2019 MLB Tournament of Champions: Championship

128 teams entered. Over six thousand games later, we're down to just two teams as we renew our quest to find the greatest MLB team of all time as part of the 2019 MLB Tournament of Champions. Every World Series champion got an invitation to the fun, and every franchise without a title got at least one iteration from their history into the festivities. They then went through a grueling 90 game double round robin to build up a significant sample size.

That accounted for 5,760 of the 6000-plus games, but that was just the beginning as I began a single elimination tournament from the top eight teams from each of the groups I'd built out for this tournament. Five rounds later, we have our top two teams left standing. And the fun part for this: we get an old rematch.

On one side was arguably the favorite coming into this whole thing. They were the best team in the 2017 Tournament of Champions, but proceeded to need every possible game to win the Championship of Champions. For a title defense, the 2016 Cubs seemed poised to be a dominant force once again, but ran into some slight hiccups. Despite losing their final four series in group play, the Cubs went 54-36, good for second place in Group H. They swept the 1919 Cincinnati Reds in the opening round of the postseason before needing winner-take-all games at home to finish off the 1972 Oakland Athletics and 1938 New York Yankees. A quarterfinal sweep over the 1944 St. Louis Cardinals, winners of their own group, and a six game victory of the legendary 1927 New York Yankees, have the Cubs back to within four wins of further immortality.

On the other side was a team that, in 2017, tied for the third-best record among my National League representatives, but was relegated to Wild Card status for the postseason. They won the Wild Card series that year before dropping a heartbreaking fifth game on a walk-off homer to... the 2016 Cubs. The 1975 Cincinnati Reds came back two years later placed in a different group, and worked to a 57-33 record... which unfortunately for them was only good for third in their group as they finished just one game behind the co-leaders. But the Reds won their first two series in four games apiece over the 2004 Boston Red Sox and 1912 Boston Red Sox, respectively, before punching their ticket to the quarterfinals with a sweep of the group champion 1924 Washington Senators. Cincinnati followed that up with a six game victory over the 1984 Detroit Tigers to remove the DH from the rest of the tournament, then won a hard-fought seven game series over the 1953 New York Yankees to get one more crack at the team that knocked them off two years ago.

This time around, the Reds will get home field advantage by virtue of their better Group Play record. It's a best of seven series played in a 2-3-2 format, so the Reds will get a little more leeway than the best-of-five they had to play in two years ago. In prior rounds of this postseason I've just gone with results and records. This time, I'm going to do brief writeups of each game in this series. You can view the bracket to date, as well as scores and standings from as far back as group play, here. All simulations for the entire Tournament of Champions are provided by WhatIfSports.com. And so, one final time this year... let's play ball!

2016 Chicago Cubs vs 1975 Cincinnati Reds

Game 1: '16 CHC 7, @ '75 CIN 5 ('16 CHC leads 1-0)
W: Arrieta (4-1) | L: Billingham (2-3) | SV: Edwards, Jr. (2)

The Cubs had multiple chances early in this one before finally breaking through in the second on a two run double by Kris Bryant. They had another chance in the fourth, but only managed one run on a Bryant bases-loaded walk. Johnny Bench got the Reds back within one with a sixth-inning two run shot, but Jason Heyward came through in the top of the seventh with a three run homer. The Reds got two back on a Joe Morgan double and George Foster single in the eighth. Chicago added some insurance in the ninth on a pinch hit RBI single by Jorge Soler, while the Reds managed to get it back in the bottom of the ninth before Bench struck out to end the game. Arrieta threw seven innings of two run ball, Kris Bryant reached base five times, driving in three, and Heyward went 3-4 with that homer and four runs scored to pace the Cubs. Bench's homer paced the Reds, while Foster had three hits. Jack Billingham gave up six runs in 6 1/3 innings while walking seven in the loss.

