy Wagner then came out to nail down the one-run save and quickly retired the first two batters, but then he gave up back-to-back walks to put the tying run on second and the winning run on first. Danny Conroy then smacked what appeared to be at least a game-tying single, but Jason Bay threw a perfect strike to gun down Buddah outfielder/Vancouver owner Yaro Zajac at home plate. "I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad," Zajac said as watched his Ironfist celebrate in a gang pile on the mound.

TWIB may have Ozzie Smith, but we have the better Smith! Zane Smith, former pitcher for the San Antonio Slingers and Sacramento Seahawks, now writes this column exclusively for the Diamond Mind Baseball League. Click Here for past articles.