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FuzzyRussianHat · 10-10-2025, 09:04 PM

The race for the Northern Conference’s top seed was generally also the race for the West Division title. Three teams finished within three wins of first place and two others were within eight games. East Division champ Warsaw also was right in the mix, but fell one short of the #1 seed at 100-62. The Wildcats still won the division by 12 games for their third straight division crown and fourth consecutive division title.

Defending conference champ Dublin narrowly repeated as West champ at 101-61, earning their fourth straight playoff berth and third division title. Antwerp was two back at 99-63 and Hamburg was three back at 98-64, ending the season with a nine-game winning streak. Both the Airedales and Hammers earned repeat wild cards.

Cardiff (95-67) and Edinburgh (93-69) were next to take the remaining wild cards. The Enforcers got their third berth in four years and the Crew grabbed their third straight and fourth in five years. Cardiff actually had the NC’s best run differential of +158. The next closest in the wild card hunt was the East Division runner-up Helsinki at 88-74, who led the conference with 758 runs. Warsaw had the fewest allowed in the entire European Baseball Federation at 526.

The worst record was Brno at 59-103 at the bottom of the East, finishing seven behind Wroclaw. The Bandits had gotten relegated to the European Second League for 2035, but was promoted right back up to the EBF Elite Tier for 2036. Unfortunately, the roller-coaster continued with another drop. Meanwhile, London was last in the West at 65-97 with their closest foe 70-92 Reykjavik. The Monarchs had been back in the top tier since 2022, but never made the playoffs in their return.

After the season, Krakow would be switched from the Southern Conference to the Northern Conference for geographic balance. For whatever reason, officials decided to include the Canines for the NC’s awards voting despite them playing 2036 in the SC. That allowed Krakow CF Leonid Spasskyi to earn MVP honors with 22 first place votes and 548 points. Antwerp 1B Bohuslav Vlasko had 17 first place votes and 467 points while Amsterdam’s Mihaly Geza had 5 and 426.

Spasskyi was in his seventh season with Krakow and posted 214 hits, 116 runs, 39 home runs, 104 RBI, 19 doubles, 13 triples, .368/.412/.647 slash, 200 wRC+, and 9.8 WAR. The 29-year old Ukrainian lefty was picked fifth in the 2028 EBF Draft by the Canines. After the 2033 season, Spasskyi signed an eight-year, $190,300,000 extension with Krakow.

Pitcher of the Year was Berlin’s Luis Garza with 30 first place votes. Hamburg’s Bastian Auerswald had nine, Wroclaw’s Marc Boulay had seven, and Warsaw’s Marco Roman had six. Garza started his career in MLB with little luck, then came to Europe in 2030 with Cologne. He was traded that winter to Berlin and has emerged as an ace for the Barons since.

The 34-year old Cuban lefty really broke through in 2036 with the ERA title at 2.13, as well as the conference best for WHIP (0.87), FIP- (62), and WAR (7.9). Garza had a 14-5 record, 232.1 innings, 226 strikeouts, and 176 ERA+. Berlin signed him to a five-year, $111 million extension after the 2034 season.

In the first round of the playoffs, Hamburg edged Cardiff 2-1 and Antwerp swept Edinburgh 2-0. The Hammers got back-to-back shutouts to defeat the Crew, then opened round two with a 3-0 shutout of Dublin. The Dinos took the next three to take the series 3-1, winning game four 4-3 in 11 innings.

Dublin earned its third trip in four years to the Northern Conference Championship. Warsaw made it three straight berths as they swept Antwerp 3-0 on the other side. It was the first conference finals rematch since Dublin’s early 2020s dynasty which had repeats facing both Hamburg and Rotterdam. Just like the prior year, the series needed all seven games.

Dublin opened with a 4-3 walkoff win in game one on a Serhiy Mamsurov RBI double. Warsaw earned a 7-3 road win to even it up, but the Dinos matched with a 2-0 game three win in Poland. Game four was a 14 inning showdown concluding with a 6-5 walkoff win for Warsaw. They had scored two in the bottom of the ninth to keep that game alive. The Wildcats then claimed game five 7-4 for the 3-2 advantage as it shifted back to Ireland.

Tied 2-2 in the ninth, Dublin’s Sal Kirwan smacked a two-run walkoff homer to force a decisive game seven. The Dinos got 11 hits in the finale, but were unable to score all game. Warsaw managed an RBI single from OF Yuriy Sapay in the fourth, which was enough for a 1-0 road victory. The Wildcats avenged the prior year’s defeat and earned their second pennant in three years. It was their third in EBF and seventh pennant overall counting their Eurasian Professional Baseball days (1960, 93, 94, 95 in EPB: 2003, 34, 36 in EBF).

