[FuzzyRussianHat]

In the second season of West African Baseball, Bamako found itself atop the Western League at 107-55. The Bullfrogs were a wild card the prior year, but powered their way to success with 351 home runs; which still stands as of 2037 as the WAB team record by a nice margin. Last year’s WL champ Abidjan took the first wild card spot at 100-62. Accra took the other wild card at 97-66, edging Monrovia in a one-game playoff to advance. Dakar, who was third last year, dropped to seventh at 85-77.

Freetown’s V.J. Balogun was Western League MVP again, dominating with the league lead in runs (128), hits (209), RBI (124), total bases (417), triple slash (.365/.446/.728), OPS (1.174), wRC+ (210), and WAR (11.4). He fell three home runs shy of the Triple Crown was Bamako’s Tsholola Kabangu leading with 58 dingers. Pitcher of the Year was Abidjan’s Erick Mbodji. The 30-year old Sengalais righty was the leader in wins at 23-7 and ERA (2.04), adding 288 strikeouts in 269.2 innings, a 12.0 K/BB, 26 quality starts, and 10.4 WAR.

Abidjan defeated Accra 2-0 in the wild card round to set up a rematch in the second Western League Championship Series. Like last year, the series went all five games. Bamako was able to get revenge on the Athletes to send the capital of Mali to the finale.



It was a tight race at the top of the Eastern League. Lagos, the third place finisher the prior year, took the top spot at 101-61. Defending WAB Kano placed second at 98-64, while Lome and Benin City tied for third at 97-65. The tiebreaker game went to the Lasers to give them their first playoff berth, denying a repeat opportunity for the Blue Devils. Meanwhile, Ouagadougou set a new world record for atrociousness at 6-156.*

Benin City’s Alberto Bissau won the Eastern League MVP. The 27-year old 2B from Guinea-Bissau was the WARlord (11.2) and leader in runs (121), hits (229), total bases (361), average (.357), OBP (.389), OPS (.951), and wRC+ (189). Lagos righty Power Bonou would win the Pitcher of the Year. The 26-year old Beninois led in WAR (9.5) and wins (22-8), adding a 55 FIP-, 2.58 ERA, and 346 strikeouts in 254.2 innings.

Kano edged Lome in three games in the wild card round, The defending champ Condors then surprised Lagos by sweeping them 3-0 in the ELCS. Kano continued to roll by sweeping Bamako 4-0 in the West African Championship, giving the Condors the crown in WAB’s first two seasons. Finals MVP was LF Issa Mahamane. The 30-year old from Niger had 14 hits, 4 runs, and 6 RBI in 10 playoff games.





Other notes: With Ouagadougou’s historically bad season, they were no-hit six times. Two were perfect games with Ibadan’s Cheikh Sow striking out 16 on June 12 and Niamey’s Ide Makinwa striking out 14 on June 22. It was Sow’s second no-hitter. Contonou’s Christian Yamissi set a no-hitter record with 20 strikeouts against the Osprey on June 4. Five days later against Nouakchott, Accra’s Emmanuel Love had his own 20K no-no. This remains the WAB record for strikeouts in a no-hitter, unmatched as of 2037. Contonou’s Jonas Razafinjatovo had a 29-game hit sreak, which held as the WAB record until 1983.

*Editor’s note: An error in my setup would make Ouagadougou comically bad from 1976-78. I had placed a foreign player limit initially that would make each team have at least five players from the home country, but I accidentally forgot to generate players from Burkina Faso. Thus, the Osprey played with only a 20-player roster and were exhausted and abysmal. A similar issue happened to Conakry in 1978 with not enough available players from Guinea. I figured it out and fixed it after the 1978 season and the worst teams went back to merely a normal bad instead of cartoonishly bad.