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The top record for the entire European Baseball Federation in 1967 belonged to Paris at 103-59, giving the Poodles the Northern Conference’s Northwest Division. Paris is back in the playoffs after missing the prior two seasons. Rotterdam was second in the division at 94-68, taking the wild card for their first playoff appearance in a decade. Dublin claimed the British Isles Division at 93-69 after four straight losing seasons since their EBF title. London at 91-71 missed the division title by two games and the wild card by three, while defending EBF champ Glasgow fell to 86-76. The only returning playoff team for the Northern Conference was Hamburg, who barely took a weak North Central Division at 84-78. Oslo ended one back with Berlin four behind.

Northern Conference MVP went to Glasgow LF Graeme McNay. The 26-year old Irishman was the leader in hits (209), home runs (49), triple slash (.348/.394/.661), OPS (1.054), wRC+ (225), and WAR (10.6). Pitcher of the Year was Rotterdam’s Mortiz Varkevisser. It was the first season as a full-time starter for the 23-year old left-handed Dutchman, who posted a 2.22 ERA and 23-7 record with 241 strikeouts over 267.2 innings and 5.4 WAR.



While the Northern Conference had notable playoff turnover, the Southern Conference saw each division with the same winner as last year. Vienna had the best overall record at 100-62 atop the Southeast Division for their third straight division title. Zagreb at 88-74 took the wild card by a seven-game margin for the Gulls’ first winning season since winning the 1960 EBF title. Rome made it six straight South Central Division titles, going 99-63. Defending conference champ Marseille claimed the Southwest Division at 95-67.

Second-year shortstop Niklaos Pavlis had a huge breakout season for Zagreb, earning Southern Conference MVP. The 22-year old Greek righty was the WARlord at 10.3, adding a .295 average, 31 home runs, 85 RBI, and 96 runs. Malta’s Ugo Musacci won Pitcher of the Year in his third season, falling one win shy of a Triple Crown. The 23-year old Italian was the leader in ERA (1.97), strikeouts (350), WHIP (0.88), WAR (10.2), and FIP- (55), posting a 21-9 record over 270 innings.

In the first round of the playoffs in the north, Hamburg stunned Paris by taking the series in four games, while Dublin swept Rotterdam in the south, Vienna rolled to a sweep of Zagreb, while Marseille edged Rome in a five-game battle. The Northern Conference Championship saw the first sweep since 1955 as the Dinos cruised by the Hammers. For Dublin, it is their second conference title along with the 1962 season. Hamburg is now 1-4 all time in the NCC. The Southern Conference Championship looked like it would follow a similar script as the Musketeers took the first three games. Vienna rallied to deny the repeat, giving the Vultures their first-ever conference title. Marseille has now blown a 3-0 series lead twice, also doing it against Belgrade in 1961.



In the 18^th European Championship, Dublin joined Amsterdam and Barcelona as the only franchises with two overall titles. The Dinos downed Vienna in five games to send the trophy back to Ireland for the first time since 1962. Finals MVP was CF Jo Norton, who had nine hits, 4 runs, and 2 home runs in 9 playoff games. One quirk is that despite winning the title, Dublin only had 72 total home runs as a team; third-fewest ever in a season for any EBF team as of 2037. Walks and steals helped the Dinos score runs in the face of their lower power numbers.



Other notes: Two perfect games were thrown in 1967. On June 20, Matthew Glazier of Oslo did it with seven strikeouts against London. On September 12, Tommaso Paladino of Naples pulled it off, striking out six versus Amsterdam. Rudjer Bosnjak became the second hitter to 500 home runs and became an eight-time Silver Slugger winner at first base. Aaron Grunauer and Pedro Varela became the fourth and fifth EBF pitchers to 200 career wins.