Baseball: The World's Game

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Top seed Paris was the Western Conference’s best team in the Double Round Robin at 5-1 with their lone loss a 1-0 walkoff defeat in the opener with Lisbon. The Clippers and Brussels tied at 3-3 and Stuttgart was 1-5. The Silver Sabres remain the only original E2L team to never be promoted at least once. For the Poodles, they earned promotion back to the European Baseball Federation’s Elite Tier after a four-year stint in the European Second League.

The tiebreaker went to Brussels for second, as they defeated Lisbon 5-2 and 7-6. The former was a 13-inning affair and the latter was ten-innings, so the promotion was hard-earned for the Beavers. In the rematch, the Clippers had gone ahead in the top of the tenth on a solo homer. In the bottom half, Gabriel Friedrich had a walkoff two RBI double to win it for Brussels. The Beavers were back up after a five-year E2L stay.



The Western Conference Championship saw Paris open with 5-2 and 3-0 wins. Brussels claimed game three 4-1, followed by a 5-4 Poodles win. The Beavers grabbed 7-1 and 1-0 wins to force a decisive game seven back in France. Paris rallied from a 5-3 hole in the finale with a walkoff RBI double by Sherif Petkovic in a 6-5 victory.



#3 seed Yerevan was the top squad out of the Eastern Conference’s Double Round Robin at 4-2, ending their current E2L stay after eight seasons. The Valiants prevailed in competitive wins as their four victories came by one or two-run margins. Dnipro and Sofia both finished 3-3 and Brno was last at 2-4.

The Defenders and Spikes split their games with a 4-0 Dnipro win and 9-1 Sofia victory. The run differential tiebreaker gave Sofia the promotion after a four-year E2L stint. The EC’s #1 and #2 seeds both were denied their move up. The Eastern Conference Championship saw a Yerevan sweep of the Spikes with 2-1, 3-2, 5-0, and 9-2 scores.

The Second League Championship opened on a 5-0 road win by Yerevan over Paris on a no-hitter by Finn Christian Schmidt. The 24-year old Dane struck out six and walked three with one hit batsmen over 125 pitches. The Poodles rebounded with a 3-1 home win, followed by a 5-3 road win as the series shifted to Armenia. The Valiants finished out the home stand on a 3-2 win in 12 innings, followed by a 4-3 result. Back in France, game six was a 13-inning marathon. Yerevan persevered 6-3 at Paris to win their first E2L Championship.



Other notes: Stuttgart’s Stanislav Iliev became the first player in E2L history with 1500 runs scored in a career.

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Defending Africa Series champ Dar es Salaam looked to continue their dynasty run in 2038. The three-time defending Southern Conference champs ran away with first place at 108-54, taking the top spot by 12 games. The Sabercats were 50-18 after the all-star break, tied for the best mark in the African Association of Baseball. They allowed AAB’s second0fewest runs at 660 and had the best run differential of +258.

Johannesburg was right with them and only one back at the all-star break, but they had to fend off both Cape Town and Lusaka to earn repeat playoff trips. The Jackalopes took it at 96-66 over the 95-67 Cowboys and 92-70 Lake Monsters. Johannesburg was AAB’s top-scoring team with 982 runs. The Cowboys allowed the fewest runs at 649, but fell just short. For Lusaka, this was their first winning campaign since 2031. Notable was Durban’s fall to 74-88, as the Deer had won 90+ in the prior three seasons.

It was a race to the bottom for relegation between Lilongwe and Comoros, who met in the final series of the season in Malawi. The Lightning got the sweep to survive, dooming the Chimps to the African Second League after a six-year stint in the top tier. Comoros barely missed the playoffs in their First League debut, but had quickly fallen off since. Lilongwe notably had terrible pitching, setting AAB all-time worsts for team ERA (5.98) and runs allowed (1024).



In his second year with Johannesburg, Asa Ngoie won Southern Conference MVP and became only the third in AAB history with five MVP awards. The 37-year old Congolese LF had won in 2026, 30, 32, and 34 with Brazzaville, who traded him to the Jackalopes after the 2036 season. In 2038, Ngoie led in OBP (.435) and WAR (8.5). He added 191 hits, 129 runs, 51 home runs, 135 RBI, 27 doubles, 1.136 OPS, and 185 wRC+.

Ngoie also became only the eighth in AAB with 10+ Silver Sluggers. It was his fifth in LF, as his first five came in center. He got 22/24 first place votes in the MVP race and became the tenth AAB slugger with 700 career homers. Prior to the season, Ngoie had inked a nice two-year, $69 million extension with the Jackalopes.

Pitcher of the Year was an incredibly competitive field as five different guys earned a first place vote. Dar es Salaam was well represented with three of the top five, including the winner Ydnekatchew Dinkesa. He had eight first place votes and 110 points. Teammate Mariano Pera was next at 88 points and four first place votes. Cape Town’s Bernard Berger matched Dinkesa’s eight first place nods, but was third overall with 79 points. Lubango’s Mario Lule and the Sabercats’ Sylvestre Mbiwa also had first place nods.

The 32-year old Ethiopian Dinkesa was in his third season with Dar es Salaam, having come in an August 2036 trade with Addis Ababa. He was the leader in wins at 22-6 and had a 3.44 ERA, 241 innings, 215 strikeouts, 134 ERA+, 77 FIP-, and 6.2 WAR. It was Berger with easily the best ERA at 2.54, but he had a lower inning count than his rivals. Gaborone’s Mert Seyoum was the strikeouts leader at 315.



Dar es Salaam had the built-in one game advantage to start the Southern Conference Championship and opened with a 8-0 win over Johannesburg. Mariano Pera tossed a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts and three walks. The Sabercats then took game two 9-7, putting them on the verge of the sweep before heading to South Africa.

Johannesburg got one back at home 8-6 in game three. Dar es Salaam had a late rally to take game four 6-3, securing their fourth consecutive pennant and seventh overall. Pera’s game one shutout earned him series MVP honors.

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Four teams were right in the mix for the two playoff spots in the African Association of Baseball’s Central Conference. At the all-star break, Kampala was tied for sixth and seven games behind first place Lubumbashi. The Peacocks went on an absolute tear at 50-18 in the second half, taking first place at 99-63. They had the conference’s best run differential at +193. It was back-to-back playoff berths for Kampala, but their first time in the pole position since their early 2020s dynasty.

The Loggerheads’ 56-38 mark at the break gave them cushion to snag the #2 spot at 95-67. Both Asmara and Mombasa were tied for third at 93-69, followed by a sharp drop to defending conference champ Kinshasa in fifth at 86-76. Mogadishu was tied for second at the break, but a losing back-end dropped them to sixth at 84-78. Lubumbashi earned its second wild card in three years.

By far the worst team was Brazzaville at 54-108, suffering relegation. Addis Ababa was still seven games better even with an eight-game losing streak to end their season. It was the first time the Blowfish have ever gotten relegated to the African Second League and showed how quickly fortunes could turn. Brazzaville had been AAB champ as recently as 2034 and 2029. They fell to 83-79 in 2035, then below .500 since, bottoming out with their franchise-worst mark in 2038.



Asmara 2B Mustafa Moussa was unanimously the Central Conference MVP in his ninth season with the Anteaters. The 30-year old Somali righty led in WAR (9.4), RBI (164), average (.369), and wRC+ (195). Moussa had 201 hits, 121 runs, 39 doubles, 59 homers, and a 1.160 OPS. In May, Asmara locked him up for the long haul on a seven-year, $163,700,000 extension. The three-time reigning MVP Martin Kulatilaka was Moussa’s closest foe, as the Kinshasa slugger led in homers (70) and OPS (1.168).

Kampala ace Abdullahi Ali won his fourth consecutive Pitcher of the Year with 22/24 first place votes and 162 points. Kinshasa’s Lawal Defallah, who himself won four straight before Ali’s arrival, had two first place votes and 101 points. Defallah actually nudged out Ali in ERA (2.40) and wins (21-3), but Ali had the huge advantage in FIP (1.88 to 2.75) and WAR (11.0 to 8.6) among other stats.

The 26-year old Somali lefty led in Ks for the fifth straight year at 377 and led in WHIP (0.82), K/BB (7.1), shutouts (5), and FIP- (40). Ali had a 18-5 record, 9 saves, and 2.47 ERA over 222 innings. The strikeout mark was the fifth-best of his career, but he notably holds five of the top six seasons in AAB history. Similarly, Ali’s WAR was the third-best of his career, but the fourth-best single-season in all of AAB. There have been only nine 10+ WAR pitching seasons in AAB; Ali has half of them.

Among Ali’s efforts in 2038 was a 21 strikeout performance against Bangui on August 9, tying the AAB single-game record set in 2009 by Paul Lambote. In five seasons in the top tier, Ali already has 59.9 WAR and 2026 strikeouts in 1209.2 innings with a 2.44 ERA, 107-30 record, 193 ERA+, and 41 FIP-. He’s still under a team-friendly arbitration deal for a while longer, but some scouts think he’s the best pitcher in the world. His upcoming postseason run for the Peacocks only bolstered that case.



Although Kampala was only four games better than Lubumbashi in the regular season, the built-in one game bonus and their 10-5 head-to-head record made the Peacocks a heavy favorite. Kampala took the opener 10-2, but the Loggerheads were feisty in game two. The Peacocks needed a two-run bottom of the ninth inning to force extras at 5-5. Lubumbashi had a solo homer in the top of the tenth, by a leadoff triple helped Kampala match in the bottom half. Three hits in the 12^th pushed the Peacocks to a 7-6 victory.

Now at home, Lubumbashi got a game three win 5-4. Kampala scored two in the ninth to force extras, but the Loggerheads got the walkoff in the tenth on a leadoff Jurgen Samba homer. Lubumbashi was up 5-1 for most of game four, but Kampala got two in the seventh and three in the eighth. The 6-5 victory clinched the series for the Peacocks by a 4-1 margin.

This was Kampala’s sixth pennant with the previous five coming in their dynasty run from 2018-23. 3B Freddie Chirambo was series MVP, going 10-17 with two homers and five RBI. The 32-year old Malawian was a free agent signing after a solid decade previously with Gaborone.

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The 44^th Africa Series was the first finals battle between Dar es Salaam and Kampala. It was the fourth straight trip for the reigning champ Sabercats, who had beaten Kinshasa the prior year. Dar es Salaam had beaten Nairobi in 2035, but lost to Mombasa in 2036 to deny a repeat.

Game one would be an incredible pitching duel between the aces Abdullahi Ali and Mariano Pera with no runs in regulation. The Sabercats got a two-out single in the bottom of the tenth by Jude Sanches, which marked the end of Ali’s outing. 39-year old Quim Faria Andre got a RBI double against relief for the 1-0 victory. Pera allowed four hits and no runs with eight Ks in eight innings. Ali allowed four hits with 14 Ks over his 9.2 innings, but also the lone run.

Kampala rebounded with a 4-3 road win in game two which also saw a pitcher’s duel. Both Kyeyune Musinguzi and Sylvestra Mbiwa tossed complete games with seven hits allowed, but the former allowed one fewer run. The Sabercats got a 7-6 win to close out the homestand for a 2-1 series advantage. LF Ketema Gudeta had two homers and four RBI, including the go-ahead solo shot in the eighth inning.

It was all offense in game four with Kampala up 7-1 after the third inning. Dar es Salaam tied it after the fifth, but the Peacocks got the better in the end by an 11-10 margin. The aces were back up in game five and did their thing, as the score was 1-0 entering the ninth. Sanches put DeS up on a two-run homer in the ninth, but Matsoai Mokhothu’s solo shot in the bottom half forced extras.

