WoB: Alternate World

CaptainObvious · 11-09-2014, 09:43 PM

Original World of Baseball universe, by dward1
2062 Continental Championships - lots of good background info about country competitions

I'm not so good at creating original worlds or writing descriptive backgrounds. But taking an existing framework and doing interesting stuff with it, that I can do. So I guess this is more or less the bad fan fiction version of World of Baseball. You should definitely check out the original, it's actually interesting and well-written.

Copied [and edited] from the World Cup 2064 thread:
This universe began at the start of the 2064 season, when it split off from the "World of Baseball: South Africa" dynasty's universe. (This is where the copied save file started.) In this universe, the focus is not on the South Africa region, but the world as a whole. There may be some interesting things happening in the local leagues, but the story here will be more about the international competitions and the teams that compete in them. For the most part, things will be very similar to the original universe. The same names and faces are the same at the start, but the futures will likely diverge widely. Already, the 2064 draft class is a very different set of players, though their effects are still minimal as of yet.

This topic starts at the beginning of the 2065 season.

2064 Summary:

League Winners:
NABL: Grand Canyon
SAm: Botafogo
LAm: Cibao
NoE: Vienna
SEE: Benfica
EAs: Guangzhou
SAs: Baghdad
Oc: West Coast
NAf: Dakar
SAf: Kampala

Regional Cups:
Americas: Brooklyn beats Seattle
Europe: Moscow beats Manchester
Asia: Guangzhou beats Jakarta
Africa: Kampala beats Lusaka

Global Cup: (Think EUFA Europa Cup or the NIT if the NCAA tournament only included 16 teams.)
Semifinals:
Motor City over Real Madrid, 2-0
Tokyo over Hong Kong, 2-0

Finals:
Motor City over Tokyo, 3-2

Champions Cup (League winners plus a few other top teams.)
Semifinals:
Vienna over Brooklyn, 3-1
Kampala over Guangzhou, 3-1

Finals: -A true World Series
Vienna over Kampala, 4-1

Then there was the 2064 World Cup in England, which had 90 countries competing to qualify for the final 16-team tournament.

2065 Northern Europe Expansion
Vienna's win of the Champions Cup inspired expansion in Northern Europe for 2065. The 2 new teams are the Nice Aiglons (France) and Trondheim Trolls (Norway's first team).

Thanks to an experimental change to the Expansion Draft (and by "experimental" I mean "oops"), moving the date of the draft to the day after free agent filings, the expansion teams only drafted 1 player and instead filled their rosters with free agents. This resulted in much better expansion teams, but really messed with the free agent market.

CaptainObvious · 11-15-2014, 05:52 PM

Opening day
2065-04-1: Expansion team Trondheim Trolls beat 2064 Champion Cup winners, Vienna. Win series 3-1.
Expansion draft was fairly useless because it happened too early (day after free agency begins). So the expansion teams are made up entirely of pretty good free agents, instead of leftover players.

Round of 64 (Amer/Asia)
2065-04-15: All 64 America Cup teams and the bottom 28 Asia Cup teams play their first round games today.
Surprisingly, all 4 Oceania teams won in the first round. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately?) due to the random draw they all got stuck playing each other in round 2.
Last year's top 2 South America teams knocked out in round 1.
All 6 Western Federation teams knocked out in the first round.

World champion Vienna was under .500 after for most of the first month of the season.

Round of 32
2065-04-28: Europe, bottom of Africa, and the rest of Asia join tournaments. Europe has a full 32 teams now with the NoE expansion, so no one gets a bye.
Thanks to the new world ranking system and Kampala's world 2nd place, South Africa only has 1 team in Africa Cup's bottom 4 this season.

Game of the Round: Antwerp 6 Lille 3 (13)
Upset: Windy City 5, Brooklyn 0. 2064 America Cup winners out in round 2.
13 of 16 2064 international qualifiers are out already in the America Cup.

Round of 16
2065-05-09: The other 14 teams join the Africa Cup. Due to the differences in number of teams and thus different off days compared to the rest of the world, Africa Cup games are actually played 2 days before the other cups.
Africa Cup:
Lusaka 4, Cairo 12. 2064 Africa Cup runners up are out in their first game, against the lowest seed in the cup.
4 from each league left.

2065-05-11:
Asia Cup:
Both remaining Oceania teams win.
5 East Asia, 2 Oceania, 1 South Asia (Kolkata).

Europe Cup:
Stockholm 6, Vienna 0. 2064 world champions Vienna out. They're just not as good as last season (still 22-16, though).
5 South, 3 North. Only 2 of top 8 seeds left (Donetsk, Antwerp), plus defending champions Moscow.

America Cup:
Lots more upsets. Top 4 remaining seeds knocked out, leaving Windy City (#21 of 64) as the top remaining team.
4 NABL, 2 SAm, 2 EF. Yes, 2 teams from the 2nd-tier Eastern Federation outlasted mid-range Latin America.

Halfway point
2065-05-13:
NABL: No one really running away. 4 teams within 1 game of 1st at 26-14 (Grand Canyon, Windy City, Brooklyn, Manhattan).
Federations: Las Vegas is 8-32. Losing half their team at the end of last season was not good.
Latin America: Chivas 24-16, Mexico City 23-17. Chivas finished last in 2064, but has a completely new rotation.
South America: Newell's 1 game ahead of Rio at 29-11.
East Asia: Taipei 28-12. Fukuoka 27-13, and a bell curve behind.
South Asia: Hyderabad up by 3 at 27-13 after finishing last in 2064.
Oceania: Everyone still has a shot at the international cups.
N Europe: St Pauli way ahead at 29-11, then Antwerp at 27-13. 2064 world champs Vienna is back up to the edge of international qualifying at 23-17, tied with expansion Nice.
S Europe: 2064 winners Benfica 28-12, Milan 25-15.
N Africa: Cairo has the best record in the world at 31-9. No one else is close.
S Africa: Addis Ababa 27-13, Johannesburg 26-14. 2064 world #2 Kampala 3rd at 24-16.

Quarterfinals
2065-05-22:
Africa:
Addis Ababa 0, Kampala 1. #1 vs #2 seeds. Only 3 hits each.
Cairo 0, Kaizer 3
Tanzania 2, Algiers 4
Cameroon 5, Ivory Coast 9

2065-05-24:
Asia:
Kia 2, Melbourne 8
Samsung 4, Auckland 1
Taipei 7, Kolkata 3
Tokyo 4, Tianjin 5 (10)
With Tokyo and Kolkata out, Melbourne is actually the top remaining seed (#11).

Europe:
Barcelona 12, Moscow 10. 2064 cup winners out due to lack of pitching.
Milan 1, Zenit 5
Antwerp 2, Donetsk 8
Stockholm 1, St Pauli 15

America:
Atlanta 2, Caracas 9
Corinthians 2, West Texas 11
Bronx 3, Memphis 0
Baltimore 5, Windy City 4. An East Fed team in the semis. If somehow Baltimore wins the cup, international rules may need to change its rules to give a Global Cup spot to the top Federation team.

Semifinals
Africa:
2065-06-04:
Algiers 1, Kampala 4
Ivory Coast 8, Kaizer 9
Kampala (34-26) and Kaizer (33-27) are also fighting for the last South Africa international spot.

Asia:
2065-06-06:
Taipei 1, Melbourne 2 (17). Taipei (41-21) loads the bases in the 13th and 14th, but can't score.
Samsung 1, Tianjin 0. Samsung only with 1 hit, 1 walk, but gets an unearned run in the 8th after 2 errors.

Europe:
Donetsk 1, Zenit 2
St Pauli 11, Barcelona 9 (10)

America:
Baltimore 9, West Texas 10. It was 8-2, but then Baltimore's bullpen happened. Had they somehow won the cup, the East Fed would be introduced to international play.
Bronx 1, Caracas 3

Cup Finals
2065-06-17:
Many low seeds made it to the cup finals this year. The only expected team is Kampala. Ranks listed here are cup seeds, not world ranks.

#1 Kampala 7, #10 Kaizer 9 (13). Both teams with 2 in the 7th and 9th, 1 in the 11th and 12th.
Kampala will need to actually finish well to get back into international play. Champions Cup looks unlikely.

2065-06-19:
#12 Samsung 1, #11 Melbourne 4
An Oceania team actually won a cup??? This is bad news for potential GC wild card bids.

#24 St Pauli 1, #21 Zenit 4
Fortunately for St Pauli, they're still a close 2nd in league play.

#39 Caracas 10, #28 West Texas 3
Not even close. West Texas should still qualify for the Global Cup with their regular season record.

End of Regular Season
2065-06-25:
Cairo went from last place, 27 wins to 1st place, 57 wins.
Europe Cup winners Zenit finished last in South Europe.

2065-06-26:
East Asia 1st place tiebreaker (53-27): Taipei 10, Yomiuri 1.

International Qualifying
Champions Cup:
Automatic Bids: Taipei (EAs), America (LA), Grand Canyon (NA1), Brooklyn (NA2), Antwerp(NoE), Benfica (SEE),

Play ins:
2-0:
Cibao (LA2) over Auckland (Oc)
Texas (NA5) over Newell (SAm)
San Fernando (NA3) over St Pauli (NoE2)
Hyderabad (SAs) over Yomiuri (EAs2)
Windy City (NA4) over Cairo (NAf)
2-1:
Addis Ababa (SAf) over Milan (SEE 2)

Champions Cup Groups:
2 automatic qualifiers and 2 CCP winners distributed to each group.
A: Antwerp, America, Addis Ababa, San Fernando
B: Brooklyn, Taipei, Cibao, Hyderabad
C: Grand Canyon, Benfica, Texas, Windy City

Global Cup:
6 CCP Losers: Auckland, Newell, St Pauli, Yomiuri, Cairo, Milan
4 Cup winners (If winner in CC/CCP, try runner-up, then semifinalists by coefficient): Kaizer, Caracas, Melbourne, Zenit
2 Returning Champions, if not in CC/GC yet: Vienna (CC), Motor City (GC)
19 Top 2 per league (1 Oceania) not yet qualified: Fukuoka, Samsung, Mexico City, Santo Domingo, Angola, Algiers, West Texas, Boston, Gladbach, Toulouse, West Coast, Johannesburg, Kampala, Boca, Corinthians, Dubai, Istanbul, Anzhi, Real Madrid
1+ Wildcard (Top 5-year coefficient not yet qualified. More teams if either returning champs in CC/CCP/Cup winners): Tokyo (#4, 2064 GC finalist)

dward1 · 11-22-2014, 11:40 AM

interestingly, Salt Lake (a Western Federation team) won back to back Cup of the Americas to qualify for the Global Cup. Think it was '62 and '63. Craziness

CaptainObvious · 11-25-2014, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dward1

interestingly, Salt Lake (a Western Federation team) won back to back Cup of the Americas to qualify for the Global Cup. Think it was '62 and '63. Craziness

They brought in a few legit stars in the 2065-2066 offseason, so 2066 should be interesting for them. Considering somehow promoting them to NABL down the road if they keep things up (or maybe some sort of realignment / folding of the Federations).

CaptainObvious · 11-25-2014, 08:59 PM

International Cups
Global Cup
[Home team listed second.]

Round 1 (3065-05-29)
West Coast 8, Auckland 5. Auckland eliminated from both cups by Australian teams this year.
Kampala 3, Zenit 4
Motor City 1, Istanbul 2
Yomiuri 2, Dubai 1 (11).
Fukuoka 5, Johannesburg 1. The closest 1st-round matchup (based on 2064 rankings).
Samsung 5, Boston 3
Santo Domingo 3, West Texas 4
Newell 1, Toulouse 3
Real Madrid 7, St Pauli 5
Tokyo 10, Corinthians 4
Melbourne 2, Caracas 6
Boca 6, Cairo 1
Milan 8, Algiers 0
Gladbach 4, Angola 5
Anzhi 5, Mexico City 7
Vienna 3, Kaizer 1

Round 2 (3065-05-30)
Istanbul 0, Samsung 17
Angola 3, Yomiuri 1
West Texas 6, Milan 0
Fukuoka 2, Vienna 3
Mexico City 7, Real Madrid 8
Toulouse 11, Tokyo 9 (10). Tokyo with 6 in bottom 9.
Zenit 2, Boca 1
Caracas 2, West Coast 7

Quarterfinals
Angola 7, Samsung 4
Zenit 8, Real Madrid 3
West Texas 7, Vienna 1
Toulouse 6, West Coast 5 (12)

Champions Cup, RR 1st half
America 3-0
San Fernando 2-1
Addis Ababa 1-2
Antwerp 0-3

Brooklyn 3-0
Taipei 1-2
Cibao 1-2
Hyderabad 1-2

Texas 3-0
Grand Canyon 1-2
Benfica 1-2
Windy City 1-2

3 NABLs and a SAm in the top 4.

Global Cup Semifinals
Toulouse 2, Zenit 0
Game 3:
Angola 2, West Texas 3 (10). West Texas with 1 in the 9th, 2 in the 10th to get to the finals.

Champions Cup RR
America 5-1
San Fernando 4-2

Brooklyn 5-1
Taipei 3-3

Texas 5-1
Benfica 3-3

No changes in the standings since 3 days ago. San Fernando gets the last spot.

Champions Cup Semifinals, Global Cup final
America 2, Brooklyn 0
Texas 1, San Fernando 0
Toulouse 7, West Texas 18

America 4, Brooklyn 5
Texas 6, San Fernando 8
Toulouse 4, West Texas 2
All series 1-1.

West Texas 3, Toulouse 4 (10)
Brooklyn 1, America 2 (10)
San Fernando 3, Texas 0

West Texas 1, Toulouse 0. 2-hitter.
Brooklyn 11, America 7. 7 in the 8th, was 6-4.
San Fernando 1, Texas 0. Texas loads bases bottom of 9th.

Game 5
America 3, Brooklyn 4
Toulouse 4, West Texas 5 (11). Toulouse with 4 top 9, West Texas 2 bottom 9. Game ends on solo HR by pinch hitter Sakutaro Kubo (22 year old CF, 2062 East Asia #1 pick, picked up as minor league free agent from Caracas.)
West Texas wins the Global Cup finals, 3-2.

Champions Final
World #7 Brooklyn vs #77 San Fernando (NABL #2 and #3. NABL #1 Grand Canyon fell short in round robin just like last season.)
Brooklyn led NABL in runs and was 2nd in bullpen, but low in starters.
San Fernando was 2nd in HRs and 1st in bullpen.

San Fernando 3, Brooklyn 10. 7 in the 6th, including a grand slam by LF Joel Waters, his 4th of 2065.
San Fernando 4, Brooklyn 5. All runs off starters.
Brooklyn 2, San Fernando 6. Winter + Black go 2-4, 2 RBI each.
Brooklyn 3, San Fernando 11. 9-0 after 5. 4 HR from different players for San Fernando, even with the wind blowing in.
Brooklyn 6, San Fernando 3. All runs on homeruns. Another Waters grand slam top 3 makes it 6-2, knocks out starter.
San Fernando 3, Brooklyn 10. Clement Lawlor: 3-4, 2 HR, 7 RBI. (Grand slam, 3-run HR, both of starter Schroder.)

Brooklyn wins, 4-2.

2065 Postseason
NABL #1 is in the league rankings this year, obviously.
League coefficients (2 seasons):
NABL 12.764
NoE 10.400
LAm 9.000
SEE 8.600
EAs 8.433
SAs 6.333
SAf 5.750
SAm 5.000
NAf 3.000
Oc 1.333
(EF+WF do not participate in global cups and thus have no score.)
East Asia is lower than expected. South Africa is higher than normal thanks to Kampala's 2064 run.

Top 20 teams (2 seasons)
Brooklyn 28.442
Vienna 21.751
San Fernando 18.026
Cibao 16.643
Texas 16.108
Kampala 16
Benfica 15.72
Grand Canyon 15.553
Tokyo 15.362
Motor City 14.911
West Texas 13.761
Real Madrid 13.393
America 13.3
Antwerp 12.738
Toulouse 12
Addis Ababa 10.921
Guangzhou 10.529
London 10.429
Windy City 10.05
Donetsk 9.341
(NABL 7, NoE 4, SEE 3, LA 2, SAf 2, EAs 2)

CaptainObvious · 11-25-2014, 09:35 PM

2065-2066 Offseason
Despite mostly dominating last season, NABL lost a CC play-in spot to NoE.

Expansion Plans
Likely future expansion locations:
NABL+subfeds: WF expansion into in western Canada.
E Asia: China, Taiwan
SEE: Kazakstan, Czech.
S Asia: India, Turkey, Bangladesh
NoE: Switzerland, Wales (Cardiff), Spain, England
S Am: none
LA: Puerto Rico
Oc: PNG, Australia
N Af: Algeria, Morocco
S Af: Kenya, S Africa

Expansion is unlikely for a few seasons in America, Europe due to exact power of 2 teams for convenient cup play.
America Cup would require an extra cup prelim date if it expands again. Most likely, bottom ranked Federation teams will be left out of the cup entirely. Maybe they'd start their own cup.

Free Agent Signings (as of 3026-01-25):
28 yo SP Jeremy Hampton (Windy City, from Columbus), 14.9/yr, 6 yr. 2059 NABL #1 pick. 47-43 for a sub-.400 team.
32 yo SP Reinhard Kohncke (Moscow, from Bronx), 12.5/yr, 3 yr.
28 yo 2B Umberto Frassetto (London, from Toulouse), 12.7/yr, 5 yr. 2064 SEE Batter of the Year and Gold Glove for Athens.
27 yo CF Joe Newman (Brooklyn, from Jacksonville), 12.8/yr, 7yr. .348 in 2065. 2060 NABL RotY.
28 yo SP Julian Castro (Brooklyn, from Barranquilla), 12.4/yr, 6 yr. Last 2 seasons: 24-12, 1.92 ERA, 12 shutouts.
22 yo SS Koriako Kitakawa (Kia, from Wuhan), 9/yr, 2yr. He only played 9 games in 2 seasons and isn't projected to be very good, but apparently Kia thinks he's underrated.
36 yo LF Rens van def Ban (Manchester, from Nice), 7.9/yr, 3yr. .318, 11 HR, 40 RBI in 2065. An above average player.
25 yo CL Rullu MeHeshi (Lille, from Motor City), 7.8/yr, 3yr. 59/74 career saves, 1.87 career ERA.
37 yo 3B Jesus Blindheim (Memphis, from Miami), 7/yr, 3 yr. All-around average player, except a great eye. His 7th different NABL team.
23 yo CF Billy Brown (Salt Lake, from Colorado), 7.5/yr, 5 yr. He could have been a star in any league, but he chose to stay in the 6-year-old West Fed, where he is the all-time Home Run leader (97, tied with teammate Gerald Hobbs). Salt Lake made several expensive signings this season and now have 3 of the 4 top salaries in the West Fed and almost twice the payroll of the next highest team. Salt Lake is clearly the strongest team in the Federations, winning the West in 5 of its 6 seasons.
27 yo 3B Bhasin Noorzai (Ivory Coast, from Ajax), 9.2/yr, 6 yr. The greatest baseball player from Bangladesh ever. 2057 South Asia #1 pick, probably one of the best hitters in the world currently. .347 career average, 50 HR, 145 RBI in the last 2 seasons.

2066 South Asia Expansion
2066-01-25:
Dhaka Abahani (Bangladesh's 1st team, thanks to a good showing at the 2064 World Cup and also the rise in baseball's popularity thanks to Bhasin Noorzai.)
Izmir Göz (Turkey's 3rd team)

Both teams picked 27 players to fill their rosters. There wasn't any top talent available, so these teams should struggle for a while.
These will be relatively small market cities compared to the reset of the league.
This should be the last expansion in South Asia for a while, as it has expanded twice in the last 3 years.

New in 2066
Federations Championship
The winners of the Western + Eastern Federations will meet at the end of the season, during the Champions Cup Play-ins. It will likely be Pittsburgh vs Salt Lake (combined winners 8 of 10 league-seasons).

Opening Day
2066-04-01:
81 games to be played worldwide.

First game of the year:
Melbourne 7, Auckland 6. The defending Asia Cup winnners scored 5 in the top of the 9th to beat the 2065 Oceania League winners.

Both expansion teams won:
Dhaka 6, Tehran 3
Galatasaray 5, Izmir 6 (11)

Initial cup draws drawn for America, Asia Cups.
Defending America Cup winner, #18 seed Caracas, plays at #50 Santa Cruz.
Only 16 teams get byes in the Asia Cup this year as the field has expanded to 48.

Round of 64
2066-04-15:
Cup coverage will include the top 4 remaining seeds plus the previous year's winner. Plus interesting results (extra innings, big comebacks/scores).

#1 Brooklyn 9, #19 Montreal 3
#64 Arizona 3, #2 San Fernando 12
#3 Cibao 1, #24 Havana 7
#27 Montego Bay 2, #4 Texas 3 (10) C Ruben Vega scores the tying and go-ahead runs in the 8th and 10th.
#18 Caracas 6, #50 Santa Cruz 0

With Cibao, America, and Santo Domingo losing, the top remaining non-NABL team remaining is #11 Botafogo.

Round of 32
2066-04-26: Africa Cup's bottom 4 teams start today.
2066-04-28: Europe Cup starts. Top third of Asia Cup joins.

Asia Cup:
#32 Tianjin 2, #16 Melbourne 5. Defending champs easily win the first game of the day.
#1 Tokyo 2, Dhaka 1. The 2064 Global Cup runners up barely hold on to beat the better of the two expansion teams.
#2 Guangzhou 5, #5 Baghdad 4 (12). There's always that one early game where top teams unfortunately draw each other. This was one of those. Baghdad had 2nd+3rd, 1 out bottom of 12th, but only got 1.
#3 Hyderabad 1, #4 Taipei 0 (20) This year, it was actually 2 really bad draws for top teams. This game took just over 6 hours. A solo HR by 2B Arun Kishore, his first in cup/international play, in the top of the 20th was the only run. Taipei's starter had a complete game shutout if only his team had scored. Taipei struck out 20 as a team.
Teams remaining: EAs: 10, SAs: 3, Oc: 3

Europe Cup:
#1 Vienna 5, #7 Donetsk 1 (14). The 2064 world champs are still struggling in league play, so maybe they can get a good cup run in.
#2 Benfica 11, #14 St. Pauli 6
#3 Real Madrid 2, #4 Antwerp 3. The best matchup of the first round.
#22 Barcelona 7, #8 Zenit 3. Defending champs out in the first round.

America Cup:
#1 Brooklyn 5, #6 Motor City 3.
#2 San Fernando 2, #57 Colorado 1. Should have been another easy West Fed game for the Valley Cats, but this one was close.
#4 Texas 4, #44 Bahia 1
#5 Grand Canyon 5, #13 Vancouver 3
#33 Bronx 3, #18 Caracas 9
#14 Miami 11, #56 New Orleans 7(10). New Orleans scores 5 in bottom 9 to tie it, but has no bullpen.
Teams remaining: NABL: 8, SAm: 3, LA: 1, EF: 2, WF: 1

4 of the top 5 seeds still in it. #63 Minnesota is one of 3 remaining Federation teams. Havana, the only Latin America team to win in round 1, is still in.

2066-05-01
There will be a feature article on a random team every month in order to give a better feel for the teams in this world. There are 162 teams and there is likely to be on average 1 new team a year, so we'll get through everyone in maybe 14 years.

Random team of the month: Barcelona Cules
Current: 10-18, tied 12th place (14th of 14 in power rankings). Beat 2065 Europe Cup winners Zenit in the first round. Faces #1 Vienna in Europe Cup 2nd round.
Rank: EU: 22 of 32, World: 93 of 146.
Last season: 36-44, 10th place SEE. Europe Cup semifinalist.

SEE Championships: 2049, 2060.
Legends:
SP Kelvin Johnston (2050-2058, 56-40, 2.68 ERA)
CL Edoardo Botte (2053-2064, 123 saves)
1B Ergun Yakin (2051-2057, .274 AVG)

Manager: Qian Hu (2-2, hired 5 days ago) 3rd manager since start of 2065. He was an unknown relief pitcher in the '40s.
Payroll: 67.9m, 2nd in SEE.

Key Players:
SS Iwo Hyska (2065: .291, 10 HR, 31 RBI). 1st round pick in 2059. Not as fast as scouts thought he would be, but otherwise has worked out pretty well. Has had problems with injuries and fielding the last few seasons. Usually in the league leaders in OBP.
RF "Drummer" Valdes (2065: .276, 18, 54). Came back to his homeland, Spain, after sitting on the bench for Windy City for 4 years. Last season split time at 1B/RF.
C Reagan Hayes. 2063 NABL rookie of the year, but mediocre since then. Bought from Detroit before 2065. Had a major injury at the end of the season. His backup, Javier Jimenez, has been playing better in limited time since coming over from Zenit, so Hayes may be running out of time.
SP "Clutch" Howard (2065: 10-5, 2.99). 1-4, 6.13 in the first month of this season. Had a complete game shutout in the Europe Cup last year. Barcelona's only active pitcher with a career ERA under 4 and a .500+ winning percentage.

Barcelona was one of 8 founding Southeast Europe League teams in 2043. While the league was still split into 2 divisions, Barcelona was always one of the worst teams. With the 2049 merging of the divisions and expansion from 8 to 10 teams, they managed to turn things around, finishing 1st in 2049 and 2nd the next 3 seasons.
Things got pretty bad for a while, but when the league once again expanded in 2059, they jumped back up, even winning the league in 2060.

The front office prefers to buy talent rather than develop it internally. Due to poor scouting, the team is usually below average. But every decade or so they bring in the right set of pieces and win the league (or go on a cup run).

2065 could have gone much better if their #4/#5 starters didn't combine for 3-17, 6.81. Buying LF Raul Zamora from Santa Cruz in 2063 has hurt. Last season he hit .191 while getting paid 11.6m. Now he is sitting on the reserve roster and making 13.8m.

2066 isn't looking much better. The team is 4th in the league offensively, but last in pitching and near the bottom defensively. The only bright spot so far is 2B Raul Reyes, who leads SEE with a .405 AVG, but he's out for a month (a third of the regular season) due to a rib injury.

CaptainObvious · 11-27-2014, 12:06 AM

Round of 16
2066-05-09:
The first Africa Cup game for most of the teams.

Africa Cup:
#13 Tanzania 1, #1 Kampala 8.
#6 Johannesburg 3, #2 Addis Ababa 1. Winning run at the plate with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th.
#11 Dakar 1, #3 Angola 0. Dakar can't win in league play (11-25), so they're hoping for a good cup run.
#8 Algiers 9, #4 Ivory Coast 4.
#15 Accra 1, #10 Kazier 3. 2065 cup winners defend the cup with a very ordinary win.
Teams remaining: SAf: 4, NAf: 4

2066-05-11:
Asia Cup
#1 Tokyo 4, #36 Jiangsu 3. Late comeback for the Swallows, but it still counts.
#9 Sichuan 0, #2 Guangzhou 1
#3 Hyderabad 0, #37 Orix 8. Not really an upset, though. Orix is near the top of East Asia this season and Hyderabad is below .500.
#7 Samsung 2, #16 Melbourne 3. Melbourne (29-9) finally faces tougher competition in the cup. Scores 3 bottom of 9th of Germany's World cup closer. Imelmann.
6 East Asia teams left.

Europe Cup
#22 Barcelona 4, #1 Vienna 3. The recently-featured team has now knocked off the defending cup winners and the top seed. Next up is the team that beat them in the semifinals last year, St Pauli.
#4 Antwerp 2, #12 Gladbach 5. Strachan with his 2nd cup save for Gladbach.
#5 Toulouse 0, #10 Anzhi 7. After leading France to the World Cup semifinals in 2064 and having a breakout season in 2065 (10-5, 1.92), Axel Lemoine is 0-4 this year. Anzhi gets him for 6 in 6 innings.
#29 Napoli 2, #6 London 4
Lots of upsets this round. #32 (of 32) Trondheim still alive after beating Leeds, Juventus.

America Cup
#1 Brooklyn 4, #17 Seattle 1.
#45 Medellin 13, #2 San Fernando 3.
#4 Texas 5, #22 Bogota 0.
#5 Grand Canyon 9, #55 Albuquerque 4.
#52 Atlanta 1, #18 Caracas 2. Caracas keeps getting fortunate matchups and keeps taking advantage of them.
Surprise team: #63 Minnesota. Beat Windy City, Lima, Corinthians.