Madrid had an impressive turnaround from only 76 wins the prior year. The Conquistadors ended a 16-year playoff drought at 105-57, taking the West Division and the top seed in the Southern Conference. Madrid allowed the conference’s fewest runs at 565, while Budapest scored the most in all of EBF at 823. The 101-61 Bombers earned a fourth straight playoff berth by winning the East Division, their first division title since 2014. Budapest smacked 279 homers as a team, the second-highest in conference history.

All four wild cards came from the West with Zurich the strongest at 97-65. It was a third straight wild card for the Mountaineers, whose pitching staff set conference bests for walks allowed (228) and BB/9 (1.37). The next six best teams were separated by only four wins. Malta (92-70), Zaragoza (91-71) and Seville (90-72) advanced while defending EBF champ Krakow (89-73), Tirana (89-73), and Belgrade (88-74) missed.

It was a huge triumph for the Marvels, who had just gotten promoted as E2L champ in 2035. Malta had been the only charter EBF franchise from 1950 that had never once made it into the playoffs until now; an 87-year wait for the small island nation. The Gold Hawks got back-to-back wild cards, while the Stingrays ended a decade-long drought.

Lyon was relegated from the West at 66-96, eight games from their nearest foe. It was an abrupt collapse for the Lords, who had been European Champion as recently as 2033. They were a playoff team in 2034 and just missed at 87 wins in 2035. Bucharest at 67-95 was demoted in a crowded East, only two behind Tbilisi, three behind Odesa, and four behind Zagreb and Athens. The Broncos were relegated back to E2L after only a three year stint. Things had seemingly been looking up for Bucharest after a 90-72 mark in 2035, but alas.

Leading Malta to their first-ever playoff berth was Southern Conference MVP Balazs Balog, who had 44 first place votes. The Marvels had gotten him in a prospect swap in November 2030 from Cluj-Napoca. In his second-year as a full-time starter, the 23-year old Hungarian 2B led in WAR at 9.9. Balog had 203 hits, 113 runs, 35 doubles, 15 triples, 44 home runs, 118 RBI, 1.026 OPS, and 189 wRC+.

Budapest’s Daan Rossum got seven first place votes, but was fifth in MVP voting despite becoming EBF’s new single-season home run king. The 31-year old Dutch LF smacked 78 dingers, passing Peter Brinkmann’s record 76 that had held since 1999. Rossum’s season ranked as the 12^th-best in all of world history.

He also led the conference in runs (123), RBI (153), and total bases (418); which was one of only 20 seasons of 150+ RBI. Hurting Rossum was a conference-worst 235 strikeouts with a 37.5% strikeout rate and .273 average. This was the 8^th-most Ks in a season by an EBF batter. Exactly 50% of his plate appearances ended in a homer or strikeout and he had only 32 walks.

Vienna was mid-grade at 82-80, but they had the Pitcher of the Year Achim Vetter with 33 first place votes. Five others got a first place vote with Madrid’s Alexander Schafer at 7 and Zurich’s Danila Filinov at 6. Vetter was in his seventh year for the Vultures and led in WAR (8.4) and FIP- (56). The 29-year old German righty had a 2.43 ERA, 17-6 record, 237 innings, 287 Ks, and 155 ERA+. Vetter also had his first EBF no-hitter on May 24 with 13 strikeouts against Chisinau, only missing a perfect game because of two errors.

Zaragoza edged Malta 2-1 in the first round, posting a three-run ninth inning rally to take game three 5-4. Seville swept Zurich on the other side, then shocked top seed Madrid in round two. The Conquistadors won the first two games, but the Stingrays had an improbable rally. Seville survived game three 5-4 in 12 innings and game four 5-3 in ten innings, followed by a 3-1 win in the finale. The Stingrays had only twice made it to the Southern Conference Championship, most recently with their lone pennant way back in 1977.

Budapest bested Zaragoza 3-1 on the other side for their second conference finals in three years. The Bombers had never won a pennant in EBF or in their prior EPB stint. Budapest opened the series with a 6-5 walkoff win, rallying from down 5-4. They had a 4-run eighth inning to claim game two 6-3. Seville won game three back in Spain 5-4, but the Bombers earned a 7-3 road win for game four.

The Stingrays weren’t prepared to surrender, taking a 1-0 pitcher’s duel in game five and a road win in Hungary 7-4 in game six. The Bombers lived up to their name, as three solo homers helped them secure their first pennant with a 4-1 victory in game seven. Budapest became the 43^rd different franchise to appear in the European Championship over its 87-year history.

