The George bracket

(1) 2017 Houston Astros (101-61) vs. (16) 1961 Washington Senators (61-100): The Astros won the World Series and boasted the MVP in Jose Altuve. The Senators were a first-year expansion team that played like it. Actually, the pitching appears rather competitive, but if you have competitive pitching and still lose 100 games, that doesn't say much for your lineup.

(8) 2017 Los Angeles Angels (80-82) vs. (9) 1961 Cleveland Indians (78-83): Mike Trout had only 507 plate appearances because of injury, which may have kept the Angels out of the playoffs. But he and Andrelton Simmons were really the only good players on the roster. The Indians have a lack of stars but also a lack of obvious weak spots. It was Jimmy Dykes' final year as a major league manager.

(5) 1961 Los Angeles Dodgers (89-65) vs. (12) 2017 Atlanta Braves (72-90): The Dodgers were a year away from greatness in 1961, their last in the misshapen Coliseum. The Braves have Freddie Freeman and not much else to interest me.

(4) 2017 New York Yankees (91-71) vs. (13) 1924 St. Louis Cardinals (65-89): Two historic seasons here: Aaron Judge and his 52 homers as a rookie, and Rogers Hornsby and his modern record .424 batting average. Should be a tough series to be a pitcher.

(3) 2017 Washington Nationals (97-65) vs. (14) 1961 Chicago Cubs (64-90): Ernie Banks! Bryce Harper! Ron Santo! Anthony Rondon! Billy Williams! Max Scherzer! Richie Ashburn! Daniel Murphy! The Cubs have four Hall of Famers and a lousy team. The Nationals will probably be better in this tournament than that 97-win season suggests because they'll have the bullpen reinforcements for the whole thing, not just the final two months.

(6) 1924 Cincinnati Reds (83-70) vs. (11) 2017 Oakland Athletics (75-87): A really solid pitching staff for the Reds -- Eppa Rixey, Carl Mays, Dolf Luque, Pete Donohue -- but the lineup ain't much. The A's a just kind of blah.

(7) 1961 Chicago White Sox (86-76) vs. (10) 2017 Toronto Blue Jays (76-86): Bill Veeck's final season in his first go-around on the South Side, and his preference for older players really shows on this roster. A win-now team that finished more than 20 games out. The Jays are, like the A's above, kind of blah; there are a lot of 2017 teams with very similar records.

(2) 1924 Washington Senators (92-62) vs. (15) 2017 San Francisco Giants (64-98): The only Washington team to win a World Series opens the tournament with a series against the descendents of the team they beat in that classic Classic. The Senators boast four Hall of Famers, counting player-manager Bucky Harris. The Giants were a major disappointment but still have Buster Posey.