[FuzzyRussianHat]

In the sixth season for Austronesia Professional Baseball, Manila made it a six-peat on top of the Philippine League. The Manatees finished 94-68, eight games better than Davao. After taking second last year, 1968 APB champ Taipei returned to the top spot in the Taiwan League. The Tigercats had the best overall record in the association at 100-62. Last year’s TPA winner Tainan was a distant second at 87-75.

For back-to-back years, Tainan’s Kun-Sheng Lin won both the Pitcher of the Year and the MVP. The 24-year old righty again had a Triple Crown and was slightly down for last year, but still cartoonishly good. Lin had a 21-8 record and nine saves, 1.34 ERA, 425 strikeouts, 0.65 WHIP, K/BB of 11.5, FIP- of 16, and 15.3 WAR; all league bests. He pitched 262.2 innings in total with 20 complete games and an ERA+ of 202. Also worth noting was Taipei’s Hao-Ming Lu, the Reliever of the Year. He had 8.0 WAR, which holds as the TPA record for most ever by the awards winner as of 2037. The third-year righty had 40 saves with a 0.67 ERA over 107 innings with 195 strikeouts, posting a FIP- of 1 and ERA+ of 398.



The best record in the Sundaland Association went to Batam, who had their first-ever winning season. The Blue Raiders were 103-59 atop the Malacca League, ending Medan’s four-year reign. The Marlins were second at 92-70. Defending APB champ Jakarta won a third straight Java League, cruising to the crown at 99-63. The Jaguars scored 621 runs, which surprisingly would hold as the association’s all-time most in a season until 2018.

Both MVP and Pitcher of the Year had repeat winners from the prior season. Palembang outfielder Abracham Gumelar at age 23 improved from the prior year’s award winning year and fell five average points short of a Triple Crown. He smacked 54 home runs with 122 RBI, 77 walks, a .303/.385/.633 slash, 1.017 OPS, and 10.5 WAR. Meanwhile, Jakarta’s Hendrick John in his age 30 season was the leader in wins at 23-10, as well as innings pitched (298.1), complete games (18), and shutouts (6). He posted a 7.9 WAR with a 2.14 ERA and 317 strikeouts.

The Taiwan-Philippine Association Championship saw Manila break through for the second time in their six season run, beating Taipei in six games. Ultimately, this would mark the end of the Manatees run, as their next playoff berth wouldn’t be until the early 1980s. The Tigercats luck would be worse, having to wait until the late 80s to contend again. Meanwhile, Jakarta won a third straight Sundaland Association title, dropping Batam in five



In the sixth Austronesia Championship, Jakarta cruised to a sweep of Manila, making the Jaguars the first back-to-back APB champion. Finals MVP was RF Yao-Lin Ma, who had nine hits, three home runs, and eight RBI in nine playoff games. This ultimately would be the close of their dynasty as well with the next playoff appearance coming in 1982. Still, it was impressive early success for Indonesia’s capital.



Other notes: Taipei’s Chih-Ping Chu drew 102 walks, a single-season APB record that still holds as of 2037. The previous record was 100 by Stanley Susilowati in 1968. Susilowati (SS) and CF Ruben Yu both won their sixth Gold Gloves, the only players to win it in each APB season so far.