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The 2019 Baseball Grand Championship was the tenth year of the event and the first to be hosted in the United States. Incidentally, one of the participants was playing in their home city for the first time, as Houston had been selected to host years prior. The World Series champion Hornets hoped to continue on an impressive playoff run.

The auto-bids for the event were MLB’s Houston and Kansas City, CABA’s Havana and Puebla, EAB’s Seongnam and Kawasaki, BSA’s Trujillo and Recife, EBF’s Hamburg and Zurich, EPB’s Chelyabinsk, OBA’s Sydney, APB’s Palembang, CLB’s Hong Kong, WAB’s Kano, SAB’s Pune, ABF’s Tabriz, ALB’s Tripoli, and AAB’s Luanda. The wild card went to WAB runner-up Bamako, who had finished 109-53. They controversially got the nod over defending Grand Champion Jeddah. The Jackals were the ALB runner-up at 104-58 and thought the defending title justified their spot despite the Bullfrogs winning more.



The BGC again showed how small the gap truly was between each of the world leagues as the sixth different league fielded the champ in six years (and the seventh overall). The Asian Baseball Federation’s Tabriz took the top spot at 15-4, setting a new runs record for the event at 112. The Tiger Sharks also had a +50 run differential, which was the third-highest to that point. Tabriz led all teams in homers (52), OBP (.328), slugging (.532), and OPS (.860). Prior to that, the ABF’s best finish was fellow Iranian squad Tehran in fourth in 2017.



For the third straight season, the Southern Cone League champ took second place. Recife was right behind Tabriz at 14-5, leading all teams with 45 runs allowed and a 2.12 ERA. The Retrievers tied Jeddah from the prior year for the fewest runs allowed in the current format. It was a two game drop to Kansas City and Pune at 12-7 with the Cougars taking third place on the tiebreaker. KC had a +35 run differential while the Purple Knights were only +2. It was the first time in four years that the MLB had a team in the top three. Pune set a high-mark for the Indian League, although SAB’s Hanoi had been third in 2016.

Next were Puebla and Zurich both at 11-8, followed by the host Houston at 10-9. Five teams finished 9-10; Hamburg, Havana, Kawasaki, Luanda, and Trujillo. Bamako, Hong Kong, Kano, Sydney, and Tripoli were all 8-11. The Bullfrogs notably scored the second most runs (95), but allowed the most (101). The Snakes notably stole a tournament-record 41 bases. Chelyabinsk and Seongnam were 7-12 and Palembang was alone in last at 6-13.

Trujillo’s Rico Ortega was named Tournament MVP. The 33-year old Peruvian was in his 11^th year for his hometown squad, but missed almost all of the 2019 season to a fractured coracoid in his shoulder. In the BGC, Ortega started 18 games with 17 hits, 16 runs, 11 home runs, 21 RBI, 12 walks, a 1.274 OPS, and 1.6 WAR. Ortega took the top honor despite Hamburg’s Oliver Schmitz leading all players in RBI (29) and home runs (16); both of which were the second most in BGC history to date.

Best Pitcher went to Luanda’s Guimas Simoes, who had been a subpar back-end starter for the Landsharks. The 27-year old Angolan lefty had three excellent starts with a 0.40 ERA over 22.2 innings, 2-0 record, 25 strikeouts, 4 hits, and 5 walks allowed. Simoes had a .070 opponent’s OPS, which remains a tournament record as of 2037 among any pitcher with 21+ innings. It was the one standout moment for a guy who posted a career WAR of 7.6.

Other notes: The seventh no-hitter in Baseball Grand Championship history was thrown on November 14 by Sydney’s Jay McKaig, striking out 18 and walking two against Zurich. Kawasaki’s Dagutorio Dodo was the second to have a four home run game, doing it on November 22 against Palembang. Puebla’s Clayton Morgan had the unfortunate distinction of being the first to earn the Titanium Sombrero with a six strikeout game.