In the 11^th, Mokhothu got on via a one-out error and was knocked in by Florent Kebano’s RBI double for a 3-2 Kampala win and the same series lead. Ali struck out 17 over 8.1 innings, one short of the playoff single-game record. In the final game in Uganda, Dar es Salaam evened the series on a 3-1 score in game six, guaranteeing that the best-of-nine would have at least one game back in Tanzania.

The Sabercats were up 5-0 after five innings in game seven, but Kampala tied it with a five-run sixth. The Peacocks prevailed with two homers and three runs in an 8-6 finale, taking the 4-3 series lead as they left their home diamond. Dar es Salaam’s six-run second inning in game eight led to an 8-3 rout, setting up the 12^th game nine in Africa Series history. The last one was in the Sabercats’ 2035 triumph over Nairobi.

The aces were back up for the finale and both again did their thing. For Pera, he had 7.1 scoreless innings with three hits allowed, six walks, and six strikeouts. Ali ended up with 8.2 scoreless innings with five hits, one walk, and 15 strikeouts. The breakthrough happened against reliever Jonathan Kabwe in the ninth inning. Kampala’s Marlon Muianga sent a solo homer 346 feet just over the left field fence.

Ali got two outs in the ninth, then gave up a single to Biruk Tessema. They switched to the righty closer Ismail Cabdi to get former MVP Ferdinand Rajierison. He had three homers and 11 RBI in the series and had gone 0-3 against Ali, but they made the switch despite the percentages. The move worked out as they coaxed a ground out unassisted to first, allowing Kampala to win 1-0 and dethrone the reigning champ Dar es Salaam in a nine-game classic.



Kampala became five-time Africa Series winners, adding this trophy next to the 2018, 20, 21, and 22 wins from the dynasty. 1B Marlon Muianga was series MVP, going 10-32 with four homers and six RBI. Ali had a remarkable 0.67 ERA over 26.2 innings with 46 Ks in the series, although the run support left him with a 1-1 record and no decision. Pera to his credit for the Sabercats had a 0.77 ERA in his three starts with 22 Ks and 23.1 innings.

For the entire postseason, Ali had a 1.06 ERA over 34 innings with 58 Ks and 2.6 WAR. He set new AAB playoff records for both strikeouts and pitching WAR. Pera’s 17 walks was a new playoff record as well, although the 24-year old Angolan was still excellent with a 0.56 ERA in 32.1 innings. Pera was an incredibly promising two-way star, having also gotten 2.0 WAR and .997 OPS over 187 plate appearances in the regular season.

Other notes: 2038 was the final season for long-time designated hitter Dagne Mersha, who had 26 homers and 1.2 WAR in 115 games for Mombasa. The three-time MVP with Addis Ababa though became only the 3^rd in AAB history with 900 career homers and the 4^th with 2000 RBI. Among all pros in baseball history, he’s one of 26 with 900 homers and one of 74 with 2000 RBI.



Mersha finished with 2454 games, 2466 hits, 1772 runs, 465 doubles, 906 homers, 2026 RBI, 1364 walks, .287/.383/.662 slash, 160 wRC+, and 85.4 WAR. He finishes behind Mwarami Tale (968) and Felix Chaula (925) on the homers list. Mersha is also behind only those two for runs scored and is behind only Tale’s 2252 RBI. He is only 9^th in WAR among position players, losing lots of points for being a career DH.

Lubumbashi’s Atharv Andaka tied AAB’s single-season saves record with 46, a mark that has been hit seven times by six closers. Namir Jamal stole 143 bases in 2038, which was the 5^th-best single-season in AAB. 140+ steals has only happened 19 teams in any league in world history; Jamal has done it four times. After his age 32 season, the Tanzanian speedster is already up to 1366 first league swipes, plus another 325 from A2L that don’t count towards the world leaderboard.

Martin Kulatilaka had AAB’s 20^th four home run game on June 8 facing Djibouti. He had his third season with 70+ homers, a feat only ten players have met in world history. The before-mentioned Dagne Mersha has the world record with six seasons of 70+ dingers. In other homer notables, Noel Malama became the 15^th member of AAB’s 600 homer club. Lazarus Abraham, Abel Tekelmariam, Johny Kibamba, and Kulatilaka grew the 500 home run club to 28 members.

Zenzele Mnisi and Stewart Khumalo were the 18^th and 19^th to 1500 RBI. Both also reached 2500 hits, a mark met by 17 batters. Mnisi became the 19^th with 1500 runs scored. Bernard Burger became only the 5^th AAB ace with 200 career wins. He is now at 201, sitting at least two strong seasons away from Ermias Tadele’s record of 239. 2B Kassim Nour won his 7^th consecutive Gold Glove.

Promotion/Relegation: Dropping to A2L were Brazzaville and Comoros. Mwanza replaced the Blowfish in the Central Conference and Antananarivo reclaimed its spot in the Southern Conference.

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Algiers was the only team in all of Arab League Baseball with 100+ wins in 2038. The Arsenal at 108-54 was the Western Conference’s top seed with their fourth consecutive playoff berth and third Mediterranean Division crown of that streak. In the last 16 seasons, Algiers has had only winning seasons with 14 division titles and only one playoff miss. They had ALB’s best run differential at +249 and led the conference with 881 runs. No one else in the division had a winning record.

Reigning ALB champ and defending Baseball Grand Champion Beirut won the Levant Division for the fifth time in their six-year playoff streak. The Bluebirds at 97-65 allowed the fewest runs at 607. Jerusalem was second at 91-71 and ended the season on a four-game winning streak, but the Jets fell one game short of the final wild card. Both wild cards came out of a packed Nile Division.

Suez went 8-2 down the stretch to take the Nile at 97-65. The Sabres were also 5-1 in their season series against Beirut, giving them home field advantage for their #2 versus #3 playoff encounter. This was the fourth playoff berth in six years for Suez, but it was the first-ever division title for the 2016 expansion squad. Giza and Cairo gave chase down the stretch with the Pharaohs taking three out of four in their season closing series. The final three wins each went to the Pharaohs with a 6-4, 13 inning affair followed by a pair of 2-1 finals.

This gave Cairo the first wild card at 93-69 and put Giza second at 92-70. Last year’s top seed Alexandria had a late push, but they could only get to 88-74 after sitting one game below .500 at the all-star break. The Goats earned their third berth in four years and the Pharaohs their fourth in five years.



For only the second time in ALB history, a player won both MVP and Pitcher of the Year. The only other time was Medina’s Qadir al-Khalid back in the inaugural 1990 season. Beirut’s Abdul Muhaimin Akbar took both awards in the Western Conference, unanimously winning his third POTY in four years. He had half of the first place votes for MVP and 299 points, just holding off Alexandria’s Ahmed Arafat (6 first place, 286 points) and teammate Ahmed Namil (9 first place, 280 points). Namil notably was the conference leader in home runs (71), RBI (149), and slugging (.716), but did lose points as a DH. Arafat at 3B led all position players with 8.1 WAR.

For Akbar, he posted ALB’s 11^th Triple Crown pitching season, a feat he also accomplished in 2036. His 1.81 ERA was well ahead of the next best qualifier at 2.81 and ranked as the 12^th-best qualifying season in ALB history (162+ innings required). The 28-year old Iraqi lefty had a 22-4 record and career best 346 strikeouts while also leading in WHIP (0.74), quality starts (28), FIP- (49), and WAR (10.4). Akbar tossed 234 innings with a 245 ERA+.

For rate stats, Akbar’s .501 opponent’s OPS was the 4^th-best qualifying season in ALB history and his .175/.212/.289 triple slash ranked 5^th/3^rd/17^th. Akbar’s WHIP was also the 2^nd-best behind Mohamed Wael’s 0.70 in 1993. He also had the 6^th-best season by H/9 (5.54) and the 18^th-best WAR by a pitcher. The Bluebirds locked up their ace to a seven-year, $271,500,000 extension in March, which will make him the Arab League’s highest paid pitcher and the 3^rd-richest amongst everyone in ALB.



Cairo’s late series win gave them home field and the one game advantage over Giza for the wild card round. The Pharaohs kept the streak alive with an 8-5 win to oust the Goats, but it took 13 innings and a walkoff three-run homer by Arabi Younis. Algiers opened the second round with a 6-1 win over Cairo. The Pharaohs got game two 7-4, but the top-seeded Arsenal advanced with a 9-4 result in game three. Algiers scored three in the seventh inning and four in the eighth to pull away, earning their fourth Western Conference Final trip of the decade.

Suez had dominated the defending champ Beirut in the regular season, but the Bluebirds opened with a 4-3 road win in 12 innings. The Sabres evened the series on a 9-4 win, but Beirut claimed the series on a 6-1 score in game three. This gave the Bluebirds a shot at their third pennant in five years, but they’d have to go on the road to do it. Despite Algiers having 11 more wins in the regular season, Beirut dominated the season series 5-1.

The Bluebirds continued to have the Arsenal’s number. Beirut opened the Western Conference Final on a 10-6 win. In game two, Ayman Farouk’s solo home run in the top of the ninth forced extras at 4-4. In the 11^th, Ahmad Al-Kurdi’s three-run bomb pushed the Bluebirds to a 7-4 victory. Beirut seemed poised for the sweep as the series shifted to Lebanon, leading 5-0 entering the eighth inning of game three.

Algiers showed life with a five-run eighth inning that had two homers, tying the contest at 5-5. The score stayed there until the bottom of the 13^th inning when Beirut led off with back-to-back doubles, the latter clinching a 6-5 walkoff win and the series sweep. The Bluebirds became four-time Western Conference champs (2004, 2034, 2037, 2038). They were the first repeat WC pennant winner since Amman in 2023-24. MVP finalist Ahmed Namil was series MVP, going 6-15 with 4 homers and 7 RBI.

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The Eastern Conference was incredibly competitive with the five playoff teams only separated by six wins. Basra was by far the most dominant early on with a 62-30 record at the all-star break. The Bulldogs had a lackluster 34-36 mark in the second half, but the strong start still pushed them to the top seed at 96-66 atop the Mesopotamia Division. Basra was Arab League Baseball’s top scoring team with 932 runs and had the conference’s best run differential at +176 en route to a sixth successive division title.

The Gulf Division was the most competitive and required multiple tiebreaker games. Initially, it looked like it wouldn’t be close at all as at the all-star break, Doha was 57-36 and well ahead of both Muscat (46-44) and Bahrain (43-48). The Dash had a middling second half while the Threshers and the Blitz both climbed from their early holes. With two weeks left, Muscat had passed Doha for first place.

The final regular season series saw the Dash hosting the Threshers. The first two went to Muscat by 2-1 and 3-2 margins, but Doha closed out with 13-9 and 7-3 wins. Both teams were 92-70 after 162 games, setting up a winner-take-all fifth consecutive game as a tiebreaker.

Doha prevailed 6-4 to get the division title and the #2 seed, while Muscat was the first wild card. Both extended impressive playoff streaks with the Dash to nine straight years and the Threshers to 12. Because of Muscat mostly, this was only Doha’s second division crown of their streak. The Dash allowed the conference’s fewest runs at 672.



Meanwhile, Bahrain went 13-4 down the stretch to get to 89-73. This tied them with the Mesopotamia Division’s Sulaymaniyah for the second wild card. The Sultans had a strong 56-35 first half, but squandered their advantage on a 33-39 back end. Sulaymaniyah still got to host the tiebreaker game, but the Blitz were victorious 6-4. It was only the second-ever playoff trip for the 2016 expansion squad Bahrain, who won the conference title in 2026.