Halfway
2066-05-13:
NABL: Grand Canyon 26-14, followed by Boston and Brooklyn, then Motor City.
Federations: Pittsburgh just caught New Orleans at 24-16. Las Vegas and Salt Lake running away in the west (28-12, 26-14). Las Vegas with hitting, Salt Lake with pitching.
SAm: Boca (29-11) 3 ahead of Botofogo.
LAm: Guatemala (26-14) 2 ahead of America. Looking for their first Champions Cup bid. Cibao is closing fast, though, having won 11 of their last 12.
NoE: Antwerp (26-14), Ajax (25-15), Leeds (24-16), and Trondheim fighting for the now 3 Champions Cup spots. Several teams at 22-18 looking to get that last GC spot.
SEE: Juventus 27-13 behind Alan Pedrazzolli (6-0, 0.68), Moscow and St Petersburg 4 back.
NAf: Cairo 29-11 3 ahead of Cameroon. Bhasin Noorzai (Ivory Coast) on his way to a possible triple crown (.407, 17 HR, 40 RBI). On pace to break the North Africa single season HR record (33).
SAf: The tightest of all leagues. 3-way tie at 22-18 (Johannesburg, Kenya, Tanzania). Last place is only 4 games back. Abdelwahab Awotwe (Kenya) currently has the pitching triple crown (8-2. 0.82, 105 Ks).
EAs: Sichuan at 27-13, followed closely by Taipei and Tokyo and then a whole bunch of teams. Hiroshima has the worst record in the world by far at 7-33. They are last in the league in almost every hitting category and also starter ERA.
SAs: Sepahan (25-15) is a game ahead of Delhi, Galatasaray, and expansion team Dhaka. Bhuper Parantp (Dhaka) has a good shot at a triple crown (.354, 14, 43), but Kyu-min Kim (Izmir) is 2nd in every category (.351, 12, 36).
Oc: Melbourne has the best record in the world (30-10) and leads by 12 games. League pitching has gotten much worse since last season, going from a 3.91 to a 4.50 ERA, just ahead of the league ERA in its inaugural season.

Quarterfinals
2066-05-22:
Africa Cup
#8 Algiers 2, #7 Cairo 4 (11). Fikrce Essaid goes all 11 for Cairo.
#1 Kampala 1, #16 Cameroon 8. This game was out of reach early. Kampala (24-24) has been on a roll lately and will need to continue to play well if they want to reach a postseason cup.
#6 Johannesburg 8, #11 Dakar 4 (10). Dakar with 2 in the 7ths and 9th to tie it. Bases loaded walk and a balk by Dakar's closer in the top of the 10th.
#12 Lusaka 0, #10 Kaizer 3.

2066-05-24:
Asia Cup
#12 Fukuoka 5, #1 Tokyo 10
#16 Melbourne 0, #10 Yomiuri 4. Melbourne's cup draw luck finally runs out.
#15 Shanghai 3, #37 Orix 2
#17 Dubai 2, #2 Guangzhou 3
An all-East Asia semifinals.

Europe Cup
#6 London 2, #10 Anzhi 0
#18 Rome 4, #32 Trondheim 1
#22 Barcelona 2, #14 St Pauli 8. St Pauli loads the bases repeatedly, scores repeatedly, knocks out Barcelona again.
#12 Gladbach 6, #17 Stockholm 2

America Cup
#63 Minnesota 4, #4 Texas 11. Minnesota's starter gives up 8 in 1+ inning.
#45 Medellin 1, #5 Grand Canyon 11. Medellin's starter doesn't make it out of the 1st.
#18 Caracas 4, #31 Charlotte 9. 8-2 after 4.
#1 Brooklyn 12, #14 Miami 5.
The NABL teams really jumped on opposing starters this round. The remaining teams are 4 of NABL's current top 8, an unexpectedly expected result.

Only 2 returning semifinalists from 2065: Kaizer and St Pauli.

2066-06-01:
Random team of the month: Bayern Stars (Munich)
Current: 31-26, tied 5th place (8th of 18 in power rankings).
Europe Cup: Lost to Toulouse, 1st round.
Rank: EU: 21 of 32, World: 87 of 146.
Last season: 40-40, 11th place NoE. Lost 1st round to Gladbach.

NoE Championships: 2048
Champions Cup Qualification: 2063
Global Cup Qualification: 2058, 2059, 2061

Legends:
RF Joao Rugeroni (2044-2052) .311, 140 HR, 428 RBI. Franchise leader in most career averages, power stats by far. Entered Hall of Fame in 2062
CF/LF Rens van der Ban (2050-2056, 2061-2064) 777 H, 181 SB. 2051 RotY. Came back after 4 years in Charlotte.
SP/SU Andrew Rijsdijk (2043-2049) 48-20, 2.13, 6.01 K/BB. 2044, 2045 OPA (pitcher of the year). Despite being the best pitcher in NoE 2 years in a row, he got moved to the bullpen in 2046, where he had a 0.74 ERA. (This was some pretty bad managing.)

Manager: Marc Wolff (71-66, 2nd season) Favors small ball. 2nd managing job. Previously a bench coach in LAm and NAf.
Payroll: 75.4m, 4th in NoE.
Stadium: Allianz Arena. 436 ft to center, deep gaps. Often a strong wind blowing in from right.

Key Players:
SS "Love Machine" Scoggins (2065: .311, 20 SB for Albuquerque [EFed]). .460 OBP in 54 games. Probably the best Federation SS since he joined it at age 19. Only 25. Walks more than he strikes out and fields pretty good.
1B Hayden Kirton (2065: .355, 30 HR, 83 RBI for Vienna) 2060, 2061 SEE MVP, 2065 NoE MVP. He was a major part of Vienna's 2064 Champions Cup win. Scouts say he's starting to age (33), so he didn't get as much in free agency as you'd think one of the top power hitters in Europe would get. His numbers so far this season are down, but not bad.
LF Eustace Fraenckel (2065: .315, 12, 41 in 52 games.) Above average at pretty much everything except staying healthy. Came over from Antwerp before last season.
SP Jaroslaw Drugnowski (2065: 8-5, 2.52 for Benfica). Another shrewd offseason pickup, took a 40% paycut since last season. #2 pick of 2059 SEE. Really great stuff, but no control.
CL "Crab" Ridehalgh (2065: 0.44, 12 SV for Sydney). 0.74, 5-1, 11 SV. 2050 1st round pick by London. Had a 100 mph fastball at the time. Maybe the best closer in the world 5 years ago, but then he missed most of 2061 and 2062 due to injury. Might retire after his contract ends next season.

Bayern was one of 8 founding Northern Europe League teams in 2043. They were one of the top teams in the 40s, winning the division 3 of 6 times.

The stadium has almost always been full and the payroll is usually among the top 5 in the league. The current (new and experienced) GM is focussed on brining in players who can get on base a lot. (He's also the only Swazi coach in the world currently.)

2065 was a transition year for the Stars. Two starters had ERAs far below 3, but they were countered by Howard Bent (3-8, 7.78). 4 of the starters and also the closer left at the end of the season. Vedal (2B) is the only offensive starter remaining from 2 seasons ago. (Hence why the above Key Players are mention recent signings.)

2066 has been a little better, mainly due to the vastly improved bullpen, now the best in the league (12-2, 2.48 ERA). The starting pitchers have been fairly poor, though. Offensively, after adjusting for the effects of their home field, they are right around average. The way Northern Europe is right now, with 13 teams within 5 games of 1st, it will likely be a fight to the finish for one of 5 cup spots.

In sad news, 2064 World Cup standout and Vienna star Dane Pew's career was ended when he got a concussion running into the wall while making a catch on April 16th at Bayern.

CaptainObvious · 12-03-2014, 07:44 PM

Semifinals
2066-06-04:
Africa Cup
Kaizer 8, Cairo 2. Kaizer might actually be able to pull off back-to-back cups. Jiro Yamaguchi in the cup: 15 IP, 1 ER, 3 H.
Johannesburg 2, Cameroon 3. Bashir Hauli with a walkoff single.
Cameroon is the most improved team in Africa this season, ahead of last season by 18 games.

2066-06-06:
Asia Cup
Yomiuri 1, Tokyo 5. Carlos Rubio with 2 HRs as the Swallows win the 2066 Battle of Tokyo.
Guangzhou 6, Shanghai 4. Guangzhou with 6 in the 8th, capped off by a bases loaded triple by Jian-Zhang Tsai.

Europe Cup
Gladbach 1, St Pauli 2. Douggie Brinklow with a walkoff homerun to lead off the 9th, and St Pauli is back in the finals again.
London 7, Rome 16. Fiers Mnjskin with 3-run homers in the 5th and 7th put this one out of reach.

America Cup
Brooklyn 6, Grand Canyon 3. The 1st and 2nd place NABL teams don't really need to win the cup, but it would a nice bonus. Brooklyn with 5 in the 5th to knock out Koumura.
Charlotte 4, Texas 5 (10). Charlotte led most of the game, but after they didn't score with bases loaded and no out in the 8th, Texas tied it at 4. Texas loaded them in the 9th with 1 out, but also didn't score. A 2-out error in the 10th led to Craig Vincent's walk-off single.

Cup Finals
2066-06-17:
Africa
#10 Kaizer (36-36, 3rd, 3GB) vs #16 Cameroon (47-25, 2nd, 4GB)
Kaizer tied the game twice, but never led. Nader Abe with a solo HR early and the game-winning sac fly in the 8th. With Cameroon's cup win, 4th place in North Africa will get into the Global Cup.
Cameroon 5, Kaizer 4

2066-06-19:
Asia
#1 Tokyo (48-26, t-2nd, 2GB) vs #2 Guangzhou (47-27, 4th)
2 of the top 26-year-old starters face off. No score after the 5th, then Tokyo started scoring. "Glance" Sun is having a great season in his last year of arbitration.
Tokyo 5, Guangzhou 0

Europe
#18 Rome (37-37, 8th, 12GB) vs #14 St Pauli (27-47, 17th, 18GB)
Both teams need to win to make the postseason cups. Rome led for the middle third of the game. "Prophet" Vis knocked out Rome's starter in the 7th with the go-ahead 3-run homer.
St Pauli 6, Rome 4

America
#4 Texas (44-30, 3rd) vs #1 Brooklyn (47-27, t-1st)
Brooklyn looking to pick up where it left off in 2064 after last years flukes.
This was a classic. Both starters left in the 7th after giving up 2 runs. Ferrand and Vega started the 12th with back-to-back homers. Brooklyn got a double to start its half, but unwisely sacrificed 2 outs to move the runner around.
As it stands, both teams should at least be in the CCPlayoffs, so the Global Cup spot will actually go to only semifinals not likely to finish in the NABL top 4, Charlotte. (If they manage to take 4th, then the spot goes to the quarterfinalist with the highest coefficient, Miami).
Texas 4, Brooklyn 3 (12)

End of Regular Season
2065-06-25:
Salt Lake sweeps Las Vegas to come back from 2 back with 3 left to go.
NABL Triple Crown: Jared Jones, Detroit (.348, 30, 82)

2065-06-26:
Tiebreakers!
Oceania (46-34) Melbourne 2, West Coast 9
South Africa (42-38) Kenya 7, Addis Ababa 0
Southeast Europe (51-29) Moscow 6, St Petersburg 3
NABL (52-28) Grand Canyon 4, Brooklyn 8
East Fed (43-37) Pittsburgh 3, New Orleans 2. Norfolk 5, Pittsburgh 2. New Orleans 3, Norfolk 2.

2065-06-27
Global Cup qualification tiebreakers
EAs: Fukuoka 3, Shanghai 4
NoE: Paris 4, Liverpool 3. Ajax 4, Paris 3. Liverpool 5, Ajax 4.
SAf: Tanzania 3, Zimbabwe 4. Johannesburg 2, Kaizer 5. Zimbabwe 2, Kaizer 0.
SAs: Galatasaray 5, Delhi 4
SEE: Donetsk 1, Milan 4

International Qualifying
Champions Cup:
Automatic Bids:
Taipei (EAs), Guatemala (LA), Brooklyn (NA1), Grand Canyon (NA2), Antwerp(NoE), Moscow (SEE),

Play ins:
2-0:
Lille (NoE2) over Texas (NA3)
Kenya (SAf) over Cairo (NAf)
Tokyo (EAs2) over Nice (NoE3)
St Petersburg (SEE2) over Havana (LA2)
2-1:
San Fernando (NA4) over Cairo (SAm)
Dhaka (SAs) over West Coast (Oc)

Champions Cup Groups:
A: #102 Guatemala, #8 Grand Canyon, #57 Kenya, #82 Lille
B: #14 Antwerp, #25 Taipei, #Expansion Dhaka, #3 San Fernando
C: #1 Brooklyn, #59 Moscow, #9 Tokyo, #83 St Petersburg

Global Cup:
6 CCP Losers: #61 Havana, #65 Cairo, #5 Texas, #110 Nice, #31 West Coast, #42 Boca
4 Cup winners (If winner in CC/CCP, try runner-up, then semifinalists by coefficient): #140 Cameroon, #86 Charlotte, #17 Guangzhou, #56 St Pauli
0-2 Returning Champions, if not in CC/GC yet: #11 West Texas (GC)
19 Top 2 per league (1 Oc) not yet qualified: #37 Sichuan, #40 Fukuoka, #13 America, #4 Cibao, #69 Lagos, #66 Algiers, #10 Motor City, #79 Toronto, #18 London, #30 Paris, #53 Melbourne, #16 Addis Ababa, #141 Zimbabwe, #22 Botafogo, #116 Lara, #92 Sepahan, #99 Galatasaray, #104 Juventus, #35 Milan
1-3 Wildcard: #2 Vienna, #6 Kampala

Round 1 (2066-06-30)
Note: Global Cup and Champions Cup pairings are semi-seeded based on 5-year coefficient. The top half of teams get home games against random teams of the bottom half.
#141 Zimbabwe 3, #40 Fukuoka 2
#104 Juventus 7, #17 Guangzhou 1
#140 Cameroon 12, #31 West Coast 0
#99 Galatasaray 1, #16 Addis Ababa 2
#110 Nice 8, #37 Sichuan 1
#69 Lagos 3, #4 Cibao 4
#53 Melbourne 3, #2 Vienna 0
#66 Algiers 2, #6 Kampala 3 (11)
#116 Lara 3, #35 Milan 0
#61 Havana 9, #18 London 1
#86 Charlotte 6, #30 Paris 2
#92 Sepahan 12, #22 Botafogo 1
#56 St Pauli 1, #11 West Texas 4
#65 Cairo 13, #10 Motor City 6
#79 Toronto 11, #5 Texas 1
#42 Boca 1, #13 America 4

CaptainObvious · 12-03-2014, 07:56 PM

2066-07-01:
Random team of the month: Montevideo Sunflowers (Uruguay)
Current: 43-37, t-7th (6th of 18 in power rankings). Missed international play by 3 games.
America Cup: Lost to Vancouver, 1st round.
Rank: America: 49 of 64, World: 143 of 146.
Last season: 30-50, 17th place SAm. Lost 2nd round to Botafogo.

SAm Championships: None
Champions Cup Qualification: None
Global Cup Qualification: 2058-2061

Legends:
SP Miguel Velazquez (2050-) 130-109, 3.58, 1500 Ks. He's been here his whole career. 36 now. SAm PotY 2053, 2061.
LF Adalberto Fagundo (2053-2062) .295, 144, 461. Hitter of the Year 2059-2061. All-time SAm HR leader with 203.
SS Andres Rosario (2050-2059, 2061) .320, 953 H, 107 HR, 453 RBI. Hitter of the Year 2053.

Manager: None (Retired this week.) Pitching Coach Naif Na'il Abdul-Hasib has been with the team since it was founded in 2049. Maybe he'll finally get the job?
Payroll: 27.6m, 16th in SAm.
Stadium: Ballpark of Montevideo. Righties have a short wall and short field and a wind that normally blows out. Shape near symmetrical, but right field is 18 feet high.

Key Players:
1B Esteban Rojas (.285, 12, 50). Big free agent signing before this season from Rio. A good hitter just entering his prime. Too bad he's a lefty, as the right field wall is the tall one.
CL: Luis Fernandez (career 2.40 ERA). Acquired last month from Columbus for a couple of prospects. Led SAm with 20 saves in 2064 for Fortaleza.
SP: Conrado Pyrrait (14-5, 2.49). 2063 1st round pick had a career year (at age 25). A major reason the team should move up from 2nd-last in world rankings (not counting than Feds).
SP "Undertaker" Velazquez (6-9, 5.25). It's been all downhill since winning his 2nd PotY in 2061. Got suspended for 10 games last year for fighting with a Lima player.

Montevideo entered the South America league with Botafogo in 2049. They had one of the worst seasons ever, going 8-72 with a 10.16 ERA. (Fun fact: the bench coach during this season just managed Antwerp to 1st in the NoE last season.) They finally won more than 30 games in a season in 2053 thanks to actually having an offense and even finished 2nd. They then averaged around 45 wins a season since then, aside from 2064-2065's disasters.
Montevideo is a small market team and is usually low on payroll and attendance rankings. They went through a major front office overhaul last season after dropping off the bottom of the standings.
After a couple of bad seasons, the Sunflowers were at least competitive in 2066 thanks to the signing of Rojas and the emergence of Pyrrait and CF Roberto Cal. Aside from a major lack of power, they were above average offensively. Their pitching was pretty weak, though.
This offseason they will be looking for a new manager and probably a couple of infielders to replace likely free agents. Also a DH, as their DHs this year were pretty bad.

Global Cup, Round 2 (2066-07-01)
#116 Lara 0, #53 Melbourne 1 (12) Rookie "Fingers" Benscheidt goes 8.1 scoreless.
#92 Sepahan 6, #16 Addis Ababa 2
#140 Cameroon 2, #6 Kampala 3. Labid Nu'man with the walk-off solo HR to lead off the 9th against starter Aghecher Mwapacha.
#141 Zimbabwe 0, #65 Cairo 10
#86 Charlotte 6, #61 Havana 7 (15) Relievers combine for 17.2 IP, 1 ER.
#110 Nice 4, #4 Cibao 3
#79 Toronto 5, #13 America 0
#104 Juventus 2, #11 West Texas 7

Quarterfinals (2066-07-02)
These matchups are almost basically regional finals.
Sepahan 2, Melbourne 5. #9 hitter Adamczak with as many RBIs today as in the last 2 seasons combined (3).
Cairo 3, Kampala 2.
Nice 10, Havana 7. Nice's bullpen shut down Havana after the 5th. Schimmel with another big homer.
Toronto 5, West Texas 6 (10). Bases loaded walk wins it for the defending champs.

Champions Cup, RR 1st half
Guatemala, Kenya 2-1
Grand Canyon, Lille 1-2

Antwerp 3-0
San Fernando 2-1
Dhaka 1-2
Taipei 0-3

Brooklyn, Moscow, Tokyo 2-1
St Petersburg 0-3

We might have to break out the tiebreakers this year.

Global Cup Semifinals
2-0:
West Texas over Nice, rolls into another Global Cup final.
Game 3 (2066-07-05):
Cairo 8, Melbourne 7. Melbourne with 6 in the 7th. Cairo with 4 in the 9th.

Well, that was pointless:
Taipei 3, Dhaka 1 (16). The final game between two teams already eliminated from the semfinals. Bottom of the 16th, 2 out, 0-2. Umps call a 61 minute rain delay. Batter works count to full, strikes out.

Champions Cup RR
Guatemala 5-1

Antwerp 5-1
San Fernando 4-2

Brooklyn 5-1
Tokyo 4-2

San Fernando with the wild card spot 2 years in a row (beat Tokyo on tiebreaker #2: Runs Allowed (15 vs 17)

Federations Championship (best of 5)
Surprise, Norfolk beat out Pittsburgh in the 3-way tiebreaker.
Norfolk 3, Salt Lake 4. Walkoff single by pinch hitter Khaled.
Norfolk 2, Salt Lake 3. 3 in the 8th off the setup guy/
Salt Lake 10, Norfolk 12. Salt Lake finally runs out of pitching. Norfolk's entire lineup gets in on the action.
Salt Lake 1, Norfolk 6. [Insert "Tide has turned" pun here.]

Champions Cup Semifinals, Global Cup Final
#102 Guatemala 6, #1 Brooklyn 10. Guatemala really shouldn't have made it this far, but their pitching been good and a couple of power hitters are having unexpectedly huge years.
#14 Antwerp 14, #3 San Fernando 10. These teams were in the same group 2 years in a row, so it's becoming somewhat of a rivalry. SF had to beat Antwerp yesterday just to get here. 8 in the top of the first. Unfortunately for Antwerp, their start 3B and 1B got hurt.
#65 Cairo 6, #11 West Texas 15. The Miners were up 13-1 after 3.

2066-07-07
Guatemala 4, Brooklyn 5. Things looked up for the Creams when they went ahead 4-1 in the 6th on Palmiero's 3-run homer, but young Belarussian reliever Tretyak gave it right back.
Antwerp 3, San Fernando 5.
Cairo 1, West Texas 5.
Norfolk 6, Salt Lake 4. Once West Texas got far enough ahead, attention moved to the upstart leagues' Finals Game 5, where they saw Norfolk finish coming from behind in both the game and the series. The Federations are no longer only the "Bee" league. *gag*

2066-07-08
West Texas 2, Cairo 4.
San Fernando 0, Antwerp 2. Antwerp used basically their entire bullpen to shut out SF on 3 hits.
Brooklyn 8, Guatemala 4. Sweep no surprise.

2066-07-09
West Texas 4, Cairo 14. Rookie Liben Mwinyimadi finally gets his first cup win on the 4th try.
San Fernando 0, Antwerp 2. Once again, Antwerp makes full use of its bullpen. Zuo-Lin Hua with an RBI double and a home run in his first 2 at bats.

2066-07-10, Game 5
Cairo 1, West Texas 3. "Shadow" Tinker with a 3-run HR in the 6th is all that was needed and West Texas wins the Global Cup again.

10th Champions Cup Finals
The winners of NABL and NoE meet in the finals. Brooklyn shot to #1 last year with their Champions Cup win and they're even better this year with the addition of "Bandsaw" Kolenca (12-1, 0.83). Antwerp has been getting farther in the postseason cups the last few years, usually by just scoring a ton of runs.

Antwerp 2, Brooklyn 3. Gerald Hobbs with a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 7th gives Dos Santos his second straight loss.
Antwerp 6, Brooklyn 2. (Kolenka announced Cy Young Award winner.)
Brooklyn 8, Antwerp 1. Go ahead run scores on a 1st-inning balk. Brooklyn scores in 5 different innings.
Brooklyn 3, Antwerp 5. Brooklyn jumped ahead early again, but this time Antwerp answered. The injuries are piling up for Brooklyn, as LF Waters and 3B Lindsey join CF Newman on the bench. (Antwerp's star CF Billard is also out.)
Antwerp 9, Brooklyn 6. Antwerp led 8-1 after 5. Tying run at the plate grounds into a double play to end the game.
Brooklyn 7, Antwerp 1. Grand slam by Clement Lawlor in the 9th finally put this one out of reach. Kolenka beat Dos Santos again.

Game 7 (2066-07-16)
Antwerp at Brooklyn
Greer vs Manning, rematch of game 2.
Brooklyn can't get Newman home from 3rd with no out in the 3rd. Ian Ainsley involved in Antwerps first 2 runs. Brooklyn with 3 runs from the bottom 3 hitters in the 7th to go up 3-2. "Wasp" Roux with his second save in the series.
Brooklyn 3, Antwerp 2.

2066 World Rankings
No change in the rank order of leagues. SAm is getting dangerously close to the bottom, though.
NABL 19.639
NoE 13.686
LA 13.500
SEE 12.350
E Asia 11.433
S Asia 10.333
S Af 10.000
S Am 6.000
N Af 5.500
Oc 4.333

Top 20 teams (3 seasons)
1(1) Brooklyn 46.817
2(3) San Fernando 31.222
3(14) Antwerp 29.395
4(9) Tokyo 25.923
5(11) West Texas 24.837
6(8) Grand Canyon 23.868
7(2) Vienna 23.118
8(6) Kampala 21.121
9(10) Motor City 20.987
10(4) Cibao 20.157
11(5) Texas 18.363
12(13) America 16.943
13(7) Benfica 15.835
14(16) Addis Ababa 14.65
15(25) Taipei 13.908
16(12) Real Madrid 13.768
17(15) Toulouse 12.271
18(17) Guangzhou 12.051
19(18) London 11.97
20(57) Kenya 11.685
Dropped out: 23(19) Windy City , 25(20) Donetsk
(NABL 6, NoE 4, SAf 3, EAs 3, SEE 2, LA 2)
Brooklyn is almost guaranteed at least a Global Cup wildcard spot the next 3 years.

CaptainObvious · 12-10-2014, 11:44 PM

2066 Continental Championships
With lessons learned from the 2064 World Cup, there are a few changes to national team competitions.

Minimum Roster Size Changes, Amateurs Welcome
During the World Cup, a few issues were noted. First, many nations with a small pool of professional players were uncompetitive on most days because they had maybe 1 or 2 real starting pitchers. Secondly, some teams had only maybe 2-5 pitchers total, so those starters had to go a complete game, sometimes on 2 days rest. Finally, some teams only had a few position players but several pitchers, so they had pitchers playing in the field.
To attempt to solve these issues, country teams are now allowed to bring amateurs to competitions. While their abilities are very poor, it's at least better than having pitchers in the field and throwing 300+ pitches every 2-3 days.
This also opens the way for more nations to participate in national team competitions.
Teams are now required to have a minimum of 18 players on the roster. Professional experience no longer required.
This should mainly affect the lower-levels of national team play. The highest-ranked team that is bringing any amateurs to the 2066 CC is Zambia (#43). (The lowest ranked teams full of professionals are #60+#61 Uruguay and Pakistan.)

Continental championship ruling organizations will set the minimum required professional players for a CC bid.
Minimum professional players requirements:
Asia, Africa, Europe: 6
Americas: 4

2070 CC Restructuring
An issue seen in the 2062 CC was the unbalanced nature of the schedules and too many off days due to odd numbers of teams in some groups. The 2066 group sizes will remain the same, but for 2070, all groups above the bottom 2 levels will be standardized to 6 teams.
This means Asia 1 and Americas 1-3 will add an extra team each, shifting some of the lower tier spots upward.

In Asia, all tiers below 1 will have the 2nd place team will have a playoff with the last place team from above for the extra created spot.
Americas 2: same as Asia 2.
Americas 3: 3rd place gets a promotion playoff with AM2 last place.
Americas 4: Playoffs between 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and AM3 6th. Double loser does not go to AM3.

Also, an extra tier will be added to a continent once the bottom tier reaches 10 or more teams.
At 10 teams, the previous bottom tier stays with 5 teams. Any more, and the previous bottom tier has 6 teams and the new low gets the remainder.

New Teams, Tiers in 2066
Asia: Tier 5 (8 teams): Georgia, Iraq, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Qatar, UAE.
Africa: Tier 5 (8 teams, including previously-bottom-ranked Angola): Libya, Somalia, Togo, Benin, Comoros, Guinea, South Sudan.
Europe: Tier 6 (6 teams): Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Armenia, Lithuania, Estonia.
Americas: 5 added to Tier 4 (9 teams): Bolivia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago.

World Rankings (updated after 2064 World Cup)
1 China (1)
2 USA (2)
3 England (4)
4 Japan (3)
5 Canada (5)
6 Germany (7)
7 France (10)
8 Italy (6)
9 South Africa (8)
10 Nigeria (12)
11 Spain (13)
12 S Korea (9)
13 Turkey (11)
14 Mexico (18)
15 Australia (19)
16 Iran (21)
17 Argentina (15)
18 Venezuela (17)
19 Ukraine (28)
20 Brazil (16)
21 Dominican Republic (24)
22 Cameroon (29)
23 India (27)
24 Poland (23)
25 Egypt (22)

Free Agency
2066-07-21

Free agency runs rampant in North Africa and Guatemala this season with the top 3 HR hitters all leaving.
In NAf, Bhasin Noorzai was released by Ivory Coast after the first year of a 6-year contract despite him carrying the team this season. He then signed with Lusaka, but was released the same day. 1B Hisham Ra'id left Algiers after playing his first 8 seasons there. He is normally good for about .335, 15 HR, 60 RBI per season. Finally, 1b Ghumer Imamu (.295, 15, 60) will be looking for his 5th team in 5 seasons after over-performing in a 1-year contract.
RF Raul Romano (.253, 24, 67) CF Felix Guerrero (.272, 19, 67), and 1B Cristo Vazquez (.340, 14, 56) are all leaving Guatemala after the team finally had a breakout season and reached the Champions Cup semifinals. Guatemala is also losing LaM PotY Seong-Ryong Park (10-4, 3.10).