The 2036 final was the second time that two former EPB teams played for the EBF title, joining the 2008 Kyiv-Bucharest battle. Budapest opened with a 3-2 home win, followed by a 7-6 Warsaw victory in game two. The Wildcats then won three straight in Poland by 7-2, 6-3, and 9-7 to earn their second EBF title in three years. Warsaw had three overall titles, having also claimed the EPB title in 1994.

The game five clincher saw a five-run bottom of the eighth for Warsaw, forcing extras at 7-7. In the tenth inning, Marvin Schalkhauser ended the series on a two-run walkoff homer. Schalkhauser was series MVP, going 7-21 with two homers and 7 RBI. The 31-year old German had 19 hits, 14 runs, 6 doubles, 5 homers, and 12 RBI in the playoffs.

It was the third straight year that the European Champion was Polish with Warsaw’s two wins and Krakow’s in 2035. The only other times the same country had the champ three successive years were Rotterdam’s 2025-27 three-peat and the German wins between Hamburg and Munich from 2019-21.

Other notes: Amsterdam’s Arkadiy Medvedyev had a four home run game on April 22 against London; the 23^rd such game in EBF. For back-to-back years, Gleb Artsimovich hit for the cycle. Zurich’s Walter Meier also had his second cycle, having also done it in 2034. Kharkiv’s Michael Beier had a 36-game hitting streak that carried over from the prior fall, tied for the 8^th-longest streak in EBF history.

Attila Sebek and Kamil Bufka were the 51^st and 52^nd members of the 500 home run club. Eduard Yurkov was the 28^th to 1500 runs scored. Lukasz Heneski was the 65^th pitcher to 3000 strikeouts and Kai James was the 45^th to 200 wins. Dominic Voicu had 39 saves in 2036 for Dublin and became EBF’s new career saves leader. The 35-year old Romanian was the first to 400+, as his 407 passed Wilfried Bergmann’s old EBF record of 387. 1B Waldemar Riemers won his 9^th consecutive Gold Glove.

Promotion/Relegation: See below for the teams moving up-and-down in the European baseball pyramid after 2036’s results.