The defending Eastern Conference champ Mecca ended up as the #3 seed, repeating as Arabia Division champs at 91-71. The Marksmen extended their playoff streak to five seasons, while Medina’s five-year streak ended. The Mastodons and Riyadh tied for second place at 84-78. Mecca had a shot at the top seed until ending the season on a five-game losing streak, including a rough four-game sweep to 73-win Sanaa.



Eastern Conference MVP was a competitive race with Basra CF Kareem David winning with 14 first place votes and 335 points. Baghdad 1B Haidar Abdullah wasa close second with 11 first place votes and 294 points. Doha’s Khalid Luaibi had 4 first place nods and 259 points and Muscat’s Ahmed Yasser Basha got a first place nod as well. No one had a clear statistical edge, but David was the WARlord at 7.9.

The 30-year old Iraqi had 211 hits, 124 runs, 44 doubles, 11 triples, 31 homers, 114 RBI, 67 steals, a .353/.404/.619 slash, and 164 wRC+. David also provided 6.4 Zone Rating in center field, winning his seventh straight Silver Slugger in his eighth season. The Bulldogs signed him to an eight-year, $109,100,000 extension after the 2033 season, keeping him in Basra through 2041.

Pitcher of the Year was a two-man race with a historic result, as Mecca’s Moayad Hayel became the third in ALB history to win POTY and Reliever of the Year in the same season. Hayel had 18 first place votes and 141 points, edging out Basra’s Yaseen Al-Wajihuddin at 11 first place and 135 points. Al-Wajihuddin was the leader in wins and WAR among pitchers.

Hayel led in saves (40) and games (71) with a 1.86 ERA over 87 innings. The 31-year old Jordanian righty had a 9-6 record, 116 strikeouts, 241 ERA+, 48 FIP-, and 4.2 WAR. He worked his way back into the closer role after being used only 34.1 innings the prior year despite being healthy. The Marksmen gave Hayel a three-year, $17,700,000 extension in the spring.



Muscat ousted Bahrain 5-0 in the wild card round on a two-hit shutout by Hasan Hadzic. The Threshers carried the momentum with a 6-2 road win against Basra to start the second round. The Bulldogs rebounded with 8-1 and 6-4 wins to advance to the Eastern Conference Final for the fourth time in six years. Basra has been a conference finalist 23 times, more than any other ALB franchise.

Doha opened with a 6-3 win over Mecca, but the defending champ Marksmen exploded in a 10-5 second game. The finale saw Mecca score in the top of the ninth to force extras at 2-2. However in the tenth, Kouider Al Taweel got a leadoff single for Doha and eventually was knocked in by Ilias Germain on an infield single. The 3-2 result ended the Marksmen repeat bid and gave the Dash its first conference finals trip since 2032-33.

The last pennant for the Dash came in 2033 with an Eastern Conference Final over Basra. The Bulldogs certainly remembered and rolled to a sweep 6-4, 9-8, 7-5. Game two was the most dramatic with both teams scoring in the eighth and ninth, ultimately forcing extras. In the 11^th, Basra’s Ahmed Fayad ended it with a solo homer. The Bulldogs became nine-time conference champs (2004, 06, 08, 10, 11, 20, 25, 35, 38); second-most in all of ALB behind only Casablanca’s 10. SS Ahmad Fayad was series MVP, going 5-12 with 2 homers.

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The 49^th Arab League Championship was the second time that Basra and Beirut had met in the finals. Both made their first-ever trip in 2004 with a 4-1 for the Bluebirds. Since then, the Bulldogs had earned six championship rings, including most recently in 2035. Beirut was the defending ALB champ and reigning Baseball Grand Champion.

The series started in Lebanon where Beirut used two homers to score thrice in the seventh inning en route to a 4-2 opening win. Conference MVP Abdul Muhamin Akbar led the way for a 5-2 game two victory for the Bluebirds, tossing a complete game with 16 strikeouts and seven hits allowed. The Bulldogs found life as the series shifted to Iraq for games 3-5.

Basra won all three to take all the momentum with 6-3, 5-3, and 11-4 scores. Back in Lebanon, the Bulldogs won game six 4-1 to clinch the series on the road and dethrone Beirut. With their seventh ring (2006, 08, 11, 20, 25, 35, 38), Basra stands alone with the most Arab League titles of any franchise. Manager Salter Arenas became the 14^th ALB skipper with multiple rings.



Veteran Japanese slugger Masaaki Kojima was series MVP, going 8-22 with 4 homers and 10 RBI. The 38-year old 1B had come to ALB in 2031 and joined Basra the prior year, posting a career-best 58 homers in 2038. Between Japan and the Arab League, his steady production had pushed Kojima to 747 professional homers, 1833 RBI, and 85.0 WAR.

Other notes: Alaa Khalil and Hamdi Bahri both had four home run games, a feat now reached 20 times in ALB. Khalil was the first in ALB to do it twice, having also achieved the feat in 2031. He’s one of only six in all of world baseball history with multiple four homer games. Mosul’s pitching staff allowed 1706 hits with a 10.73 H/9, both of which were the worst in Eastern Conference history.

Aleppo’s Hassan Shanshol missed more than two months to injury, but still led with 91 stolen bases. The 36-year old Iraqi is on the cusp of world history with an incredible 1991 career steals, behind only Carsten Dal (1995) in all of pro baseball history. In 2038, Shanshol also became ALB’s career leader in singles with 2254. He’s #7 on ALB’s hits leaderboard (3194) and #7 in runs scored (1769).

Kamal Qasim moved up to #3 in hits at 3316, just behind what was the long-time record of Nordine Soule at 3339. Ahmed Yasser Basha had passed Soule last year and in 2038, led the conference with 219 hits, becoming the 1^st to breach 3500 hits in ALB. Basha and Khali Allawi became the 4^th and 5^th to get 6000 total bases in ALB, although Soule’s 7334 is still a far target. Basha won his 10^th Silver Slugger in RF and is one of only nine at any position in ALB with 10+ Sluggers. He sits at 125.04 career WAR, 5^th among ALB position players but in position to jump to #2 with a strong 2039.

In other milestones, Abdullah Al-Hafith and Abdul Jalil Dahir became the 24^th and 25^th members of the 600 home run club and Souhail Zubaidi was the 50^th to 500 dingers. Zubaidi and Faysel Najem were the 45^th and 46^th to 2500 hits. Mokhtar Bouziane and Zubaidi grew the 1500 RBI club to 37, while Mohamed Neen was the 28^th to reach 1500 runs scored. C Oussama El-Batal won his 7^th consecutive Gold Silver Slugger.

RF Nathan Nasreddine won his 16^th straight Gold Glove, becoming only the 5^th in any world league with 16+ GGs. He leads all ALB players and is the only 16-time winner in right field in world history. The future is uncertain for the 40-year old Nasreddine, as despite his defense in 2038, he had 0.0 WAR with 87 wRC+ and .731 OPS. For his career, he has a 129.5 zone rating in RF and 1.048 EFF.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

The Asian Baseball Federation’s East League had its four playoff teams within only five wins of each other. At the all-star break, Almaty had the top record at 60-42, followed by defending EL champ Faisalabad at 59-42, Shymkent at 58-42, and Tashkent at 56-45. Those four teams remained the top four at the end, although positions shifted in the second half. It was the Tomcats with a 41-20 mark in the second half who took the top seed and the North Division at 97-65. Tashkent went 9-1 to close the season, including four-game sweeps of the Squirrels and Dushanbe.

Tashkent had the EL’s best run differential at +130, earning a fourth successive division title and their seventh playoff trip in eight years. Shymkent (93-69) and Almaty (92-70) ended up as the wild cards. It was only the second-ever playoff berth for the Squirrels (2024) as a 2020 expansion team. The Assassins ended a three-year postseason drought, although their streak of winning seasons dates back to 2020.

Faisalabad at 95-67 fell two short of the top seed, but won the Pakistan Division by nine games. Although they earned repeat playoff trips, the Fire haven’t been division champs since 2024. Hyderabad and Karachi tied for second at 86-76, both six short in the wild card race. This ended the Horned Frogs’ 14-year playoff steak, which was tied for the ABF record. Rawalpindi at 78-84 also notably saw a seven-year playoff streak snapped. Peshawar had the most runs at 692, but poor pitching put them at 80-82. Hyderabad had the fewest allowed at 515.



Osh was generally a non-factor at .500, but their star 1B Dzhurakhon Asadullayev continued to be arguably the best player in all of ABF. The 30-year old Kazakh was unanimously the East League MVP, becoming a four-time winner (2033, 34, 36, 38). Asadullayev led all of ABF in triple slash (.368/.466/.734), OPS (1.201), wRC+ (234), WAR (11.2), and walks. He also led the EL in runs (114) and total bases (401) while adding 52 home runs, 201 hits, 36 doubles, 52 home runs, and 117 RBI.

Asadullayev’s OBP was the 3^rd-best qualifying single-season in ABF, now giving him three of the top four seasons. His OPS was 9^th and he has five of the top nine spots, including the #1 mark of 1.295 from 2034. 100+ walks have only happened 14 times in ABF; Asadullayev has half of them.

Through eight seasons for the Oxen, he has been remarkably efficient with a .347/.451/.731 slash, 1.182 OPS, 242 wRC+, and 86.5 WAR. Asadullayev is currently ABF’s career leader in OBP, slugging, and OPS among those with 3000+ plate appearances. In 1255 games, he has 1515 hits, 923 runs, 298 doubles, 448 homers, 1002 RBI, and 844 walks. Asadullayev is locked up through 2042 with Osh. The next closest in the MVP race was Almaty LF Youssouf Raza, who led with 61 homers and 135 RBI.

Pitcher of the Year was Tashkent’s Shahrokh Morteza with 21 first place votes and 191 points, beating out the Assassins’ Hasan Polat with 11 and 161. Morteza won the award for the third time in four years, all coming such joining the Tomcats as a free agent in 2035. Polat was the strikeout leader at 349 and Lahore’s Khadzhimurad Abbasov won the ERA title at 1.91, but he only had 165 innings. The 35-year old righty Morteza led in wins (22-8), innings (268.1), complete games (16), shutouts (3), and WAR (8.0). The Iranian vet had a 2.45 ERA, 305 strikeouts, 146 ERA+, and 69 FIP-.

Morteza became the 9^th ABF pitcher with 4500+ career strikeouts and if he maintains his pace, he could catch Hasan Yousefi’s record 5246 in two or three seasons. Morteza is also 6^th on the wins leaderboard with 234; Yousefi’s top mark is 258. Although he was quite good in his earlier years with Peshawar and Bishkek, Morteza really emerged as a stud in this Tashkent run in his 30s. He has one year left on the original five-year, $87 million deal.



The double-elimination postseason began with the division champs winning their opening series. Tashkent topped Almaty on 3-2 and 6-0 wins, while Faisalabad survived in three with Shymkent. The Fire opened with a 3-2 win, followed by a 3-1 Squirrels victory. Both aces had three-hit complete games in game three, but Hasan Cam had a shutout in a 1-0 Faisalabad win.

In round two, Tashkent swept Faisalabad on 2-0 and 4-3 wins, giving the Tomcats their fourth East League Championship Series trip in five years. Shymkent eliminated Almaty with 1-0 and 3-2 wins; the latter a 16-inning marathon. Sulaiman Khan had a leadoff triple in the 16^th and was brought in via sacrifice fly.

The rematch with Faisalabad and Shymkent again needed all three games. The Fire opened dominant on a 10-2 drubbing, but the Squirrels had a two-run ninth inning rally to take game two 4-3. Faisalabad got an early 3-0 lead in game three and held on with a 3-1 final, keeping the Fire’s repeat bid hope alive. They earned a rematch with Tashkent, whom they had beaten 6-2 in the regular season series; not that it helped them in round two.