2066-07-31
Early big signings:
Bhasin Noorzai (Boston, from Ivory Coast), 15.1/yr, 6 yr. We'll see how he does in NABL.
26 yo LF Sam Gibbs (Texas, from Bahia), 17.7/yr, 4 yr. .316, 10 HR, 50 RBI per year in WFed, SAm.
34 yo SP Greg Harris (Montreal, from Montreal), 11.4/yr, 2 yr. Just finished 6 years for Montreal, might as well go back. 104-63, 2.76, 1408 K in 14 full seasons in NABL. Oddly, has never won any awards, even weekly.
28 yo Matunde Baakir (Manhattan, from Accra), 11.1/yr, 6 yr. Baakir has always been on bad teams. Manhattan just had their worst season since their first season, so maybe nothing has changed. Usually around 6-8, 3.50 on sub-.400 teams.

Random Team of the Month: Mazembe Crocodiles (DR Congo)
2066: 38-42, 6th (6th of 10 in power rankings). Missed international play by 13 games.
Africa Cup: Lost to Lusaka, 1st round.
Rank: Africa: 16 of 18, World: 123(+2) of 146.

NAf Championships: None
Champions Cup Qualification: None
Global Cup Qualification: 2062

"Legends", or as close as Mazembe has had so far:
2B "Pizza" Ola (2063-2066) .288, 67 HR, 183 RBI. 2065 HotY, 27 HR. Originally signed by Texas, came back to Africa for Angola for a few seasons before coming to 3rd-season Mazembe. Just left for free agency.
1B Tsuneyo Kikuchi (2062-2066) .261, 74 HR, 201 RBI. 21 HR in 2065. Otherwise, an above average hitter. Starting to lose his swing.

Manager: Brad Fizz, 83-77 in 2 seasons. Previously Charlotte Knights 2057-2064, won manager award 2061. Windy City and Melbourne before that. Career 487-527, never won a league in 18 seasons.
Payroll: 18m, 10th in NAf. Last season: 39.5m, 9th.
Stadium: Stade TP Mazembe. Shared with the football club. A very short right field (only 336ft to the "gap" before jutting out to 410 in center), but the wind usually blows in from there. Left field is slightly deeper and 15 feet high.

Key Players:
SP Jwahir Kianyandaaraw (8-7, 3.93). Still in arbitration next season. Moved the the rotation for 2066 after previously being a closer and long reliever. Has potential to be a decent starter, but he really feels more like a closer.
ST Abdi Odhiamo (7-3, 2.10, 18 SV). Basically the closer, but gets used for multiple innings in close games. Took the role from Kianyandaaraw after coming over from Zambia in 2065. Arguably the best Ugandan player currently. The oldest player on the team at age 29 now that free agents have left.
SS Zewdie Barsosio (.256, 4, 28). SAf 1st pick in 2065, 3rd in 2066 NAf RookieotY. Average offensively, very good defensively. Only 23, so he could become interesting.
1B Jason Cameron (.310 in 18 games). .268, 7, 41 for Algiers in 2064. Bounced around reserve rosters since then. Closest thing to a veteran in the current lineup.

Mazembe entered the North Africa League with Kano in 2061.
Lubumbashi is relatively small for hosting a baseball team, but the fans are very loyal so far.
The owners have stuck with GM Alberto Lopez for all 6 years of the team's existence, but after a the last few disappointing seasons, there may be some changes soon. As a smaller market team, they've mainly relied on developing players that they drafted, but this season they have likely have ~20m to spend in free agency after several starters' contracts ended.
Their best finish was 45-35, 3rd place in 2062, mainly thanks to Kikuchi and several 1-year-contract starting pitchers. In 2064, they were 30 GB at 28-52, but not last place despite being worst in both runs allowed and scored.
2066 was disappointing as they dropped 7 games despite slightly increasing their payroll.
This offseason they should be looking to bring in another starting pitcher and a replacement starting infield with 15-20m to spend.

2066 Continental Championships
2066-08-02
Austria had issues with player registration forms, so they ended up with only 10 active players available for the first 2 days. They still managed a split with Norway.

2066-08-22
The playoffs/extra games begin today. Results so far:

Asia
Level 1: China with a perfect 16-0 to continue its world dominance. They won all 16 games by 2 runs or more, even.
Level 2: No surprise in India promoting and Indonesia getting a playoff for the extra spot against Australia. Bangladesh with a disappointing last place as Noorzai's hitting can't make up for the team's lack of pitching when facing good teams.
Level 3: Philippines recovers from an embarrassing 2064 WC Qualifying with a tie at 15-5 with Taiwan. The two teams split 4 games so far. Indonesia had no offense and no pitching and ended up 2-18.
Level 4: The closest group in Asia. Pakistan and Sri Lanka tied for 1st at 7-13. Saudi Arabia finished ahead of last-place PNG thanks to the individual effort of Rayhan bin Huasayn (Yomiuri, 5-0, 0.45, 41 IP).
Level 5: Vietnam (15-5) followed by Iraq and Georgia (13-7), who will have a playoff to see who gets a promotion playoff against PNG.

Africa
Level 1: South Africa (17-3) 4 ahead of Nigeria. Ivory Coast (10-10) recovers from a few bad competitions thanks to a pair of youngsters at the top of their lineup.
Level 2: Kenya goes 15-5 to get to the top level of Africa. Zimbabwe unsurprisingly 2-18.
Level 3: B Baraka (Brooklyn, .380, 7, 25) with a big tournament for Burundi (12-8). They tied with DR Congo, who have 15 pitchers but only 5 hitters.
Level 4: Burkina Faso (15-5) on the way back up, as expected. Mozambique and Mali split 2 to finish the tournament and have a playoff to avoid dropping down to the new Level 5.
Level 5: Nadir bin Bida (Accra) leads a team of mostly amateurs over the rest of the other half-pro teams.

Europe
Level 1: This is the best Continental Championship group, with 6 of the world's top 13 teams, 4 of the top 10. World Cup Finalist England beats defending-champs France by a game behind Tickle, Fay, and Maw. France has a 1.79 ERA, but not enough hitting. Spain demoted as Barcelona's Valdes goes 6 for 81.
Level 2: Poland comes from 1 behind Netherlands with 2 games left to win it at 14-6 despite mostly wasting Kolenka's 1.38 ERA. Belgium's (4-16) lack of offense does them again, just like in the World Cup.
Level 3: Scotland (13-7) takes 3 of 4 from Portugal to win by 1 game. Czechs 4-1 behind Bartolomej Rychtar (Athens), 2-13 otherwise.
Level 4: Sweden (14-6) coasts to an easy first after starting 11-1. Serbia (7-13) heading back to Level 5 again.
Level 5: 3-way tie for 1st between Cyprus, Romania, Wales (13-7). Romania won its last 9, including the final 2 over Cyprus, to get here. Greece (3-17) was picked for demotion and they did not disappoint (or maybe they did?).
Level 6: Lithuania (17-3) wins its last 14. "Future" Jakkelsen (Gladbach, .530, 6, 24) has a huge tournament, but Denmark (10-10) is otherwise unremarkable.

Americas
Level 1: Canada (11-5) needed to beat USA (12-4) all 4 times to take 1st, but they lost in the last game. Argentina (3-17) continues to lose to good competition.
Level 2: Mexico's pitching and Venezeula's hitting led them to the top 2 spots. Cuba (2-14) only brought 4 pitchers and now has a demotion playoff to avoid dropping back to level 3.
Level 3: Peru and Uruguay (11-5) get auto-promotions. Guatemala (8-8) faces Cuba for the last extra spot. Puerto Rico (5-11) has a tiebreaker against Jamaica after beating them 4 straight times (all blowouts). Vincente Soto (Guatemala, Nice, .439, 8, 23, 7 SB) led most major offensive categories except for batting average.
Level 4: Nicaragua and Paraguay (12-6) have a playoff for 1st. Loser gets a promotion playoff the winner of Ecuador vs Haiti (11-7). PR/Jamaica faces the loser of Ecuador/Haiti. Then the losers of those 2 games play each other. Everyone involved goes to level 3 except the loser of the last game. (Sort of a reverse-playoffs.) Bolivia (4-14) is likely to be the world's lowest-ranked team with the next world rankings update.

CaptainObvious · 12-14-2014, 12:18 AM

AS1 extra: Indonesia 3, Australia 4. Wibawa Karsumaatmaja (Sichuan) runs out of gas in the 6th.
AS3 tiebreaker: Philippines 0, Taiwan 1. Game ends on a wild pitch from amateur closer Ysmael Acantilado with runners on the corners.
AS4 tiebreaker: Pakistan 8, Sri Lanka 7. Sri Lanka can still promote if they beat Malaysia tomorrow.
AS5 tiebreaker (2nd): Iraq 3, Georgia 0 (10). 3 Georgian amateurs shut out Iraq for 9 innings, but finally fall apart in the 10th.
AF1 tiebreaker (last): Egypt 6, Cameroon 1. Gebre-Mariam Mwamba (Atletico) gives up 6 in less than 2.
AF3 tiebreaker: Burundi 9, DR Congo 8 (11). DRC tied it bottom 9 and had a running thrown out at the plate. Both teams with RBI doubles in the 10th.
AF4 tiebreaker (last): Mali 11, Mozambique 3. 6 in the 9th to put it out of reach.
EU5 tiebreaker: Romania 1, Cyprus 2. Timothy Kourempes (Paris) outpitches Nicu Bozgan (San Fernando)
AM1 extra: Venezeula 3, Argentina 4. Olivas (Corinthians) with the go-ahead homerun in the 8th to avoid demotion.
AM2 extra: Guatemala 4, Cuba 0. Complete game shutout by Ivan Cruz (West Texas).
AM3 tiebreaker: Peru 3, Uruguay 2. Both teams promote anyways.
AM3 tiebreaker (last): Puerto Rico 1, Jamaica 7. Puerto Rico still has 2 chances to beat a level 4 team to avoid demotion.
AM4 tiebreaker: Paraguay 5, Nicaragua 1. Amateur Paco Moreno finishes a good tournament with a complete game win.
AM4 tiebreaker (3rd): Haiti 11, Ecuador 12. Ecuador comes back from down 10-4 in the 8th.

2066-08-23:
AS3 extra: Sri Lanka 18, Malaysia 6. Malaysia just ran out of pitching.
AS4 extra: Iraq 8, Papua New Guinea 3. Up-and-coming Khaldoon bin Noori (Kuala Lumpur) with his 5th win of international play, leading the newcomers to promotion. Even had a 2-run single in the 5-run 4th.
EU5 tiebreaker: Cyprus 3, Wales 10. Wales earns the promotion to level 4 with 2 5-run innings off of amateur pitching.
AM3 extra 1: Haiti 8, Puerto Rico 6. Amateur Luis Martinez gives up 3 in the 8th, 5 in the 9th. Jocelyn Dufour (Bogota) with 5 of those RBIs.
AM3 extra 2: Ecuador 12, Nicaragua 3.

2066-08-24:
AM3 extra 3: Nicaragua 8, Puerto Rico 1. Not even close. Puerto Rico loses their last 9 games to drop to the new bottom level.

2066-09-01
Random team of the month: Grand Canyon Thunder (Phoenix)
2066: 52-29, 2nd (tiebreaker) (of 24). Champions Cup, eliminated in group stage at 3-3.
Americas Cup: Lost to Brooklyn, semifinals. Beat Jacksonville, Vancouver, Albuquerque, Medellin.
Rank: Am: 4 of 64, World: 6 of 146.

NABL Championships: 2044, 2057, 2064, 2065.
Champions Cup Qualification: 2057, 2062, 2064-2066.
Global Cup Qualification: 2061

Legends:
RF "Prince" Norton (2051-2052, 2055-2060). .270, 134 HR, 427 RBI.
2B "Ringo" Davis (2054-2058). .319, 20 3B, 226 R. Had his prime years with the Thunder, but was plagued with injuries. Still playing for Toronto, hitting over .300. Career: .322, 1461 H (#3 all-time NABL), 855 R (all-time NABL leader)
SP "Boo" Turner (2043-2047). 49-19, 2.15. Career: 89-45, 2.63. 2044-2046 NABL-West Cy Young.
SP Rocky Nichols (2050-2058) 70-41, 2.90. Career: 139-95, 3.09. 2045 RotY for West Texas. 2057 Cy Young. Combined 2054+2057, 21-3, 1.61 ERA. NABL leaders all-time: #2t in Wins, #3 IP, #6 K, #12 WAR(P). Just retired.

Manager: Noah Bagshaw (156-85, 3 seasons). Manager award winner 2057(SAf), 2064-2065. Previously bench coach for Boston, managed Johannesburg.
Payroll: 108m, 2nd in NABL.
Stadium: Thunderdome. It's a dome. 17-foot wall in left, shorter and closer wall in right. Huge gaps.

Key Players:
SP Wilpert Dieskau (5-4, 3.23). Missed end of 2066 due to injury. Brought over from Lille on a 20m international posting fee. Usually around 8-3, 2.70. All of his pitches are hard and breaking (sinker, slider, splitter).
SP "Golden" Koumoura (11-2, 2.45). 2064 Cy Young. 36-9, 2.27 in 3 years for GCT, previously starred for Samsung.
CL Terry Waller (5-1, 1.63, 25/28 SV). 2 blown saves against Guatemala caused GCT to fall short in group play as usual. 71/75 saves, ERA around 1.1 in the last 3 seasons, world-class closer.
1B "Buddha" Coleman (.322, 18, 73). 2064 HotY after coming over from Memphis. 4-tool player (slow).
LF "Rogue" Beach (.292, 15 SB). One of the world's best leadoff hitters, career .428 OBP. An original Colorado Rockie. Missed most of 2063 due to issues transferring into NABL from the Federations.
2B Jim Anderson (.301, 7, 42). Didn't pan out for Los Angeles, but GCT gave him a chance and he's surpassed expectations. Only 23, so he should be around for a long time.

Finally, a good team with lots of history as the random team of the month.
Grand Canyon was one of the 12 original NABL teams and played in the Western Division until the merge.
The franchise has a long history of coming of coming up just short since winning NABL in 2044. They lost championship serieses in 2046 and 2047 to New York teams. In 2054 and 2056, they lost 1st place in tiebreaker games to Miami and Manhattan. In each of the last 3 seasons, they managed 1st place (although they lost to Brooklyn in the tiebreaker this season). But then they went on to win 2,3,3 games in Champions Cup group stage, failing to qualify for the semifinals.
Despite a large market and usually one of the top payrolls, they usually haven't filled the stadium (until this year). Usually the money is spent on pitching and bringing in offensive producers. The current front office was brought in after a terrible 2059 season.
2066 went about the same as the previous 2 seasons, what with being at the top of NABL and failing in the CC.
They likely won't be making any moves this offseason, as their entire starting lineup and rotation are returning (and most are under 30).

2066-09-15
More Free Agent moves
SP "Stork" Mitchell (Vancouver, from Windy City) 11.5/yr, 3yr. Career 94-70, 2.89 in NoE, NABL.
SP "Patches" Pedrazzolli (Jacksonville, from Juventus) 11.9/yr, 6yr. 12-1. 1.45 ERA, 2nd in NoE PotY.
SP Chance Manning (West Texas, from Brooklyn) 12.6/yr, 5yr. 54-27, 3.13 in 7 seasons for Brooklyn.
SP Martin Fay (Manhattan, from Texas) 11.9m/yr, 4yr. Ace of England's national team. 72-47, 3.17. Had a terrible first half of the season in 2066.

CaptainObvious · 05-15-2015, 08:40 PM

2066-10-01
Random team of the month: Bogota Millionaires (Colombia)
2066: 38-42, t-12 (of 18).
Americas Cup: Lost to Texas, 3rd round. Beat America, San Diego.
Rank: Am: 28 of 64, World: 79 of 146.

SAm Championships: 2047t, 2056-2057.
Champions Cup Qualification: 2057
Global Cup Qualification: 2064

Legends:
James Murphy (2046-2058). .296, 85 HR, 398 RBI. Not especially great, but when you start 10+ seasons for a team, you tend to leave a mark on its all-time leaderboards.
1B Fidelio Cosmati (2048-2058). .273, 124 HR, 496 RBI. Franchise leader in H, HR, RBI, R.
SP Julaio Trulla (2047-2057). 45-28, 3.99. Started as a reliever but became a starter.
SP Vasquo Bidet (2051-2059). 45-24, 3.26. Currently a free agent.
CL Jesus Jimenez (2054-2062). 2.87 ERA, 85 SV. Only long-term closer the team has had.
SP Luis Arias (2046-2052). 53-29, 3.51. 2049 PotY.

Manager: Gan Chao (74-86, 2 seasons). 19 years after being fired as San Fernando hitting coach, he helped last-place Tianjin play above .500 at the end of 2063.
Payroll: 41.2, 6th in SAm.
Stadium: Campin Stadium. Great hitter's park for lefties due to the very short right field and helpful prevailing wind.

Key Players:
DH Jocelyn Dufour (.324, 18, 59). 44 HR in 2062 is the current WoB record (only other 40-HR season also in 2062 SAm by Vincente Soto for Guatemala). 2063-2064 LAm triple crown, HotY for Havana.
C Hector Perez (.269, 11, 33). Signed long-term before last season. Ok defensively, more better offensively.
RF Chistovao Lago (.311, 9, 44). 2057 RotY for Lima. Will be in his 3rd of 4 seasons for Bogota.
SP Salvador Ermida (10-2, 2.50 for Boca). 2058 SAm PotY. Got hurt mid-late last season, otherwise could've gotten another award.
MR Seok-heung Kim (3-2, 2.51, 32 IP). Only 22. If he could work out his control, he could be a pretty good #2 starter.

One of the original 6 SAM teams (finished dead last their first season). Finished 2nd in 6 of the next 8 seasons and tied for 1st with River Plate in 2047. Finally won 2 championships outright with great pitching in the late 50s.
Was SAM's first representative in the Champions Cup but were knocked out early. Finally made it back to international play in 2064 but were knocked out in the first round by quarterfinalist Antwerp.
Bogota has one of the larger fanbases, but the stadium is usually not quite full. They've had the same GM for 21 of their 24 seasons.
2066 was another disappointment, only picking up 2 wins over the previous season and dropping 2 spots.
Should be busy this offsesason having lost 3 starting outfields, 3B, and their closer to free agency. So far they've picked up 2 starting pitchers and an outfield prospect.

2066-10-31
Free Agents
The biggest free agents have already been signed by now.
1B Nate Hardy (Toronto, from Motor City) 11.4/yr, 2yr. 2059 SEE, 2064 NABL HotY. .321, 238 HR, 916 RBI in 19 seasons, mostly in NABL.

2066-2067 Offseason
Still no change in CC spots.

Expansion Plans
None in 2067.
Likely expansions for 2068: SAf, Oc (which has never expanded since starting in 2049).

New in 2067
Baseball 16.0
Now Trending:
-Reinstitution of season ticket sales
-An aging owner-class selling off their long-term investments finally.
-Owners interested in their clubs rather than saying, "Here's X moneys, go win X games, good luck".
-Fourth-wall weakening
-Doubleheaders after rainouts?

CaptainObvious · 05-15-2015, 08:43 PM

2067-02-01
We took a few months off for winter and a much-needed technology upgrade, but we're back.

Random team of the month: Delhi Bengals (India)
2066: 46-34, 3rd (of 20). Lost 3rd place/Global Cup tiebreaker spot to Galatasaray.
Asia Cup: Lost to semifinalist Shanghai, 3rd round. Beat Chiba, Kuala Lumpur.
Rank: As: 24 of 48, World: 92 of 146.

SAs Championships: 2054, 2057
Champions Cup Qualification: None
Global Cup Qualification: 2057, 2061, 2062
Rivals: Karachi, Kolkata

Legends:
1b Pancho Reyes (2050-2058). .258, 82 HR, 337 RBI. Franchise all-time leader in most of the important offensive categories, except SB (0 attempts in 9 years!).
3B Alexander Skrede (2054-2060). .260, 71, 272. 2055 RotY, but ended up fairly average.
Rahmad Susanti (2054-2060, 2066). .257, 277 R, 101 SB. 2054 RotY, another young star who amounted to nothing special.
SP "Rattlesnake" Hani (2043-2047). 38-19, 2.51. 2046 PotY. But then he signed with rivals Karachi for the rest of his prime, winning PotY in 2048.
CL Bidula Patachli (2057-2063). 1.29, 102 SV, a big part of Delhi's international play qualifications. India's national team closer.

Manager: Jesus Castillo (127-113, 2 seasons). Managed in the Americas for 20 years before coming to Delhi as a bench coach in 2064. Promoted to Manager after the team finished 15th.
Payroll: 40.7m, 2nd in SAs.
Stadium: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. A huge field with 10-foot walls all the way around. Usually near capacity.

Key Players:
2B "Cappy" Sai (.264, 10, 36). At age 30, is the second older player on the team and de facto leader. In the middle of a 6-year contract after coming over from Chiba. Had a few minor injuries the last few seasons. The only major offensive threat on the club.
3B Cakravata Venugopal (.273, 9, 45). Drafted in 2059. A fan-favorite and also beanball magnet.
SP "Pistol" Saldanha (10-5, 1.99). 2066 PotY. Only 24. Probably the best young starting pitcher in SAs and a future national team ace. 2060 1st overall pick, but bounced around between several teams' reserve rosters in 2061 before ending up in Delhi. Finally had a breakout season in 2066 as his command of his 5 pitches has finally gotten good.
CL/SP Ka'im Kateb (3-1, 2.18, 15/17 SV). Previously the #2 starter, but got forced into the closer role as the manager was sick of Peterson's wildness costing the team many games the previous 2 seasons. Likely back in the rotation this year, though. 1st round, 2059.
CL Ryan Peterson (3-0, 1.60, 5/6 SV). Moved to a middle relief role more most of the season after struggling as the closer in his first 2 full professional seasons. Allowed 0 runs in his last 15 appearances. Signed as a reserve in 2063 after being cut by Seattle.

One of the original 8 SAs teams in 2043, as the Delhi Daredevils.
Finished 2nd behind Karachi for most of their early history. Managed to win the league championship series in 2050 and against in its last season in 2057, qualifying for the first Global Cup.
When Delhi has good pitching, they win. In 2063, they finished 45-35 despite hitting .215, the worst team average in SAs history, thanks to a 2.76 ERA. The team is known for extremely conservative baserunning; many of their best hitters never even attempted to steal a base over several seasons.
2066 was considerably better than previous seasons, but still disappointing as they missed out on the Global Cup in the tiebreaker game after expansion team Dhaka somehow won the league.
Lost previous ace, Callahan to free agency. No major signings so far and none expected.

Free Agency (since 2066-11):
40 yo 2B "Ringo" Davis (West Texas, from Toronto), 10.3m, 1 yr. 2048 NABL 1st pick. .320 AVG in 19 seasons in NABL, likely HoF.
26 yo SS Naohiro Nakada (Tokyo), 12.5m/yr, 6 yr. Entered free agency, didn't go anywhere. .308, 10, 41 last season. 2059 EAs 1st pick.

CaptainObvious · 05-15-2015, 08:48 PM

2067-03-01
Random team of the month: Atlanta Black Crackers (East Federation)
2066: 42-39, 4th (of 8). (Roped into an extra game as part of the 3-way tiebreaker with the 3 teams that finished 1 game ahead of them.
America Cup: Lost to West Texas, 2nd round. Beat Norfolk.
Rank: n/a (Federation teams are not ranked)

EF Championships: None
Federation teams do not yet qualify for world competitions (unless they win a Cup)
Rivals: Pittsburgh, Norfolk

Manager: Paul Christiansen (219-182, 5 seasons). Atlanta's only manager so far. Led them to 5 winning seasons, but no pennants yet.
Payroll: 40.2m, 3rd in EF.
Stadium: Ponce de Leon Park. A huge, turf field with 10-foot walls all the way around. Center is 439 ft. Seats 49k, but usually only about 10k show up as this isn't a top league.

Key Players:
(All age 25-27!)
RF "Wonder Boy" Kinney (.273, 5, 30). One of the founders of the Federation. 2063 HotY. 2nd highest salary in EF. Had a down year last year, Atlanta really needs him to lead.
CF Jim Bogicevic (.260, 5, 26). Also in his 5th season with Atlanta. Always had a great glove, but now actually gets on base.
SP "Warlock" Crandell (12-3, 1.36). 2064-2066 PotY. If he keeps this up, the pitching award will be named after him. 46-20, 2.01 in 5 seasons.
SP Javier Romero (6-5, 2.48). Always stuck in the Warlock's shadow. Another career-long Black Cracker.
CL "Homicide" Torres. (3.27, 21/22SV). Had a perfect 0.00 ERA, 12/12 saves in 27 games in 2065. Best curveball in the Federation.

One of the 8 teams that founded the newest professional league, the Eastern Federation, in 2062.
Has never finished more than 4 games out of first, but haven't finished first yet either.
The owner let the GM spend wildly before last season, but it did not pay off, as the team had its worst finish ever. Federation teams still have trouble signing free agents, as many players don't even see it as a legitimate professional league.
Lost their middle infield to free agency and haven't made any big signings.
Lost previous ace, Callahan to free agency. No major signings so far and none expected.

2067-04-01
Opening Day
First game of the year:
Saitama 4, Samsung 7. Samsung was up 7-0 when Saitama's starter left in the 4th. Keung Wen with 4 RBI.

Initial cup draws drawn for America, Asia Cups.
2066 America Cup winner, #7 seed Texas, plays at #36 Los Angeles.

CaptainObvious · 05-17-2015, 04:42 PM

Round of 64
2067-04-15:
#7 Texas 1, #36 Los Angeles 6. 2 runs on wild pitches, 1 on a throwing error.
#22 Lara 6, #1 Brooklyn 4. 3 in the 9th off closer Ahmed.
#16 Boca 4, #2 San Fernando 9.
#3 West Texas 8, #64 Colorado 1. 4-run first and the lowest seed was never in it.
#52 Salt Lake 1, #4 Grand Canyon 6. #8 hitting DH Vicente Lopez 3-4, 2 2B, 4 RBI.

Random team of the month: Moscow Dynamo
2066: 52-29, 1st (of 14). Beat St Petersburg in tiebreaker. Champions Cup, 3rd in group behind World #1 Brooklyn and EAs #1 Tokyo.
2067: 12-2, 1st by 2 over Anzhi. On a 10-game winning streak.
Europe Cup: Face #6 London first round. 2066: eliminated 1st round by Dortmund.
Rank: Eu: 8 of 32, World: 26 of 146.

SEE Championships: 2049, 2059, 2066
Champions Cup Qualification: 2059, 2063, 2066
Global Cup Qualification: 2060
Rivals: Rome, Donetsk, Warsaw

Legends:
Qui-li Thum (2047-2053): .276, 123 HR, 421 RBI. 2048-2050 HotY.
Anastasio Esquivel (2047-2055): .324, 49, 268. .426 OBP.
"Iron Curtain" Podenok (2047-2052): 65-21, 1.64, 953 K. 2045, 2047, 2050-2052 PotY. 2060 HoF. #1 SEE career WAR.
"Loudmouth" Olivo (2054-2060): 43-26, 3.19. 2059 PotY. 12-0, 1.85 in 2059. #1 pick 2054 SEE draft. Career 24.29 K/BB. Now plays for Real Madrid.

Owner: Manny Ramirez (no relation).
Manager: Shafiq bin Mus'ad (372-283, 9 seasons). The most successful Iranian manager. Managed a terrible Athens team for several seasons, then coached Scotland's bench for a while before coming here and succeeding.
Payroll: 65.0m, 1st in SEE.
Stadium: Dynamo Stadium. Retracable roof so the April games aren't so cold. Short right field wall, tall left field wall.

Key Players:
C "Godzilla" Sánchez (.367, 5, 16). 2066: .331, 23, 71, HotY. 2066 free agent (Cibao).
3B Shusaku Kawano (.346, 0, 5). 2066: .309, 8, 50. 2065 free agent (Zenit).
SP "Flash" Köhncke (3-0, 0.37). 2066: 6-5, 3.65. 2066 free agent (Bronx). Went 3-0, 0.00 for Toronto in 2057 interregional play. Great splitter.
SP Giambattista Mancuso (2-1, 2.42). 2066: 12-4, 4.45. 2057 #2 SEE pick.
CL Sigifrid Scherich (0.00, 5/5 SV). 2066: 1-6, 3.72 in 31 games for Manhattan.