Game 2: '16 CHC 9, @ '75 CIN 7 (10) ('16 CHC leads 2-0)
W: Grimm (2-0) | L: McEnaney (1-1) | SV: Chapman (4)

This one went back and forth early on as the teams traded leads a few times. Cincy opened the scoring in the first on a George Foster RBI single, but Javy Baez answered for the Cubs with a two run homer in the second. That lead didn't last, as the Reds bounced back with two in their half on a Dave Concepcion double and Gary Nolan helping his own cause with an RBI single. Addison Russell promptly responded in the third with a two run double for a 4-3 lead, but the Reds tied it in their half on a Foster solo homer. They took the lead again in the fifth when Foster homered again, a two run shot this time, followed later by a solo Concepcion shot. Chicago got back within one in the seventh on a two run homer for Kris Bryant, and off closer Rawly Eastwick in the ninth, Jason Heyward drew a two out, bases loaded walk to tie the game. Justin Grimm forced extras, and the Cubs took advantage when Bryant singled home Dexter Fowler, and a Russell single drove Bryant home. Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect tenth for the save. Bryant finished with three hits and another three runs driven in, Fowler had three hits and scored twice, and the Cubs bullpen bailed out Jon Lester with three innings of one hit ball. Gary Nolan wasn't much better, giving up six runs in 6 1/3 innings, but he got some good run support, as Foster went 3-5 with two homers and four RBI's.

Game 3: @ '16 CHC 4, '75 CIN 0 ('16 CHC leads 3-0)
W: Hendricks (5-0) | L: Norman (3-3) | SV: Chapman (5)

Kyle Hendricks shut down a two out rally in the top of the first, then was given a lead in the bottom half when Kris Bryant launched a ball over the 368 sign in left center. He would add three more in the fourth on a ball into the basket around the same spot to make it 4-0, and Hendricks took it through the seventh, where the bullpen finished it off. Bryant finished 2-5, but had the two big blows that provided Hendricks more than enough, as he scattered four hits over seven scoreless innings. Norman lasted six innings, allowing nine hits, including the two Bryant bombs.

Game 4: '75 CIN 3, @ '16 CHC 2 (10) ('16 CHC leads 3-1)
W: T. Carroll (1-0) | L: Strop (1-2) | SV: Eastwick (7)

The champagne was put on ice for at least one more day as George Foster broke back out with a two run homer in the fourth to open the scoring. The Cubs would battle back, getting an RBI single from Addison Russell in the sixth and an RBI double from him in the eighth. But Foster homered again to lead off the tenth, and this time Rawly Eastwick went 1-2-3 in the bottom half to seal the deal. Foster went 2-5 with the two home runs, with Johnny Bench scoring the other run. Pat Darcy started for the Reds and threw six innings of one run ball. John Lackey went six for the Cubs, allowing just the two runs in a no-decision. Kris Bryant went 4-5 and scored both Chicago runs, while the Cubs left a total of eight men on base.

Game 5: @ '16 CHC 6, '75 CIN 0 ('16 CHC wins 4-1)
W: Arrieta (5-1) | L: Gullett (2-1)

Jake Arrieta worked into but out of a little trouble in the first couple innings, then got the run support he needed when Willson Contreras launched a solo homer in the bottom of the second to give the Cubs the lead. He faced the minimum in the third, then got a bigger cushion in the bottom half when Baez led off the frame with a home run, and Kris Bryant continued his torrid series with a two run shot to make it 4-0. Arrieta walked the first two men to lead off the fourth, but escaped unscathed and got an extra run in the sixth when Contreras singled home another run. Ben Zobrist knocked in one more with an RBI fielder's choice in the seventh, and the bullpen finished the game off, with Pedro Strop inducing Pete Rose to ground in a championship-winning 4-6-3 double play. Arrieta went six shutout innings, but walked six despite allowing only two hits, Bryant only had the one hit, but it was a two run shot, and Dexter Fowler chipped in with three hits. Don Gullett allowed five runs over six innings for Cincinnati in the losing effort.

And so with that, the 2019 MLB Tournament of Champions is in the books! Congratulations to the 2016 Chicago Cubs, your 2019 MLB Champion of Champions!

I've done a Tournament of Champions every year since 2013, but I don't know when the next one will be. I can guarantee that if I'm still around, I will do another NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions in 2022, but I don't know in the interim if I'll have the time to devote to any other Tournaments of Champions. In the meantime though, I'll soak this one in.