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1921 in EAB
In the first season under the East Asia Baseball sanctioning, Tokyo and Nagoya were the Japan League’s first division champions. In the North, the Tides had the fewest runs allowed at 454, finishing first at 96-66. It was a competitive group with Saitama four back, Sapporo six back, and Kawasaki both above .500. The Nightowls took the South at 92-70 with Osaka (86-76) the only team above .500 in the division.
The Orange Sox had pitcher Zeshin Saito, who was the inaugural Pitcher of the Year and MVP. The 25-year old lefty had a Japan-best 11.7 WAR and 342 strikeouts with a 1.63 ERA.
In the Korea League, the North division was oddly distributed with three teams above 100 wins, one at 35, and one at only 19. Pyongyang won it at 118-44, beating out Hamhung (109-53) and Seongna (104-58). The South had more balance with Daegu first at 104-58, beating Changwon (97-65) and Gwangju (96-66).
League MVP went to Yongin’s Jae-Hee-Sin, whacking 59 home runs and 175 RBI. The RBI mark would stay the league record for more than a decade with three of EAB’s 150+ RBI seasons of the 20th century in 1921. Ko Agano of Daegu was Pitcher of the Year and Seiki Okuyama of Seongnam set a long-standing record of 28 wins.
The JLCS went to Tokyo in five games over Nagoya and Pyongyang bested Daegu in six in the KLCS. The first EAB Championship went seven games and was claimed by the Pythons. Left fielder Toma Dobashi won series MVP with the 29-year old getting 16 hits, four homers, and 12 RBI in the postseason.
Other notes: Two perfect games were thrown in EAB in 1921. Japan PotY Zeshin Saito tossed one with 15 strikeouts versus Fukuoka and Hamhung’s Jae-Won Park had 14 Ks against Ulsan. Hamhung’s Sang-Hyun Kang posted a 42-game hit streak. He’d be the only guy to have a streak of 40+ until 1992.
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