One of the original 8 SEE teams, started in a division with Warsaw, Donetsk, Zenit. Went through a really bad stretch for most of the 50s.
3 trips to the Champions Cup, but no top 4 finishes. Last year they were 1 game short after getting stuck in with the top teams from the top 2 leagues.
Almost always fills their stadium, even for regular season games. There's always been at least a few superstars on the team every year thanks to the highest payroll in the league.
2066 was the best year in a while for Moscow, winning the league and competing well in international play. They jumped in the world rankings from 56 to 26.
2067 is expected to be another successful season and appears to be going that way as they've jumped out to a 12-2 start. Bringing in Scherich to close has worked so far. Mancuso just signed a 7-year extension, so he'll likely be one of the few players who plays his whole career for one team.

Round of 32
2067-04-26: Africa Cup's bottom 4 teams start today.
2067-04-28: Europe Cup starts. Top third of Asia Cup joins.

Asia Cup:
#14 Yomiuri 1, #1 Tokyo 2. The Swallows win another Battle of Tokyo with runs in the 7th and 8th.
#2 Taipei 5, #23 Rembrang 3. Rembrang's starter injured in the 2nd and Taipei jumps on the long reliever.
#7 Hong Kong 5, #3 Guangzhou 2.
#13 Fukuoka 6, #4 Dhaka 17. 10-3 after 3. Everyone on Dhaka with at least 1 hit.
#6 West Coast 5, #5 Hyderabad 6. 5 in the 9th for Hyderabad, 4 with 2 out.
#47 Beijing 4, #15 Istanbul 3 (18). Istanbul had a 1-hitter going into the 9th, but Beijing scored 2 on 1 hit to tie it. Adityagarbha Ghazali (Beijing) with 5 of team's 7 hits, including the game-winning HR in the top of the 18th.
Teams remaining: EAs: 7, SAs: 9, Oc: 0

Europe Cup:
#9 Lille 11, #1 Antwerp 6. NoE 2nd-place Lille takes down world #3 Antwerp, who are having a tough season so far.
#2 Vienna 0, #25 Barcelona 1. 8th-inning homer for Mark Richardson the only run.
#18 Gladbach 15, #3 Benfica 11. 10-10 after 6.
#32 Napoli 8, #4 Real Madrid 12. 5 in the first for Napoli, but Real Madrid gradually came back until they got 5 of their own in the 7th.
#16 St Pauli 3, #28 Athens 9. Defending champs eliminated in the first round.
Teams remaining: NoE: 8, SEE: 8
Top 3 ranked teams out in the first round.

America Cup:
#2 San Fernando 8, #41 St Louis 0. Rain delay in the 8th prevents Sutton from getting his first ever complete game shutout.
#5 Motor City 7, #3 West Texas 8. Game of the day. Cooper Bishop with 2 HR, including the 2-run walkoff.
#31 Bronx 1, #4 Grand Canyon 2.
#53 Pittsburgh 1, #35 Jacksonville 2 (12). 4 perfect innings from long-reliever Sancho Garcia to finish the game for Jacksonville.
#13 Havana 7, #45 Lima 6 (14). Lima with 4 in the 9th to send it to extra innings.
#15 Vancouver 6, #17 Fortaleza 1 (10).
Teams remaining: NABL: 8, SAm: 5, LA: 1, EF: 1, WF: 1

Round of 16
2067-05-09
Africa Cup:
#1 Kampala 7, #9 Lagos 5. Lagos's started knocked out in the 5th, having given up 7.
#4 Cairo 6, #2 Addis Ababa 1. 6-0 after 2.
#7 Ivory Coast 3, #3 Kenya 1. Awotwe goes 9 the second time this week, but gets no runs support.
#8 Cameroon 7, #14 Lusaka 3. 5 in the 8th as the defending cup winners come back to win it.
Teams remaining: SAf: 2, NAf: 6

2067-05-11
Asia Cup:
#1 Tokyo 4, #35 Chennai 5 (10). 2066 EAs and Asia Cup winners finally beaten on a pair of runs in the 9th and 10th off closer Calhoun.
#24 Delhi 5, #2 Taipei 3.
#45 Kia 4, #4 Dhaka 5. Gui-fan Ang reachs on a fielder's choice, steals 2nd, then scores on pinch-hitter Naguchi's 2-out, game-ending single.
#5 Hyderabad 2, #7 Hong Kong 0. Hong Kong's ace gives up runs on a home run and a wild pitch.
Head to head this round: SAs 5, EAs 2

Europe Cup:
#30 Warsaw 1, #4 Real Madrid 5. Another complete game from Loudmouth.
#25 Barcelona 3, #5 Toulouse 7.
#18 Gladbach 4, #8 Moscow 7. 4-1 Gladbach after 2.
#9 Lille 2, #24 Bayern 5.
#21 Rome 5, #13 Milan 3 (10). Vasili Aslyahov injures himself while running on his game-winning 2-run double in the 10th.

America Cup:
#2 San Fernando 7, #49 Montevideo 3 (14). Montevideo tied it in the 11th and 12th, but couldn't score more than 1 in an inning.
#3 West Texas 8, #54 Las Vegas 5. Bishop big again, 4-4, 2B, HR, 5 RBI.
#15 Vancouver 0, #4 Grand Canyon 16. Dave Coleman 5-5, 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI.
#10 Windy City 11, #29 Newell 4. 10-2 after 6.
Surprise team: #51 Norfolk (EastFed). Beat #12 Santo Domingo, #63 Philadelphia, #13 Havana.

CaptainObvious · 05-23-2015, 09:22 PM

2067-05-15
Random team of the month: Antwerp Great Old (Belgium)
2066: 48-32, 1st (of 18). Champions Cup runner up, lost to Brooklyn in 7 games.
2067: 18-23, 8.5GB, 14th.
Europe Cup: Lost to Lille, 1st round.
Rank: Eu: 1 of 32, World: 3 of 146.

NoE Championships: 2065-2066
Champions Cup Qualification: 2065-2066
Global Cup Qualification: 2063-2064
Rivals: Ajax, Lille

Legends:
LF Eustace Fraenkel (2058-2064): .272, 62 HR, 280 RBI. 2057 NoE #1 pick.
SS Norman Bauer (2060-2066): .255, 46, 259. Top 2 in most franchise non-average stats.
SP William Dos Santos (2059-): 57-33, 3.30. 10-3, 1.47, 2nd in PotY in 2065. Team stopped being the worst in NoE when they drafted him.
SP Sean Charlwood (2057-2063): 38-27, 4.35. 10-5, 3.03 in his last season with team in 2063.

Owner: Roland Mulford. Relatively young (47).
Manager: Fytor Sastre (114-87, 2+ seasons). Led team to its first two NoE championships in his first 2 seasons. Previously managed Leeds, Rakuten. Bench coach of the worst team in WoB history (2049 expansion Montevideo, 8-72).
Payroll: 79.5m, 6th in NoE.
Stadium: Bosuilstadion. Retracable roof + turf. Right field wall is both deeper and much higher than left field. One of the largest stadium (66k+ seats).

Key Players:
C Zuo-lin Hua (.331, 12, 24). 2066: .308, 13, 44. 2064 NoE RotY. Signed in 2063 as reserve free agent.
1B August Ihlen (.282, 6, 17). 2066: .324, 21, 72. Having an off year due to injury. 2059 NoE RotY for Toulouse. 2066 free agent.
CF "Furball" Billiard. 2066: .304, 15, 39, 21 SB. Missed most of first 2 months of season due to broken finger. 2060 1st round pick.
SP William Dos Santos (5-3. 3.83). 2066: 6-3, 2.62. 0-3, 3.60 in 5 international competition starts last season.
CL "The Natural" Picot (1.62, 11/11 SV). 2066: 3-1, 1.89, 19 SV. 2063 1st round pick. 1.92 career ERA and still not done developing.

Entered NoE in 2049 with Ajax, Scotland, and Stockholm. Finished last 8 of their first 10 seasons and still have the worst all-time win% in NoE (636-845). Things got better once the league started adding more expansion teams.
Made it to the quarterfinals of the 2064 Global Cup. 3rd in their CC group in 2065. 1 game away from being the #1 team in the world in 2066.
When the team's playing well, the 66100 seat stadium mostly fills up. Had a franchise-high 2.78m attendees last season.
2066 was Antwerp's best season. Won the league and almost won the Champions Cup. Went from #14 in the world to #3.
2067 has been disappointing so far. All 4 returning starters are pitching much worse than last season. On the plus side, even if they don't turn things around, there's still a decent shot at a Global Cup wildcard spot as the #3 ranked team in the world.

(A little past) Halfway
2067-05-15:
NABL: Grand Canyon 29-12, followed by Motor City and Texas 3 back.
Federations: Tampa Bay 24-16, 2 up in the East. Albuqueque (24-17) just 1 ahead of Colorado, Salt Lake.
SAm: Lara (25-16) 1 ahead of Botafogo, Montevideo, Medellin.
LAm: Cibao (25-16) on a 4-game losing streak, but still 1 ahead of Mexico City.
NoE: Gladbach, Vienna (26-14), London (26-15) have some space behind them. Top 3 in HRs all play for Gladbach (Forstan, Tickle, Refsland).
SEE: Moscow (29-12) 3 ahead of Zenit behind Sanchez's so-far Triple Crown (.373, 12, 39), Köhncke's 7-0, 0.87.
NAf: Angola, Cairo (26-15) 5 shead of the pack. Angola's had far more home games, Cairo can't hit lefties.
SAf: Johannesburg (23-17) .5 ahead of Kaizer, 1.5 ahead of Kenya, Lusaka. League hitting is still down compared to historic levels.
EAs: Jiangsu (28-13), Fukuoka 1 GB, Guangzhou 2 GB. Kurt Penney (Yomiuri, 6-2, 0.29) having a breakout year after last year's breakout year. Yeah.
SAs: Karachi (28-13) 2 ahead of Persepolis.
Oc: Auckland (24-16) 3 ahead of Melboune, West Coast. 2068 expansion to 6 teams is likely.

Quarterfinals
2067-05-22:
Africa Cup
#12 Kaizer 4, #1 Kampala 3. Michael Jephcott strikes out 15. 2 solo HRs late off Kampala closer Shukrani.
#16 Mazembe 0, #4 Cairo 5. Cairo faces Kaizer in the semifinals 2 years in a row.
#5 Angola 2, #8 Cameroon 4. Defending cup winners still in it.
#7 Ivory Coast 1, #13 Dakar 2. All runs off starters in the 7th.

2067-05-24:
Asia Cup
#43 Mashhad 1, #32 Tianjin 2. Bhrajata Huggahilli only gives up 2 run on 4 hits, but loses.
#35 Chennai 2, #4 Dhaka 4. Tinh Phan 1-2. 3 RBI, SF, HBP, 2 SB.
#24 Sichuan 6, #12 Hyderabad 0. 2-hit shutout from Xin-Fang Ji.
#24 Delhi 15, #41 Izmir 8. PPD, played the next day.

Europe Cup
#4 Real Madrid 8, #24 Bayern 1. 6-1 after 4.
#27 Dortmund 5, #21 Rome 2.
#5 Toulouse 2, #10 Paris 4. Jellyroll 2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI.
#20 Liverpool 3, #8 Moscow 7.

America Cup
#22 Lara 11, #2 San Fernando 3. PPD, played the next day. Complete game by Minyar Yao.
#3 West Texas 12, #35 Jacksonville 11. West Texas with a touchdown in the 7th, Jacksonville misses the extra point needed to tie in the 8th.
#39 Atletico 1, #10 Windy City 2. White Sox manufacture runs in the 7th + 8th.
#51 Norfolk 5, #4 Grand Canyon 4. Grand Canyon gets 2nd+3rd, 1 out in the 9th, can't score.

3 returning semifinalists in Africa, none elsewhere.

dward1 · 05-24-2015, 09:45 PM

love that you are enjoying this. it just got too much to handle after so many years and I haven't played it in a long time, but for a long time this was an absolute blast. the first few World Cups were arguably the most fun I ever had playing OOTP. glad to see you expanding, I had a huge plan on balancing out all the leagues by 2100 where there would be promotion/relegation and several leagues on each continent. nice to see Brooklyn continue to dominate, they are easily the best team in history. looks like Kenya is struggling based on the Cups, how have they done recently in your save? that was the team I managed

CaptainObvious · 05-25-2015, 08:58 PM

Yeah, it does get a little complicated at times. Adding the cup games is probably the worst part.

Kenya has had a completely different set of starting players each season the last 4 seasons. The only player left from 2063 appears to be Moyenda. Wait, nope, he retired 2065 due to injury.
Kenya won the league in 2066, beat Cairo 2-0 in the CC Playin, then went 3-3 in a group with Guatemala, Grand Canyon, Lille, resulting in them currently being ranked #20 in the world (behind Kampala, Addis Ababa).
They finished 1 game behind Johannesburg this season after getting swept by Kaizer and splitting 4 with Johannesburg to finish the season. Lost in the second round of the Global Cup to St Pauli.

One problem I'm having is that teams are releasing players far too often. Lots of 1st-round picks that bounce between several teams within a span of weeks just before the season starts. But this also happens to some stars.

For example, Bhasin Noozai:
2065: Signs with San Fernando and gets released immediately. Toulouse, same thing. Finally ends up on Ajax.
2066: 6 year deal with Ivory Coast. June: released. Wins South Africa player of the year. Signs with Lusaka, immedately released. Signs with Boston, released in the same offseason.
2067: Sign and release by Angola. Signs 1-year deal with Cairo, wins a championship.
I'm not sure, but maybe the AI has issues with long-term contracts for stars playing outside of their own region?

CaptainObvious · 05-31-2015, 12:54 PM

Semifinals
2067-06-04:
Africa Cup
Cairo 4, Kaizer 2. Kaiser rallied for 2 in the 8th and had the bases loaded, but hit into a 2-1-3 double play.
Cameroon 6, Dakar 5 (11). Omar Ola scores winning run after a hit by pitch, wild pitch, and double. Bad baserunning by Dakar costs them a chance to tie.

2067-06-06:
Asia Cup
Delhi 3, Sichuan 8. #9 hitter Faivlovich 1-1. 2BB, SF, 2R, 2RBI.
Tianjin 4, Dhaka 5. Bhuper Parantap with the walkoff RBI single to complete a late comeback.

Europe Cup
Dortmund 6, Real Madrid 1. Multi-run homeruns from Giraud and Bedreddin all that is needed.
Moscow 4, Paris 5. The top team in SEE almost comes back with 3 in the 9th with 2 out and bases loaded, but falls just short.

America Cup
Windy City 3, West Texas 8. Nathan King with a grand slam bottom 8 to put it out of reach.
Lara 1, Norfolk 3. The Federation's top team has a chance to get them into the world rankings.

2067-06-15:
Random team of the month: Golden State Giants (San Francisco)
Current: 36-34, tied 8th place (9th of 24 in power rankings).
America Cup: Lost to Jacksonville, 3rd round. Beat Toronto, Caracas.
Rank: Am: 26 of 64, World: 74 of 146.
Last season: 35-45, 20th place NABL.

NABL Championships: 2055, 2061
Champions Cup Qualification: 2061
Global Cup Qualification: 2058, 2064
Rivals: Ajax, Lille

Legends:
C Blaine Miller (2054-2066) .304, 115, 571. 2061 HotY. Likely Hall-of-Famer.
1B Tom Crow (2050-2063) .261, 103, 420. Played his first 14 seasons for Golden State. Never a star, but always pretty good.
SP Tamotsu Kodo (2055-2059) 42-23, 2.39. Ace of the 2055 NABL winners. Has had 10+-win seasons for 5 different teams.
SP "Stallion" Imad (2055-2061) 45-28, 3.78. 18-4 in the teams two NABL championship seasons. 10-0 in 2056, but no awards.

Owner: John Newson. Usually willing to spend lots of money to win, but lately the team hasn't been spending.
Manager: Harvey Smith (916-835, 20+ seasons). Took over as manager in 2046 at the age of 35. Gets mad a lot.
Payroll: 73.2m, 17th in NABL.
Stadium: (New) Candlestick Park. A very average stadium other than the backdrop center field wall being higher for better ad placement.

Key Players:
1B Ernest Simmons (.250, 6, 24). Looks like he'll be a good power hitter. Out since mid-May with a broken foot. Bounced around various reserve rosters the last few seasons before Golden State gave him a chance.
3B Rob Stevens (.271, 3, 35). One of the best defensive third-basemen, average hitter. 2064 free agent from Brooklyn.
SS "Future" Jakkelsen (.261, 7, 42). Defensive genius. Hitting cleanup due to injury to Simmons. Imported from Gladbach before this season at great cost.
SP Ed Mills (8-3, 2.30). Free agent from Bronx. Closest thing to an "ace" on the roster.
CL Cobus Bouland (3-3, 3.94, 15/20 SV). Unusually wild this season. New catcher Nakai having problems with his sinker. 2066 free agent from Charlotte.

One of the NABL First 12 in 2043. Usually an average team most years, but then has basically bought a few NABL championships buy just outspending everyone. The last several season's they've been cutting back to make up for some of their debt, and as a consequence have struggled.
Barely snuck into the 2064 Global Cup with a 7th-place finish and was eliminated in the first round.
Games are usually well-attended, but this year they're down as the team's still rebuilding.
2066 was a rebuilding season. Still managed a 35-45 record (but that was 20th place as the league is actually very balanced).
2067 has gone surprisingly well, considering the lack of any offensive stars. Could theoretically even make the Global Cup if they get hot these last 2 weeks of the season. Still, the next few seasons are somewhat bleak unless management decides to go on another signing binge.

Cup Finals
2067-06-17:
Africa
#8 Cameroon (38-34, 3rd, 7GB, 2066 cup winner) vs #4 Cairo (45-27, 1st)
Both teams are likely to qualify for international play, so this one is for bragging rights mainly.
Cameroon scores on a bases-loaded double play in the 4th. Mezwar Rono with a solo home run in the 5th. 2-run triple for Jonathon Johnston after Bhasin Noorzai is (wisely) walked with a runner in scoring position and 1st open for the third time.
Once again, 4th place in North Africa will get into the Global Cup.
Cameroon 1, Cairo 3

2067-06-19:
Asia
#12 Sichuan (28-46, 22nd, 25GB) vs #4 Dhaka (39-34, 5th, 3.5GB)
Both sides are down from last year, so winning the cup is quite important.
Sichuan with 5 in the 4th, 4 in the 7th.
Sichuan 11, Dhaka 2

Europe
#27 Dortmund (31-43, 14th, 19GB) vs #10 Paris (35-38, 10th, 14.5GB)
2-run hits from Cencio, Chauveau. Paris never even threatens to score.
Dortmund 4, Paris 0

America
#51 Norfolk (39-32, 2nd, 4GB) vs #3 West Texas (40-34, 7th, 7GB)
Norfolk looking to get even more attention after winning the first Federations Championship last season. West Texas is at the edge of world competition qualifying, as either the last NABL representative or as a wildcard.
The Tides held a 2-1 lead until the 7th, when a Tony Hall error lead to a bases loaded walk and sac fly off young reliever "Spanky" Dominguez.
The Federations need to wait again.
Norfolk 2, West Texas 3

CaptainObvious · 05-31-2015, 01:00 PM

End of Regular Season
2067-06-25:
Triple Crowns
SEE: Anastacio Sanchez, Moscow (.399, 22, 68)
LAm: Alberto Deleon, Havana (.327, 28, 78)

2067-06-26:
Cup Qualification Tiebreakers:
EAs (46-34, GC) Taipei 1, Saitama 3
SAf (43-37, GC) Zimbabwe 10, Lusaka 0
NABL (43-37, GC) Manhattan 2, Washington 3. Washington 2, Charlotte 4.
SAm (45-35, GC) River Plate 3, Boca 5. Botafogo 3, Caracas 6. Caracas 6, Boca 2.
LAm (43-37, CCP/GC) America 6, Santo Domingo 5

International Qualifying
Champions Cup:
Automatic Bids:
Guangzhou (EAs), Mexico City (LA), Grand Canyon (NA1), Toronto (NA2), London (NoE), Moscow (SEE),

Play ins:
2-0:
West Coast (Oc) over Vienna (NoE3)
Windy City (NA4) over Johanneshurg (SAf)
Cairo (NAf) over Zenit (SEE2)
Fukuoka (EAs2) over Texas (NA3)
Gladbach (SEE2) over America (LAm2)
2-1:
Montevideo (SAm) over Tehran (SAs)

Champions Cup Groups:
A: #26 Moscow, #6 Grand Canyon, #22 Cairo, #147 Montevideo
B: #53 Mexico City, #40 Toronto, #23 Windy City, #30 West Coast
C: #18 Guangzhou, #19 London, #49 Fukuoka, #72 Gladbach

Global Cup:
6 CCP Losers:
#7 Vienna, #76 Johannesburg, #102 Tehran, #38 Zenit, #11 Texas, #12 America

4 Cup winners (If winner in CC/CCP, try runner-up, then semifinalists by coefficient):
#62 Cameroon, #5 West Texas, #48 Sichuan, #124 Dortmund

19 Top 2 per league (1 Oceania) not yet qualified:
#52 Yomiuri, #15 Taipei, #27 Santo Domingo, #21 Guatemala, #31 Angola, #61 Ivory Coast
#1 Brooklyn, #51 Charlotte, #75 Nice, #65 St Pauli, #95 Auckland, #20 Kenya, #59 Zimbabwe
#60 Lara, #63 Caracas, #97 Karachi, #43 Sepahan, #41 Milan, #142 Napoli

0-2 Returning Champions, if not in CC/GC yet: None (Brooklyn, West Texas)
1-3 Wildcard: #2 San Fernando, #3 Antwerp, #4 Tokyo

Round 1 (2066-06-30)
#61 Ivory Coast 4, #4 Tokyo 5
#60 Lara 1, #15 Taipei 0. 2-hit shutout by Sansan Parreira, who came over from Taipei in 2064 and has been Lara's ace since then.
#124 Dortmund 6, #7 Vienna 7 (11). Dortmund got 1 in the 11th, Vienna got 2.
#51 Charlotte 3, #20 Kenya 8
#63 Caracas 0, #43 Sepahan 8
#95 Auckland 0, #38 Zenit 2
#52 Yomiuri 5, #41 Milan 6
#59 Zimbabwe 2, #3 Antwerp 14
#65 St Pauli 5, #31 Angola 1 (14) 0-0 after 12.
#62 Cameroon 1, #1 Brooklyn 10
#102 Tehran 10, #27 Santo Domingo 1
#142 Napoli 0, #21 Guatemala 2
#48 Sichuan 8, #12 America 7
#75 Nice 2, #11 Texas 0
#76 Johannesburg 1, #5 West Texas 8
#97 Karachi 3, #2 San Fernando 4

Round 2 (2066-07-01)
#102 Tehran 1, #4 Tokyo 3
#65 St Pauli 10, #20 Kenya 1
#38 Zenit 1, #3 Antwerp 8
#48 Sichuan 12, #7 Vienna 3. 7 in the 9th.
#43 Sepahan 1, #2 San Fernando 12. Matt Winter: 2-3, 2 BB, HR(GS), 6 RBI.
#75 Nice 0, #1 Brooklyn 5
#41 Milan 2, #21 Guatemala 5. 2 key players for Guatemala out hurt now, though.
#60 Lara 3, #5 West Texas 7

Champions Cup
Cairo 0, Grand Canyon 1 (15) With Noorzai out hurt, Cairo doesn't have enough bats to hit world-class pitching.

Quarterfinals (2066-07-02)
Top 5 ranked teams in the world are still in it. (#6 Grand Canyon are 1-1 in the CC.)
#65 St Pauli 4, #4 Tokyo 5. Tying run out at the plate in the 8th.
#21 Guatemala 4, #3 Antwerp 5 (10). Wild throw after a short flyout allows runner from 3rd to inadvertently tag up and score.
#5 West Texas 9, #1 Brooklyn 0. Grand slam in the 1st and the defending cup winners beat the top ranked team in the world in a blowout.
#48 Sichuan 6, #2 San Fernando 8. Matt Winter with another big homer.

Champions Cup, RR 1st half
Moscow 3-0
Grand Canyon 2-1
Cairo 1-2
Montevideo 0-3

Windy City 3-0
Toronto 2-1
West Coast 1-2
Mexico City 0-3

Guangzhou, Fukuoka, Gladbach 2-1
London 0-3

No surprises other than London's 0-3.

Global Cup Semifinals
West Texas 3, Antwerp 2
Tokyo 3, San Fernando 1

San Fernando 9, Tokyo 5
Antwerp 6, West Texas 9

Game 3 (2066-07-05):
Tokyo 0, San Fernando 8

Champions Cup RR
Moscow 5-1
Grand Canyon 4-2

Toronto, Windy City 4-2

Guangzhou 5-1
Fukuoka 4-2

Windy City split with Toronto, wins on runs allowed (16 vs 23).
Grand Canyon 15, Fukuoka 19, Toronto 23.

Federations Championship
Salt Lake 8, Tampa Bay 6
Salt Lake 1, Tampa Bay 11
Tampa Bay 6, Salt Lake 8
Tampa Bay 4, Salt Lake 8
Bees. ...Bees? BEES! Tampa can't take advantage of home field advantage and the face of the Federations win FedChamp #2.

Champions Cup Semifinals, Global Cup Final
#23 Windy City, #18 Guangzhou. Windy City barely snuck into the CC and advanced and the semis thanks to drawing the weakest auto-bids (LAm, NABL2). Guangzhou had the best record in the world at 57-23.
#6 Grand Canyon, #26 Moscow. NABL champion vs SEE champion. Split in group play, 1-2, 9-1.
#5 West Texas, #2 San Fernando. West Texas looking to make it 3-straight Global Cup wins after winning the America Cup this year. San Fernando tries to make the most of its at-large bid after a 39-41 season.

2067-07-06
Windy City 2, Guangzhou 4. Windy City didn't threaten to score until 1 out left in the game. Loaded the bases, even got a bases-loaded infield single, but Guo-Liang Pao finally got an out in his professional debut.
Grand Canyon 2, Moscow 3 (10). Macuso pitched into the 10th and gave up a run, but Ifni Ngumi his a 2-run homer in the bottom of closer Waller.
West Texas 3, San Fernando 5. 2 solo home runs for Nathan King, but the Valley Cats figure out Manning (former Brooklyn prospect) late in the game.

2067-07-07
Windy City 7, Guangzhou 4. Guangzhou scores on double plays twice. Mike Macquistan with 2 2-run home runs.
Grand Canyon 3, Moscow 5
West Texas 4, San Fernando 2.

2067-07-08
San Fernando 4, West Texas 1. Gregg Laurent continues to be wild and San Fernando captializes enough despite hitting into 5 double plays.
Guangzhou 13, Windy City 4. Windy City came back to 4-3 after 7, but then the bullpen gave up several RBI extra-base hits. Jung-Gwon Chon 2 HR, 4 RBI.
Moscow 2, Grand Canyon 4. Jim Beach 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2R.

2067-07-09
Guangzhou 1, Windy City 3. Bottom of the order with clutch hitting in the 6th to get 3.
Moscow 7, Grand Canyon 3. Bases loaded triple from Recep Kazaz in the 3rd and then another 3 in the 6th. Grand Canyon falls short in the Champions Cup as usual, but they got farther this time.
San Fernando 2, West Texas 3. Cooper Bishop with a rare 2-run triple in the 3rd and West Texas' bullpen continues to shine in the cup.

2067-07-10 (Game 5)
Windy City 8, Guangzhou 4. Kade Opie with his first home run of the year hits a grand slam to make iit 7-0 in the 6th. Jeremy Hampton allows 0 in 8.1 IP. Guangzhou rallies for 4 with 2 out in the 9th.
16 hours later...
Cooper Bishop 2-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R. Bobby Dean 0-1, 4 BB, 2 R. Backboord with the save 3 games in a row.
West Texas 5, San Fernando 1
West Texas, Global Cup winners 2065-2067.

11th Champions Cup Finals
The winners of NABL and NoE meet in the finals.
Windy City has been lucky to make it this far, getting in through the play-in and then winning the weakest group on tiebreakers. The biggest reason they've made it this far is their starting pitching. All 5 starters have ERAs under 3 in non-league play this year.
Moscow has relied even more heavily on its pitching, especially Kohnke (16-0) and Mancu (14 CG). 3B Kuwano may play late in the series after missing the entire cup so far with hamstring problems.