The ELCS started in Uzbekistan with 2-1 and 3-0 wins for Tashkent. Game two had a gem by 24-year old Australian pitcher Clayton Burlington, tossing a one-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts and no walks. Faisalabad found life as the series shifted to Pakistan, winning three straight with 3-1, 4-3, and 6-2 scores. Game four had a two-out, walkoff solo homer by Azer Entin.

Tashkent won 2-1 in game six back at home in ten innings, forcing a decisive game seven. Rail Yakubov led off the inning with a single and quickly stole second. When trying to steal third, the catcher threw the ball into the outfield, allowing Yakubov to come home for the clincher. For game seven, the Tomcats led most of the way with solo runs in the second and fifth innings. Faisalabad finally broke through in the ninth with two runs to force extras. The Fire got a one-out walk, RBI triple, and sac fly.

In the top of the 11^th, Mohseni Hedayat got a one-out single for Faisalabad. The next batter Antonio Torres doubled him home for the 3-2 Fire lead. Tashkent got the leadoff man via a walk and bunted him to second. However, the following batters had a groundout and strikeout, giving Faisalabad the ELCS’ only road win. It was only the second time that the ELCS needed an extra-innings game seven (2007).



With the repeat, Faisalabad became five-time East League champs (2011, 14, 21, 37, 38). LF Rasiwala Batool was series MVP going 12-35 with 2 homers, 4 RBI, and 6 runs. The 29-year old Pakistani in his seventh season for the Fire had the ninth inning’s RBI triple and game-tying run.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

The West League was incredibly top heavy with the four playoff teams each winning at least 100 games. The next closest team to this group was Adana at a distant 85-77. While it was fairly clear who the four postseason players would be, the exact positioning wasn’t assured. Isfahan had the Asian Baseball Federation’s top record at the all-star break at 66-36 and held on for the WL’s top seed and the Central Division title at 106-56.

The Imperials narrowly had the best run differential at +216, earning their second playoff trip in three years and first division crown since 2030. Tabriz was their top divisional rival at 100-62, growing the Tiger Sharks’ playoff streak to five seasons with their eighth berth of the 2030s. Tabriz ended the season on a seven-game winning streak, but they ended up as the second wild card via a tiebreaker. Last year’s Central Division champ Ahvaz fell to 79-83.

Two-time defending ABF champ Bursa had a seven-game lead on Baku at the all-star break in the West Division. The Blackbirds had the best second half of any team at 44-17 and tied it down the stretch. The Blue Claws won their final three games against Gaziantep, while Baku dropped three of four to Izmir. Bursa took the division at 102-60 with the Blackbirds 100-62, setting up a first round battle between the two.

Although the Blue Claws were the two-time defending champs and grew their playoff streak to four years, this was their first division title since 2024. Baku’s division title streak ended at nine seasons, but it was their tenth straight playoff trip and 100+ win season, averaging a remarkable 111.3 wins over the last decade per season. The Blackbirds led ABF with 844 runs scored and Tabriz allowed the WL’s fewest at 539.



Since Baku’s dominance began, they’ve had the West League MVP each year since 2029 with three different Blackbirds claiming the honor. That streak finally ended as Bursa DH Khattak Baweja took the top honor with 17 first place votes and 369 points. Izmir 1B Yunis Suleymanov was a competitive second with 11 first place nods and 334 points. Baku had the third place man Ular Esenov at 256 points. Suleymanov was notably the leader in total bases (418). Tabriz LF Demir Potuk was the WARlord at 9.6, while Esenov led in RBI (146) and the Blackbirds’ Artyom Masharipov had 59 homers.

For the winner Baweja, he was the leader in slugging (.687) and OPS (1.098). The 26-year old Pakistani lefty had 191 hits, 115 runs, 45 doubles, 52 homers, 128 RBI, .335 average, .412 OBP, 203 wRC+, and 9.2 WAR. Baweja had debuted in 2031 at age 19, but had become a starter for the Blue Claws in 2034. Although not known as a greedy guy, Baweja is set to cash in as this was a contract year for the noted prankster.

Bursa also had the unanimous Pitcher of the Year as Refik Sagir made it three straight. The 26-year old Turkish lefty led in wins (22-6), ERA (1.98), innings (263.1), complete games (23), shutouts (8), and WAR (8.1). Sagir won his third Gold Glove and had a 202 ERA+, 60 FIP-, and 330 strikeouts; missing the Triple Crown by only 11 Ks to Istanbul’s Ibrahim Tolibov. While the Blue Claws were unable to re-sign Baweja, they did give Sagir a five-year, $86 million extension in June.



Although Bursa won the division and the season series 9-5 against Baku, the Blackbirds got the road sweep in the first round on 4-3 and 5-4 scores. Game two was an incredible 19 inning, nearly eight hour affair that included a rain delay in the 15^th inning. After no scoring in all of extras, Mubarak Ashyrow finally broke the deadlock on a solo homer.

The other side also had an upset with Tabriz over top seed Isfahan. The Tiger Sharks rolled 8-1 in game one, followed by a 3-1 Imperials bounce-back. It was all Tabriz 7-1 in game there. However, Baku rolled to a second round sweep of the Tiger Sharks on 8-5 and 5-4 scores. The latter was ended on Ular Esenov’s solo homer in the bottom of the tenth. The Blackbirds earned their seventh West League Championship Series appearance of their decade-long streak.

In the loser’s bracket, Isfahan swept Bursa on 4-1 and 8-1 finals, ending the Blue Claws’ three-peat bid with a whimper. The Imperials rebounded from their earlier losses to Tabriz in the rematch. Ebrahim Firoozabadi’s five-hitter gave Isfahan game one 7-0, followed by a 4-2 victory in game two to oust the Tiger Sharks. For the Imperials, they earned their first trip to the WLCS since 2011.

You had a franchise on a 35-year pennant drought Isfahan hosting the perennial power Baku in the West League Championship Series. Despite the Blackbirds dynasty at the start of the decade and continued dominance, they failed the capture the pennant in the prior four seasons. The Imperials had narrowly won the season series 5-3.

It appeared Baku was back as they opened with 5-4 and 3-2 wins in Iran, stunning the Isfahan crowd to silence. It was doubly stunning as in the regular season, Isfahan was 60-21 on their home diamond. The Imperials returned the favor with the shift to Azerbaijan, taking the next three games on the road with 10-4, 8-2, and 6-2 scores. The run of road winners ended with game six back in Iran, as the 7-3 result gave Isfahan the series in six games.



The Blackbirds now were pennant-less for five straight seasons despite averaging 110 wins per year in that stretch. The Imperials ended their sizeable drought and became seven-time West League champs (1986, 87, 97, 98, 2000, 02, 38). Catcher Amredin az-Zuabi was series MVP, going 9-21 with 4 homers and 9 RBI. It was a surprise success for the 29-year old Afghani, who had only 13 homers and a .692 OPS in the regular season.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 54^th Asian Baseball Federation Championship was the first finals meeting between Faisalabad and Isfahan. It was back-to-back appearances for the Fire, who fell in 2037 to Bursa. Faisalabad was looking to end a title drought back to 2006, while the Imperials’ drought was back to their 1997-98 repeat. It was Isfahan’s first appearance since 2002.

The series started in Iran and saw a Faisalabad rally with two outs in the eighth inning. Three singles and an error brought in two runs, which proved decisive in a 2-1 opening road win by the Fire. Isfahan got one back 7-4 in game two, then got their own road win 4-1 for game three in Pakistan. That contest was 1-1 entering the ninth, but the Imperials had a three-run inning capped off by Joel Ndlovu’s two RBI.

Faisalabad evened it back up then went ahead 3-2 in the series with a pair of 4-2 victories. Game four had a dramatic two-run walkoff homer by Azer Entin that just snuck by the left field foul pole at 340 feet. Back in Iran, Isfahan earned a 4-3 win in game six thanks to a four-run second inning. This set up the decisive game seven on a partly cloudy, 59 degree Monday evening in Central Iran.

The first inning had a Faisalabad solo home run in the top half, followed by three Imperials runs in the bottom half. Ishtaq Shahzad had a triple and was brought in by Kathe Poalzai’s single, then Hassan Hamedi smacked a two-run homer. The 3-1 score held for the rest of the game, giving Isfahan its third ABF title (1997, 1998, 2038) and leaving the Fire as back-to-back bridesmaids.

Apart from the early homer, Ebrahim Firoozabadi had a strong start over seven innings with five hits, one run, and eight strikeouts. Fazal Rashid closed the door with two shutout innings with four strikeouts. The Imperials’ closer was only the seventh in ABF history to have a zero ERA with at least 15 playoff innings. Rashid had eight saves and a 1-1 record in 11 games with 16.1 innings, two unearned runs, and 19 Ks.



The finals MVP went to CF Ishtaq Shahzad who was 9-29 with one homer and four RBI. The 32-year old was in his fourth season with Isfahan after signing in 2035. Faisalabad closer Rashid Jabiri set the playoff pitching record for games (12) and Ebrahim Firoozabadi set the starts record (7). Multiple guys set the playoff record of 22 games, as the Fire were the first team to play the maximum possible games with each series going the distance and having needed the double-elimination round.

Other notes: Baku 1B Artyom Masharipov has been the star throughout the Blackbirds’ reign and the six-time MVP continued to rise up the playoff leaderboard, although he was forgettable in his 2038 effort. He is now the ABF playoff career leader for runs (95), hits (148), total bases (327), homers (48), and RBI (101). Masharipov also now has 138 playoff games, tied with Hyderabad’s Ammar Sanjrani for the most. The 34-year old Azeri also joined the 2000 hit and 1500 RBI club, becoming the 13^th to achieve the latter in ABF.

Home run king Sultan Han became only the 2^nd in ABF with 2000+ RBI, finishing the season at 2019. At age 38 for Hyderabad, Han was still good for 50 homers, 102 RBI, and 6.7 WAR. He’s one of 74 in all of baseball history with 2000+ pro RBIs and within reach of Hakan Mocuk’s ABF record 2132. Han’s 1809 runs place him 2^nd on the ABF leaderboard behind only Mehmet Fatih Canaydin’s 1880.

Han also has 892 home runs, placing him 33^rd on the all-time world homer leaderboard. Youssouf Raza is the next closest in ABF with 795 dingers, passing Mocuk’s 784 for the #2 spot. Raza smacked a career-best 61 in 2038 at age 37 and has 1829 RBI and 1639 runs. He won his 11^th Silver Slugger in LF, one of only five at any position to do so and the leader in left field.

Raza is 2^nd on ABF’s WAR leaderboard at 130.84 and close to the world top 100, while Han is next at 128.78. Both likely have no chance of reaching Nizami Aghazade’s ABF-record 183.1. Adding his post-ABF stats, Aghazade is 4^th all-time among all players ever at 202.0 WAR.

ABF’s 26^th perfect game came on May 1 by Namangan’s Vahid Farmaian with nine strikeouts facing Rawalpindi. It was his second no-hitter, also doing it in the 2032 Baseball Grand Championship for Hyderabad. Multan scored only 401 runs, the 3^rd-worst in ABF history. Dushanbe’s pitching staff allowed 1519 hits, the 2^nd-worst in East League history.



