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Defending Austronesia Champion Taipei won the Taiwan League for back-to-back seasons and set a franchise-record at 106-56. The Philippine League saw a huge turnaround season from Davao, going from 69 wins to 93-69. This gave the Devil Rays the title for their first playoff berth since 1978. Last year’s winner Cebu and Quezon both were second at 87-75.

Leading Taipei’s effort was Eli Cheng, winning Taiwan-Philippine Association MVP for the second time. Like his 1986 MVP run, Cheng again posted a Triple Crown season with 51 home runs, 108 RBI, and a .301 average. The 27-year old Taiwanese lefty also led in runs (102), walks (83), total bases (352), OBP (.389), slugging (.615), OPS (1.004), wRC+ (199), and WAR (10.0). Cheng was the first APB batter to smack 50+ home runs since 1978. Pitcher of the Year was Cebu’s Ricky Jungao, who was one win short of his own Triple Crown with an 18-7 record, 1.53 ERA, and 398 strikeouts. He was the WARlord (11.3) over 271.1 innings.





Jakarta had the top mark in the Sundaland Association at 102-60, giving the Jaguars the Java League crown for the sixth time in the 1980s. They ended up 11 games ahead of defending SA champ Semarang and Surabaya both at 91-71. Medan won the Malacca League for the third consecutive season and for the seventh time in the decade. The Marlins were 92-70, topping Pekanbaru by nine games.

Jakarta had both the Sundaland Association MVP and Pitcher of the Year in 1989. The former was SS Nyai Gunawan, who led in WAR at 9.5. The 29-year old had a 190 wRC+ with 20 home runs and 75 stolen bases. The latter was Hadi Ningsih, winning his second Pitcher of the Year. The 32-year old ace led in ERA (1.24), and WHIP (0.69) while posting a 19-7 record over 239.1 innings with 304 strikeouts and 7.9 WAR.

The Taiwan-Philippine Association Championship saw Taipei cruise to a 4-1 win over Davao, making the Tigercats repeat champs. The Sundaland Association Championship saw Medan upset Jakarta 4-1, giving the Marlins their second title in three years and their fifth in the 1980s.





In the 25h Austronesia Championship, Taipei was the favorite and hoping for a repeat. Medan denied that and took the series in six, giving the Marlins their second title in three years and their third overall. 3B A.J. Tan was the finals MVP, having led the SA in 1989 in hits and average. Nicknamed “Taz,” the 25-year old Singaporean had 10 hits, 3 runs, 3 doubles, and 4 stolen bases in 11 playoff starts. Although his Tigercats came up short, pitcher Ahmad Maidin had a very notable postseason as well, tossing 23 scoreless innings in three starts with 22 strikeouts.





Other notes: 1989 had APB’s 15th and 16th Perfect Games. On April 10, Kaohisung’s Foo Su struck out 15 against Cebu. He was bested on May 22 by Bandung’s Vhon Lasam with an incredible 19 strikeout perfecto against Depok. This set the APB record for most Ks in any no-hitter and was a world record for most strikeouts in a perfect game. Amazingly enough, only one day later over in Eurasian Professional Baseball, Vilnius’ Dana Bancu had a 19 strikeout perfect game against Minsk. Lasam also notably became the first APB pitcher to 4500 career strikeouts and while he and Poh Tan became the third and fourth to 200 wins. 3B Huang Haung won his eighth Silver Slugger.

For the 1980s, the “deadball” style of Austronesia Professional Baseball had extremely low offensive production, especially without the DH in the Sundaland Association. The SA’s ERA for the 1980s was 2.43, the lowest of any league in history to date; while the Taiwan-Philippine Association was at 2.82. The SA’s batting average was .213 and the TPA’s was .224 for the decade. APB would remain the lowest offensive environment in pro baseball along with Chinese League Baseball for decades to come.