10-10-2025, 09:04 PM	#2497
FuzzyRussianHat Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 3,018	2036 in EBF The race for the Northern Conference’s top seed was generally also the race for the West Division title. Three teams finished within three wins of first place and two others were within eight games. East Division champ Warsaw also was right in the mix, but fell one short of the #1 seed at 100-62. The Wildcats still won the division by 12 games for their third straight division crown and fourth consecutive division title. Defending conference champ Dublin narrowly repeated as West champ at 101-61, earning their fourth straight playoff berth and third division title. Antwerp was two back at 99-63 and Hamburg was three back at 98-64, ending the season with a nine-game winning streak. Both the Airedales and Hammers earned repeat wild cards. Cardiff (95-67) and Edinburgh (93-69) were next to take the remaining wild cards. The Enforcers got their third berth in four years and the Crew grabbed their third straight and fourth in five years. Cardiff actually had the NC’s best run differential of +158. The next closest in the wild card hunt was the East Division runner-up Helsinki at 88-74, who led the conference with 758 runs. Warsaw had the fewest allowed in the entire European Baseball Federation at 526. The worst record was Brno at 59-103 at the bottom of the East, finishing seven behind Wroclaw. The Bandits had gotten relegated to the European Second League for 2035, but was promoted right back up to the EBF Elite Tier for 2036. Unfortunately, the roller-coaster continued with another drop. Meanwhile, London was last in the West at 65-97 with their closest foe 70-92 Reykjavik. The Monarchs had been back in the top tier since 2022, but never made the playoffs in their return. After the season, Krakow would be switched from the Southern Conference to the Northern Conference for geographic balance. For whatever reason, officials decided to include the Canines for the NC’s awards voting despite them playing 2036 in the SC. That allowed Krakow CF Leonid Spasskyi to earn MVP honors with 22 first place votes and 548 points. Antwerp 1B Bohuslav Vlasko had 17 first place votes and 467 points while Amsterdam’s Mihaly Geza had 5 and 426. Spasskyi was in his seventh season with Krakow and posted 214 hits, 116 runs, 39 home runs, 104 RBI, 19 doubles, 13 triples, .368/.412/.647 slash, 200 wRC+, and 9.8 WAR. The 29-year old Ukrainian lefty was picked fifth in the 2028 EBF Draft by the Canines. After the 2033 season, Spasskyi signed an eight-year, $190,300,000 extension with Krakow. Pitcher of the Year was Berlin’s Luis Garza with 30 first place votes. Hamburg’s Bastian Auerswald had nine, Wroclaw’s Marc Boulay had seven, and Warsaw’s Marco Roman had six. Garza started his career in MLB with little luck, then came to Europe in 2030 with Cologne. He was traded that winter to Berlin and has emerged as an ace for the Barons since. The 34-year old Cuban lefty really broke through in 2036 with the ERA title at 2.13, as well as the conference best for WHIP (0.87), FIP- (62), and WAR (7.9). Garza had a 14-5 record, 232.1 innings, 226 strikeouts, and 176 ERA+. Berlin signed him to a five-year, $111 million extension after the 2034 season. In the first round of the playoffs, Hamburg edged Cardiff 2-1 and Antwerp swept Edinburgh 2-0. The Hammers got back-to-back shutouts to defeat the Crew, then opened round two with a 3-0 shutout of Dublin. The Dinos took the next three to take the series 3-1, winning game four 4-3 in 11 innings. Dublin earned its third trip in four years to the Northern Conference Championship. Warsaw made it three straight berths as they swept Antwerp 3-0 on the other side. It was the first conference finals rematch since Dublin’s early 2020s dynasty which had repeats facing both Hamburg and Rotterdam. Just like the prior year, the series needed all seven games. Dublin opened with a 4-3 walkoff win in game one on a Serhiy Mamsurov RBI double. Warsaw earned a 7-3 road win to even it up, but the Dinos matched with a 2-0 game three win in Poland. Game four was a 14 inning showdown concluding with a 6-5 walkoff win for Warsaw. They had scored two in the bottom of the ninth to keep that game alive. The Wildcats then claimed game five 7-4 for the 3-2 advantage as it shifted back to Ireland. Tied 2-2 in the ninth, Dublin’s Sal Kirwan smacked a two-run walkoff homer to force a decisive game seven. The Dinos got 11 hits in the finale, but were unable to score all game. Warsaw managed an RBI single from OF Yuriy Sapay in the fourth, which was enough for a 1-0 road victory. The Wildcats avenged the prior year’s defeat and earned their second pennant in three years. It was their third in EBF and seventh pennant overall counting their Eurasian Professional Baseball days (1960, 93, 94, 95 in EPB: 2003, 34, 36 in EBF). Madrid had an impressive turnaround from only 76 wins the prior year. The Conquistadors ended a 16-year playoff drought at 105-57, taking the West Division and the top seed in the Southern Conference. Madrid allowed the conference’s fewest runs at 565, while Budapest scored the most in all of EBF at 823. The 101-61 Bombers earned a fourth straight playoff berth by winning the East Division, their first division title since 2014. Budapest smacked 279 homers as a team, the second-highest in conference history. All four wild cards came from the West with Zurich the strongest at 97-65. It was a third straight wild card for the Mountaineers, whose pitching staff set conference bests for walks allowed (228) and BB/9 (1.37). The next six best teams were separated by only four wins. Malta (92-70), Zaragoza (91-71) and Seville (90-72) advanced while defending EBF champ Krakow (89-73), Tirana (89-73), and Belgrade (88-74) missed. It was a huge triumph for the Marvels, who had just gotten promoted as