In other pitching notables, Mansoor Kayam became the ABF leader in innings pitched at 4209. On the downside, he’s also the leader in hits allowed (4035) and losses (207); the only ABF pitcher with 200+ Ls. Kayam has a 246-207 record, 3.54 ERA, 4377 strikeouts, 109 ERA+, and 77.3 WAR. He is 12 wins short of Hasan Yousefi’s top mark and ranks 10^th in Ks. Ibrahim Tolibov became the 18^th ace to 4000 strikeouts and Zahedi Wasayuddin was the 32^nd to 3500 Ks.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

Mumbai lapped the Indian League field in 2038 with a 71-28 record at the all-star break, nine games better than the next best. Although the Meteors have won seven pennants, they had never posted a season with 100+ wins. Mumbai got it easily at 110-52 for their third West Division title in four years.

They had the IL’s best run differential at +261 and allowed the fewest runs in South Asia Baseball at 551. The Meteors also notably had a .292 batting average, the third-best in IL history. Two-time defending IL champ Pune was a distant second in the division at 95-67, but that put them into a three-way tie for the two wild card spots.

The South and Central Divisions both had intense battles with first place and possible wild cards coming down to the final days. Last year’s top seed Visakhapatnam was the second-best at the break at 62-37 and needed the cushion with Madurai going 42-23 in the second half. The Volts held on at 98-64 to take the South Division over the 96-68 Rams, who ended up in the wild card tiebreaker.

Visakhapatnam repeated as division champ and earned their fourth straight playoff trip and 14^th in 16 years. Chennai was in the mix early, but a 32-31 back-end pushed them out of the mix with a 91-71 finish. The Cows’ playoff drought grew to 21 seasons, although this was their best record of that stretch. Bengaluru, a wild card the prior year, plummeted off a cliff to 68-94.

Jaipur had a five game lead on Kolkata in the Central at the all-star break. Patna and Delhi both faded from the race down the stretch, although the Pointers had the most runs at 826. The Cosmos went 15-3 in the first three weeks of August, which allowed them to pass the Jokers for the lead. Jaipur never reclaimed the lead, but were back within one game in mid-September. Kolkata grabbed first at 97-65 for a third consecutive division title and their fifth playoff trip in six years.

The Jokers were 95-67 after 162 games, as was Madurai and defending champ Pune with only two wild card spots available. The first tiebreaker game saw Jaipur defeat Madurai 7-1, led by Kyaw Zaw with eight innings and one unearned run allowed. This ended a six-year playoff drought for the Jokers.



The Rams got a second chance though, but had to travel to Pune against the two-time defending Indian League champ. The Purple Knights were up 5-1 early, but Madurai battled back and tied the game at 5-5 on Chi Ya Lay’s solo home run in the ninth.

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The next runs came in the top of the 13^th on Tarek Zakaria’s three-run homer. Pune got a man on with a double in the bottom half but nothing more. With the win, the 2025 expansion Rams earned their second-ever playoff trip, having won the division in 2036. Pune’s playoff streak ends at three seasons and their three-peat bid comes to a close.



Pushing Patna to the Indian League’s top offense was MVP R.C. Gutta, who was 16 homers and 32 RBI better than second place. The 30-year old LF got 29 first place votes and 467 points. Jaipur’s Naimur Bhuiyan had a solid showing with the remaining seven votes for first and 353 points. The 25-year old Bangladeshi was notably the leader in WAR (8.8) and hits (225).

It was the second MVP for Gutta, who won it in 2036. He was the comeback kid as he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in late August 2036 which kept him out almost all of 2037. In his 2038 return, he led in homers (64), RBI (160), total bases (43), slugging (.713), OPS (1.104), and wRC+ (191). Gutta added 206 hits, 118 runs, 30 doubles, .342 average, .391 OBP, and 8.0 WAR.

Gutta’s 160 RBI was the eighth-best single-season in SAB history. The former #1 overall pick for the Pointers needed the big return season to prove he was still a top commodity. Gutta declined the final year contract option with Patna, making him one of the hottest free agents coming on the market in the winter.

Visakhapatnam’s Zahir Saleem had all but two of the first place votes for Pitcher of the Year. The other two went to Mumbai’s Tuan Thai, who had the most innings (266.2) and shutouts (5). Saleem was the clear leader in ERA (2.03) and WAR (8.9) while also leading in WHIP (0.89), quality starts (26), and FIP- (57).

It was the second POTY for Saleem, who won back in 2029 with Mandalay. He had joined the Volts as a free agent in 2036 and was locked in through 2041. Saleem also had a 21-5 record and 280 strikeouts in 235.1 innings. He also had an impressive bounce-back as Saleem had suffered a torn flexor tendon in July 2036, costing him a chunk of the prior year.

Third in POTY voting was Mumbai’s Sunny Nyo, who made a bit of world history. The 28-year old Burmese righty had been a subpar starter initially with Can Tho, who traded him to the Meteors for 2038. In his Mumbai debut, he posted a 27-0 record with a 2.57 ERA, 248.2 innings, 279 strikeouts, 163 ERA+, 88 FIP-, and 4.7 WAR.

Sabermetrics kept him from a bigger vote share, but Nyo broke SAB’s single-season win record and was the first to pitch 162+ innings and record zero defeats. He also broke the world record for most wins without a defeat in a season. Only two other qualifying pitchers in other leagues had gone unbeaten; MLB’s Calvin Becerra in 1926 (165 innings) at 14-0 and CABA’s Johan Moreno at 22-0 in 2033 (200.1 innings). There have also only been 55 seasons in world history of 27+ wins by a pitcher.



In the wild card round, Jaipur advanced over Madurai with 5-1 and 9-5 wins. The Jokers were promptly swept by top seed Mumbai with 8-1, 11-0, and 8-4 scores. For the fourth time in five years, the Meteors were Indian League Championship Series bound and would be a heavy favorite against whomever they came up against.

Visakhapatnam opened their divisional round series with 6-4 and 3-0 home wins against Kolkata, the latter with a three-hit shutout by Thar Tan Min. The Cosmos stayed alive with a 2-1 victory in game three, but the Volts powered their way to a 9-5 win in game four to clinch. Visakhapatnam had dynasty runs in the early 2020s and early 2030s and had averaged 102.4 wins per season since 2023. However, this actually ended a four-year ILCS drought for them going back to the 2031-33 three-peat.

The Volts came out fighting with a 3-1 road win to open at Mumbai, getting 8.1 innings with one run allowed by Pitcher of the Year Zahir Saleem. The Meteors evened it with a 5-3 result in game two. Visakhapatnam reclaimed the advantage at home in game three, rallying with a six-run eighth inning in a 10-6 victory. Mumbai matched in game four as a seven-run eighth pushed them to an 11-4 final score. The Volts routed the Meteors 13-3 in game five to carry the advantage back on the road to Mumbai.

The Meteors rallied from a 3-0 hole and took game six with a 5-3 margin, forcing the decisive game seven on an 80 degree Thursday evening. Mumbai got an unexpected hero on the mound in Surjeet Chatterjee, who had posted middling numbers previously mostly as long relief with occasional starts. The 29-year old stepped up on the biggest stage, tossing eight shutout innings and scattering eight hits with six strikeouts and one walk.



All of Mumbai’s runs came in an explosive sixth inning which saw three homers, the first a two-run shot by series MVP Klaus Warming. The 5-0 score gave the Meteors their seventh Indian League pennant (2005, 08, 15, 16, 22, 35, 38). The 34-year old Danish 1B Warming went 11-29 with 3 homers and 10 RBI in the series. He came to India in 2037 after a respectable decade in Europe primarily with Oslo.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

Da Nang dominated the Southeast Asia League for a third straight South Division title and third straight 100+ win season. The Nailers broke their own franchise best at 114-48. Da Nang had SEAL’s best record pre-all-star break at 67-32 and the best post-break at 47-16. The Nailers led all of South Asia Baseball with a +313 run differential and 973 runs scored.

Despite Da Nang’s dominance, both wild cards also came out of the South Division. Ho Chi Minh City at 94-68 got the first one easily, putting them back in the postseason after their eight-year streak was snapped last year. It was a big drop for the second spot to Can Tho at 86-76, edging out Phnom Penh (85-77), Rajshahi (84-78), Yangon (83-790, and Nay Pyi Taw (82-80).

Both the Typhoon and Hedgehogs outperformed their expected win/loss by +9. Can Tho was a 2030 expansion team and this was their first-ever winning season. The other two division titles were won handily with Mandalay at 99-63 atop the West, 15 games ahead of Rajshahi; and Hanoi at 94-68 in the Central with 11 games over the Green Dragons.

For the two-time defending champ Hounds, this was their third straight division title and fourth playoff trip in five years. Hanoi allowed the fewest runs in SEAL at 655. For the Mammoths, this was their 11^th postseason berth in 13 years. Yangon notably missed the playoffs for only the fourth time in 44 years, although their streak of winning seasons goes back to 2025.



Colombo, a wild card last year, dropped to 74-88. However, the Catfish had the Southeast Asia League’s MVP in CF Bhagavan Banerjee. It was a remarkably competitive MVP race with Banerjee leading with 12 first place votes and 369 points. Vientiane 3B Fanmuong Try was right behind with 10 first place votes and 350 points, as was Mandalay RF Bunda Krishnan with 9 first place nods and 336 points. Ho Chi Minh City 2B Sefnat Sadewa also had 5 first place votes and 301 points.

Banerjee was only 22-years old in his third season and led in walks (81), average (.379), OBP (.459), wRC+ (200), and WAR (9.7). The Indian lefty had 217 hits, 128 runs, 37 doubles, 39 home runs, 118 RBI, and 1.134 OPS. Banerjee had been a scouting discovery in late 2033 who had very quickly exceeded all expectations for the Catfish.

Pitcher of the Year was a tight two-man race with Hanoi’s Khaek La taking it with 21 first place votes and 204 points. His Hounds teammate Advaith Basava, the defending winner, had 15 first place votes and 189 points. Basava was the leader in WAR (6.8), while Mandalay’s D.J. Kuldip had the most strikeouts at 311. La took the ERA title at 2.72 in his fifth season and third as a full-time starter. The 28-year old Lao lefty had a 14-7 record, 205 innings, 289 strikeouts, 173 ERA+, 58 FIP-, and 6.7 WAR. Hanoi picked him 27^th in the 2031 SAB Draft.



Can Tho upset Ho Chi Minh City in the wild card, starting with a 4-2 win. The Hedgehogs claimed game two 9-7 on a walkoff grand slam by Sefnat Sadewa, but the Typhoon were the road winner 5-3 in game three. Can Tho then stunned top seed Da Nang to start the divisional series with a 2-0 road win, getting a six-hit shutout by Wally Molefe. The Nailers regrouped with 6-1, 10-4, and 4-2 wins to take the series in four. Da Nang earned their third consecutive trip to the Southeast Asia League Championship.

On the other side, game one went ten innings with Mandalay beating Hanoi 5-3 on Alexander Thongsuk’s two-run walkoff bomb. The Hounds countered as POTY Khaek La scattered eight hits with ten strikeouts in a complete game shutout in a 5-0 win. Hanoi then outraced the Mammoths 10-8 in game three, giving them the 2-1 series advantage after the first three games in Myanmar.

The final two shifted to Vietnam with road wins by Mandalay by 5-2 and 3-1 margins. In the clincher, D.J. Kuldip allowed three hits with 11 strikeouts in a complete game victory. The Mammoths have earned nine trips to the SEAL Championship since 2026, most recently with their 2035 title. They were 7-4 all-time in the LCS, while the Nailers had gone 0-5. Da Nang had lost to Hanoi in the prior two seasons.

Da Nang opened with a pair of 4-2 home wins over Mandalay. Game two had a dramatic end with Chhoeun Hok’s two-run walkoff homer. In the top half, the Mammoths had gotten two into scoring position with no luck. Mandalay found life with the series shifting to their diamond, taking game three by a 5-1 margin and game four with a 6-5 score.

