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2B/SS Alberto Bissau was the lone inductee into the West African Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992, earning a first ballot induction with 89.3%. SS Joseph Ambane very nearly joined him on his third ballot, but fell just short of the 66% requirement with 63.8%. Closer Johnson Madu was also above 50%, receiving 52.0% on his third ballot. No players were dropped after ten ballots.



Alberto Bissau – Second Base/Shortstop – Benin City Blue Devils – 89.3% First Ballot

Alberto Bissau was a 5’11’’, 200 pound switch hitting middle infielder. He shared a surname with his hometown of Bissau, the capital city of Guinea-Bissau with around 500,000 people. Bissau was an excellent contact hitter that led the league in hits seven times in his career. He was the master at finding the gap, leading in doubles seven times and averaging nearly 50 doubles per season. Bissau didn’t smack many bombs, but did add around 10-15 home runs and a couple triples per year. He didn’t walk all that often with a slightly above average strikeout rate.

Bissau was a very smart base stealer with excellent speed, boasting an impressive 83.6% success rate in his career at stealing. Defensively, he made about 2/3 of his starts at second base with around ¼ at shortstop and the rest at third base. Bissau graded out as just below average at second and was actively bad at short. He viewed as an ironman by many, playing in 140+ games in 12 straight seasons. Bissau was a very popular player with fans, but he wasn’t the most popular in the clubhouse with some teammates calling him greedy and disloyal.

When West Africa Baseball officially formed for the 1975 season, Bissau was already 26 years old and established in the semi-pro ranks in the region. He came to Nigeria and Benin City on a two-year, $302,000 deal. Bissau’s entire WAB run came with the Blue Devils, who eventually inked him to a seven-year, $2,094,000 contract extension just before the 1977 season. He delivered instantly, leading in 1975 in hits, doubles, and WAR. He earned his lone Gold Glove this year at second base and took second in MVP voting.

1976 was Bissau’s first MVP and Silver Slugger, leading the league in runs (121) hits (229), average (.357), wRC+ (189), and WAR (11.2). The 229 hits was a single season record in WAB for nearly two decades. Bissau won additional Silver Sluggers in 1980 and 1982. He was MVP again in 1980 and hit 60 doubles, which stayed the single-season record for almost 20 years as well. Bissau was second in MVP voting in 1982. In 1980, he also earned All-Star Game MVP honors.

Benin City was a regular contender during Bissau’s time with five playoff appearances, although they were never able to claim the Western League title. In 18 playoff games, Bissau had 23 hits, 8 runs, 4 doubles, 3 RBI, and a .299/.333/.351 slash. In the regular season, he led in hits seven times and had 200+ hits six times. Bissau had eight seasons with 50+ doubles and hit above .300 in all but his last year with the Blue Devils.

Bissau’s last year with Benin City saw a noticeable drop in production with only a .275 average and 3.6 WAR. He had posted 5+ WAR in all of his prior seasons. The team decided to not re-sign him, but the Blue Devils would later retire his #5 uniform; the first number retired by the franchise. At age 36, Bissau decided to make a surprising move to EPB and Romania. The defending Soviet Series champion Bucharest signed him to a three-year, $2,090,000 deal, ending his African baseball career.

Bissau had a nice bounce back in 1985 with the Broncos, winning a Silver Slugger. Bucharest won the division at 110-52, but ended up one-and-done in the playoffs. He had a good 1986 as well, but the Broncos again were ousted in the first round. Injuries and iffy production cost him part of 1987. In total with Bucharest, Bissau had 442 hits, 190 runs, 79 doubles, 93 stolen bases, a .292/.329/.416 slash, and 14.2 WAR.

At age 39, Bissau still had numerous suitors and signed a hefty three-year, $4,480,000 deal with MLB’s Seattle Grizzlies. Although his overall value in 1988 wasn’t great, Bissau still managed to lead the American Association in doubles despite only playing 129 games. He lost the gap power noticeably the next year and was relegated to a bench role in his final season. With Seattle, Bissau had 269 hits, 120 runs, 70 doubles, a .270/.307/.399 slash and 1.1 WAR. He went unsigned in 1991 and retired that winter at age 43.

For his full career, Bissau had 2695 hits, 1291 runs, 665 doubles, 1001 RBI, 718 stolen bases, a .308/.343/.459 slash and 88.4 WAR. Specifically with Benin City and in WAB, he had 1984 hits, 981 runs, 516 doubles, 126 home runs, 719 RBI, 615 stolen bases, a .318/.351/.479 slash, 139 wRC+, and 73.1 WAR. Bissau was the all-time doubles leader at induction and held that title until the early 2000s, although he’d get passed by many players as WAB’s offensive environment exploded in the 21^st Century. His accumulations seem low in comparison to modern players in the high octane WAB of the future, but Bissau still put up very impressive stats despite officially starting at age 26 and only spending ten years in WAB. His resume was plenty impressive for the Hall of Fame voters to put him in on the first ballot at 89.3% as the lone 1992 inductee.