[FuzzyRussianHat]

2000 would see a major shift in the professional baseball world with multiple teams moving and league structures changing within Eurasian Professional Baseball, the European Baseball Federation, and the Asian Baseball Federation. Although these changes took effect with the 2000 campaign, the genesis of the moves came from world events that happened about a decade earlier.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Soviet Union collapsed and most of the Soviet-aligned Eastern Bloc states switched away from their previous Communist governments. 15 distinct nation states emerged from the former USSR. Those states and the other formerly aligned countries in Eastern Europe would have different levels of cooperation with Russia in the coming years. Some remained friendly and stayed important allies, while others saw outright hostility and looked to distance themselves from Russian influence as much as possible.

These political changes showed up in the baseball world as well. Eurasian Professional Baseball had been essentially the Eastern Bloc league with teams throughout the Soviet Union and aligned states. Like with those countries geopolitically, Russia had been the most powerful player within the EPB structure by far. Many of the former countries in the USSR and within the Warsaw Pact soon looked to align with the European Union and/or NATO. The teams in those same countries started to investigate if a move into the European Baseball Federation was possible.



Throughout the histories of EBF and EPB, the quality of play was generally considered to be comparable between the leagues. EPB was more top-heavy, but most baseball people agreed that the best teams of EPB and the best teams in EBF saw similar talent levels. However, the financials between the two leagues were very different. The EBF had grown to be a much richer league overall, mirroring the economic differences in many ways between the EU states versus the former communist ones. In addition to a shift being likely more profitable for the teams and players, EBF also had more competitive balance, which was appealing to the lower-rung EPB teams.

EPB’s European League saw a noticeable gap between the “haves” and “have nots.” Riga, Helsinki, Vilnius, Budapest, Tirana, Prague, Bratislava, and Sofia had a combined two pennants between them (both by Tirana). None of these teams had earned a playoff berth since 1980 and they felt that EPB’s system wasn’t going to allow them to compete anytime soon. The countries those teams were in each also had looked at either joining the European Union or at least planned on interacting much more with EU states and less with Russia. By 2007, seven of the eight countries those teams were based in had joined the EU. This group was the first batch to make overtures in the 1990s to leaving EPB for EBF.

The EBF had been exploring expansion even before the EPB malcontents started making noise. EBF leaders had hoped to grow in size more comparable to Major League Baseball and there were numerous large cities willing and able to take on a franchise. The big expansion would come with the introduction of the European Second League and a promotion/relegation system starting in the mid 2000s. But EBF did like the prospects of opening new markets in additional countries. Even without the exodus, it was clear that EBF intended to grow significantly.

There was some trepidation from EBF leaders as the main group of teams wanting to leave hadn’t been EPB blue bloods. Some worried that they weren’t strong enough teams to justify the addition, but most agreed that adding new nations and markets would be financially worthwhile. Others thought the great game of baseball could help solidify diplomatic ties and warmer relations overall with the former communist states. However, the EBF officials were eyeing a few of the other EPB teams as bigger prizes.

The largest former Eastern Bloc countries were Poland, Ukraine, and Romania. The EPB teams from those countries; Warsaw, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Bucharest; had been successful franchises with 14 championships between them. Those teams weren’t as discontent with EPB’s setup as their neighbors, but those three countries were likewise trying to distance themselves from Russian influences. Poland and Romania had both joined the EU by 2007, while Ukraine ended up later engaged in active warfare with Russia. EBF had also made inquiries into Polish and Ukrainian expansion teams regardless of what the existing teams chose to do. EBF officials felt that tapping into the roughly 100 million people between those three nations was very important for expansion.

The Big Four and their existing brands could also see that the EBF likely would reap bigger financial rewards long-term, especially if the EPB shrunk. Meanwhile, EPB officials had only taken small glances at expansion. Most of the potential candidates were other Russian teams, which also concerned the non-Russian teams that were looking to leave. For players as well, they knew EBF allowed you into free agency much sooner than EPB, leading to greater earning potential.

As the 1990s progressed, the talk and smoke regarding a defection became more pronounced. EPB appealed to the Global Baseball Alliance to block potential moves, but GBA officials said such things were purely internal matters. The relationships soured between the potential defectors and EPB officials, making a possible shift increasingly possible. Legal challenges and battles cropped up, but trying to reconcile different procedures in different countries was a mess. All of the leagues and players involved had to navigate complex laws and financial terms to figure out how this all was going to work.

Also keeping an eye on the developments were a number of teams in the EPB Asian League. Tbilisi and Yerevan had some similar gripes as the originally upset EL teams. They didn’t fit as neatly into the EBF as both Georgia and Armenia are considered on the borderline between Europe and Asia. They weren’t as desirable on the surface to the EBF, but officials certainly kept both teams in mind.

The other teams of the AL’s South Division also weighed their options. Almaty, Tashkent, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Baku, and Asgabat each were now in new countries with varying degrees of association with Russia. These teams were generally content with the EPB structure, but were greatly worried by the possibility of a large chunk of teams leaving. The potential balance issues and revenue lost by an exodus was quite concerning.

That opened up an opportunity for the Asian Baseball Federation to potentially expand. Still much newer, the ABF had teams only based in Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. Their opportunities for expansion were more limited, but the AL group made a lot of sense. Culturally, the Central Asian countries had many people with Turkic heritage similar to Turkey and parts of Iran. These countries were all Muslim majority nations as well, compared to Russia where Islam made up a sizable minority. They’d fit in fairly well, although the newer ABF wasn’t as prestigious or financially successful yet compared to the more tenured EPB.

Later in the 1990s, the ABF started to more aggressively court these teams. Many in the existing ABF structure were worried that this would massively change their setup. However, most realized such a move would be required if the ABF wanted to reach a higher prestige level among the world leagues. Instantly, you’d be bringing in established teams and fanbases. Eventually, the six AL teams made an unofficial pact with each other. If the European EPB teams stayed, they’d all stay. But if they all left, they’d bolt for the ABF together and work to grow that league.

By 1999, some of the final pieces and guarantees started to fall into place to create what would be the great EPB exodus. The changes were officially announced after the 1999 season ended. Much to the chagrin of EPB officials, the two teams that had both just repeated as league champs, Kharkiv and Tashkent, were leaving...