The Nailers reclaimed the advantage on an 8-3 road win in game five. Back in Vietnam, Da Nang had a combined four-hit shutout from Bikarama Shah and Dhavalacandra Harbir in a 6-0 series clincher. The Nailers finally had their first pennant after 35 years of trying, having joined the Southeast Asia League in the 2004 expansion. 21 of South Asia Baseball’s 36 teams have made it to the finals once. Series MVP was 1B Janistha Pran, who went 9-21 with two homers and six RBI.

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The 59^th South Asia Baseball Championship was guaranteed to crown the 16^th unique franchise to claim the top prize. Mumbai had been there six times before, most recently in 2035, but had come up short each time. Eight of SAB’s original teams had never won it all, a partial consequence of the many dynasty runs in earlier years. Da Nang was making their first-ever trip and it was a highly anticipated matchup. Both had absolutely dominated in the regular season with 110 and 114 wins between them.

Da Nang hosted game one with a lopsided 8-2 win, followed by a 4-2 victory in game two. With the shift to India, Mumbai took the next two with 3-1 and 5-1 margins. The shift came in a game five pitcher’s duel on a 1-0 road win by the Nailers, getting a two-hit shutout with four strikeouts from Sohag Othman. Da Nang’s lone run was by 41-year old Hemi Sita, a solo homer in the eighth inning.

Game six in Vietnam had strong, even pitching yet again. Sita was again a somewhat unexpected hero, leading off the bottom of the eighth on a triple. Janistha Pran brought him home on a sacrifice fly in what was ultimately the clinching run in a 3-2 win for Da Nang. The Nailers had their first title and the third straight by a Vietnamese squad, while the Meteors dropped to a painful 0-7 all-time in the finals.



At the very least, Mumbai’s big season was expected to earn them an at-large for their first-ever Baseball Grand Championship appearance. While there have been some huge win totals in the top-heavy SAB, a 114-win season and title has to put the 2038 Nailers on the short list for SAB’s best-ever squads. Series MVP was 2B Hamzah Rahman going 10-20, the most hits in the series, with 2 runs and 1 RBI. Othman deserves a strong mention winning his two starts with a 1.04 ERA and 12 Ks in 17.1 innings.

Mumbai’s Sunny Nyo was 2-0 in four playoff starts with a 3.28 ERA. This notably gave him a 29-0 record for the season between the regular season and playoffs. While there are certainly many deserved criticisms of the pitching win’s utility as a stat, Nyo’s combined 29-0 is a stat unlikely to ever be matched again in any world league.

Other notes: Yangon’s Jamal Chowdhury had a no-hitter in back-to-back seasons, becoming the 14^th SAB arm with multiple no-nos. Jaipur had 100 triples as a team, setting an IL record and falling one short of SAB’s record. Visakahpatnam’s pitching staff allowed 235 walks, tied for the 2^nd-fewest in SAB. Ho Chi Minh City’s team OBP of .353 was the 3^rd-best in SAB history.

In milestones, Jim Ngo in the same week became the 24^th to 1500 runs scored and the 28^th to 1500 RBI. Alexander Thongsuk became the 20^th member of the 600 homer club and the 25^th with 1500 runs. Hamidul Islam and Felix Brown were the 43^rd and 44^th to 500 homers. 3B Vatish Bharat won his 11^th straight Gold Glove and SS Madfai Mirza won his 10^th consecutive. The only other player with 10+ GGs in SAB history was the legendary Manju Abbas, a 15-time winner at third base.

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Accra dominated the Western League at 110-52, a new franchise best, en route to repeat South Division titles. The Alligators got their fourth consecutive playoff berth and had the WL’s best run differential (+262) and fewest runs allowed (650). Accra as the top seed guaranteed their first Western League Championship Series trip since 1996.

Daloa was right with Accra at the all-star break, sitting at 64-32 only a half game back. However, the Alligators were an impressive 45-20 in the back end while the Danes struggled to 30-36. At 94-68, Daloa still easily took second for their third straight playoff trip, finishing eight ahead of their nearest foe Kumasi.

The big shakeup came in the North Division as the two-time reigning West African Baseball champion Dakar missed the playoffs, ending their league-record 14-year playoff streak. It was a tight three-team race as at the all-star break, Bissau was first at 56-39, followed closely by Banjul (55-40) and the Dukes (55-42). The Bucks had the best finish at 42-25, taking first place at 97-65. Banjul led the WL with 952 runs and had 431 team doubles, setting a new WAB single-season record. The Bucks ended an 11-year playoff streak and won their first-ever division title.

It came down to the final stretch with Bissau and Dakar entering their final series. The Dukes lost two of three hosting struggling Conakry, including an 11-inning, 4-3 loss. The Bullets meanwhile swept Bamako, although they needed a 5-4 walkoff in the opener and a 2-1, 10 inning win in the clincher. Bissau prevailed despite going 4-10 in their season series with Dakar, giving the Bullets repeat playoff trips. The Bullfrogs notably at 76-86 had their first losing season of the 2030s.



Earning Western League MVP was Accra LF Jossy Montgomery, who had 24 first place votes and 390 points. Daloa DH Tommy Ristau was next with five first place nods and 277 points, while Banjul CF Pierre Hassan had the remaining first place vote and 261 points.

Ristau was an American making his WAB debut after a decade in MLB with Milwaukee, exploding with 73 homers, 184 RBI, and 470 total bases. He was five short of WAB’s homer record, two shy of the RBI mark, and eight away for total bases. Still, his RBI ranked as the 8^th-best single-season in any world league, the total bases were 43^rd, and the homers 38^th. The DH penalty hurt him though with many voters. As for the third place man Hassan, he won the batting title at .390 and was the leader for WAR (10.8) and OPS (1.134).

The winner Montgomery had a fine season though and being the star on the WL’s best team certainly helped. He was tied for the total bases lead at 470 and had the best slugging at .739. The 29-year old Nigerian lefty posted 232 hits, 138 runs, 48 doubles, 58 homers, 164 RBI, 1.132 OPS, 189 wRC+, and 9.5 WAR. It was an impressive bounce-back for Montgomery, who missed much of the prior year to a ruptured Achilles tendon. He was locked up after the 2036 season by the Alligators on an eight-year, $158,900,000 extension.

Accra also had Pitcher of the Year with Mohammed Otu winning it for the third consecutive season. He got 22 first place votes and 182 points, followed by Daloa’s Ibrahim Salia with 7 and 140, plus Abidjan’s Fuwad Mohammed with 1 and 63. This was Otu’s fourth ERA title in five years, although it was actually his weakest of those seasons at 2.91.

The 27-year old Nigerian lefty also led in wins at 22-6. In 191.2 innings, he struck out 260 with a 156 ERA+, 89 FIP-, and 3.5 WAR; the lowest WAR ever by a POTY winner in WAB and among the lowest in any world league. Even if the Sabermetrics are underwhelmed, leading in ERA and wins will win over most voters. Otu is coming up on arbitration with nearly seven full seasons of service.

Dakar’s Irad Lawali also made history as the first four-time Reliever of the Year winner in WAB, doing it in the last five years. In only six seasons, Lawali has 201 saves, 1.67 ERA, 452.1 innings, 759 Ks, 276 ERA+, 44 FIP-, and 21.8 WAR. He had his best ERA yet in 2038 at 1.24 over 80 innings.



The stepladder postseason began with Daloa defeating Bissau on 9-3 and 2-1 scores. The Danes clinched the series on a walkoff solo homer by Minusu Makinwa. Daloa kept rolling with an upset at Banjul in round two with 4-2 and 5-0 results. The latter had a five-hit shutout performance by Collen Simango. It was the second trip in three years for the Danes to the Western League Championship Series, as they looked to be the first of the 2030 expansion teams to win a pennant.

Accra was the heavy favorite with the 16 more wins than Daloa and their 11-5 record over the Danes in the regular season. Daloa kept their momentum going with an 1-0 road upset to start the series. Vital Owono pitched eight shutout innings with ten strikeouts and six hits allowed. The game’s only run came in the second at-bat on Thijs Kulk.

The Alligators evened the series on a 4-2 win in game two, then got their own 6- road win as the series shifted to the Ivory Coast. Daloa rallied for a dramatic 5-4 home win in game four, scoring four runs on three doubles in the bottom of the ninth inning. The winning runner scored on an error against the pitcher. This sent the series back to Ghana for the decisive game five.

In the second inning, Daloa’s Jani Kurri hit a three run homer, which proved the key swing in a 5-2 victory for the Danes. Ibrahim Salia allowed two runs in 7.2 innings for the win, while POTY Mohammed Out gave up four runs in 5.2 innings. It was a huge disappointment for 110-win Accra, whose title drought extended to 42 years. Kulk was series MVP for the Danes going 6-19 with 4 runs, 5 RBI, and 1 homer.

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Libreville continued their impressive dominance of the Eastern League with their best record yet at 113-49. The Lakers earned their fifth straight 100+ win season, fifth straight playoff trip, and fourth Coastal Division crown of that stretch. Libreville led all of West African Baseball in runs scored (954), fewest allowed (613), and run differential (+341) in a truly dominant run from start to finish. This guaranteed the Lakers’ a fourth trip in five years to the Eastern League Championship Series.

The two-time defending EL champ Douala had a good first half at 57-39, but was .500 on the back-end at 33-33. Luckily, their nearest foe for second Port Harcourt had the same post-break record, while Lome couldn’t climb out of a losing first half. The Dingos got the wild card at 90-72 over the Hillcats (87-75) and Lasers (84-78). Douala earned its sixth playoff trip in seven years after getting only one berth in the franchise’s first 57 seasons.

Yaounde hadn’t seen a playoff trip of winning record since 2025, but they were the clear top squad in the Interior Division at 97-65, their first division title since 2021. Ibadan (88-74) held off Abuja (86-76) down the stretch for second, making it three straight playoff trips for the Iguanas. Niamey had been right with them midway through the season, but had a putrid 25-41 record post all-star break.



Libreville swept the top awards with 3B Kossi Wilson unanimously taking East League MVP. The 26-year old Togolese righty led in home runs (60), RBI (154), total bases (449), slugging (.713), OPS (1.104), wRC+ (180), and WAR (9.9). Wilson won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove at third base and added 222 hits, 126 runs, 31 doubles, and .352 average. Back after the 2034 season, the Lakers gave Wilson an eight-year, $138,400,000 extension, keeping him in Gabon through 2042.

It was a repeat Pitcher of the Year for Libreville’s Ibeh Ferguson, who also won unanimously. He narrowly missed the Triple Crown as teammate Alahaji Kabbah edged him out for ERA (2.60 to 2.73). Over 220.2 innings, Ferguson led in wins (21-6), strikeouts (314), WHIP (0.96), K/BB (10.1), FIP- (60), and WAR (7.7). The 30-year old Nigerian was the #1 draft pick back in 2031 and the Lakers also have him locked up through 2041, giving them a strong shot at maintaining their dominance.



Douala’s offense exploded with 11-7 and 13-3 wins over Ibadan in the first round of the playoffs. Yaounde opened round two on a 5-4 win over the Dingos, but Douala grabbed 7-2 and 8-3 road wins after that for the upset. The Dingos had a shot at their third straight Eastern League pennant and their fourth in six years, setting up a rematch with Libreville. In 2037, Douala went on the road to upset their Cameroonian rival 3-2, including a 12-inning game five clincher.

Despite that recent history, Libreville was still a big favorite for the ELCS having won 23 more games than the Dingos with a 12-4 head-to-head record. The Lakers had also been dominant on their home diamond with a 62-19 record. Naturally, this meant Douala earned a 7-5 road upset to start the series, going ahead on Mervin George’s three-run homer in the eighth inning.

