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For the third consecutive season, Gujranwala and Peshawar emerged as the playoff teams out of the Pakistan League. They swapped positions in the standings again with the Predators first at 91-71 and the Grasshoppers one behind at 90-72. Faisalabad was right in the mix at 89-73 but fell short. Hyderabad at 84-78 also made a solid run at the throne.

Gujranwala catcher Razak Mohiyoudeen won back-to-back Pakistan League MVP honors. He posted 10.6 WAR with 36 home runs, 98 RBI, a .303/.366/.556 slash and 212 wRC+. Peshawar’s Muhib Salahuddin won Pitcher of the Year, leading the PL with a 1.45 ERA. He had an 11-7 record over 230.1 innings with 293 strikeouts and 6.6 WAR.



The West Asia Association saw repeat league champs in 1991 as well. Izmir had the best overall record at 101-61 to claim the Turkish League, finishing 14 games better than second place Adana. Defending ABF champ Mashhad won the Persian League at 99-63. Tehran was a distant second at 84-78.

Tabriz finished at .500, but second year 1B Vahid Hadadi made history by winning WAA MVP again. After setting the single-season home run record at 67 in 1990, Hadadi bested that with an impressive 74 dingers. This remains the ABF record as of 2037. The Iranian lefty also was the leader in runs (121), RBI (141), total bases (424), slugging (.752), OPS (1.133), wRC+ (218), and WAR (10.6). Pitcher of the Year was Bursa righty Fahri Unal. In his third season, the 25-year old Turk was the WARlord (9.0) with the most innings (284) and quality starts (26). Poor run support from the middling Blue Claws gave him a 13-13 record despite his 2.54 ERA and 319 strikeouts.

The Pakistan League Championship Series was round three between Peshawar and Gujranwala. The previous two encounters both went to the Predators in seven games. The 1991 edition was on its way to be a Peshawar sweep, but the Grasshoppers rallied from down 3-0 to win the series in seven for their first pennant. In the West Asia Association Championship, Izmir got revenge in the rematch with Mashhad, taking their first pennant 4-2.



The seventh Asian Baseball Federation Championship was the first to end in a sweep. Gujranwala clobbered Izmir to bring the title back to a PL team after the last three went to the WAA. CF Mahmood Omar was the star of the postseason for the Grasshoppers, winning both finals MVP and PLCS MVP. The 27-year old in 11 starts had 16 hits, 5 runs, 2 doubles, 2 triples, 7 RBI, and 4 walks.



Other notes: Peshawar 2B Muyassar Egal had two impressive hit streaks, first with a 34-game one that ended on May 20, then a 22-game streak that ended on July 25. The 34-game streak was the second-best in ABF’s history to that point. During the first streak, Egal had 49 consecutive games where he got on base.