[FuzzyRussianHat]

The Taiwan-Philippine Association had new teams atop its leagues for the 1971 season. In the Taiwan League, Taoyuan took the top spot at 85-77, edging out defending champ Taipei and Kaohsiung both at 82-80. In the Philippine League, Manila’s six-year streak was ended as the Manatees were a last place 70-92. Zamboanga was first at 89-73, edging out Cebu by two games and Davao by four.

Kaohsiung’s Yao-Hsun Ching won MVP with the 23-year old in his fourth full season already. He was the leaer in runs scored (90), total bases (306), slugging (.534), OPS (.850), and wRC+ (173), adding 8.8 WAR and 36 home runs. Tianan’s Kun-Sheng Lin won a third straight Pitcher of the Year with another incredible season. He broke his own single-season strikeout record with 476, also leading with 15.7 WAR, 0.70 WHIP, a 13.2 K/BB, 29 complete games, and 297.2 innings, posting a 1.90 ERA and 19-13 record. In his first four seasons, Lin has an absurd 55.0 WAR with 1672 strikeouts.



The best overall record in Austronesia Professional Baseball came in the Sundaland Association as Batam won back-to-back Malacca League titles. The second best record was in the same league as Medan and the Blue Raiders both were 100-62 to close the regular season. Batam won the tiebreaker game to take the crown. The Java League had a first time winner in Surabaya at 87-75. The Sunbirds beat defending APB champ Jakarta by one game and Semarang by two games to take the title.

Although Singapore stunk with only 66 wins, they had the MVP in RF Dedi Nugroho. He only started 122 games, but the second-year lefty was the home run leader with 51 and also led in slugging (.667), OPS (1.037) and wRC+ (246) with 8.9 WAR. Pitcher of the Year was Batam’s Ahmad Nasir Suryadi. The 27-year old righty in his fifth season as a Blue Raider had the most wins with a 21-9 record, posting a 1.73 ERA in 281.1 innings with 299 strikeouts and 7.0 WAR.

The Taiwan-Philippine Association Championship went to Taoyuan in five games over Zamboanga. Meanwhile Surabaya upset Batam in the Sundaland Association final, easily dispatching them with a sweep. The Sunbirds continued their momentum into the seventh Austronesia Championship, topping the Tsunami 4-1 for their first title. 3B Kim Shin Pan was the MVP of the association final and the APB final, posting 15 hits, 5 home runs, 10 RBI, and 9 runs in 9 playoff games.





Other notes: The fourth APB perfect game came on June 22 from Jakarta’s Sen-Lung Shu, who struck out 13 against Semarang. Muljadi Suwandi became the first APB pitcher to reach 2000 career strikeouts. Depok’s Alex Yustinus had a 25-game hit streak, setting a new APB record. Pekanbaru had a steep fall from being the first Sundaland Champion to only 57 wins in 1971. They scored only 353 runs and had 956 hits, both of which were all time worsts until 2024. CF Ruben Yu and 3B Stanley Susilowati both won their seventh Gold Gloves, remaining the two players to have taken the award in all seven APB seasons thus far.