Libreville took out their frustrations with an 8-0 drubbing in game two. Despite pitching being a woe in the regular season for Douala, it was an asset as the series shifted. The Dingos earned 4-2 and 4-1 wins to complete the upset of the Lakers in four games. Douala became the first team to three-peat as Eastern League champ since Cotonou’s five straight from 2026-30. It was the Dingos’ fourth pennant in six years. Three-time MVP Ram Lengani was series MVP, going 9-16 with 3 homers and 5 RBI.

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The 64^th West African Championship was guaranteed to crown a first-time WAB champ to become the 19^th different franchise with a ring. Douala was one of four original franchises still looking for the first title despite making their fourth finals trip of the 2030s. The Dingos had lost in 2036-37 to Dakar and in 2033 against Bamako. Daloa was the first of the 2030 expansion teams to get this far and hoped to do in only their first nine seasons what Douala had failed to do over six decades. Both teams in 2038 clawed to the finals from the #3 seed.

Daloa had home field advantage and used it to win the opening salvos by 6-3 and 7-3 margins. With the series shifting to Cameroon, Douala took control with 9-7, 6-2, and 4-3 wins on their home diamond. Game five was the most dramatic, staying locked at 3-3 through innings 6-9. The Dingos got three straight singles to start the bottom the tenth inning, the latter by Mervin George bringing in El Hadji Fofana for a walkoff win.

Back to the Ivory Coast, Daloa secured game six 7-2 to force the decisive game seven. For the first time in West African Baseball history, a seven-game series saw only home victors. The Danes came out blazing with a six-run first inning, forcing the starting pitcher Okoro Ossai to leave without recording an out. The inning had seven hits, the most dramatic being Minusu Makinwa’s two-run homer.

Daloa continued onto a 12-5 victory, sending the cup to the Ivory Coast for the first time since Abidjan’s 2023 triumph. The Dingos now have the misfortune of going 0-4 in the finals in the last six years. Veteran CF Bertin Atouba was series MVP, having joined the Danes as a free agent in 2035. The 33-year old went 9-26 with 2 homers, 7 RBI, and 7 runs. Pitcher Mahamat Ramat Alhadj was also huge, winning his two starts with a 2.51 ERA over 14.1 innings.



Manager Ronaldo Rubio was deemed a genius, as the former OF from Colombia took his first role as a skipper with Daloa’s 2030 debut. They stuck with him through the initial growing pains, and now he had delivered the team’s first championship.

Other notes: In other playoff notables, Douala’s El Hadji Fofana had 28 hits, tying his own single-season playoff record from the prior year. Douala’s Ty Allen tied the WAB playoff record for doubles (8) and set a record for at-bats with 70. Dingos catcher Daniel Wynne set a bad playoff record with 28 strikeouts. He was a lousy 7-54 with a .439 OPS and -0.5 WAR.

Bouake’s Mohamed Hamdan hit 71 doubles, breaking the WAB single-season record of 70 held by both Adrian Kollie and Isah Saka. Hamdan’s mark is tied for the 3^rd-best in world history, only two short of Kerlos Sharaf’s world record 73 from the 2028 Arab League season. It was a big year for doubles in WAB as Pierre Hassan hit 67 and both William Green and Obinna Wilson had 65. In world history, 65+ doubles has only happened 24 times total. 70+ has only happened nine times.

At age 41, veteran 1B Youssoupha Diop became WAB’s RBI leader, getting 97 with 35 homers and a 3.4 WAR in 2038 for Dakar. Diop is now at 2615 RBI, passing Abdel Aziz Ashraf’s 2522 WAB record. He also moved into the #3 spot for RBI in all of pro baseball history, behind only SAB’s Majed Darwish (3061) and CABA/MLB legend Prometheo Garcia (2618). Diop totals continued to soar overall, putting him at 958 homers, 3953 hits, 774 doubles, and 2397 runs over 3340 games between Freetown and Dakar.

He’s got fierce competition for the #1 spot in WAB despite those numbers. Ashraf has 1077 homers, while Fares Belaid is the world leader in hits (5083) and doubles (939) while sitting second in runs (2633). Darwish is the world runs (2664) and homers leader (1271). For Diop, he now ranks 4^th in runs, 9^th in hits, 8^th in doubles, 11^th in homers, and 20^th in games played for all of baseball history. He’s set to become a free agent for 2039 at age 42, but fully intends on playing a 22^nd full season somewhere.

Another tenured star Junior Jose became the 6^th WAB slugger with 800 home runs and the 7^th with 2000 RBI. In world history, 62 have reached the 800 homer club and 75 guys have 2000+ RBI. He’s now 46^th in homers and 44^th in RBI on the world leaderboard. The five-time MVP is under contract for two more years with Dakar coming off his age 38 season. Jose had his personal career lows, but was still plenty solid with 47 homers, 131 RBI, .896 OPS, and 4.3 WAR.

Kene Gbade and Julius Emmanuel became the 17^th and 18^th in WAB with 600 homers while Adekunle Ojo was the 35^th to 500. Gbade, Haji Mussa, and Joao Sebastiao da Silva made it 49 guys with 2500 hits. Yussuf Salou was the 11^th pitcher to 3500 strikeouts and Mahamoud Sy the 11^th to 200 wins.

SS Prince Kofi won his 10^th Silver Slugger, becoming only the 4^th at any position in WAB to win 10+ Sluggers. Da Silva won his 8^th Silver Slugger at 3B, RF Emmanuel Marshall won his 7^th, and 2B Ram Lengani won his 7^th. C Chuck Koffie won his 7^th Gold Glove. Abuja’s Brahim Baghayoko notably hit for the cycle twice in the same month, doing it on July 18 and 27. He’s the 3^rd WAB Player to get the cycle twice in a season, but had the shortest gap between cycles.

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Defending Northern League champ Shijiazhuang narrowly had Chinese League Baseball’s best record at the all-star break at 63-40. Growing their East Central Division title streak to eight years wasn’t a given though with Tianjin three games back. The margin stayed the same in the back-end with the 95-67 Serpents beating out the 92-70 Jackrabbits.

Shijiazhuang took the NL’s top seed and had CLB’s best run differential at +110, while Tianjin was stuck on the outside of the postseason. For the Serpents, their eight-year playoff streak ties the CLB record set by Shanghai and Chengdu, both with their streaks from 2008-15. For the Jackrabbits, it was their first winning season since 2033.

Hangzhou ended up with the #2 seed as Southeast Division champ at 93-69, besting Shanghai by eight games. Nanjing was only one behind the Hens at the break, but a terrible 24-35 finish put the Nuggets at 80-82. Hangzhou earned their third division title in six years. Qingdao, who had China’s best record in 2037, was a non-factor in 2038 at 78-84.

Urumqi won the West Division at 92-70 and led CLB with 732 runs scored. They had a team .317 on-base percentage, which tied the NL single-season record. The Unicorns ended a two-year playoff drought, while defending champ Xi’an was second at 87-75.

Lastly, Dalian took the Northeast Division at 88-74, edging out Shenyang by three games. The Gold Dragons were right with Shijiazhuang for the top seed midway through the season, but struggled to 26-34 after the break and a 2-8 mark in their final ten games. Their cushion was big enough to best the Swans, despite Shenyang allowing the NL’s fewest runs with 556. Dalian earned a third straight division title and their fourth in five years.



Earning unanimous Northern League MVP was Shijiazhuang 3B Xiaotian Xu, who broke Peng Wang’s old CLB RBI record of 150. Xu had 155 RBI and 67 homers, falling three short of Wang and Liren Poh’s 70. The 28-year old righty also led in total bases (429), slugging (.677), and wRC+ (204). The total bases was 2^nd-best in CLB and four short of Cheng Kang’s 433 from 2016.

Xu also had 200 hits, 109 runs, 24 doubles, .315 average, 1.013 OPS, and 10.0 WAR. After the 2037 season, the Serpents gave him an eight-year, $133,200,000 extension. Worth noting, his top competitor in the MVP race was Zhengzhou’s Tie Liu, who led in WAR (10.6). This was especially notable since he was a catcher, setting CLB single-season records for WAR, OBP (.406), slugging (.620), OPS (1.026), runs (78), and homers (34) by a CLB catcher.

Pitcher of the Year was close to unanimous for Shenyang’s Enamul Bhuiyan with 30/32 first place votes, while the remaining two went to Lanzhou’s Yue Xu. The 27-year old Bangladeshi righty was in his fifth year starting for the Swans and led in WAR (8.3), complete games (15), and shutouts (5). Bhuiyan had a 2.36 ERA in 259.2 innings, 20-7 record, 241 strikeouts, 144 ERA+, and 63 FIP. After the season, Shenyang gave him a five-year, $58,100,000 extension for his efforts.

Also worth a mention was Chengye Xiong, who became the 12^th in CLB to win Reliever of the Year thrice or more. The Xi’an closer had also won in 2037 and 2034. In 2038, Xiong led in saves (35) and games (6) with a 1.90 ERA over 80.1 innings, 119 strikeouts, and 3.8 WAR.



Urumqi ended up on top of the Triple Round Robin at 6-3, advancing along with 5-4 Dalian to the Northern League Championship. Hangzhou was 4-5 and top seed Shijiazhuang was at the bottom at 3-6, ending their repeat hope. It was the second semifinal trip in three years for the Gold Dragons, although their last pennant was back during the epic 1989-94 dynasty run. The Unicorns were shooting for their second China Series trip in four years. Counting the round robin, they were an even 6-6 against each other on the season.

Urumqi had home field advantage, but Dalian opened with a 5-1 road win on a two homer game by Bo Zhou and a strong start on the mound by Hang Dong. The Unicorns bounced back on their own 5-1 win via Idris Awan’s complete game. Urumqi then won game three 6-4 at home, followed by another 6-4 win in the first game hosted by Dalian. The Gold Dragons snagged game five 6-4 to keep the series alive.

Dalian had a two-run Junyu Jiang homer in the first inning of game six, which was enough in a 2-1 victory to force a game seven back out west. In the finale, Urumqi got an unexpected strong outing by Nils-Erik Bockerman, a 24-year old Swedish pitcher who struggled in 60.2 regular season innings. He gave up one run and three hits over seven innings, then Ron Sia came in with two scoreless innings and four strikeouts for the save.

Urumqi took the finale 5-1, earning their fifth trip to the China Series (2022, 24, 31, 35, 38). Dalian is tied for the most titles of any team largely due to the 1990s dynasty, but their drought grows to 44 years. C Dongzhu Li was series MVP, going 16-38 with 4 homers, 8 RBI, and 7 runs.

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Macau had Chinese League Baseball’s best record at 100-62, taking the top seed in the Southern League with their fourth Southeast Division title in five years. The Magicians had the most runs in the SL at 683 with the rest of the division below .500. Macau was ten games ahead of the next two division champs Nanchang and Changsha. The Cannons had won the Central Division from 2032-35, but had been sub .500 in the following two years. Wuhan was a distant second at 81-81 with last year’s division winner Chengdu at 78-84.

In the East, it was a tale of two halves. Dongguan had the best record in all of China at the all-star break at 64-39, but fell off a cliff going 23-36 after. Nanchang was 37-22 after the all-star break to make up their 11-game deficit to the Donkeys, beating them by three at 90-72. The Crickets earned their fourth division title in six years. The collapse left Dongguan out despite being tied for the fewest runs allowed in CLB with Wuhan at 538.

