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Eurasian Professional Baseball added pitcher Artur Golub into the Hall of Fame with the 1980 voting, an easy choice receiving 99.1%. Two other pitchers barely missed the 66% threshold with both on their second ballot at Eryk Wozniak received 65.6% and Artyom Rudasev got 64.4%. Three others were above 50%, all pitchers, with Skerdi Hoxha (56.6%, 10^th ballot); Hryhoriy Boychuk (55.6%, 4^th ballot), and Vyacheslav Leskov (54.7%, 3^rd ballot).



For Hoxha, he came painfully close on multiple occasions with 65.8% on his third ballot and 65.4% on his eighth. He started his EPB career at age 27 and won eight Gold Gloves along with the 1958 MVP and Pitcher of the Year with Baku in 1958. Hoxha with Baku and Yekaterinburg had a 183-110 record, 2.84 ERA, 2779.1 innings, 2774 strikeouts, and 73.4 WAR. With a few more years, he almost certainly would’ve been in and many feel he should have been anyway.

Also dropped after ten ballots was pitcher Andrei Doman, who was as high as 59.2% on his third ballot before ending at 26.2%. With Irkutsk and Moscow, he had a 160-79 record, 2.70 ERA, 2175.1 innings, 2268 strikeouts, and 61.2 WAR. Without major accolades and smaller tallies with a lot of competition among pitchers, Doman was a long shot.



Artur “Bug Eyes” Golub – Starting Pitcher - Ufa Fiends – 99.1% First Ballot

Artur Golub was a 6’1’’, 200 pound left-handed starting pitcher from Komarno, a town of around 3,500 people in western Ukraine. Nicknamed “Bug Eyes,” for his large-eyed stare, Golub was known for having incredible stuff and great control, but terrible movement. He had 97-99 mph peak velocity with a great fastball, stellar curveball, plus a cutter and changeup. Golub was awesome at getting strikeouts, but his movement issues meant he could be prone to allow home runs. Still, he mixed speeds so effectively that he emerged as an all-timer at getting stirkeouts.

Golub was not an immediate success though. He was picked in the third round out of high school by Kyiv, 105^th overall in the 1956 Eurasian Professional Baseball Draft. The Kings would trade him that summer though to Ufa for reliever Nikolai Shatkov. The Fiends would use Golub as a reliever from 1957-60, although he was middling at best. He started to see more starts in 1961, then became a full-time starter from 1962 onward.

1962 began a streak of six straight seasons as the strikeout leader in the Asian League. He led in strikeouts eight times and had 400+ strikeouts in five seasons. Nine times, he led the league in K/BB. He had eight straight seasons of 7+ WAR with four seasons above 10+ WAR. In 1964, Golub won Pitcher of the Year and took third in MVP voting. He had only the third EPB pitching Triple Crown with a 24-7 record, 1.75 ERA, and 416 strikeouts. In 1967, Golub was second in Pitcher of the Year, then won it again in 1969. 1969 had a career-best 1.52 ERA and 431 strikeouts.

Ufa became a contender in the 1960s with six playoff berths from 1963-69. However, the Fiends never won the league title, falling thrice in the ALCS. It wasn’t Golub’s fault though as he had a 9-1 record over 85 playoff innings with a 2.44 ERA and 122 strikeouts. He also was a regular for Ukraine from 1962-74 in the World Baseball Championship with a 3.82 ERA over 153 innings with 217 strikeouts.

With his strikeout ability, Golub could be untouchable when he was on. He was the first EPB pitcher to throw four no hitters, the first coming with 13 strikeouts and two walks in 1962 against Almaty. The next year, he had 18 strikeouts and one walk against Tbilisi. His third no-no came with 14 Ks in 1966 against Irkutsk with the fourth in 1971 against Novosibirsk with nine strikeouts. In 1970, Golub also had a 20 strikeout game over 10.2 innings against Baku.

In total with Ufa, Golub had a 209-146 record, 2.63 ERA over 3225.1 innings, 4736 strikeouts, and 91.5 WAR. His #6 uniform would be retied by the Fiends, although his tenure would end after the 1972 season. At age 35, Golub entered free agency and signed with Tbilisi. He had a solid first year with the Trains, leading in strikeouts one last time. Golub struggled hard in the next year and had back issues with a herniated disc. He opted to retire after the 1974 season at age 36. With Tbilisi, he had a 25-19 record, 3.48 ERA, 592 strikeouts, and 7.4 WAR.

Golub’s final stats: 234-165 record, 2.73 ERA, 3642 innings, 5328 strikeouts to 634 walks, 303/431 quality starts, 177 complete games, a FIP- of 73, and 98.9 WAR. He was the second EPB pitcher to 5000 career strikeouts and retired second only to Alvi Tahiri’s 6909. At retirement, he was fifth all-time in pitching WAR and tied for sixth in wins. Golub was an electric strikeout pitcher and well deserving of the first ballot nod with 99.1%.