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Kazan claimed the top record in EPB’s European League for back-to-back seasons, winning the North Division in 1968 at 104-58. Tirana meanwhile took the South Division for back-to-back seasons at 99-63. After missing the playoffs for the first time ever the prior year, Misnk was the first wild card ta 96-66. The final spot came down to a tiebreaker game after Helsinki and Kyiv both finished 93-69. The Honkers took the tiebreaker game to earn their first-ever playoff berth. Defending league champ Moscow saw its seven-year streak snapped as they limped to 79-83.

The Crusaders had the league’s MVP and Pitcher of the Year. 28-year old CF Andrey Voronin won the MVP as the leader in runs with 88, adding 37 home runs, 92 RBI, and 8.0 WAR. The Pitcher of the Year as 32-year old lefty Artyom Rudasev with a league-best 1.45 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, and 47 FIP-. He added 8.9 WAR with 283 strikeouts in 217.2 innings and a 17-6 record.



Yekaterinburg took the top record in the Asian League at 100-62, winning the North Division and grabbing a fifth consecutive playoff berth. Ulaanbaatar finished one behind at 99-63, getting back-to-back wild cards. After missing the playoffs the prior year, 1966 league champ Omsk took the second wild card at 95-67. Ufa, winners of 101 games the prior year, dropped to .500. Defending Soviet Series champ Bishkek won a weak South Division at 91-71, giving the Black Sox six straight division titles and the longest active postseason streak in Eurasian Professional Baseball.

Ulaanbaatar CF Amam “Mad Dog” Charyyew won his third MVP. The 30-year old Tukrmen was the leader in runs (101), home runs (54), RBI (118), slugging (.674), OPS (1.041), wRC+ (211) and WAR (10.8). Omsk’s Arutyun Lezjov won his third Pitcher of the Year, doing it in only 25 starts. Despite injuries and having missed almost all the entire prior season, Lezjov posted a 1.79 ERA in 216.1 innings with 263 strikeouts, 8.8 WAR, and a 19-4 record.

In the first round of the playoffs in the European League, Kazan downed Helsinki in four games and Minsk took it 3-1 at Tirana. In the Asian League, Bishkek swept Ulaanbaatar and Yekaterinburg beat Omsk in four. After taking runner-up the prior two seasons, the Crusaders claimed the ELCS in six games over the Miners. In the ALCS, the Yaks swept the Black Sox, giving Yekaterinburg its second title after winning in the inaugural 1955 campaign.



The 1968 Soviet Series went to Kazan 4-2 over Yekaterinburg, making the Crusaders two time EPB champions. It is the first title for a Russian-based team since Kazan’s 1961 crown. Finals MVP was 38-year old Ilya Simutenkov, who played in only 37 games in the regular season due to a broken kneecap. In 16 playoff games, he had 14 hits, 4 runs, 6 doubles, 3 home runs, and 10 RBI.



Other notes: Two perfect games were thrown in 1968 in EPB. Maarek Pettai had the first for Warsaw on April 28, striking out 10 against Kyiv. Earlier that month, Pettai set a record with a 19 strikeout no-hitter with two walks versus Bucharest. The second perfect game saw seven strikeouts for Omsk’s Nikita Titov on July 14 against Baku. Anatoliy Mykhaylenko became the fourth EPB pitcher to 3500 career strikeouts. Corin Dragomir became the first EPB hitter with 500 home runs. Six hitters crossed 2000 career hits, bringing it to 10 hitters in the club thus far. German Daugelo won his ninth Gold Glove in right field.