Two-time defending China Series champ Guangzhou was the only Southern League team to get back to the playoffs from the prior year. The Gamecocks had the best run differential in the SL at +108, but had to make up a five-game hole from the all-star break.

Guangzhou won the Southwest Division at 88-74, finishing the season going 8-2 in their last ten. That included a sweep of Foshan and taking two of three over Nanning, their closest rivals. The Nuts finished 86-76 and Foshan at 84-78 as both teams were 28-31 after the all-star break. The Gamecocks earned their fourth straight playoff trip and eighth of the 2030s.



For the second time in three years, Chongqing 1B Subahan Rozali won Southern League MVP. Although his Cavaliers were a middling 79-83, he still earned 26 first place votes and 417 points. Macau’s Zhigao Qi had five first place votes and Nanchang’s Jinhao Lin had one. Qi notably had the best batting average (.359) and OPS (1.058).

Rozali was the power leader with 56 home runs and 118 RBI. The 30-year old Malaysian also led in runs (103), total bases (400), and WAR (9.3). Rozali had 197 hits, 29 doubles, a .316/.360/.642 slash, and 197 wRC+. After a decade with Chongqing, he’s set to cash in somewhere as a free agent in the upcoming winter.

Guangzhou’s Bucky Hein was unanimous Pitcher of the Year. He was a repeat winner and earned his third trophy, having also done it in 2032. Hein got it despite not leading the Triple Crown stats as Changsha’s Zhenying Chen had the most strikeouts (346) and wins (18-7) while Kunming’s Yoksing Hu got the ERA title at 1.80. Hein was the clear WARlord though at 9.5 and led in quality starts (26), complete games (17), and FIP- (52). Over 248 innings, he had a 2.14 ERA, 16-12 record, 8 saves, and 304 strikeouts.



Changsha took the top spot in the Triple Round Robin at 6-3, earning their third Southern League Championship trip in six years. Both Guangzhou and Macau finished 5-4 while Nanchang struggled to 2-7. The Crickets won their first game 5-1 over the Gamecocks, but Guangzhou got the rematch 6-4 in 10 innings. The third meeting and ultimate tiebreaker was a 2-1 Guangzhou win, keeping their three-peat bid alive.

Changsha’s last pennant was 2033, which included a semifinal win over Guangzhou. The Gamecocks actually took two of three over the Cannons in the round robin and won the regular season series 5-4. Changsha had home field advantage though, seemingly extra important as both teams were below .500 on the road. The Cannons opened with a 6-2 home victory thanks to a five-run eighth inning. Guangzhou held on in game two to even the series with a 3-2 result.

Game three needed 11 innings with a 5-4 Changsha win, taking the advantage back after their three home games. Hangfu Zhou led off the 11^th with a double and was knocked in with two outs on Ye Li’s RBI single. The Cannons were on the cusp with a 7-4 road win in game four, but the Gamecocks kept the series alive in game five with a 3-1 score.

Guangzhou led 5-1 early in game six, but Changsha got one back in the fifth and four in the seventh, including a two-run homer by Yung-Han Wang. The bullpen held in the final three innings with two hits allowed, but seven strikeouts and most importantly no runs. The 6-5 Cannons win dethroned the two-time defending champs.



Changsha earned their ninth trip to the China Series (1977, 97, 2004, 05, 07, 11, 29, 33, 38). Zhou was the series MVP as the third basemen went 12-33 with 1 HR, 5 RBI, and 7 runs. Closer Yongzhan Wu was also critical with four appearances, three saves, and 9.2 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 69^th China Series was the first finals meeting between Changsha and Urumqi, although both had a title already in the decade. The Unicorns had home field advantage, but the Cannons quieted their high-powered offense with a 4-1 result in game one. Zhenying Chen had one run and three hits allowed over seven innings, while Yongzhan Wu got his seventh save of the playoffs with two scoreless to close.

Changsha got another road win 5-2 the next night, but Urumqi returned the favor with their own two road wins by 4-1 and 5-2 margins. There was finally a home win in game five; a 2-1 duel for the Cannons. They outhit the Unicorns 10-2, but only finally got the go-ahead in the eighth on a RBI single. Chen struck out 11 with one run allowed in eight innings, while Wu got his ninth save of the playoffs.

The series shifted back west to Urumqi, but Changsha routed them 10-2 in game six to close out the series. The Cannons are now tied with Tianjin and Dalian for the most rings with six (1997, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2033, 2038). Changsha is 6-3 all-time in the finals while the Unicorns are 2-3.



Series MVP went to Kordell Kirk, who closed out the series with a complete game. He won his two starts with a 2.25 ERA and 10 strikeouts over 16 innings. You could certainly argue Chen was better with a 1.20 ERA and 20 Ks in his two wins with 15 innings. Wu also fell one short of CLB’s playoff saves record, posting a 0.48 ERA over 18.2 playoff innings with nine saves and 23 strikeouts.

Urumqi’s Sonny Wong struggled in his two finals starts and set two bad playoff records with six losses and 53 hits allowed. He had an 8.71 ERA over 31 innings with his 0-6 record. Wong is the first pitcher in any world league to be on the hook for six defeats in a postseason run.

In another playoff note, Guangzhou’s Bucky Hein and Shijiazhuang’s Sihua Fan were the first CLB pitchers with 200+ career playoff innings. At age 29, Hein is already the playoff leader for wins (17). Lei Li has the most playoff Ks at 228 with Fan (224) and Hein (202) both in close pursuit. The Gamecocks’ Yan Bashi now is the playoff leader for runs (78), hits (139), and total bases (242). He and Tian Du both have the most games played at 129.

Other notes: Syamsul Azzahari became Chinese League Baseball’s new career home run king and the first to cross 600. The Jinan slugger missed two months to a torn hamstring in 2038, but he still hit 32 homers to get to 618, passing Tao Cai’s high mark of 595 set in 2033. The 37-year old Malaysian 1B also has 1414 RBI, just behind Cai’s record 1426.

Azzahari had become the runs leader the prior year over Cai and now had 1337. He sits 3^rd in hits with 2603, behind Junjie Hsiung’s 2824 and Shenchao An’s 2704. They are the only CLB batters to cross 2500 hits in the ultra-low scoring league. Azzahari is also primed to pass Cai’s record for total bases with the former at 4729 and the latter at 4759. Azzahari passed Cai for 6^th on the WAR leaderboard among position players at 125.57, although he’s still a good distance from Hsiung’s 152.6.

Hao Tian and Subahan Rozali were the 21^st and 22^nd to reach 400 homers. Lanzhou’s Yue Xu struck out 22 on July 25 against Qingdao, tying CLB’s single-game record set in 1996 by Martin Cui. Xu’s effort was a one-hitter with no walks, allowing a solo homer in the ninth inning. Yongzhan Wu was the 12^th reliever to 300 saves. Mengjie Zhang drew 109 walks, which was the 3^rd-best single season in CLB and six short of the record. CFs Yang Yang and Ming Bai both won their 7^th consecutive Gold Glove.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

Manila was five wins ahead of the next closest team in the Taiwan-Philippine Association at the all-star break at 60-33. The Manatees held onto the top seed, but Zamboanga gave them a strong challenge in the Philippine League. At 97-65, Manila outlasted the Zebras, ending a seven-year playoff drought for the Manatees. It was Manila’s first PL title since 2020. Zamboanga’s postseason streak grew to four seasons.

Batangas had a great second half at 41-27, but couldn’t overcome their .500 start, placing third at 88-74. Last year’s PL winner Quezon fell to fifth at 80-82. Cebu was fourth at 84-78, which did extend their streak of winning seasons to 16 years. Manila had the best run differential in all of Austronesia Professional Baseball at +110. The Zebras allowed the TPA’s fewest runs with 533.

It was a three-team race in the Taiwan League. At the break, defending TPA champ Tainan sat first at 55-37, four games better than both Chiayi and Taichung. The Titans were .500 in the second half, which opened the door for the other two. The City Hawks took advantage with a 43-25 second half and 9-1 mark in their final ten games, including a sweep of Tainan. The City Hawks at 94-68 earned their first-ever TL title and back-to-back playoff trips. Chiayi was APB’s top-scoring team with 676 runs.

Despite limping to the finish line, Tainan crucially got a road sweep over Taichung in mid-September and took two of three hosting the Toucans earlier in the month. Those wins put them at 90-72, one game ahead of 89-73 Taichung to extend the Titans’ playoff streak to eight seasons. Although they missed the postseason, it was the Toucans’ first winning season since 2032. They had a .308 team OBP, the third-best in APB history.



A young up-and-comer led the way for Manila as Taiwan-Philippine Association MVP. 23-year old Ae Phoumsavanh got 22 of the first place votes, while Batangas’ Chris Ducisin got the other six. Ducisin was notably the leader in homers (47) and OPS (.970). Phoumsavanh had the best WAR (9.6), batting average (.328), and doubles (37). In his fourth year already as a full-time starter, the Chinese right fielder had 191 hits, 96 runs, 33 homers, 87 RBI, .953 OPS, and 193 wRC+.

Zamboanga’s Apichart Arjvirai won Pitcher of the Year with 24 first place votes. Manila’s Stanley Hwang had three and Kaohsiung’s Ming-Hsu Wang had one. In his sixth season, the 25-year old Thai righty led in WAR (6.7) and shutouts (5). Arjvirai had a 2.36 ERA in 274.2 innings, 14-11 record, 232 strikeouts, 138 ERA+, and 70 FIP-.



Arjvirai certainly proved he deserved it by opening the playoffs with a one-hitter on the road for the Zebras over Chiayi. That was Zamboanga’s only divisional round win though. The City Hawks had the one-game advantage as league champ, then got 7-2 and 4-2 wins to advance. They became the first of the four expansion teams from 2029 to earn a trip to an association final.

Manila started with the one-game bonus and took the opener 4-3 over Tainan, although they needed a walkoff RBI by Roland Arias to win it. MVP Ae Phoumsavanh was the winning run having led off with a single. The Titans emphatically took game two 9-2, but it was all Manatees in a 9-0 clincher. Ian Kalawakan tossed a two-hitter with four Ks and two walks.

Manila earned their 14^th trip all-time to the Taiwan-Philippine Association Championship, but it was their first since 2030 and only their third trip of the 21^st Century. They had a pennant drought dating back 38 years. The Manatees had home field against the upstart Chiayi and had won the regular season series 5-1. Manila also had an outstanding 60-21 record on their home diamond.

Naturally, this mean the City Hawks took 4-3 and 6-2 road wins to open the series. To their credit, Manila didn’t panic and won the next two in Taiwan with 6-1 and 4-1 wins. Chiayi got the series’ first home win in game five 3-2, taking the 3-2 series advantage back to the Philippines. The Manatees won 6-2 at home in game six, setting up the decisive game seven.

The finale had a 76-minute rain delay in the third inning. It was scoreless until the City Hawks plated one in the sixth, which would be their lone run. Chiayi Closer Hsi Philavong had a disastrous eighth inning, giving up four hits and four runs with a walk and wild pitch. The go-ahead swing was a two RBI triple by Dio Sutisna.

Chiayi wasn’t dead yet as after a flyout to start the ninth inning, they got three straight singles, loading the bases with the possible go-ahead run at the dish. However, he grounded into the rare 1-2-3 double play, ending the game with a 4-1 Manila victory. The Manatees finally had a pennant in the 21^st Century, their sixth overall (1967, 1970, 1985, 1986, 1999, 2038).



Purely on the strength of the go-ahead triple, Sutisna was series MVP. That was a pinch hit appearance for the 24-year old 2B, who played 79 games in the regular season with 57 starts. He was 3-4 for the series as a pinch hitter exclusively, also getting a two RBI double in game three.