E2L champ in 2035. Malta had been the only charter EBF franchise from 1950 that had never once made it into the playoffs until now; an 87-year wait for the small island nation. The Gold Hawks got back-to-back wild cards, while the Stingrays ended a decade-long drought. Lyon was relegated from the West at 66-96, eight games from their nearest foe. It was an abrupt collapse for the Lords, who had been European Champion as recently as 2033. They were a playoff team in 2034 and just missed at 87 wins in 2035. Bucharest at 67-95 was demoted in a crowded East, only two behind Tbilisi, three behind Odesa, and four behind Zagreb and Athens. The Broncos were relegated back to E2L after only a three year stint. Things had seemingly been looking up for Bucharest after a 90-72 mark in 2035, but alas. Leading Malta to their first-ever playoff berth was Southern Conference MVP Balazs Balog, who had 44 first place votes. The Marvels had gotten him in a prospect swap in November 2030 from Cluj-Napoca. In his second-year as a full-time starter, the 23-year old Hungarian 2B led in WAR at 9.9. Balog had 203 hits, 113 runs, 35 doubles, 15 triples, 44 home runs, 118 RBI, 1.026 OPS, and 189 wRC+. Budapest’s Daan Rossum got seven first place votes, but was fifth in MVP voting despite becoming EBF’s new single-season home run king. The 31-year old Dutch LF smacked 78 dingers, passing Peter Brinkmann’s record 76 that had held since 1999. Rossum’s season ranked as the 12^th-best in all of world history. He also led the conference in runs (123), RBI (153), and total bases (418); which was one of only 20 seasons of 150+ RBI. Hurting Rossum was a conference-worst 235 strikeouts with a 37.5% strikeout rate and .273 average. This was the 8^th-most Ks in a season by an EBF batter. Exactly 50% of his plate appearances ended in a homer or strikeout and he had only 32 walks. Vienna was mid-grade at 82-80, but they had the Pitcher of the Year Achim Vetter with 33 first place votes. Five others got a first place vote with Madrid’s Alexander Schafer at 7 and Zurich’s Danila Filinov at 6. Vetter was in his seventh year for the Vultures and led in WAR (8.4) and FIP- (56). The 29-year old German righty had a 2.43 ERA, 17-6 record, 237 innings, 287 Ks, and 155 ERA+. Vetter also had his first EBF no-hitter on May 24 with 13 strikeouts against Chisinau, only missing a perfect game because of two errors. Zaragoza edged Malta 2-1 in the first round, posting a three-run ninth inning rally to take game three 5-4. Seville swept Zurich on the other side, then shocked top seed Madrid in round two. The Conquistadors won the first two games, but the Stingrays had an improbable rally. Seville survived game three 5-4 in 12 innings and game four 5-3 in ten innings, followed by a 3-1 win in the finale. The Stingrays had only twice made it to the Southern Conference Championship, most recently with their lone pennant way back in 1977. Budapest bested Zaragoza 3-1 on the other side for their second conference finals in three years. The Bombers had never won a pennant in EBF or in their prior EPB stint. Budapest opened the series with a 6-5 walkoff win, rallying from down 5-4. They had a 4-run eighth inning to claim game two 6-3. Seville won game three back in Spain 5-4, but the Bombers earned a 7-3 road win for game four. The Stingrays weren’t prepared to surrender, taking a 1-0 pitcher’s duel in game five and a road win in Hungary 7-4 in game six. The Bombers lived up to their name, as three solo homers helped them secure their first pennant with a 4-1 victory in game seven. Budapest became the 43^rd different franchise to appear in the European Championship over its 87-year history. The 2036 final was the second time that two former EPB teams played for the EBF title, joining the 2008 Kyiv-Bucharest battle. Budapest opened with a 3-2 home win, followed by a 7-6 Warsaw victory in game two. The Wildcats then won three straight in Poland by 7-2, 6-3, and 9-7 to earn their second EBF title in three years. Warsaw had three overall titles, having also claimed the EPB title in 1994. The game five clincher saw a five-run bottom of the eighth for Warsaw, forcing extras at 7-7. In the tenth inning, Marvin Schalkhauser ended the series on a two-run walkoff homer. Schalkhauser was series MVP, going 7-21 with two homers and 7 RBI. The 31-year old German had 19 hits, 14 runs, 6 doubles, 5 homers, and 12 RBI in the playoffs. It was the third straight year that the European Champion was Polish with Warsaw’s two wins and Krakow’s in 2035. The only other times the same country had the champ three successive years were Rotterdam’s 2025-27 three-peat and the German wins between Hamburg and Munich from 2019-21. Other notes: Amsterdam’s Arkadiy Medvedyev had a four home run game on April 22 against London; the 23^rd such game in EBF. For back-to-back years, Gleb Artsimovich hit for the cycle. Zurich’s Walter Meier also had his second cycle, having also done it in 2034. Kharkiv’s Michael Beier had a 36-game hitting streak that carried over from the prior fall, tied for the 8^th-longest streak in EBF history. Attila Sebek and Kamil Bufka were the 51^st and 52^nd members of the 500 home run club. Eduard Yurkov was the 28^th to 1500 runs scored. Lukasz Heneski was the 65^th pitcher to 3000 strikeouts and Kai James was the 45^th to 200 wins. Dominic Voicu had 39 saves in 2036 for Dublin and became EBF’s new career saves leader. The 35-year old Romanian was the first to 400+, as his 407 passed Wilfried Bergmann’s old EBF record of 387. 1B Waldemar Riemers won his 9^th consecutive Gold Glove. Promotion/Relegation: See below for the teams moving up-and-down in the European baseball pyramid after 2036’s results. __________________ Baseball: The World's Game fictional world reports Continental Baseball Federation world reports (8-tier promotion/relegation sim and college feeder)