Windy City 0, Moscow 5. Kohncke last 2 starts: 17.0 IP, 0 R, 26 K. 16-0 on the season.
Windy City 7, Moscow 5. White Sox jump on Mancuso for 4 in the 1st, but he stays in until the 9th. Palmer works out of a bases-loaded jam in a 4-4 tie in the 7th. Scherich blows the 5-4 save on a 2-run error by defensive-substitute Marnoch.
Moscow 6, Windy City 10. Talley with 5 RBI through 2. 9-2 after 3.
Moscow 0, Windy City 5. Once again, Moscow's starter gives up several in the 1st. Tom Key with his 4th-straight 0-run start.
Windy City 13, Moscow 1. Moscow leads in the 1st for the first time since game 1, but Fajardo allows 10 in 3+. Hampton with another game 5 closeout, this time a complete game.

11-09-2014, 09:43 PM	#1
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB: Alternate World Original World of Baseball universe, by dward1 2062 Continental Championships - lots of good background info about country competitions I'm not so good at creating original worlds or writing descriptive backgrounds. But taking an existing framework and doing interesting stuff with it, that I can do. So I guess this is more or less the bad fan fiction version of World of Baseball. You should definitely check out the original, it's actually interesting and well-written. Copied [and edited] from the World Cup 2064 thread: This universe began at the start of the 2064 season, when it split off from the "World of Baseball: South Africa" dynasty's universe. (This is where the copied save file started.) In this universe, the focus is not on the South Africa region, but the world as a whole. There may be some interesting things happening in the local leagues, but the story here will be more about the international competitions and the teams that compete in them. For the most part, things will be very similar to the original universe. The same names and faces are the same at the start, but the futures will likely diverge widely. Already, the 2064 draft class is a very different set of players, though their effects are still minimal as of yet. This topic starts at the beginning of the 2065 season. 2064 Summary: League Winners: NABL: Grand Canyon SAm: Botafogo LAm: Cibao NoE: Vienna SEE: Benfica EAs: Guangzhou SAs: Baghdad Oc: West Coast NAf: Dakar SAf: Kampala Regional Cups: Americas: Brooklyn beats Seattle Europe: Moscow beats Manchester Asia: Guangzhou beats Jakarta Africa: Kampala beats Lusaka Global Cup: (Think EUFA Europa Cup or the NIT if the NCAA tournament only included 16 teams.) Semifinals: Motor City over Real Madrid, 2-0 Tokyo over Hong Kong, 2-0 Finals: Motor City over Tokyo, 3-2 Champions Cup (League winners plus a few other top teams.) Semifinals: Vienna over Brooklyn, 3-1 Kampala over Guangzhou, 3-1 Finals: -A true World Series Vienna over Kampala, 4-1 Then there was the 2064 World Cup in England, which had 90 countries competing to qualify for the final 16-team tournament. 2065 Northern Europe Expansion Vienna's win of the Champions Cup inspired expansion in Northern Europe for 2065. The 2 new teams are the Nice Aiglons (France) and Trondheim Trolls (Norway's first team). Thanks to an experimental change to the Expansion Draft (and by "experimental" I mean "oops"), moving the date of the draft to the day after free agent filings, the expansion teams only drafted 1 player and instead filled their rosters with free agents. This resulted in much better expansion teams, but really messed with the free agent market. Last edited by CaptainObvious; 11-15-2014 at 04:15 PM.

11-15-2014, 05:52 PM	#2
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2065 Opening day 2065-04-1: Expansion team Trondheim Trolls beat 2064 Champion Cup winners, Vienna. Win series 3-1. Expansion draft was fairly useless because it happened too early (day after free agency begins). So the expansion teams are made up entirely of pretty good free agents, instead of leftover players. Round of 64 (Amer/Asia) 2065-04-15: All 64 America Cup teams and the bottom 28 Asia Cup teams play their first round games today. Surprisingly, all 4 Oceania teams won in the first round. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately?) due to the random draw they all got stuck playing each other in round 2. Last year's top 2 South America teams knocked out in round 1. All 6 Western Federation teams knocked out in the first round. World champion Vienna was under .500 after for most of the first month of the season. Round of 32 2065-04-28: Europe, bottom of Africa, and the rest of Asia join tournaments. Europe has a full 32 teams now with the NoE expansion, so no one gets a bye. Thanks to the new world ranking system and Kampala's world 2nd place, South Africa only has 1 team in Africa Cup's bottom 4 this season. Game of the Round: Antwerp 6 Lille 3 (13) Upset: Windy City 5, Brooklyn 0. 2064 America Cup winners out in round 2. 13 of 16 2064 international qualifiers are out already in the America Cup. Round of 16 2065-05-09: The other 14 teams join the Africa Cup. Due to the differences in number of teams and thus different off days compared to the rest of the world, Africa Cup games are actually played 2 days before the other cups. Africa Cup: Lusaka 4, Cairo 12. 2064 Africa Cup runners up are out in their first game, against the lowest seed in the cup. 4 from each league left. 2065-05-11: Asia Cup: Both remaining Oceania teams win. 5 East Asia, 2 Oceania, 1 South Asia (Kolkata). Europe Cup: Stockholm 6, Vienna 0. 2064 world champions Vienna out. They're just not as good as last season (still 22-16, though). 5 South, 3 North. Only 2 of top 8 seeds left (Donetsk, Antwerp), plus defending champions Moscow. America Cup: Lots more upsets. Top 4 remaining seeds knocked out, leaving Windy City (#21 of 64) as the top remaining team. 4 NABL, 2 SAm, 2 EF. Yes, 2 teams from the 2nd-tier Eastern Federation outlasted mid-range Latin America. Halfway point 2065-05-13: NABL: No one really running away. 4 teams within 1 game of 1st at 26-14 (Grand Canyon, Windy City, Brooklyn, Manhattan). Federations: Las Vegas is 8-32. Losing half their team at the end of last season was not good. Latin America: Chivas 24-16, Mexico City 23-17. Chivas finished last in 2064, but has a completely new rotation. South America: Newell's 1 game ahead of Rio at 29-11. East Asia: Taipei 28-12. Fukuoka 27-13, and a bell curve behind. South Asia: Hyderabad up by 3 at 27-13 after finishing last in 2064. Oceania: Everyone still has a shot at the international cups. N Europe: St Pauli way ahead at 29-11, then Antwerp at 27-13. 2064 world champs Vienna is back up to the edge of international qualifying at 23-17, tied with expansion Nice. S Europe: 2064 winners Benfica 28-12, Milan 25-15. N Africa: Cairo has the best record in the world at 31-9. No one else is close. S Africa: Addis Ababa 27-13, Johannesburg 26-14. 2064 world #2 Kampala 3rd at 24-16. Quarterfinals 2065-05-22: Africa: Addis Ababa 0, Kampala 1. #1 vs #2 seeds. Only 3 hits each. Cairo 0, Kaizer 3 Tanzania 2, Algiers 4 Cameroon 5, Ivory Coast 9 2065-05-24: Asia: Kia 2, Melbourne 8 Samsung 4, Auckland 1 Taipei 7, Kolkata 3 Tokyo 4, Tianjin 5 (10) With Tokyo and Kolkata out, Melbourne is actually the top remaining seed (#11). Europe: Barcelona 12, Moscow 10. 2064 cup winners out due to lack of pitching. Milan 1, Zenit 5 Antwerp 2, Donetsk 8 Stockholm 1, St Pauli 15 America: Atlanta 2, Caracas 9 Corinthians 2, West Texas 11 Bronx 3, Memphis 0 Baltimore 5, Windy City 4. An East Fed team in the semis. If somehow Baltimore wins the cup, international rules may need to change its rules to give a Global Cup spot to the top Federation team. Semifinals Africa: 2065-06-04: Algiers 1, Kampala 4 Ivory Coast 8, Kaizer 9 Kampala (34-26) and Kaizer (33-27) are also fighting for the last South Africa international spot. Asia: 2065-06-06: Taipei 1, Melbourne 2 (17). Taipei (41-21) loads the bases in the 13th and 14th, but can't score. Samsung 1, Tianjin 0. Samsung only with 1 hit, 1 walk, but gets an unearned run in the 8th after 2 errors. Europe: Donetsk 1, Zenit 2 St Pauli 11, Barcelona 9 (10) America: Baltimore 9, West Texas 10. It was 8-2, but then Baltimore's bullpen happened. Had they somehow won the cup, the East Fed would be introduced to international play. Bronx 1, Caracas 3 Cup Finals 2065-06-17: Many low seeds made it to the cup finals this year. The only expected team is Kampala. Ranks listed here are cup seeds, not world ranks. #1 Kampala 7, #10 Kaizer 9 (13). Both teams with 2 in the 7th and 9th, 1 in the 11th and 12th. Kampala will need to actually finish well to get back into international play. Champions Cup looks unlikely. 2065-06-19: #12 Samsung 1, #11 Melbourne 4 An Oceania team actually won a cup??? This is bad news for potential GC wild card bids. #24 St Pauli 1, #21 Zenit 4 Fortunately for St Pauli, they're still a close 2nd in league play. #39 Caracas 10, #28 West Texas 3 Not even close. West Texas should still qualify for the Global Cup with their regular season record. End of Regular Season 2065-06-25: Cairo went from last place, 27 wins to 1st place, 57 wins. Europe Cup winners Zenit finished last in South Europe. 2065-06-26: East Asia 1st place tiebreaker (53-27): Taipei 10, Yomiuri 1. International Qualifying Champions Cup: Automatic Bids: Taipei (EAs), America (LA), Grand Canyon (NA1), Brooklyn (NA2), Antwerp(NoE), Benfica (SEE), Play ins: 2-0: Cibao (LA2) over Auckland (Oc) Texas (NA5) over Newell (SAm) San Fernando (NA3) over St Pauli (NoE2) Hyderabad (SAs) over Yomiuri (EAs2) Windy City (NA4) over Cairo (NAf) 2-1: Addis Ababa (SAf) over Milan (SEE 2) Champions Cup Groups: 2 automatic qualifiers and 2 CCP winners distributed to each group. A: Antwerp, America, Addis Ababa, San Fernando B: Brooklyn, Taipei, Cibao, Hyderabad C: Grand Canyon, Benfica, Texas, Windy City Global Cup: 6 CCP Losers: Auckland, Newell, St Pauli, Yomiuri, Cairo, Milan 4 Cup winners (If winner in CC/CCP, try runner-up, then semifinalists by coefficient): Kaizer, Caracas, Melbourne, Zenit 2 Returning Champions, if not in CC/GC yet: Vienna (CC), Motor City (GC) 19 Top 2 per league (1 Oceania) not yet qualified: Fukuoka, Samsung, Mexico City, Santo Domingo, Angola, Algiers, West Texas, Boston, Gladbach, Toulouse, West Coast, Johannesburg, Kampala, Boca, Corinthians, Dubai, Istanbul, Anzhi, Real Madrid 1+ Wildcard (Top 5-year coefficient not yet qualified. More teams if either returning champs in CC/CCP/Cup winners): Tokyo (#4, 2064 GC finalist) __________________ WBH - Hamilton Steelers (2009-2021?) World of Baseball: Bad Fan Fiction edition Last edited by CaptainObvious; 11-15-2014 at 06:05 PM. Reason: grammar time

11-22-2014, 11:40 AM	#3
dward1 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 934	interestingly, Salt Lake (a Western Federation team) won back to back Cup of the Americas to qualify for the Global Cup. Think it was '62 and '63. Craziness __________________ My Dynasty: Moving Upstate And Down a League in the United States Baseball League, a pro/rel global universe

11-25-2014, 08:59 PM	#5
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2065 International Cups International Cups Global Cup [Home team listed second.] Round 1 (3065-05-29) West Coast 8, Auckland 5. Auckland eliminated from both cups by Australian teams this year. Kampala 3, Zenit 4 Motor City 1, Istanbul 2 Yomiuri 2, Dubai 1 (11). Fukuoka 5, Johannesburg 1. The closest 1st-round matchup (based on 2064 rankings). Samsung 5, Boston 3 Santo Domingo 3, West Texas 4 Newell 1, Toulouse 3 Real Madrid 7, St Pauli 5 Tokyo 10, Corinthians 4 Melbourne 2, Caracas 6 Boca 6, Cairo 1 Milan 8, Algiers 0 Gladbach 4, Angola 5 Anzhi 5, Mexico City 7 Vienna 3, Kaizer 1 Round 2 (3065-05-30) Istanbul 0, Samsung 17 Angola 3, Yomiuri 1 West Texas 6, Milan 0 Fukuoka 2, Vienna 3 Mexico City 7, Real Madrid 8 Toulouse 11, Tokyo 9 (10). Tokyo with 6 in bottom 9. Zenit 2, Boca 1 Caracas 2, West Coast 7 Quarterfinals Angola 7, Samsung 4 Zenit 8, Real Madrid 3 West Texas 7, Vienna 1 Toulouse 6, West Coast 5 (12) Champions Cup, RR 1st half America 3-0 San Fernando 2-1 Addis Ababa 1-2 Antwerp 0-3 Brooklyn 3-0 Taipei 1-2 Cibao 1-2 Hyderabad 1-2 Texas 3-0 Grand Canyon 1-2 Benfica 1-2 Windy City 1-2 3 NABLs and a SAm in the top 4. Global Cup Semifinals Toulouse 2, Zenit 0 Game 3: Angola 2, West Texas 3 (10). West Texas with 1 in the 9th, 2 in the 10th to get to the finals. Champions Cup RR America 5-1 San Fernando 4-2 Brooklyn 5-1 Taipei 3-3 Texas 5-1 Benfica 3-3 No changes in the standings since 3 days ago. San Fernando gets the last spot. Champions Cup Semifinals, Global Cup final America 2, Brooklyn 0 Texas 1, San Fernando 0 Toulouse 7, West Texas 18 America 4, Brooklyn 5 Texas 6, San Fernando 8 Toulouse 4, West Texas 2 All series 1-1. West Texas 3, Toulouse 4 (10) Brooklyn 1, America 2 (10) San Fernando 3, Texas 0 West Texas 1, Toulouse 0. 2-hitter. Brooklyn 11, America 7. 7 in the 8th, was 6-4. San Fernando 1, Texas 0. Texas loads bases bottom of 9th. Game 5 America 3, Brooklyn 4 Toulouse 4, West Texas 5 (11). Toulouse with 4 top 9, West Texas 2 bottom 9. Game ends on solo HR by pinch hitter Sakutaro Kubo (22 year old CF, 2062 East Asia #1 pick, picked up as minor league free agent from Caracas.) West Texas wins the Global Cup finals, 3-2. Champions Final World #7 Brooklyn vs #77 San Fernando (NABL #2 and #3. NABL #1 Grand Canyon fell short in round robin just like last season.) Brooklyn led NABL in runs and was 2nd in bullpen, but low in starters. San Fernando was 2nd in HRs and 1st in bullpen. San Fernando 3, Brooklyn 10. 7 in the 6th, including a grand slam by LF Joel Waters, his 4th of 2065. San Fernando 4, Brooklyn 5. All runs off starters. Brooklyn 2, San Fernando 6. Winter + Black go 2-4, 2 RBI each. Brooklyn 3, San Fernando 11. 9-0 after 5. 4 HR from different players for San Fernando, even with the wind blowing in. Brooklyn 6, San Fernando 3. All runs on homeruns. Another Waters grand slam top 3 makes it 6-2, knocks out starter. San Fernando 3, Brooklyn 10. Clement Lawlor: 3-4, 2 HR, 7 RBI. (Grand slam, 3-run HR, both of starter Schroder.) Brooklyn wins, 4-2. 2065 Postseason NABL #1 is in the league rankings this year, obviously. League coefficients (2 seasons): NABL 12.764 NoE 10.400 LAm 9.000 SEE 8.600 EAs 8.433 SAs 6.333 SAf 5.750 SAm 5.000 NAf 3.000 Oc 1.333 (EF+WF do not participate in global cups and thus have no score.) East Asia is lower than expected. South Africa is higher than normal thanks to Kampala's 2064 run. Top 20 teams (2 seasons) Brooklyn 28.442 Vienna 21.751 San Fernando 18.026 Cibao 16.643 Texas 16.108 Kampala 16 Benfica 15.72 Grand Canyon 15.553 Tokyo 15.362 Motor City 14.911 West Texas 13.761 Real Madrid 13.393 America 13.3 Antwerp 12.738 Toulouse 12 Addis Ababa 10.921 Guangzhou 10.529 London 10.429 Windy City 10.05 Donetsk 9.341 (NABL 7, NoE 4, SEE 3, LA 2, SAf 2, EAs 2)

11-25-2014, 09:35 PM	#6
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2066 Spring 2065-2066 Offseason Despite mostly dominating last season, NABL lost a CC play-in spot to NoE. Expansion Plans Likely future expansion locations: NABL+subfeds: WF expansion into in western Canada. E Asia: China, Taiwan SEE: Kazakstan, Czech. S Asia: India, Turkey, Bangladesh NoE: Switzerland, Wales (Cardiff), Spain, England S Am: none LA: Puerto Rico Oc: PNG, Australia N Af: Algeria, Morocco S Af: Kenya, S Africa Expansion is unlikely for a few seasons in America, Europe due to exact power of 2 teams for convenient cup play. America Cup would require an extra cup prelim date if it expands again. Most likely, bottom ranked Federation teams will be left out of the cup entirely. Maybe they'd start their own cup. Free Agent Signings (as of 3026-01-25): 28 yo SP Jeremy Hampton (Windy City, from Columbus), 14.9/yr, 6 yr. 2059 NABL #1 pick. 47-43 for a sub-.400 team. 32 yo SP Reinhard Kohncke (Moscow, from Bronx), 12.5/yr, 3 yr. 28 yo 2B Umberto Frassetto (London, from Toulouse), 12.7/yr, 5 yr. 2064 SEE Batter of the Year and Gold Glove for Athens. 27 yo CF Joe Newman (Brooklyn, from Jacksonville), 12.8/yr, 7yr. .348 in 2065. 2060 NABL RotY. 28 yo SP Julian Castro (Brooklyn, from Barranquilla), 12.4/yr, 6 yr. Last 2 seasons: 24-12, 1.92 ERA, 12 shutouts. 22 yo SS Koriako Kitakawa (Kia, from Wuhan), 9/yr, 2yr. He only played 9 games in 2 seasons and isn't projected to be very good, but apparently Kia thinks he's underrated. 36 yo LF Rens van def Ban (Manchester, from Nice), 7.9/yr, 3yr. .318, 11 HR, 40 RBI in 2065. An above average player. 25 yo CL Rullu MeHeshi (Lille, from Motor City), 7.8/yr, 3yr. 59/74 career saves, 1.87 career ERA. 37 yo 3B Jesus Blindheim (Memphis, from Miami), 7/yr, 3 yr. All-around average player, except a great eye. His 7th different NABL team. 23 yo CF Billy Brown (Salt Lake, from Colorado), 7.5/yr, 5 yr. He could have been a star in any league, but he chose to stay in the 6-year-old West Fed, where he is the all-time Home Run leader (97, tied with teammate Gerald Hobbs). Salt Lake made several expensive signings this season and now have 3 of the 4 top salaries in the West Fed and almost twice the payroll of the next highest team. Salt Lake is clearly the strongest team in the Federations, winning the West in 5 of its 6 seasons. 27 yo 3B Bhasin Noorzai (Ivory Coast, from Ajax), 9.2/yr, 6 yr. The greatest baseball player from Bangladesh ever. 2057 South Asia #1 pick, probably one of the best hitters in the world currently. .347 career average, 50 HR, 145 RBI in the last 2 seasons. 2066 South Asia Expansion 2066-01-25: Dhaka Abahani (Bangladesh's 1st team, thanks to a good showing at the 2064 World Cup and also the rise in baseball's popularity thanks to Bhasin Noorzai.) Izmir Göz (Turkey's 3rd team) Both teams picked 27 players to fill their rosters. There wasn't any top talent available, so these teams should struggle for a while. These will be relatively small market cities compared to the reset of the league. This should be the last expansion in South Asia for a while, as it has expanded twice in the last 3 years. New in 2066 Federations Championship The winners of the Western + Eastern Federations will meet at the end of the season, during the Champions Cup Play-ins. It will likely be Pittsburgh vs Salt Lake (combined winners 8 of 10 league-seasons). Opening Day 2066-04-01: 81 games to be played worldwide. First game of the year: Melbourne 7, Auckland 6. The defending Asia Cup winnners scored 5 in the top of the 9th to beat the 2065 Oceania League winners. Both expansion teams won: Dhaka 6, Tehran 3 Galatasaray 5, Izmir 6 (11) Initial cup draws drawn for America, Asia Cups. Defending America Cup winner, #18 seed Caracas, plays at #50 Santa Cruz. Only 16 teams get byes in the Asia Cup this year as the field has expanded to 48. Round of 64 2066-04-15: Cup coverage will include the top 4 remaining seeds plus the previous year's winner. Plus interesting results (extra innings, big comebacks/scores). #1 Brooklyn 9, #19 Montreal 3 #64 Arizona 3, #2 San Fernando 12 #3 Cibao 1, #24 Havana 7 #27 Montego Bay 2, #4 Texas 3 (10) C Ruben Vega scores the tying and go-ahead runs in the 8th and 10th. #18 Caracas 6, #50 Santa Cruz 0 With Cibao, America, and Santo Domingo losing, the top remaining non-NABL team remaining is #11 Botafogo. Round of 32 2066-04-26: Africa Cup's bottom 4 teams start today. 2066-04-28: Europe Cup starts. Top third of Asia Cup joins. Asia Cup: #32 Tianjin 2, #16 Melbourne 5. Defending champs easily win the first game of the day. #1 Tokyo 2, Dhaka 1. The 2064 Global Cup runners up barely hold on to beat the better of the two expansion teams. #2 Guangzhou 5, #5 Baghdad 4 (12). There's always that one early game where top teams unfortunately draw each other. This was one of those. Baghdad had 2nd+3rd, 1 out bottom of 12th, but only got 1. #3 Hyderabad 1, #4 Taipei 0 (20) This year, it was actually 2 really bad draws for top teams. This game took just over 6 hours. A solo HR by 2B Arun Kishore, his first in cup/international play, in the top of the 20th was the only run. Taipei's starter had a complete game shutout if only his team had scored. Taipei struck out 20 as a team. Teams remaining: EAs: 10, SAs: 3, Oc: 3 Europe Cup: #1 Vienna 5, #7 Donetsk 1 (14). The 2064 world champs are still struggling in league play, so maybe they can get a good cup run in. #2 Benfica 11, #14 St. Pauli 6 #3 Real Madrid 2, #4 Antwerp 3. The best matchup of the first round. #22 Barcelona 7, #8 Zenit 3. Defending champs out in the first round. America Cup: #1 Brooklyn 5, #6 Motor City 3. #2 San Fernando 2, #57 Colorado 1. Should have been another easy West Fed game for the Valley Cats, but this one was close. #4 Texas 4, #44 Bahia 1 #5 Grand Canyon 5, #13 Vancouver 3 #33 Bronx 3, #18 Caracas 9 #14 Miami 11, #56 New Orleans 7(10). New Orleans scores 5 in bottom 9 to tie it, but has no bullpen. Teams remaining: NABL: 8, SAm: 3, LA: 1, EF: 2, WF: 1 4 of the top 5 seeds still in it. #63 Minnesota is one of 3 remaining Federation teams. Havana, the only Latin America team to win in round 1, is still in. 2066-05-01 There will be a feature article on a random team every month in order to give a better feel for the teams in this world. There are 162 teams and there is likely to be on average 1 new team a year, so we'll get through everyone in maybe 14 years. Random team of the month: Barcelona Cules Current: 10-18, tied 12th place (14th of 14 in power rankings). Beat 2065 Europe Cup winners Zenit in the first round. Faces #1 Vienna in Europe Cup 2nd round. Rank: EU: 22 of 32, World: 93 of 146. Last season: 36-44, 10th place SEE. Europe Cup semifinalist. SEE Championships: 2049, 2060. Legends: SP Kelvin Johnston (2050-2058, 56-40, 2.68 ERA) CL Edoardo Botte (2053-2064, 123 saves) 1B Ergun Yakin (2051-2057, .274 AVG) Manager: Qian Hu (2-2, hired 5 days ago) 3rd manager since start of 2065. He was an unknown relief pitcher in the '40s. Payroll: 67.9m, 2nd in SEE. Key Players: SS Iwo Hyska (2065: .291, 10 HR, 31 RBI). 1st round pick in 2059. Not as fast as scouts thought he would be, but otherwise has worked out pretty well. Has had problems with injuries and fielding the last few seasons. Usually in the league leaders in OBP. RF "Drummer" Valdes (2065: .276, 18, 54). Came back to his homeland, Spain, after sitting on the bench for Windy City for 4 years. Last season split time at 1B/RF. C Reagan Hayes. 2063 NABL rookie of the year, but mediocre since then. Bought from Detroit before 2065. Had a major injury at the end of the season. His backup, Javier Jimenez, has been playing better in limited time since coming over from Zenit, so Hayes may be running out of time. SP "Clutch" Howard (2065: 10-5, 2.99). 1-4, 6.13 in the first month of this season. Had a complete game shutout in the Europe Cup last year. Barcelona's only active pitcher with a career ERA under 4 and a .500+ winning percentage. Barcelona was one of 8 founding Southeast Europe League teams in 2043. While the league was still split into 2 divisions, Barcelona was always one of the worst teams. With the 2049 merging of the divisions and expansion from 8 to 10 teams, they managed to turn things around, finishing 1st in 2049 and 2nd the next 3 seasons. Things got pretty bad for a while, but when the league once again expanded in 2059, they jumped back up, even winning the league in 2060. The front office prefers to buy talent rather than develop it internally. Due to poor scouting, the team is usually below average. But every decade or so they bring in the right set of pieces and win the league (or go on a cup run). 2065 could have gone much better if their #4/#5 starters didn't combine for 3-17, 6.81. Buying LF Raul Zamora from Santa Cruz in 2063 has hurt. Last season he hit .191 while getting paid 11.6m. Now he is sitting on the reserve roster and making 13.8m. 2066 isn't looking much better. The team is 4th in the league offensively, but last in pitching and near the bottom defensively. The only bright spot so far is 2B Raul Reyes, who leads SEE with a .405 AVG, but he's out for a month (a third of the regular season) due to a rib injury.

