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The Indian League’s top seed in 2008 was Kolkata, who snapped a seven-year playoff drought to do it. The Cosmos were 100-62 atop the Central Division, taking the throne from by eight games. The defending IL champ Kanpur completely imploded. After winning 95 games in 2007, the Poison had the league’s worst record at 63-99.

In the West Division, Mumbai at 93-69 edged Ahmedabad by one game. While it was the sixth playoff berth in eight years for the Meteors, they had never been division champs. The Animals and Jokers tied for the wild card at 92-70, needing a one-game playoff. Jaipur prevailed to extend their playoff streak to five seasons.

For Ahmedabad, their historic streak ended at 23 years, falling one short of matching the world record playoff streak of EPB’s Minsk. Lucknow was two back of the wild card at 90-72. In their fifth year of existence, the Larks had won fewer than 60 games in their prior three seasons.

Everyone in the South Division finished below .500. Hyderabad and Chennai were the best of the bad at 80-82. The Hippos beat the Cows in a one-game playoff to repeat as division champs, although it was far less impressive than their 101 wins the prior year.

Indian League MVP went to Kolkata LF Lwin Swe Ko. The 24-year old Burmese righty led in home runs (59), RBI (128), slugging (.719), OPS (1.092), wRC+ (228), and WAR (9.0). Ko added 126 runs and a .313 batting average. The Cosmos rewarded him the prior October with a five-year, $12,080,000 extension.

Jaipur’s Jay Singh repeated as Pitcher of the Year. In his second year with the Jokers, the 26-year old Indian led again in ERA (2.42) and was the WARlord at 6.8. He also led with 65 FIP- and posted a 17-7 record over 219.1 innings, 335 strikeouts, and a 149 ERA+. He led Jaipur to 1961 strikeouts and 12.08 K/9 as a team, setting Indian League records that still hold in 2037.

Jaipur upset their divisional foe Kolkata 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs while Mumbai beat Hyderabad 3-1. It was the second-ever Indian League Championship Series for the Meteors, who won the pennant in 2005. The Jokers were looking for their second pennant in three years. Mumbai ended up sweeping Jaipur in an uneventful ILCS.



Defending South Asia Baseball champ Hanoi improved upon their impressive 111 wins from the prior year, helped a bit by having Yangon moved out of the division. The Hounds clobbered the North Division at 120-42 and set a SAB record with 1006 runs scored. As of 2037, they’re the only SAB team ever to top 1k, a mark rarely breached in any world league. Hanoi’s playoff streak grew to four years.

Now in the South Division, Yangon topped their new foes at 114-48 to grow their playoff streak to 14 seasons. The Green Dragons won their 12^th division title of that stretch. This meant that Ho Chi Minh City’s South Division title streak ended at 19 years. The Hedgehogs were still 100-62, easily growing their overall postseason run to 22 years as the first wild card.

There was an 11 game gap to the second wild card with Dhaka at 89-73 in the North. The Dobermans also extended a playoff streak with their fourth straight wild card. The only other team above .500 was Mandalay at 82-80, seven games short of Dhaka.

To score more than 1000 runs, Hanoi had DH Majed Darwish completely incinerate the record books. The 25-year old Bahraini switch hitter repeated as Southeast Asia League MVP and set multiple bonkers world records. Darwish smacked 85 home runs, blowing by the world record of 77 set by Mwarami Tale in 2006 in the African Association of Baseball. Darwish is still the world record holder in homers as of 2037, although he’d amazingly do better the next year.

Even more bonkers perhaps was Darwish’s 220 RBI, 167 runs scored, and 528 total bases. The previous RBI world record was West Africa Baseball’s Mo Reda with 186 in 2003. As of 2037, no one else has topped 200 in any league. The previous runs world record was 152 by WAB’s Darwin Morris in 2001. As of 2037, no one else has reached 167 runs in a season either. The total bases were also a new world record that Darwish himself would later top.

Darwish also led the league in hits (229), total bases (528), slugging (.856), OPS (1.312), and WAR (13.2). The slugging and OPS marks set new SAB records and fell just short of world records. Shockingly despite those absurd numbers, Darwish was actually second in batting average (.371) and wRC+ (218).

Beating him was Mandalay LF Ratan Canduri with a .383 average and 223 wRC+. Canduri tied the former SAB home run record with 74 and added 154 RBI and 132 runs with 12.4 WAR. In any other year, Canduri would’ve been a unanimous MVP, but Darwish’s stat line looked like a video game on the easiest difficulty.

Pitcher of the Year was Yangon’s Brahma Karim. The 31-year old Indian lefty had struggled in the last few years, but had an amazing bounce back by leading with a 2.35 ERA. He also led in quality starts with 19. Karim had a 19-2 record over 214.1 innings, 210 strikeouts, 182 ERA+, and 5.8 WAR. He signed a free agent deal in the offseason with Dhaka, but never recaptured that lightning in a bottle.

Hanoi cruised to a first round sweep of Dhaka, while Yangon swept Ho Chi Ming City to set up a rematch in the Southeast Asia League Championship. The Hounds repeated as champs, taking the series 4-2 over the Green Dragons. It was Hanoi’s third pennant, as they had also won in 1986.



Mumbai gave Hanoi a fierce fight in the 29^th South Asia Baseball Championship. However, the record-setting Hounds prevailed in a seven-game classic to repeat as champs. They became the fourth SAB franchise to earn a repeat, joining Ahmedabad, Ho Chi Minh City, and Pune.

1B Devavesman Toppo was the playoff hero for Hanoi, winning finals MVP and LCS MVP. The 29-year old Indian in 16 starts had 23 hits, 12 runs, 4 doubles, 10 home runs, and 20 RBI. He and league MVP Majed Darwish both set the new playoff HR record with 10. Toppo was also one RBI short of Deepak Rahim’s record from 1995.



With their 120-42 record, 1006 runs, and repeat title, some argue the 2008 Hanoi squad is SAB’s all-time best. They were not the winningest champ with Ahmedabad at 124-38 in 1995 and Ho Chi Minh City at 122-40 in 2004 and 121-41 in 2005. Still, some argue the Hounds deserve props for doing it in a more competitive league.

Other notes: Tirtha Upadhyaya became the first SAB slugger to 800 career home runs. He also became the fifth to reach 2500 career hits, while David Rusli breached that mark a few months earlier. Van Khang Nguyen became the sixth pitcher to 3500 strikeouts. Taj Kanikaraja became the second to 400 career saves. 2B/SS Sameer Sheikh and 3B Jatinder Chowdhary both became eight-time Silver Slugger winners.

Kanpur’s Buddu Danavat struck out 299 times, setting an all-time SAB worst that holds as of 2037. Visakhapatnam’s Kasi Kumar had a .3997 batting average, the third best in SAB history to that point. Mumbai reliever Mal Anand pitched 82 games, setting a SAB record that holds in 2037.