11-27-2014, 12:06 AM	#7
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2066 May Round of 16 2066-05-09: The first Africa Cup game for most of the teams. Africa Cup: #13 Tanzania 1, #1 Kampala 8. #6 Johannesburg 3, #2 Addis Ababa 1. Winning run at the plate with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. #11 Dakar 1, #3 Angola 0. Dakar can't win in league play (11-25), so they're hoping for a good cup run. #8 Algiers 9, #4 Ivory Coast 4. #15 Accra 1, #10 Kazier 3. 2065 cup winners defend the cup with a very ordinary win. Teams remaining: SAf: 4, NAf: 4 2066-05-11: Asia Cup #1 Tokyo 4, #36 Jiangsu 3. Late comeback for the Swallows, but it still counts. #9 Sichuan 0, #2 Guangzhou 1 #3 Hyderabad 0, #37 Orix 8. Not really an upset, though. Orix is near the top of East Asia this season and Hyderabad is below .500. #7 Samsung 2, #16 Melbourne 3. Melbourne (29-9) finally faces tougher competition in the cup. Scores 3 bottom of 9th of Germany's World cup closer. Imelmann. 6 East Asia teams left. Europe Cup #22 Barcelona 4, #1 Vienna 3. The recently-featured team has now knocked off the defending cup winners and the top seed. Next up is the team that beat them in the semifinals last year, St Pauli. #4 Antwerp 2, #12 Gladbach 5. Strachan with his 2nd cup save for Gladbach. #5 Toulouse 0, #10 Anzhi 7. After leading France to the World Cup semifinals in 2064 and having a breakout season in 2065 (10-5, 1.92), Axel Lemoine is 0-4 this year. Anzhi gets him for 6 in 6 innings. #29 Napoli 2, #6 London 4 Lots of upsets this round. #32 (of 32) Trondheim still alive after beating Leeds, Juventus. America Cup #1 Brooklyn 4, #17 Seattle 1. #45 Medellin 13, #2 San Fernando 3. #4 Texas 5, #22 Bogota 0. #5 Grand Canyon 9, #55 Albuquerque 4. #52 Atlanta 1, #18 Caracas 2. Caracas keeps getting fortunate matchups and keeps taking advantage of them. Surprise team: #63 Minnesota. Beat Windy City, Lima, Corinthians. Halfway 2066-05-13: NABL: Grand Canyon 26-14, followed by Boston and Brooklyn, then Motor City. Federations: Pittsburgh just caught New Orleans at 24-16. Las Vegas and Salt Lake running away in the west (28-12, 26-14). Las Vegas with hitting, Salt Lake with pitching. SAm: Boca (29-11) 3 ahead of Botofogo. LAm: Guatemala (26-14) 2 ahead of America. Looking for their first Champions Cup bid. Cibao is closing fast, though, having won 11 of their last 12. NoE: Antwerp (26-14), Ajax (25-15), Leeds (24-16), and Trondheim fighting for the now 3 Champions Cup spots. Several teams at 22-18 looking to get that last GC spot. SEE: Juventus 27-13 behind Alan Pedrazzolli (6-0, 0.68), Moscow and St Petersburg 4 back. NAf: Cairo 29-11 3 ahead of Cameroon. Bhasin Noorzai (Ivory Coast) on his way to a possible triple crown (.407, 17 HR, 40 RBI). On pace to break the North Africa single season HR record (33). SAf: The tightest of all leagues. 3-way tie at 22-18 (Johannesburg, Kenya, Tanzania). Last place is only 4 games back. Abdelwahab Awotwe (Kenya) currently has the pitching triple crown (8-2. 0.82, 105 Ks). EAs: Sichuan at 27-13, followed closely by Taipei and Tokyo and then a whole bunch of teams. Hiroshima has the worst record in the world by far at 7-33. They are last in the league in almost every hitting category and also starter ERA. SAs: Sepahan (25-15) is a game ahead of Delhi, Galatasaray, and expansion team Dhaka. Bhuper Parantp (Dhaka) has a good shot at a triple crown (.354, 14, 43), but Kyu-min Kim (Izmir) is 2nd in every category (.351, 12, 36). Oc: Melbourne has the best record in the world (30-10) and leads by 12 games. League pitching has gotten much worse since last season, going from a 3.91 to a 4.50 ERA, just ahead of the league ERA in its inaugural season. Quarterfinals 2066-05-22: Africa Cup #8 Algiers 2, #7 Cairo 4 (11). Fikrce Essaid goes all 11 for Cairo. #1 Kampala 1, #16 Cameroon 8. This game was out of reach early. Kampala (24-24) has been on a roll lately and will need to continue to play well if they want to reach a postseason cup. #6 Johannesburg 8, #11 Dakar 4 (10). Dakar with 2 in the 7ths and 9th to tie it. Bases loaded walk and a balk by Dakar's closer in the top of the 10th. #12 Lusaka 0, #10 Kaizer 3. 2066-05-24: Asia Cup #12 Fukuoka 5, #1 Tokyo 10 #16 Melbourne 0, #10 Yomiuri 4. Melbourne's cup draw luck finally runs out. #15 Shanghai 3, #37 Orix 2 #17 Dubai 2, #2 Guangzhou 3 An all-East Asia semifinals. Europe Cup #6 London 2, #10 Anzhi 0 #18 Rome 4, #32 Trondheim 1 #22 Barcelona 2, #14 St Pauli 8. St Pauli loads the bases repeatedly, scores repeatedly, knocks out Barcelona again. #12 Gladbach 6, #17 Stockholm 2 America Cup #63 Minnesota 4, #4 Texas 11. Minnesota's starter gives up 8 in 1+ inning. #45 Medellin 1, #5 Grand Canyon 11. Medellin's starter doesn't make it out of the 1st. #18 Caracas 4, #31 Charlotte 9. 8-2 after 4. #1 Brooklyn 12, #14 Miami 5. The NABL teams really jumped on opposing starters this round. The remaining teams are 4 of NABL's current top 8, an unexpectedly expected result. Only 2 returning semifinalists from 2065: Kaizer and St Pauli. 2066-06-01: Random team of the month: Bayern Stars (Munich) Current: 31-26, tied 5th place (8th of 18 in power rankings). Europe Cup: Lost to Toulouse, 1st round. Rank: EU: 21 of 32, World: 87 of 146. Last season: 40-40, 11th place NoE. Lost 1st round to Gladbach. NoE Championships: 2048 Champions Cup Qualification: 2063 Global Cup Qualification: 2058, 2059, 2061 Legends: RF Joao Rugeroni (2044-2052) .311, 140 HR, 428 RBI. Franchise leader in most career averages, power stats by far. Entered Hall of Fame in 2062 CF/LF Rens van der Ban (2050-2056, 2061-2064) 777 H, 181 SB. 2051 RotY. Came back after 4 years in Charlotte. SP/SU Andrew Rijsdijk (2043-2049) 48-20, 2.13, 6.01 K/BB. 2044, 2045 OPA (pitcher of the year). Despite being the best pitcher in NoE 2 years in a row, he got moved to the bullpen in 2046, where he had a 0.74 ERA. (This was some pretty bad managing.) Manager: Marc Wolff (71-66, 2nd season) Favors small ball. 2nd managing job. Previously a bench coach in LAm and NAf. Payroll: 75.4m, 4th in NoE. Stadium: Allianz Arena. 436 ft to center, deep gaps. Often a strong wind blowing in from right. Key Players: SS "Love Machine" Scoggins (2065: .311, 20 SB for Albuquerque [EFed]). .460 OBP in 54 games. Probably the best Federation SS since he joined it at age 19. Only 25. Walks more than he strikes out and fields pretty good. 1B Hayden Kirton (2065: .355, 30 HR, 83 RBI for Vienna) 2060, 2061 SEE MVP, 2065 NoE MVP. He was a major part of Vienna's 2064 Champions Cup win. Scouts say he's starting to age (33), so he didn't get as much in free agency as you'd think one of the top power hitters in Europe would get. His numbers so far this season are down, but not bad. LF Eustace Fraenckel (2065: .315, 12, 41 in 52 games.) Above average at pretty much everything except staying healthy. Came over from Antwerp before last season. SP Jaroslaw Drugnowski (2065: 8-5, 2.52 for Benfica). Another shrewd offseason pickup, took a 40% paycut since last season. #2 pick of 2059 SEE. Really great stuff, but no control. CL "Crab" Ridehalgh (2065: 0.44, 12 SV for Sydney). 0.74, 5-1, 11 SV. 2050 1st round pick by London. Had a 100 mph fastball at the time. Maybe the best closer in the world 5 years ago, but then he missed most of 2061 and 2062 due to injury. Might retire after his contract ends next season. Bayern was one of 8 founding Northern Europe League teams in 2043. They were one of the top teams in the 40s, winning the division 3 of 6 times. The stadium has almost always been full and the payroll is usually among the top 5 in the league. The current (new and experienced) GM is focussed on brining in players who can get on base a lot. (He's also the only Swazi coach in the world currently.) 2065 was a transition year for the Stars. Two starters had ERAs far below 3, but they were countered by Howard Bent (3-8, 7.78). 4 of the starters and also the closer left at the end of the season. Vedal (2B) is the only offensive starter remaining from 2 seasons ago. (Hence why the above Key Players are mention recent signings.) 2066 has been a little better, mainly due to the vastly improved bullpen, now the best in the league (12-2, 2.48 ERA). The starting pitchers have been fairly poor, though. Offensively, after adjusting for the effects of their home field, they are right around average. The way Northern Europe is right now, with 13 teams within 5 games of 1st, it will likely be a fight to the finish for one of 5 cup spots. In sad news, 2064 World Cup standout and Vienna star Dane Pew's career was ended when he got a concussion running into the wall while making a catch on April 16th at Bayern. Last edited by CaptainObvious; 11-27-2014 at 12:09 AM.

12-03-2014, 07:44 PM	#8
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2066 June Semifinals 2066-06-04: Africa Cup Kaizer 8, Cairo 2. Kaizer might actually be able to pull off back-to-back cups. Jiro Yamaguchi in the cup: 15 IP, 1 ER, 3 H. Johannesburg 2, Cameroon 3. Bashir Hauli with a walkoff single. Cameroon is the most improved team in Africa this season, ahead of last season by 18 games. 2066-06-06: Asia Cup Yomiuri 1, Tokyo 5. Carlos Rubio with 2 HRs as the Swallows win the 2066 Battle of Tokyo. Guangzhou 6, Shanghai 4. Guangzhou with 6 in the 8th, capped off by a bases loaded triple by Jian-Zhang Tsai. Europe Cup Gladbach 1, St Pauli 2. Douggie Brinklow with a walkoff homerun to lead off the 9th, and St Pauli is back in the finals again. London 7, Rome 16. Fiers Mnjskin with 3-run homers in the 5th and 7th put this one out of reach. America Cup Brooklyn 6, Grand Canyon 3. The 1st and 2nd place NABL teams don't really need to win the cup, but it would a nice bonus. Brooklyn with 5 in the 5th to knock out Koumura. Charlotte 4, Texas 5 (10). Charlotte led most of the game, but after they didn't score with bases loaded and no out in the 8th, Texas tied it at 4. Texas loaded them in the 9th with 1 out, but also didn't score. A 2-out error in the 10th led to Craig Vincent's walk-off single. Cup Finals 2066-06-17: Africa #10 Kaizer (36-36, 3rd, 3GB) vs #16 Cameroon (47-25, 2nd, 4GB) Kaizer tied the game twice, but never led. Nader Abe with a solo HR early and the game-winning sac fly in the 8th. With Cameroon's cup win, 4th place in North Africa will get into the Global Cup. Cameroon 5, Kaizer 4 2066-06-19: Asia #1 Tokyo (48-26, t-2nd, 2GB) vs #2 Guangzhou (47-27, 4th) 2 of the top 26-year-old starters face off. No score after the 5th, then Tokyo started scoring. "Glance" Sun is having a great season in his last year of arbitration. Tokyo 5, Guangzhou 0 Europe #18 Rome (37-37, 8th, 12GB) vs #14 St Pauli (27-47, 17th, 18GB) Both teams need to win to make the postseason cups. Rome led for the middle third of the game. "Prophet" Vis knocked out Rome's starter in the 7th with the go-ahead 3-run homer. St Pauli 6, Rome 4 America #4 Texas (44-30, 3rd) vs #1 Brooklyn (47-27, t-1st) Brooklyn looking to pick up where it left off in 2064 after last years flukes. This was a classic. Both starters left in the 7th after giving up 2 runs. Ferrand and Vega started the 12th with back-to-back homers. Brooklyn got a double to start its half, but unwisely sacrificed 2 outs to move the runner around. As it stands, both teams should at least be in the CCPlayoffs, so the Global Cup spot will actually go to only semifinals not likely to finish in the NABL top 4, Charlotte. (If they manage to take 4th, then the spot goes to the quarterfinalist with the highest coefficient, Miami). Texas 4, Brooklyn 3 (12) End of Regular Season 2065-06-25: Salt Lake sweeps Las Vegas to come back from 2 back with 3 left to go. NABL Triple Crown: Jared Jones, Detroit (.348, 30, 82) 2065-06-26: Tiebreakers! Oceania (46-34) Melbourne 2, West Coast 9 South Africa (42-38) Kenya 7, Addis Ababa 0 Southeast Europe (51-29) Moscow 6, St Petersburg 3 NABL (52-28) Grand Canyon 4, Brooklyn 8 East Fed (43-37) Pittsburgh 3, New Orleans 2. Norfolk 5, Pittsburgh 2. New Orleans 3, Norfolk 2. 2065-06-27 Global Cup qualification tiebreakers EAs: Fukuoka 3, Shanghai 4 NoE: Paris 4, Liverpool 3. Ajax 4, Paris 3. Liverpool 5, Ajax 4. SAf: Tanzania 3, Zimbabwe 4. Johannesburg 2, Kaizer 5. Zimbabwe 2, Kaizer 0. SAs: Galatasaray 5, Delhi 4 SEE: Donetsk 1, Milan 4 International Qualifying Champions Cup: Automatic Bids: Taipei (EAs), Guatemala (LA), Brooklyn (NA1), Grand Canyon (NA2), Antwerp(NoE), Moscow (SEE), Play ins: 2-0: Lille (NoE2) over Texas (NA3) Kenya (SAf) over Cairo (NAf) Tokyo (EAs2) over Nice (NoE3) St Petersburg (SEE2) over Havana (LA2) 2-1: San Fernando (NA4) over Cairo (SAm) Dhaka (SAs) over West Coast (Oc) Champions Cup Groups: A: #102 Guatemala, #8 Grand Canyon, #57 Kenya, #82 Lille B: #14 Antwerp, #25 Taipei, #Expansion Dhaka, #3 San Fernando C: #1 Brooklyn, #59 Moscow, #9 Tokyo, #83 St Petersburg Global Cup: 6 CCP Losers: #61 Havana, #65 Cairo, #5 Texas, #110 Nice, #31 West Coast, #42 Boca 4 Cup winners (If winner in CC/CCP, try runner-up, then semifinalists by coefficient): #140 Cameroon, #86 Charlotte, #17 Guangzhou, #56 St Pauli 0-2 Returning Champions, if not in CC/GC yet: #11 West Texas (GC) 19 Top 2 per league (1 Oc) not yet qualified: #37 Sichuan, #40 Fukuoka, #13 America, #4 Cibao, #69 Lagos, #66 Algiers, #10 Motor City, #79 Toronto, #18 London, #30 Paris, #53 Melbourne, #16 Addis Ababa, #141 Zimbabwe, #22 Botafogo, #116 Lara, #92 Sepahan, #99 Galatasaray, #104 Juventus, #35 Milan 1-3 Wildcard: #2 Vienna, #6 Kampala Round 1 (2066-06-30) Note: Global Cup and Champions Cup pairings are semi-seeded based on 5-year coefficient. The top half of teams get home games against random teams of the bottom half. #141 Zimbabwe 3, #40 Fukuoka 2 #104 Juventus 7, #17 Guangzhou 1 #140 Cameroon 12, #31 West Coast 0 #99 Galatasaray 1, #16 Addis Ababa 2 #110 Nice 8, #37 Sichuan 1 #69 Lagos 3, #4 Cibao 4 #53 Melbourne 3, #2 Vienna 0 #66 Algiers 2, #6 Kampala 3 (11) #116 Lara 3, #35 Milan 0 #61 Havana 9, #18 London 1 #86 Charlotte 6, #30 Paris 2 #92 Sepahan 12, #22 Botafogo 1 #56 St Pauli 1, #11 West Texas 4 #65 Cairo 13, #10 Motor City 6 #79 Toronto 11, #5 Texas 1 #42 Boca 1, #13 America 4 Last edited by CaptainObvious; 12-03-2014 at 07:46 PM.

12-03-2014, 07:56 PM	#9
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2066 Postseason 2066-07-01: Random team of the month: Montevideo Sunflowers (Uruguay) Current: 43-37, t-7th (6th of 18 in power rankings). Missed international play by 3 games. America Cup: Lost to Vancouver, 1st round. Rank: America: 49 of 64, World: 143 of 146. Last season: 30-50, 17th place SAm. Lost 2nd round to Botafogo. SAm Championships: None Champions Cup Qualification: None Global Cup Qualification: 2058-2061 Legends: SP Miguel Velazquez (2050-) 130-109, 3.58, 1500 Ks. He's been here his whole career. 36 now. SAm PotY 2053, 2061. LF Adalberto Fagundo (2053-2062) .295, 144, 461. Hitter of the Year 2059-2061. All-time SAm HR leader with 203. SS Andres Rosario (2050-2059, 2061) .320, 953 H, 107 HR, 453 RBI. Hitter of the Year 2053. Manager: None (Retired this week.) Pitching Coach Naif Na'il Abdul-Hasib has been with the team since it was founded in 2049. Maybe he'll finally get the job? Payroll: 27.6m, 16th in SAm. Stadium: Ballpark of Montevideo. Righties have a short wall and short field and a wind that normally blows out. Shape near symmetrical, but right field is 18 feet high. Key Players: 1B Esteban Rojas (.285, 12, 50). Big free agent signing before this season from Rio. A good hitter just entering his prime. Too bad he's a lefty, as the right field wall is the tall one. CL: Luis Fernandez (career 2.40 ERA). Acquired last month from Columbus for a couple of prospects. Led SAm with 20 saves in 2064 for Fortaleza. SP: Conrado Pyrrait (14-5, 2.49). 2063 1st round pick had a career year (at age 25). A major reason the team should move up from 2nd-last in world rankings (not counting than Feds). SP "Undertaker" Velazquez (6-9, 5.25). It's been all downhill since winning his 2nd PotY in 2061. Got suspended for 10 games last year for fighting with a Lima player. Montevideo entered the South America league with Botafogo in 2049. They had one of the worst seasons ever, going 8-72 with a 10.16 ERA. (Fun fact: the bench coach during this season just managed Antwerp to 1st in the NoE last season.) They finally won more than 30 games in a season in 2053 thanks to actually having an offense and even finished 2nd. They then averaged around 45 wins a season since then, aside from 2064-2065's disasters. Montevideo is a small market team and is usually low on payroll and attendance rankings. They went through a major front office overhaul last season after dropping off the bottom of the standings. After a couple of bad seasons, the Sunflowers were at least competitive in 2066 thanks to the signing of Rojas and the emergence of Pyrrait and CF Roberto Cal. Aside from a major lack of power, they were above average offensively. Their pitching was pretty weak, though. This offseason they will be looking for a new manager and probably a couple of infielders to replace likely free agents. Also a DH, as their DHs this year were pretty bad. Global Cup, Round 2 (2066-07-01) #116 Lara 0, #53 Melbourne 1 (12) Rookie "Fingers" Benscheidt goes 8.1 scoreless. #92 Sepahan 6, #16 Addis Ababa 2 #140 Cameroon 2, #6 Kampala 3. Labid Nu'man with the walk-off solo HR to lead off the 9th against starter Aghecher Mwapacha. #141 Zimbabwe 0, #65 Cairo 10 #86 Charlotte 6, #61 Havana 7 (15) Relievers combine for 17.2 IP, 1 ER. #110 Nice 4, #4 Cibao 3 #79 Toronto 5, #13 America 0 #104 Juventus 2, #11 West Texas 7 Quarterfinals (2066-07-02) These matchups are almost basically regional finals. Sepahan 2, Melbourne 5. #9 hitter Adamczak with as many RBIs today as in the last 2 seasons combined (3). Cairo 3, Kampala 2. Nice 10, Havana 7. Nice's bullpen shut down Havana after the 5th. Schimmel with another big homer. Toronto 5, West Texas 6 (10). Bases loaded walk wins it for the defending champs. Champions Cup, RR 1st half Guatemala, Kenya 2-1 Grand Canyon, Lille 1-2 Antwerp 3-0 San Fernando 2-1 Dhaka 1-2 Taipei 0-3 Brooklyn, Moscow, Tokyo 2-1 St Petersburg 0-3 We might have to break out the tiebreakers this year. Global Cup Semifinals 2-0: West Texas over Nice, rolls into another Global Cup final. Game 3 (2066-07-05): Cairo 8, Melbourne 7. Melbourne with 6 in the 7th. Cairo with 4 in the 9th. Well, that was pointless: Taipei 3, Dhaka 1 (16). The final game between two teams already eliminated from the semfinals. Bottom of the 16th, 2 out, 0-2. Umps call a 61 minute rain delay. Batter works count to full, strikes out. Champions Cup RR Guatemala 5-1 Antwerp 5-1 San Fernando 4-2 Brooklyn 5-1 Tokyo 4-2 San Fernando with the wild card spot 2 years in a row (beat Tokyo on tiebreaker #2: Runs Allowed (15 vs 17) Federations Championship (best of 5) Surprise, Norfolk beat out Pittsburgh in the 3-way tiebreaker. Norfolk 3, Salt Lake 4. Walkoff single by pinch hitter Khaled. Norfolk 2, Salt Lake 3. 3 in the 8th off the setup guy/ Salt Lake 10, Norfolk 12. Salt Lake finally runs out of pitching. Norfolk's entire lineup gets in on the action. Salt Lake 1, Norfolk 6. [Insert "Tide has turned" pun here.] Champions Cup Semifinals, Global Cup Final #102 Guatemala 6, #1 Brooklyn 10. Guatemala really shouldn't have made it this far, but their pitching been good and a couple of power hitters are having unexpectedly huge years. #14 Antwerp 14, #3 San Fernando 10. These teams were in the same group 2 years in a row, so it's becoming somewhat of a rivalry. SF had to beat Antwerp yesterday just to get here. 8 in the top of the first. Unfortunately for Antwerp, their start 3B and 1B got hurt. #65 Cairo 6, #11 West Texas 15. The Miners were up 13-1 after 3. 2066-07-07 Guatemala 4, Brooklyn 5. Things looked up for the Creams when they went ahead 4-1 in the 6th on Palmiero's 3-run homer, but young Belarussian reliever Tretyak gave it right back. Antwerp 3, San Fernando 5. Cairo 1, West Texas 5. Norfolk 6, Salt Lake 4. Once West Texas got far enough ahead, attention moved to the upstart leagues' Finals Game 5, where they saw Norfolk finish coming from behind in both the game and the series. The Federations are no longer only the "Bee" league. gag 2066-07-08 West Texas 2, Cairo 4. San Fernando 0, Antwerp 2. Antwerp used basically their entire bullpen to shut out SF on 3 hits. Brooklyn 8, Guatemala 4. Sweep no surprise. 2066-07-09 West Texas 4, Cairo 14. Rookie Liben Mwinyimadi finally gets his first cup win on the 4th try. San Fernando 0, Antwerp 2. Once again, Antwerp makes full use of its bullpen. Zuo-Lin Hua with an RBI double and a home run in his first 2 at bats. 2066-07-10, Game 5 Cairo 1, West Texas 3. "Shadow" Tinker with a 3-run HR in the 6th is all that was needed and West Texas wins the Global Cup again. 10th Champions Cup Finals The winners of NABL and NoE meet in the finals. Brooklyn shot to #1 last year with their Champions Cup win and they're even better this year with the addition of "Bandsaw" Kolenca (12-1, 0.83). Antwerp has been getting farther in the postseason cups the last few years, usually by just scoring a ton of runs. Antwerp 2, Brooklyn 3. Gerald Hobbs with a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 7th gives Dos Santos his second straight loss. Antwerp 6, Brooklyn 2. (Kolenka announced Cy Young Award winner.) Brooklyn 8, Antwerp 1. Go ahead run scores on a 1st-inning balk. Brooklyn scores in 5 different innings. Brooklyn 3, Antwerp 5. Brooklyn jumped ahead early again, but this time Antwerp answered. The injuries are piling up for Brooklyn, as LF Waters and 3B Lindsey join CF Newman on the bench. (Antwerp's star CF Billard is also out.) Antwerp 9, Brooklyn 6. Antwerp led 8-1 after 5. Tying run at the plate grounds into a double play to end the game. Brooklyn 7, Antwerp 1. Grand slam by Clement Lawlor in the 9th finally put this one out of reach. Kolenka beat Dos Santos again. Game 7 (2066-07-16) Antwerp at Brooklyn Greer vs Manning, rematch of game 2. Brooklyn can't get Newman home from 3rd with no out in the 3rd. Ian Ainsley involved in Antwerps first 2 runs. Brooklyn with 3 runs from the bottom 3 hitters in the 7th to go up 3-2. "Wasp" Roux with his second save in the series. Brooklyn 3, Antwerp 2. 2066 World Rankings No change in the rank order of leagues. SAm is getting dangerously close to the bottom, though. NABL 19.639 NoE 13.686 LA 13.500 SEE 12.350 E Asia 11.433 S Asia 10.333 S Af 10.000 S Am 6.000 N Af 5.500 Oc 4.333 Top 20 teams (3 seasons) 1(1) Brooklyn 46.817 2(3) San Fernando 31.222 3(14) Antwerp 29.395 4(9) Tokyo 25.923 5(11) West Texas 24.837 6(8) Grand Canyon 23.868 7(2) Vienna 23.118 8(6) Kampala 21.121 9(10) Motor City 20.987 10(4) Cibao 20.157 11(5) Texas 18.363 12(13) America 16.943 13(7) Benfica 15.835 14(16) Addis Ababa 14.65 15(25) Taipei 13.908 16(12) Real Madrid 13.768 17(15) Toulouse 12.271 18(17) Guangzhou 12.051 19(18) London 11.97 20(57) Kenya 11.685 Dropped out: 23(19) Windy City , 25(20) Donetsk (NABL 6, NoE 4, SAf 3, EAs 3, SEE 2, LA 2) Brooklyn is almost guaranteed at least a Global Cup wildcard spot the next 3 years. Last edited by CaptainObvious; 12-03-2014 at 07:58 PM. Reason: add world ranks section

12-10-2014, 11:44 PM	#10
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2066 Late Summer 2066 Continental Championships With lessons learned from the 2064 World Cup, there are a few changes to national team competitions. Minimum Roster Size Changes, Amateurs Welcome During the World Cup, a few issues were noted. First, many nations with a small pool of professional players were uncompetitive on most days because they had maybe 1 or 2 real starting pitchers. Secondly, some teams had only maybe 2-5 pitchers total, so those starters had to go a complete game, sometimes on 2 days rest. Finally, some teams only had a few position players but several pitchers, so they had pitchers playing in the field. To attempt to solve these issues, country teams are now allowed to bring amateurs to competitions. While their abilities are very poor, it's at least better than having pitchers in the field and throwing 300+ pitches every 2-3 days. This also opens the way for more nations to participate in national team competitions. Teams are now required to have a minimum of 18 players on the roster. Professional experience no longer required. This should mainly affect the lower-levels of national team play. The highest-ranked team that is bringing any amateurs to the 2066 CC is Zambia (#43). (The lowest ranked teams full of professionals are #60+#61 Uruguay and Pakistan.) Continental championship ruling organizations will set the minimum required professional players for a CC bid. Minimum professional players requirements: Asia, Africa, Europe: 6 Americas: 4 2070 CC Restructuring An issue seen in the 2062 CC was the unbalanced nature of the schedules and too many off days due to odd numbers of teams in some groups. The 2066 group sizes will remain the same, but for 2070, all groups above the bottom 2 levels will be standardized to 6 teams. This means Asia 1 and Americas 1-3 will add an extra team each, shifting some of the lower tier spots upward. In Asia, all tiers below 1 will have the 2nd place team will have a playoff with the last place team from above for the extra created spot. Americas 2: same as Asia 2. Americas 3: 3rd place gets a promotion playoff with AM2 last place. Americas 4: Playoffs between 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and AM3 6th. Double loser does not go to AM3. Also, an extra tier will be added to a continent once the bottom tier reaches 10 or more teams. At 10 teams, the previous bottom tier stays with 5 teams. Any more, and the previous bottom tier has 6 teams and the new low gets the remainder. New Teams, Tiers in 2066 Asia: Tier 5 (8 teams): Georgia, Iraq, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Qatar, UAE. Africa: Tier 5 (8 teams, including previously-bottom-ranked Angola): Libya, Somalia, Togo, Benin, Comoros, Guinea, South Sudan. Europe: Tier 6 (6 teams): Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Armenia, Lithuania, Estonia. Americas: 5 added to Tier 4 (9 teams): Bolivia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago. World Rankings (updated after 2064 World Cup) 1 China (1) 2 USA (2) 3 England (4) 4 Japan (3) 5 Canada (5) 6 Germany (7) 7 France (10) 8 Italy (6) 9 South Africa (8) 10 Nigeria (12) 11 Spain (13) 12 S Korea (9) 13 Turkey (11) 14 Mexico (18) 15 Australia (19) 16 Iran (21) 17 Argentina (15) 18 Venezuela (17) 19 Ukraine (28) 20 Brazil (16) 21 Dominican Republic (24) 22 Cameroon (29) 23 India (27) 24 Poland (23) 25 Egypt (22) Free Agency 2066-07-21 Free agency runs rampant in North Africa and Guatemala this season with the top 3 HR hitters all leaving. In NAf, Bhasin Noorzai was released by Ivory Coast after the first year of a 6-year contract despite him carrying the team this season. He then signed with Lusaka, but was released the same day. 1B Hisham Ra'id left Algiers after playing his first 8 seasons there. He is normally good for about .335, 15 HR, 60 RBI per season. Finally, 1b Ghumer Imamu (.295, 15, 60) will be looking for his 5th team in 5 seasons after over-performing in a 1-year contract. RF Raul Romano (.253, 24, 67) CF Felix Guerrero (.272, 19, 67), and 1B Cristo Vazquez (.340, 14, 56) are all leaving Guatemala after the team finally had a breakout season and reached the Champions Cup semifinals. Guatemala is also losing LaM PotY Seong-Ryong Park (10-4, 3.10). 2066-07-31 Early big signings: Bhasin Noorzai (Boston, from Ivory Coast), 15.1/yr, 6 yr. We'll see how he does in NABL. 26 yo LF Sam Gibbs (Texas, from Bahia), 17.7/yr, 4 yr. .316, 10 HR, 50 RBI per year in WFed, SAm. 34 yo SP Greg Harris (Montreal, from Montreal), 11.4/yr, 2 yr. Just finished 6 years for Montreal, might as well go back. 104-63, 2.76, 1408 K in 14 full seasons in NABL. Oddly, has never won any awards, even weekly. 28 yo Matunde Baakir (Manhattan, from Accra), 11.1/yr, 6 yr. Baakir has always been on bad teams. Manhattan just had their worst season since their first season, so maybe nothing has changed. Usually around 6-8, 3.50 on sub-.400 teams. Random Team of the Month: Mazembe Crocodiles (DR Congo) 2066: 38-42, 6th (6th of 10 in power rankings). Missed international play by 13 games. Africa Cup: Lost to Lusaka, 1st round. Rank: Africa: 16 of 18, World: 123(+2) of 146. NAf Championships: None Champions Cup Qualification: None Global Cup Qualification: 2062 "Legends", or as close as Mazembe has had so far: 2B "Pizza" Ola (2063-2066) .288, 67 HR, 183 RBI. 2065 HotY, 27 HR. Originally signed by Texas, came back to Africa for Angola for a few seasons before coming to 3rd-season Mazembe. Just left for free agency. 1B Tsuneyo Kikuchi (2062-2066) .261, 74 HR, 201 RBI. 21 HR in 2065. Otherwise, an above average hitter. Starting to lose his swing. Manager: Brad Fizz, 83-77 in 2 seasons. Previously Charlotte Knights 2057-2064, won manager award 2061. Windy City and Melbourne before that. Career 487-527, never won a league in 18 seasons. Payroll: 18m, 10th in NAf. Last season: 39.5m, 9th. Stadium: Stade TP Mazembe. Shared with the football club. A very short right field (only 336ft to the "gap" before jutting out to 410 in center), but the wind usually blows in from there. Left field is slightly deeper and 15 feet high. Key Players: SP Jwahir Kianyandaaraw (8-7, 3.93). Still in arbitration next season. Moved the the rotation for 2066 after previously being a closer and long reliever. Has potential to be a decent starter, but he really feels more like a closer. ST Abdi Odhiamo (7-3, 2.10, 18 SV). Basically the closer, but gets used for multiple innings in close games. Took the role from Kianyandaaraw after coming over from Zambia in 2065. Arguably the best Ugandan player currently. The oldest player on the team at age 29 now that free agents have left. SS Zewdie Barsosio (.256, 4, 28). SAf 1st pick in 2065, 3rd in 2066 NAf RookieotY. Average offensively, very good defensively. Only 23, so he could become interesting. 1B Jason Cameron (.310 in 18 games). .268, 7, 41 for Algiers in 2064. Bounced around reserve rosters since then. Closest thing to a veteran in the current lineup. Mazembe entered the North Africa League with Kano in 2061. Lubumbashi is relatively small for hosting a baseball team, but the fans are very loyal so far. The owners have stuck with GM Alberto Lopez for all 6 years of the team's existence, but after a the last few disappointing seasons, there may be some changes soon. As a smaller market team, they've mainly relied on developing players that they drafted, but this season they have likely have ~20m to spend in free agency after several starters' contracts ended. Their best finish was 45-35, 3rd place in 2062, mainly thanks to Kikuchi and several 1-year-contract starting pitchers. In 2064, they were 30 GB at 28-52, but not last place despite being worst in both runs allowed and scored. 2066 was disappointing as they dropped 7 games despite slightly increasing their payroll. This offseason they should be looking to bring in another starting pitcher and a replacement starting infield with 15-20m to spend. 2066 Continental Championships 2066-08-02 Austria had issues with player registration forms, so they ended up with only 10 active players available for the first 2 days. They still managed a split with Norway. 2066-08-22 The playoffs/extra games begin today. Results so far: Asia Level 1: China with a perfect 16-0 to continue its world dominance. They won all 16 games by 2 runs or more, even. Level 2: No surprise in India promoting and Indonesia getting a playoff for the extra spot against Australia. Bangladesh with a disappointing last place as Noorzai's hitting can't make up for the team's lack of pitching when facing good teams. Level 3: Philippines recovers from an embarrassing 2064 WC Qualifying with a tie at 15-5 with Taiwan. The two teams split 4 games so far. Indonesia had no offense and no pitching and ended up 2-18. Level 4: The closest group in Asia. Pakistan and Sri Lanka tied for 1st at 7-13. Saudi Arabia finished ahead of last-place PNG thanks to the individual effort of Rayhan bin Huasayn (Yomiuri, 5-0, 0.45, 41 IP). Level 5: Vietnam (15-5) followed by Iraq and Georgia (13-7), who will have a playoff to see who gets a promotion playoff against PNG. Africa Level 1: South Africa (17-3) 4 ahead of Nigeria. Ivory Coast (10-10) recovers from a few bad competitions thanks to a pair of youngsters at the top of their lineup. Level 2: Kenya goes 15-5 to get to the top level of Africa. Zimbabwe unsurprisingly 2-18. Level 3: B Baraka (Brooklyn, .380, 7, 25) with a big tournament for Burundi (12-8). They tied with DR Congo, who have 15 pitchers but only 5 hitters. Level 4: Burkina Faso (15-5) on the way back up, as expected. Mozambique and Mali split 2 to finish the tournament and have a playoff to avoid dropping down to the new Level 5. Level 5: Nadir bin Bida (Accra) leads a team of mostly amateurs over the rest of the other half-pro teams. Europe Level 1: This is the best Continental Championship group, with 6 of the world's top 13 teams, 4 of the top 10. World Cup Finalist England beats defending-champs France by a game behind Tickle, Fay, and Maw. France has a 1.79 ERA, but not enough hitting. Spain demoted as Barcelona's Valdes goes 6 for 81. Level 2: Poland comes from 1 behind Netherlands with 2 games left to win it at 14-6 despite mostly wasting Kolenka's 1.38 ERA. Belgium's (4-16) lack of offense does them again, just like in the World Cup. Level 3: Scotland (13-7) takes 3 of 4 from Portugal to win by 1 game. Czechs 4-1 behind Bartolomej Rychtar (Athens), 2-13 otherwise. Level 4: Sweden (14-6) coasts to an easy first after starting 11-1. Serbia (7-13) heading back to Level 5 again. Level 5: 3-way tie for 1st between Cyprus, Romania, Wales (13-7). Romania won its last 9, including the final 2 over Cyprus, to get here. Greece (3-17) was picked for demotion and they did not disappoint (or maybe they did?). Level 6: Lithuania (17-3) wins its last 14. "Future" Jakkelsen (Gladbach, .530, 6, 24) has a huge tournament, but Denmark (10-10) is otherwise unremarkable. Americas Level 1: Canada (11-5) needed to beat USA (12-4) all 4 times to take 1st, but they lost in the last game. Argentina (3-17) continues to lose to good competition. Level 2: Mexico's pitching and Venezeula's hitting led them to the top 2 spots. Cuba (2-14) only brought 4 pitchers and now has a demotion playoff to avoid dropping back to level 3. Level 3: Peru and Uruguay (11-5) get auto-promotions. Guatemala (8-8) faces Cuba for the last extra spot. Puerto Rico (5-11) has a tiebreaker against Jamaica after beating them 4 straight times (all blowouts). Vincente Soto (Guatemala, Nice, .439, 8, 23, 7 SB) led most major offensive categories except for batting average. Level 4: Nicaragua and Paraguay (12-6) have a playoff for 1st. Loser gets a promotion playoff the winner of Ecuador vs Haiti (11-7). PR/Jamaica faces the loser of Ecuador/Haiti. Then the losers of those 2 games play each other. Everyone involved goes to level 3 except the loser of the last game. (Sort of a reverse-playoffs.) Bolivia (4-14) is likely to be the world's lowest-ranked team with the next world rankings update.

12-14-2014, 12:18 AM	#11
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2066 CC Part 2 AS1 extra: Indonesia 3, Australia 4. Wibawa Karsumaatmaja (Sichuan) runs out of gas in the 6th. AS3 tiebreaker: Philippines 0, Taiwan 1. Game ends on a wild pitch from amateur closer Ysmael Acantilado with runners on the corners. AS4 tiebreaker: Pakistan 8, Sri Lanka 7. Sri Lanka can still promote if they beat Malaysia tomorrow. AS5 tiebreaker (2nd): Iraq 3, Georgia 0 (10). 3 Georgian amateurs shut out Iraq for 9 innings, but finally fall apart in the 10th. AF1 tiebreaker (last): Egypt 6, Cameroon 1. Gebre-Mariam Mwamba (Atletico) gives up 6 in less than 2. AF3 tiebreaker: Burundi 9, DR Congo 8 (11). DRC tied it bottom 9 and had a running thrown out at the plate. Both teams with RBI doubles in the 10th. AF4 tiebreaker (last): Mali 11, Mozambique 3. 6 in the 9th to put it out of reach. EU5 tiebreaker: Romania 1, Cyprus 2. Timothy Kourempes (Paris) outpitches Nicu Bozgan (San Fernando) AM1 extra: Venezeula 3, Argentina 4. Olivas (Corinthians) with the go-ahead homerun in the 8th to avoid demotion. AM2 extra: Guatemala 4, Cuba 0. Complete game shutout by Ivan Cruz (West Texas). AM3 tiebreaker: Peru 3, Uruguay 2. Both teams promote anyways. AM3 tiebreaker (last): Puerto Rico 1, Jamaica 7. Puerto Rico still has 2 chances to beat a level 4 team to avoid demotion. AM4 tiebreaker: Paraguay 5, Nicaragua 1. Amateur Paco Moreno finishes a good tournament with a complete game win. AM4 tiebreaker (3rd): Haiti 11, Ecuador 12. Ecuador comes back from down 10-4 in the 8th. 2066-08-23: AS3 extra: Sri Lanka 18, Malaysia 6. Malaysia just ran out of pitching. AS4 extra: Iraq 8, Papua New Guinea 3. Up-and-coming Khaldoon bin Noori (Kuala Lumpur) with his 5th win of international play, leading the newcomers to promotion. Even had a 2-run single in the 5-run 4th. EU5 tiebreaker: Cyprus 3, Wales 10. Wales earns the promotion to level 4 with 2 5-run innings off of amateur pitching. AM3 extra 1: Haiti 8, Puerto Rico 6. Amateur Luis Martinez gives up 3 in the 8th, 5 in the 9th. Jocelyn Dufour (Bogota) with 5 of those RBIs. AM3 extra 2: Ecuador 12, Nicaragua 3. 2066-08-24: AM3 extra 3: Nicaragua 8, Puerto Rico 1. Not even close. Puerto Rico loses their last 9 games to drop to the new bottom level. 2066-09-01 Random team of the month: Grand Canyon Thunder (Phoenix) 2066: 52-29, 2nd (tiebreaker) (of 24). Champions Cup, eliminated in group stage at 3-3. Americas Cup: Lost to Brooklyn, semifinals. Beat Jacksonville, Vancouver, Albuquerque, Medellin. Rank: Am: 4 of 64, World: 6 of 146. NABL Championships: 2044, 2057, 2064, 2065. Champions Cup Qualification: 2057, 2062, 2064-2066. Global Cup Qualification: 2061 Legends: RF "Prince" Norton (2051-2052, 2055-2060). .270, 134 HR, 427 RBI. 2B "Ringo" Davis (2054-2058). .319, 20 3B, 226 R. Had his prime years with the Thunder, but was plagued with injuries. Still playing for Toronto, hitting over .300. Career: .322, 1461 H (#3 all-time NABL), 855 R (all-time NABL leader) SP "Boo" Turner (2043-2047). 49-19, 2.15. Career: 89-45, 2.63. 2044-2046 NABL-West Cy Young. SP Rocky Nichols (2050-2058) 70-41, 2.90. Career: 139-95, 3.09. 2045 RotY for West Texas. 2057 Cy Young. Combined 2054+2057, 21-3, 1.61 ERA. NABL leaders all-time: #2t in Wins, #3 IP, #6 K, #12 WAR(P). Just retired. Manager: Noah Bagshaw (156-85, 3 seasons). Manager award winner 2057(SAf), 2064-2065. Previously bench coach for Boston, managed Johannesburg. Payroll: 108m, 2nd in NABL. Stadium: Thunderdome. It's a dome. 17-foot wall in left, shorter and closer wall in right. Huge gaps. Key Players: SP Wilpert Dieskau (5-4, 3.23). Missed end of 2066 due to injury. Brought over from Lille on a 20m international posting fee. Usually around 8-3, 2.70. All of his pitches are hard and breaking (sinker, slider, splitter). SP "Golden" Koumoura (11-2, 2.45). 2064 Cy Young. 36-9, 2.27 in 3 years for GCT, previously starred for Samsung. CL Terry Waller (5-1, 1.63, 25/28 SV). 2 blown saves against Guatemala caused GCT to fall short in group play as usual. 71/75 saves, ERA around 1.1 in the last 3 seasons, world-class closer. 1B "Buddha" Coleman (.322, 18, 73). 2064 HotY after coming over from Memphis. 4-tool player (slow). LF "Rogue" Beach (.292, 15 SB). One of the world's best leadoff hitters, career .428 OBP. An original Colorado Rockie. Missed most of 2063 due to issues transferring into NABL from the Federations. 2B Jim Anderson (.301, 7, 42). Didn't pan out for Los Angeles, but GCT gave him a chance and he's surpassed expectations. Only 23, so he should be around for a long time. Finally, a good team with lots of history as the random team of the month. Grand Canyon was one of the 12 original NABL teams and played in the Western Division until the merge. The franchise has a long history of coming of coming up just short since winning NABL in 2044. They lost championship serieses in 2046 and 2047 to New York teams. In 2054 and 2056, they lost 1st place in tiebreaker games to Miami and Manhattan. In each of the last 3 seasons, they managed 1st place (although they lost to Brooklyn in the tiebreaker this season). But then they went on to win 2,3,3 games in Champions Cup group stage, failing to qualify for the semifinals. Despite a large market and usually one of the top payrolls, they usually haven't filled the stadium (until this year). Usually the money is spent on pitching and bringing in offensive producers. The current front office was brought in after a terrible 2059 season. 2066 went about the same as the previous 2 seasons, what with being at the top of NABL and failing in the CC. They likely won't be making any moves this offseason, as their entire starting lineup and rotation are returning (and most are under 30). 2066-09-15 More Free Agent moves SP "Stork" Mitchell (Vancouver, from Windy City) 11.5/yr, 3yr. Career 94-70, 2.89 in NoE, NABL. SP "Patches" Pedrazzolli (Jacksonville, from Juventus) 11.9/yr, 6yr. 12-1. 1.45 ERA, 2nd in NoE PotY. SP Chance Manning (West Texas, from Brooklyn) 12.6/yr, 5yr. 54-27, 3.13 in 7 seasons for Brooklyn. SP Martin Fay (Manhattan, from Texas) 11.9m/yr, 4yr. Ace of England's national team. 72-47, 3.17. Had a terrible first half of the season in 2066. Last edited by CaptainObvious; 12-14-2014 at 12:24 AM.

05-15-2015, 08:40 PM	#12
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	2066-10-01 Random team of the month: Bogota Millionaires (Colombia) 2066: 38-42, t-12 (of 18). Americas Cup: Lost to Texas, 3rd round. Beat America, San Diego. Rank: Am: 28 of 64, World: 79 of 146. SAm Championships: 2047t, 2056-2057. Champions Cup Qualification: 2057 Global Cup Qualification: 2064 Legends: James Murphy (2046-2058). .296, 85 HR, 398 RBI. Not especially great, but when you start 10+ seasons for a team, you tend to leave a mark on its all-time leaderboards. 1B Fidelio Cosmati (2048-2058). .273, 124 HR, 496 RBI. Franchise leader in H, HR, RBI, R. SP Julaio Trulla (2047-2057). 45-28, 3.99. Started as a reliever but became a starter. SP Vasquo Bidet (2051-2059). 45-24, 3.26. Currently a free agent. CL Jesus Jimenez (2054-2062). 2.87 ERA, 85 SV. Only long-term closer the team has had. SP Luis Arias (2046-2052). 53-29, 3.51. 2049 PotY. Manager: Gan Chao (74-86, 2 seasons). 19 years after being fired as San Fernando hitting coach, he helped last-place Tianjin play above .500 at the end of 2063. Payroll: 41.2, 6th in SAm. Stadium: Campin Stadium. Great hitter's park for lefties due to the very short right field and helpful prevailing wind. Key Players: DH Jocelyn Dufour (.324, 18, 59). 44 HR in 2062 is the current WoB record (only other 40-HR season also in 2062 SAm by Vincente Soto for Guatemala). 2063-2064 LAm triple crown, HotY for Havana. C Hector Perez (.269, 11, 33). Signed long-term before last season. Ok defensively, more better offensively. RF Chistovao Lago (.311, 9, 44). 2057 RotY for Lima. Will be in his 3rd of 4 seasons for Bogota. SP Salvador Ermida (10-2, 2.50 for Boca). 2058 SAm PotY. Got hurt mid-late last season, otherwise could've gotten another award. MR Seok-heung Kim (3-2, 2.51, 32 IP). Only 22. If he could work out his control, he could be a pretty good #2 starter. One of the original 6 SAM teams (finished dead last their first season). Finished 2nd in 6 of the next 8 seasons and tied for 1st with River Plate in 2047. Finally won 2 championships outright with great pitching in the late 50s. Was SAM's first representative in the Champions Cup but were knocked out early. Finally made it back to international play in 2064 but were knocked out in the first round by quarterfinalist Antwerp. Bogota has one of the larger fanbases, but the stadium is usually not quite full. They've had the same GM for 21 of their 24 seasons. 2066 was another disappointment, only picking up 2 wins over the previous season and dropping 2 spots. Should be busy this offsesason having lost 3 starting outfields, 3B, and their closer to free agency. So far they've picked up 2 starting pitchers and an outfield prospect. 2066-10-31 Free Agents The biggest free agents have already been signed by now. 1B Nate Hardy (Toronto, from Motor City) 11.4/yr, 2yr. 2059 SEE, 2064 NABL HotY. .321, 238 HR, 916 RBI in 19 seasons, mostly in NABL. 2066-2067 Offseason Still no change in CC spots. Expansion Plans None in 2067. Likely expansions for 2068: SAf, Oc (which has never expanded since starting in 2049). New in 2067 Baseball 16.0 Now Trending: -Reinstitution of season ticket sales -An aging owner-class selling off their long-term investments finally. -Owners interested in their clubs rather than saying, "Here's X moneys, go win X games, good luck". -Fourth-wall weakening -Doubleheaders after rainouts?

05-15-2015, 08:43 PM	#13
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2067 Preseason 2067-02-01 We took a few months off for winter and a much-needed technology upgrade, but we're back. Random team of the month: Delhi Bengals (India) 2066: 46-34, 3rd (of 20). Lost 3rd place/Global Cup tiebreaker spot to Galatasaray. Asia Cup: Lost to semifinalist Shanghai, 3rd round. Beat Chiba, Kuala Lumpur. Rank: As: 24 of 48, World: 92 of 146. SAs Championships: 2054, 2057 Champions Cup Qualification: None Global Cup Qualification: 2057, 2061, 2062 Rivals: Karachi, Kolkata Legends: 1b Pancho Reyes (2050-2058). .258, 82 HR, 337 RBI. Franchise all-time leader in most of the important offensive categories, except SB (0 attempts in 9 years!). 3B Alexander Skrede (2054-2060). .260, 71, 272. 2055 RotY, but ended up fairly average. Rahmad Susanti (2054-2060, 2066). .257, 277 R, 101 SB. 2054 RotY, another young star who amounted to nothing special. SP "Rattlesnake" Hani (2043-2047). 38-19, 2.51. 2046 PotY. But then he signed with rivals Karachi for the rest of his prime, winning PotY in 2048. CL Bidula Patachli (2057-2063). 1.29, 102 SV, a big part of Delhi's international play qualifications. India's national team closer. Manager: Jesus Castillo (127-113, 2 seasons). Managed in the Americas for 20 years before coming to Delhi as a bench coach in 2064. Promoted to Manager after the team finished 15th. Payroll: 40.7m, 2nd in SAs. Stadium: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. A huge field with 10-foot walls all the way around. Usually near capacity. Key Players: 2B "Cappy" Sai (.264, 10, 36). At age 30, is the second older player on the team and de facto leader. In the middle of a 6-year contract after coming over from Chiba. Had a few minor injuries the last few seasons. The only major offensive threat on the club. 3B Cakravata Venugopal (.273, 9, 45). Drafted in 2059. A fan-favorite and also beanball magnet. SP "Pistol" Saldanha (10-5, 1.99). 2066 PotY. Only 24. Probably the best young starting pitcher in SAs and a future national team ace. 2060 1st overall pick, but bounced around between several teams' reserve rosters in 2061 before ending up in Delhi. Finally had a breakout season in 2066 as his command of his 5 pitches has finally gotten good. CL/SP Ka'im Kateb (3-1, 2.18, 15/17 SV). Previously the #2 starter, but got forced into the closer role as the manager was sick of Peterson's wildness costing the team many games the previous 2 seasons. Likely back in the rotation this year, though. 1st round, 2059. CL Ryan Peterson (3-0, 1.60, 5/6 SV). Moved to a middle relief role more most of the season after struggling as the closer in his first 2 full professional seasons. Allowed 0 runs in his last 15 appearances. Signed as a reserve in 2063 after being cut by Seattle. One of the original 8 SAs teams in 2043, as the Delhi Daredevils. Finished 2nd behind Karachi for most of their early history. Managed to win the league championship series in 2050 and against in its last season in 2057, qualifying for the first Global Cup. When Delhi has good pitching, they win. In 2063, they finished 45-35 despite hitting .215, the worst team average in SAs history, thanks to a 2.76 ERA. The team is known for extremely conservative baserunning; many of their best hitters never even attempted to steal a base over several seasons. 2066 was considerably better than previous seasons, but still disappointing as they missed out on the Global Cup in the tiebreaker game after expansion team Dhaka somehow won the league. Lost previous ace, Callahan to free agency. No major signings so far and none expected. Free Agency (since 2066-11): 40 yo 2B "Ringo" Davis (West Texas, from Toronto), 10.3m, 1 yr. 2048 NABL 1st pick. .320 AVG in 19 seasons in NABL, likely HoF. 26 yo SS Naohiro Nakada (Tokyo), 12.5m/yr, 6 yr. Entered free agency, didn't go anywhere. .308, 10, 41 last season. 2059 EAs 1st pick.

05-15-2015, 08:48 PM	#14
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	2067-03-01 Random team of the month: Atlanta Black Crackers (East Federation) 2066: 42-39, 4th (of 8). (Roped into an extra game as part of the 3-way tiebreaker with the 3 teams that finished 1 game ahead of them. America Cup: Lost to West Texas, 2nd round. Beat Norfolk. Rank: n/a (Federation teams are not ranked) EF Championships: None Federation teams do not yet qualify for world competitions (unless they win a Cup) Rivals: Pittsburgh, Norfolk Manager: Paul Christiansen (219-182, 5 seasons). Atlanta's only manager so far. Led them to 5 winning seasons, but no pennants yet. Payroll: 40.2m, 3rd in EF. Stadium: Ponce de Leon Park. A huge, turf field with 10-foot walls all the way around. Center is 439 ft. Seats 49k, but usually only about 10k show up as this isn't a top league. Key Players: (All age 25-27!) RF "Wonder Boy" Kinney (.273, 5, 30). One of the founders of the Federation. 2063 HotY. 2nd highest salary in EF. Had a down year last year, Atlanta really needs him to lead. CF Jim Bogicevic (.260, 5, 26). Also in his 5th season with Atlanta. Always had a great glove, but now actually gets on base. SP "Warlock" Crandell (12-3, 1.36). 2064-2066 PotY. If he keeps this up, the pitching award will be named after him. 46-20, 2.01 in 5 seasons. SP Javier Romero (6-5, 2.48). Always stuck in the Warlock's shadow. Another career-long Black Cracker. CL "Homicide" Torres. (3.27, 21/22SV). Had a perfect 0.00 ERA, 12/12 saves in 27 games in 2065. Best curveball in the Federation. One of the 8 teams that founded the newest professional league, the Eastern Federation, in 2062. Has never finished more than 4 games out of first, but haven't finished first yet either. The owner let the GM spend wildly before last season, but it did not pay off, as the team had its worst finish ever. Federation teams still have trouble signing free agents, as many players don't even see it as a legitimate professional league. Lost their middle infield to free agency and haven't made any big signings. Lost previous ace, Callahan to free agency. No major signings so far and none expected. 2067-04-01 Opening Day First game of the year: Saitama 4, Samsung 7. Samsung was up 7-0 when Saitama's starter left in the 4th. Keung Wen with 4 RBI. Initial cup draws drawn for America, Asia Cups. 2066 America Cup winner, #7 seed Texas, plays at #36 Los Angeles.

05-17-2015, 04:42 PM	#15
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2067 Spring Round of 64 2067-04-15: #7 Texas 1, #36 Los Angeles 6. 2 runs on wild pitches, 1 on a throwing error. #22 Lara 6, #1 Brooklyn 4. 3 in the 9th off closer Ahmed. #16 Boca 4, #2 San Fernando 9. #3 West Texas 8, #64 Colorado 1. 4-run first and the lowest seed was never in it. #52 Salt Lake 1, #4 Grand Canyon 6. #8 hitting DH Vicente Lopez 3-4, 2 2B, 4 RBI. Random team of the month: Moscow Dynamo 2066: 52-29, 1st (of 14). Beat St Petersburg in tiebreaker. Champions Cup, 3rd in group behind World #1 Brooklyn and EAs #1 Tokyo. 2067: 12-2, 1st by 2 over Anzhi. On a 10-game winning streak. Europe Cup: Face #6 London first round. 2066: eliminated 1st round by Dortmund. Rank: Eu: 8 of 32, World: 26 of 146. SEE Championships: 2049, 2059, 2066 Champions Cup Qualification: 2059, 2063, 2066 Global Cup Qualification: 2060 Rivals: Rome, Donetsk, Warsaw Legends: Qui-li Thum (2047-2053): .276, 123 HR, 421 RBI. 2048-2050 HotY. Anastasio Esquivel (2047-2055): .324, 49, 268. .426 OBP. "Iron Curtain" Podenok (2047-2052): 65-21, 1.64, 953 K. 2045, 2047, 2050-2052 PotY. 2060 HoF. #1 SEE career WAR. "Loudmouth" Olivo (2054-2060): 43-26, 3.19. 2059 PotY. 12-0, 1.85 in 2059. #1 pick 2054 SEE draft. Career 24.29 K/BB. Now plays for Real Madrid. Owner: Manny Ramirez (no relation). Manager: Shafiq bin Mus'ad (372-283, 9 seasons). The most successful Iranian manager. Managed a terrible Athens team for several seasons, then coached Scotland's bench for a while before coming here and succeeding. Payroll: 65.0m, 1st in SEE. Stadium: Dynamo Stadium. Retracable roof so the April games aren't so cold. Short right field wall, tall left field wall. Key Players: C "Godzilla" Sánchez (.367, 5, 16). 2066: .331, 23, 71, HotY. 2066 free agent (Cibao). 3B Shusaku Kawano (.346, 0, 5). 2066: .309, 8, 50. 2065 free agent (Zenit). SP "Flash" Köhncke (3-0, 0.37). 2066: 6-5, 3.65. 2066 free agent (Bronx). Went 3-0, 0.00 for Toronto in 2057 interregional play. Great splitter. SP Giambattista Mancuso (2-1, 2.42). 2066: 12-4, 4.45. 2057 #2 SEE pick. CL Sigifrid Scherich (0.00, 5/5 SV). 2066: 1-6, 3.72 in 31 games for Manhattan. One of the original 8 SEE teams, started in a division with Warsaw, Donetsk, Zenit. Went through a really bad stretch for most of the 50s. 3 trips to the Champions Cup, but no top 4 finishes. Last year they were 1 game short after getting stuck in with the top teams from the top 2 leagues. Almost always fills their stadium, even for regular season games. There's always been at least a few superstars on the team every year thanks to the highest payroll in the league. 2066 was the best year in a while for Moscow, winning the league and competing well in international play. They jumped in the world rankings from 56 to 26. 2067 is expected to be another successful season and appears to be going that way as they've jumped out to a 12-2 start. Bringing in Scherich to close has worked so far. Mancuso just signed a 7-year extension, so he'll likely be one of the few players who plays his whole career for one team. Round of 32 2067-04-26: Africa Cup's bottom 4 teams start today. 2067-04-28: Europe Cup starts. Top third of Asia Cup joins. Asia Cup: #14 Yomiuri 1, #1 Tokyo 2. The Swallows win another Battle of Tokyo with runs in the 7th and 8th. #2 Taipei 5, #23 Rembrang 3. Rembrang's starter injured in the 2nd and Taipei jumps on the long reliever. #7 Hong Kong 5, #3 Guangzhou 2. #13 Fukuoka 6, #4 Dhaka 17. 10-3 after 3. Everyone on Dhaka with at least 1 hit. #6 West Coast 5, #5 Hyderabad 6. 5 in the 9th for Hyderabad, 4 with 2 out. #47 Beijing 4, #15 Istanbul 3 (18). Istanbul had a 1-hitter going into the 9th, but Beijing scored 2 on 1 hit to tie it. Adityagarbha Ghazali (Beijing) with 5 of team's 7 hits, including the game-winning HR in the top of the 18th. Teams remaining: EAs: 7, SAs: 9, Oc: 0 Europe Cup: #9 Lille 11, #1 Antwerp 6. NoE 2nd-place Lille takes down world #3 Antwerp, who are having a tough season so far. #2 Vienna 0, #25 Barcelona 1. 8th-inning homer for Mark Richardson the only run. #18 Gladbach 15, #3 Benfica 11. 10-10 after 6. #32 Napoli 8, #4 Real Madrid 12. 5 in the first for Napoli, but Real Madrid gradually came back until they got 5 of their own in the 7th. #16 St Pauli 3, #28 Athens 9. Defending champs eliminated in the first round. Teams remaining: NoE: 8, SEE: 8 Top 3 ranked teams out in the first round. America Cup: #2 San Fernando 8, #41 St Louis 0. Rain delay in the 8th prevents Sutton from getting his first ever complete game shutout. #5 Motor City 7, #3 West Texas 8. Game of the day. Cooper Bishop with 2 HR, including the 2-run walkoff. #31 Bronx 1, #4 Grand Canyon 2. #53 Pittsburgh 1, #35 Jacksonville 2 (12). 4 perfect innings from long-reliever Sancho Garcia to finish the game for Jacksonville. #13 Havana 7, #45 Lima 6 (14). Lima with 4 in the 9th to send it to extra innings. #15 Vancouver 6, #17 Fortaleza 1 (10). Teams remaining: NABL: 8, SAm: 5, LA: 1, EF: 1, WF: 1 Round of 16 2067-05-09 Africa Cup: #1 Kampala 7, #9 Lagos 5. Lagos's started knocked out in the 5th, having given up 7. #4 Cairo 6, #2 Addis Ababa 1. 6-0 after 2. #7 Ivory Coast 3, #3 Kenya 1. Awotwe goes 9 the second time this week, but gets no runs support. #8 Cameroon 7, #14 Lusaka 3. 5 in the 8th as the defending cup winners come back to win it. Teams remaining: SAf: 2, NAf: 6 2067-05-11 Asia Cup: #1 Tokyo 4, #35 Chennai 5 (10). 2066 EAs and Asia Cup winners finally beaten on a pair of runs in the 9th and 10th off closer Calhoun. #24 Delhi 5, #2 Taipei 3. #45 Kia 4, #4 Dhaka 5. Gui-fan Ang reachs on a fielder's choice, steals 2nd, then scores on pinch-hitter Naguchi's 2-out, game-ending single. #5 Hyderabad 2, #7 Hong Kong 0. Hong Kong's ace gives up runs on a home run and a wild pitch. Head to head this round: SAs 5, EAs 2 Europe Cup: #30 Warsaw 1, #4 Real Madrid 5. Another complete game from Loudmouth. #25 Barcelona 3, #5 Toulouse 7. #18 Gladbach 4, #8 Moscow 7. 4-1 Gladbach after 2. #9 Lille 2, #24 Bayern 5. #21 Rome 5, #13 Milan 3 (10). Vasili Aslyahov injures himself while running on his game-winning 2-run double in the 10th. America Cup: #2 San Fernando 7, #49 Montevideo 3 (14). Montevideo tied it in the 11th and 12th, but couldn't score more than 1 in an inning. #3 West Texas 8, #54 Las Vegas 5. Bishop big again, 4-4, 2B, HR, 5 RBI. #15 Vancouver 0, #4 Grand Canyon 16. Dave Coleman 5-5, 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI. #10 Windy City 11, #29 Newell 4. 10-2 after 6. Surprise team: #51 Norfolk (EastFed). Beat #12 Santo Domingo, #63 Philadelphia, #13 Havana. Last edited by CaptainObvious; 05-17-2015 at 04:44 PM.

05-23-2015, 09:22 PM	#16
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2067 Midseason 2067-05-15 Random team of the month: Antwerp Great Old (Belgium) 2066: 48-32, 1st (of 18). Champions Cup runner up, lost to Brooklyn in 7 games. 2067: 18-23, 8.5GB, 14th. Europe Cup: Lost to Lille, 1st round. Rank: Eu: 1 of 32, World: 3 of 146. NoE Championships: 2065-2066 Champions Cup Qualification: 2065-2066 Global Cup Qualification: 2063-2064 Rivals: Ajax, Lille Legends: LF Eustace Fraenkel (2058-2064): .272, 62 HR, 280 RBI. 2057 NoE #1 pick. SS Norman Bauer (2060-2066): .255, 46, 259. Top 2 in most franchise non-average stats. SP William Dos Santos (2059-): 57-33, 3.30. 10-3, 1.47, 2nd in PotY in 2065. Team stopped being the worst in NoE when they drafted him. SP Sean Charlwood (2057-2063): 38-27, 4.35. 10-5, 3.03 in his last season with team in 2063. Owner: Roland Mulford. Relatively young (47). Manager: Fytor Sastre (114-87, 2+ seasons). Led team to its first two NoE championships in his first 2 seasons. Previously managed Leeds, Rakuten. Bench coach of the worst team in WoB history (2049 expansion Montevideo, 8-72). Payroll: 79.5m, 6th in NoE. Stadium: Bosuilstadion. Retracable roof + turf. Right field wall is both deeper and much higher than left field. One of the largest stadium (66k+ seats). Key Players: C Zuo-lin Hua (.331, 12, 24). 2066: .308, 13, 44. 2064 NoE RotY. Signed in 2063 as reserve free agent. 1B August Ihlen (.282, 6, 17). 2066: .324, 21, 72. Having an off year due to injury. 2059 NoE RotY for Toulouse. 2066 free agent. CF "Furball" Billiard. 2066: .304, 15, 39, 21 SB. Missed most of first 2 months of season due to broken finger. 2060 1st round pick. SP William Dos Santos (5-3. 3.83). 2066: 6-3, 2.62. 0-3, 3.60 in 5 international competition starts last season. CL "The Natural" Picot (1.62, 11/11 SV). 2066: 3-1, 1.89, 19 SV. 2063 1st round pick. 1.92 career ERA and still not done developing. Entered NoE in 2049 with Ajax, Scotland, and Stockholm. Finished last 8 of their first 10 seasons and still have the worst all-time win% in NoE (636-845). Things got better once the league started adding more expansion teams. Made it to the quarterfinals of the 2064 Global Cup. 3rd in their CC group in 2065. 1 game away from being the #1 team in the world in 2066. When the team's playing well, the 66100 seat stadium mostly fills up. Had a franchise-high 2.78m attendees last season. 2066 was Antwerp's best season. Won the league and almost won the Champions Cup. Went from #14 in the world to #3. 2067 has been disappointing so far. All 4 returning starters are pitching much worse than last season. On the plus side, even if they don't turn things around, there's still a decent shot at a Global Cup wildcard spot as the #3 ranked team in the world. (A little past) Halfway 2067-05-15: NABL: Grand Canyon 29-12, followed by Motor City and Texas 3 back. Federations: Tampa Bay 24-16, 2 up in the East. Albuqueque (24-17) just 1 ahead of Colorado, Salt Lake. SAm: Lara (25-16) 1 ahead of Botafogo, Montevideo, Medellin. LAm: Cibao (25-16) on a 4-game losing streak, but still 1 ahead of Mexico City. NoE: Gladbach, Vienna (26-14), London (26-15) have some space behind them. Top 3 in HRs all play for Gladbach (Forstan, Tickle, Refsland). SEE: Moscow (29-12) 3 ahead of Zenit behind Sanchez's so-far Triple Crown (.373, 12, 39), Köhncke's 7-0, 0.87. NAf: Angola, Cairo (26-15) 5 shead of the pack. Angola's had far more home games, Cairo can't hit lefties. SAf: Johannesburg (23-17) .5 ahead of Kaizer, 1.5 ahead of Kenya, Lusaka. League hitting is still down compared to historic levels. EAs: Jiangsu (28-13), Fukuoka 1 GB, Guangzhou 2 GB. Kurt Penney (Yomiuri, 6-2, 0.29) having a breakout year after last year's breakout year. Yeah. SAs: Karachi (28-13) 2 ahead of Persepolis. Oc: Auckland (24-16) 3 ahead of Melboune, West Coast. 2068 expansion to 6 teams is likely. Quarterfinals 2067-05-22: Africa Cup #12 Kaizer 4, #1 Kampala 3. Michael Jephcott strikes out 15. 2 solo HRs late off Kampala closer Shukrani. #16 Mazembe 0, #4 Cairo 5. Cairo faces Kaizer in the semifinals 2 years in a row. #5 Angola 2, #8 Cameroon 4. Defending cup winners still in it. #7 Ivory Coast 1, #13 Dakar 2. All runs off starters in the 7th. 2067-05-24: Asia Cup #43 Mashhad 1, #32 Tianjin 2. Bhrajata Huggahilli only gives up 2 run on 4 hits, but loses. #35 Chennai 2, #4 Dhaka 4. Tinh Phan 1-2. 3 RBI, SF, HBP, 2 SB. #24 Sichuan 6, #12 Hyderabad 0. 2-hit shutout from Xin-Fang Ji. #24 Delhi 15, #41 Izmir 8. PPD, played the next day. Europe Cup #4 Real Madrid 8, #24 Bayern 1. 6-1 after 4. #27 Dortmund 5, #21 Rome 2. #5 Toulouse 2, #10 Paris 4. Jellyroll 2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI. #20 Liverpool 3, #8 Moscow 7. America Cup #22 Lara 11, #2 San Fernando 3. PPD, played the next day. Complete game by Minyar Yao. #3 West Texas 12, #35 Jacksonville 11. West Texas with a touchdown in the 7th, Jacksonville misses the extra point needed to tie in the 8th. #39 Atletico 1, #10 Windy City 2. White Sox manufacture runs in the 7th + 8th. #51 Norfolk 5, #4 Grand Canyon 4. Grand Canyon gets 2nd+3rd, 1 out in the 9th, can't score. 3 returning semifinalists in Africa, none elsewhere.

05-24-2015, 09:45 PM	#17
dward1 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 934	love that you are enjoying this. it just got too much to handle after so many years and I haven't played it in a long time, but for a long time this was an absolute blast. the first few World Cups were arguably the most fun I ever had playing OOTP. glad to see you expanding, I had a huge plan on balancing out all the leagues by 2100 where there would be promotion/relegation and several leagues on each continent. nice to see Brooklyn continue to dominate, they are easily the best team in history. looks like Kenya is struggling based on the Cups, how have they done recently in your save? that was the team I managed

05-25-2015, 08:58 PM	#18
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	Yeah, it does get a little complicated at times. Adding the cup games is probably the worst part. Kenya has had a completely different set of starting players each season the last 4 seasons. The only player left from 2063 appears to be Moyenda. Wait, nope, he retired 2065 due to injury. Kenya won the league in 2066, beat Cairo 2-0 in the CC Playin, then went 3-3 in a group with Guatemala, Grand Canyon, Lille, resulting in them currently being ranked #20 in the world (behind Kampala, Addis Ababa). They finished 1 game behind Johannesburg this season after getting swept by Kaizer and splitting 4 with Johannesburg to finish the season. Lost in the second round of the Global Cup to St Pauli. One problem I'm having is that teams are releasing players far too often. Lots of 1st-round picks that bounce between several teams within a span of weeks just before the season starts. But this also happens to some stars. For example, Bhasin Noozai: 2065: Signs with San Fernando and gets released immediately. Toulouse, same thing. Finally ends up on Ajax. 2066: 6 year deal with Ivory Coast. June: released. Wins South Africa player of the year. Signs with Lusaka, immedately released. Signs with Boston, released in the same offseason. 2067: Sign and release by Angola. Signs 1-year deal with Cairo, wins a championship. I'm not sure, but maybe the AI has issues with long-term contracts for stars playing outside of their own region? Last edited by CaptainObvious; 05-25-2015 at 10:18 PM. Reason: Live-reporting Kenya's progress in the cup

05-31-2015, 12:54 PM	#19
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2067 June Semifinals 2067-06-04: Africa Cup Cairo 4, Kaizer 2. Kaiser rallied for 2 in the 8th and had the bases loaded, but hit into a 2-1-3 double play. Cameroon 6, Dakar 5 (11). Omar Ola scores winning run after a hit by pitch, wild pitch, and double. Bad baserunning by Dakar costs them a chance to tie. 2067-06-06: Asia Cup Delhi 3, Sichuan 8. #9 hitter Faivlovich 1-1. 2BB, SF, 2R, 2RBI. Tianjin 4, Dhaka 5. Bhuper Parantap with the walkoff RBI single to complete a late comeback. Europe Cup Dortmund 6, Real Madrid 1. Multi-run homeruns from Giraud and Bedreddin all that is needed. Moscow 4, Paris 5. The top team in SEE almost comes back with 3 in the 9th with 2 out and bases loaded, but falls just short. America Cup Windy City 3, West Texas 8. Nathan King with a grand slam bottom 8 to put it out of reach. Lara 1, Norfolk 3. The Federation's top team has a chance to get them into the world rankings. 2067-06-15: Random team of the month: Golden State Giants (San Francisco) Current: 36-34, tied 8th place (9th of 24 in power rankings). America Cup: Lost to Jacksonville, 3rd round. Beat Toronto, Caracas. Rank: Am: 26 of 64, World: 74 of 146. Last season: 35-45, 20th place NABL. NABL Championships: 2055, 2061 Champions Cup Qualification: 2061 Global Cup Qualification: 2058, 2064 Rivals: Ajax, Lille Legends: C Blaine Miller (2054-2066) .304, 115, 571. 2061 HotY. Likely Hall-of-Famer. 1B Tom Crow (2050-2063) .261, 103, 420. Played his first 14 seasons for Golden State. Never a star, but always pretty good. SP Tamotsu Kodo (2055-2059) 42-23, 2.39. Ace of the 2055 NABL winners. Has had 10+-win seasons for 5 different teams. SP "Stallion" Imad (2055-2061) 45-28, 3.78. 18-4 in the teams two NABL championship seasons. 10-0 in 2056, but no awards. Owner: John Newson. Usually willing to spend lots of money to win, but lately the team hasn't been spending. Manager: Harvey Smith (916-835, 20+ seasons). Took over as manager in 2046 at the age of 35. Gets mad a lot. Payroll: 73.2m, 17th in NABL. Stadium: (New) Candlestick Park. A very average stadium other than the backdrop center field wall being higher for better ad placement. Key Players: 1B Ernest Simmons (.250, 6, 24). Looks like he'll be a good power hitter. Out since mid-May with a broken foot. Bounced around various reserve rosters the last few seasons before Golden State gave him a chance. 3B Rob Stevens (.271, 3, 35). One of the best defensive third-basemen, average hitter. 2064 free agent from Brooklyn. SS "Future" Jakkelsen (.261, 7, 42). Defensive genius. Hitting cleanup due to injury to Simmons. Imported from Gladbach before this season at great cost. SP Ed Mills (8-3, 2.30). Free agent from Bronx. Closest thing to an "ace" on the roster. CL Cobus Bouland (3-3, 3.94, 15/20 SV). Unusually wild this season. New catcher Nakai having problems with his sinker. 2066 free agent from Charlotte. One of the NABL First 12 in 2043. Usually an average team most years, but then has basically bought a few NABL championships buy just outspending everyone. The last several season's they've been cutting back to make up for some of their debt, and as a consequence have struggled. Barely snuck into the 2064 Global Cup with a 7th-place finish and was eliminated in the first round. Games are usually well-attended, but this year they're down as the team's still rebuilding. 2066 was a rebuilding season. Still managed a 35-45 record (but that was 20th place as the league is actually very balanced). 2067 has gone surprisingly well, considering the lack of any offensive stars. Could theoretically even make the Global Cup if they get hot these last 2 weeks of the season. Still, the next few seasons are somewhat bleak unless management decides to go on another signing binge. Cup Finals 2067-06-17: Africa #8 Cameroon (38-34, 3rd, 7GB, 2066 cup winner) vs #4 Cairo (45-27, 1st) Both teams are likely to qualify for international play, so this one is for bragging rights mainly. Cameroon scores on a bases-loaded double play in the 4th. Mezwar Rono with a solo home run in the 5th. 2-run triple for Jonathon Johnston after Bhasin Noorzai is (wisely) walked with a runner in scoring position and 1st open for the third time. Once again, 4th place in North Africa will get into the Global Cup. Cameroon 1, Cairo 3 2067-06-19: Asia #12 Sichuan (28-46, 22nd, 25GB) vs #4 Dhaka (39-34, 5th, 3.5GB) Both sides are down from last year, so winning the cup is quite important. Sichuan with 5 in the 4th, 4 in the 7th. Sichuan 11, Dhaka 2 Europe #27 Dortmund (31-43, 14th, 19GB) vs #10 Paris (35-38, 10th, 14.5GB) 2-run hits from Cencio, Chauveau. Paris never even threatens to score. Dortmund 4, Paris 0 America #51 Norfolk (39-32, 2nd, 4GB) vs #3 West Texas (40-34, 7th, 7GB) Norfolk looking to get even more attention after winning the first Federations Championship last season. West Texas is at the edge of world competition qualifying, as either the last NABL representative or as a wildcard. The Tides held a 2-1 lead until the 7th, when a Tony Hall error lead to a bases loaded walk and sac fly off young reliever "Spanky" Dominguez. The Federations need to wait again. Norfolk 2, West Texas 3

05-31-2015, 01:00 PM	#20
CaptainObvious Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: internet Posts: 122	WoB:AW 2067 International Cups End of Regular Season 2067-06-25: Triple Crowns SEE: Anastacio Sanchez, Moscow (.399, 22, 68) LAm: Alberto Deleon, Havana (.327, 28, 78) 2067-06-26: Cup Qualification Tiebreakers: EAs (46-34, GC) Taipei 1, Saitama 3 SAf (43-37, GC) Zimbabwe 10, Lusaka 0 NABL (43-37, GC) Manhattan 2, Washington 3. Washington 2, Charlotte 4. SAm (45-35, GC) River Plate 3, Boca 5. Botafogo 3, Caracas 6. Caracas 6, Boca 2. LAm (43-37, CCP/GC) America 6, Santo Domingo 5 International Qualifying Champions Cup: Automatic Bids: Guangzhou (EAs), Mexico City (LA), Grand Canyon (NA1), Toronto (NA2), London (NoE), Moscow (SEE), Play ins: 2-0: West Coast (Oc) over Vienna (NoE3) Windy City (NA4) over Johanneshurg (SAf) Cairo (NAf) over Zenit (SEE2) Fukuoka (EAs2) over Texas (NA3) Gladbach (SEE2) over America (LAm2) 2-1: Montevideo (SAm) over Tehran (SAs) Champions Cup Groups: A: #26 Moscow, #6 Grand Canyon, #22 Cairo, #147 Montevideo B: #53 Mexico City, #40 Toronto, #23 Windy City, #30 West Coast C: #18 Guangzhou, #19 London, #49 Fukuoka, #72 Gladbach Global Cup: 6 CCP Losers: #7 Vienna, #76 Johannesburg, #102 Tehran, #38 Zenit, #11 Texas, #12 America 4 Cup winners (If winner in CC/CCP, try runner-up, then semifinalists by coefficient): #62 Cameroon, #5 West Texas, #48 Sichuan, #124 Dortmund 19 Top 2 per league (1 Oceania) not yet qualified: #52 Yomiuri, #15 Taipei, #27 Santo Domingo, #21 Guatemala, #31 Angola, #61 Ivory Coast #1 Brooklyn, #51 Charlotte, #75 Nice, #65 St Pauli, #95 Auckland, #20 Kenya, #59 Zimbabwe #60 Lara, #63 Caracas, #97 Karachi, #43 Sepahan, #41 Milan, #142 Napoli 0-2 Returning Champions, if not in CC/GC yet: None (Brooklyn, West Texas) 1-3 Wildcard: #2 San Fernando, #3 Antwerp, #4 Tokyo Round 1 (2066-06-30) #61 Ivory Coast 4, #4 Tokyo 5 #60 Lara 1, #15 Taipei 0. 2-hit shutout by Sansan Parreira, who came over from Taipei in 2064 and has been Lara's ace since then. #124 Dortmund 6, #7 Vienna 7 (11). Dortmund got 1 in the 11th, Vienna got 2. #51 Charlotte 3, #20 Kenya 8 #63 Caracas 0, #43 Sepahan 8 #95 Auckland 0, #38 Zenit 2 #52 Yomiuri 5, #41 Milan 6 #59 Zimbabwe 2, #3 Antwerp 14 #65 St Pauli 5, #31 Angola 1 (14) 0-0 after 12. #62 Cameroon 1, #1 Brooklyn 10 #102 Tehran 10, #27 Santo Domingo 1 #142 Napoli 0, #21 Guatemala 2 #48 Sichuan 8, #12 America 7 #75 Nice 2, #11 Texas 0 #76 Johannesburg 1, #5 West Texas 8 #97 Karachi 3, #2 San Fernando 4 Round 2 (2066-07-01) #102 Tehran 1, #4 Tokyo 3 #65 St Pauli 10, #20 Kenya 1 #38 Zenit 1, #3 Antwerp 8 #48 Sichuan 12, #7 Vienna 3. 7 in the 9th. #43 Sepahan 1, #2 San Fernando 12. Matt Winter: 2-3, 2 BB, HR(GS), 6 RBI. #75 Nice 0, #1 Brooklyn 5 #41 Milan 2, #21 Guatemala 5. 2 key players for Guatemala out hurt now, though. #60 Lara 3, #5 West Texas 7 Champions Cup Cairo 0, Grand Canyon 1 (15) With Noorzai out hurt, Cairo doesn't have enough bats to hit world-class pitching. Quarterfinals (2066-07-02) Top 5 ranked teams in the world are still in it. (#6 Grand Canyon are 1-1 in the CC.) #65 St Pauli 4, #4 Tokyo 5. Tying run out at the plate in the 8th. #21 Guatemala 4, #3 Antwerp 5 (10). Wild throw after a short flyout allows runner from 3rd to inadvertently tag up and score. #5 West Texas 9, #1 Brooklyn 0. Grand slam in the 1st and the defending cup winners beat the top ranked team in the world in a blowout. #48 Sichuan 6, #2 San Fernando 8. Matt Winter with another big homer. Champions Cup, RR 1st half Moscow 3-0 Grand Canyon 2-1 Cairo 1-2 Montevideo 0-3 Windy City 3-0 Toronto 2-1 West Coast 1-2 Mexico City 0-3 Guangzhou, Fukuoka, Gladbach 2-1 London 0-3 No surprises other than London's 0-3. Global Cup Semifinals West Texas 3, Antwerp 2 Tokyo 3, San Fernando 1 San Fernando 9, Tokyo 5 Antwerp 6, West Texas 9 Game 3 (2066-07-05): Tokyo 0, San Fernando 8 Champions Cup RR Moscow 5-1 Grand Canyon 4-2 Toronto, Windy City 4-2 Guangzhou 5-1 Fukuoka 4-2 Windy City split with Toronto, wins on runs allowed (16 vs 23). Grand Canyon 15, Fukuoka 19, Toronto 23. Federations Championship Salt Lake 8, Tampa Bay 6 Salt Lake 1, Tampa Bay 11 Tampa Bay 6, Salt Lake 8 Tampa Bay 4, Salt Lake 8 Bees. ...Bees? BEES! Tampa can't take advantage of home field advantage and the face of the Federations win FedChamp #2. Champions Cup Semifinals, Global Cup Final #23 Windy City, #18 Guangzhou. Windy City barely snuck into the CC and advanced and the semis thanks to drawing the weakest auto-bids (LAm, NABL2). Guangzhou had the best record in the world at 57-23. #6 Grand Canyon, #26 Moscow. NABL champion vs SEE champion. Split in group play, 1-2, 9-1. #5 West Texas, #2 San Fernando. West Texas looking to make it 3-straight Global Cup wins after winning the America Cup this year. San Fernando tries to make the most of its at-large bid after a 39-41 season. 2067-07-06 Windy City 2, Guangzhou 4. Windy City didn't threaten to score until 1 out left in the game. Loaded the bases, even got a bases-loaded infield single, but Guo-Liang Pao finally got an out in his professional debut. Grand Canyon 2, Moscow 3 (10). Macuso pitched into the 10th and gave up a run, but Ifni Ngumi his a 2-run homer in the bottom of closer Waller. West Texas 3, San Fernando 5. 2 solo home runs for Nathan King, but the Valley Cats figure out Manning (former Brooklyn prospect) late in the game. 2067-07-07 Windy City 7, Guangzhou 4. Guangzhou scores on double plays twice. Mike Macquistan with 2 2-run home runs. Grand Canyon 3, Moscow 5 West Texas 4, San Fernando 2. 2067-07-08 San Fernando 4, West Texas 1. Gregg Laurent continues to be wild and San Fernando captializes enough despite hitting into 5 double plays. Guangzhou 13, Windy City 4. Windy City came back to 4-3 after 7, but then the bullpen gave up several RBI extra-base hits. Jung-Gwon Chon 2 HR, 4 RBI. Moscow 2, Grand Canyon 4. Jim Beach 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2R. 2067-07-09 Guangzhou 1, Windy City 3. Bottom of the order with clutch hitting in the 6th to get 3. Moscow 7, Grand Canyon 3. Bases loaded triple from Recep Kazaz in the 3rd and then another 3 in the 6th. Grand Canyon falls short in the Champions Cup as usual, but they got farther this time. San Fernando 2, West Texas 3. Cooper Bishop with a rare 2-run triple in the 3rd and West Texas' bullpen continues to shine in the cup. 2067-07-10 (Game 5) Windy City 8, Guangzhou 4. Kade Opie with his first home run of the year hits a grand slam to make iit 7-0 in the 6th. Jeremy Hampton allows 0 in 8.1 IP. Guangzhou rallies for 4 with 2 out in the 9th. 16 hours later... Cooper Bishop 2-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R. Bobby Dean 0-1, 4 BB, 2 R. Backboord with the save 3 games in a row. West Texas 5, San Fernando 1 West Texas, Global Cup winners 2065-2067. 11th Champions Cup Finals The winners of NABL and NoE meet in the finals. Windy City has been lucky to make it this far, getting in through the play-in and then winning the weakest group on tiebreakers. The biggest reason they've made it this far is their starting pitching. All 5 starters have ERAs under 3 in non-league play this year. Moscow has relied even more heavily on its pitching, especially Kohnke (16-0) and Mancu (14 CG). 3B Kuwano may play late in the series after missing the entire cup so far with hamstring problems. Windy City 0, Moscow 5. Kohncke last 2 starts: 17.0 IP, 0 R, 26 K. 16-0 on the season. Windy City 7, Moscow 5. White Sox jump on Mancuso for 4 in the 1st, but he stays in until the 9th. Palmer works out of a bases-loaded jam in a 4-4 tie in the 7th. Scherich blows the 5-4 save on a 2-run error by defensive-substitute Marnoch. Moscow 6, Windy City 10. Talley with 5 RBI through 2. 9-2 after 3. Moscow 0, Windy City 5. Once again, Moscow's starter gives up several in the 1st. Tom Key with his 4th-straight 0-run start. Windy City 13, Moscow 1. Moscow leads in the 1st for the first time since game 1, but Fajardo allows 10 in 3+. Hampton with another game 5 closeout, this time a complete game.