[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 2004 Eurasian Professional Baseball Hall of Fame class was a memorable one with three guys added on the first ballot. Two were absolute slam dunks, including EPB’s first-ever unanimous pick in two-way star Igor Bury. SP Artem Makarevich only barely missed out on being unanimous himself at 99.6%. DH Nikolay Denisov was the third inductee with a respectable 75.5%. SP Petr Bidzinashvili had 58.4% on his seventh try, falling just short of the 66% requirement.



SS Maksim Shantanov was dropped after ten ballots, peaking with 40.3% on his debut and ending at 15.6%. Primarily with Asgabat, Shantanov had 2426 hits, 808 runs, 466 doubles, 78 home runs, 712 RBI, a .298/.325/.398 slash, 126 wRC+, 76.5 WAR, and six Silver Sluggers. Shantanov also won a title in 1979 with the Alphas and in 1988 with Minsk, posting a .320/.341/.401 career playoff slash. He lacked dingers as a leadoff guy though, which kept him out of the running for many voters.

Reliever Tomislav Brzezanczyk also fell off the ballot after ten tries, getting as high as 37.1% and ending at 8.6%. He bounced between EPB and MLB, posting 277 saves in his EPB run with a 1.87 ERA over 744.1 innings, 1067 strikeouts, 158 ERA+, and 25.5 WAR. Brzezanczyk didn’t have the counting stats or awards needed to earn much attention as a reliever by the voters.



Igor “Speed Limit” Bury – Starting Pitcher/Left Field – Novosibirsk Nitros – 100% First Ballot

Igor Bury was a 6’0’’, 190 pound right-handed pitcher and left fielder from Goragorskiy, Russia; a small town of just under 5,000 people in Chechnya. The nickname “Speed Limit” came from Bury’s incredibly cautious demeanor when driving. Regardless of that quirk, he became one of the most adored and beloved figures in Russian baseball history. Bury was an incredibly intelligent and hard-working player that some could argue is the greatest two-way player in pro baseball history.

Bury’s pitching was his strongest attribute with outstanding stuff and great movement. His control was sometimes below average, but his overpowering stuff usually bailed him out. Bury had an electric 99-101 mph fastball mixed with a great slider and decent changeup. Bury had incredible durability and made 30+ starts on the mound every year for 16 straight years even with the two-way workload. He was a good defensive pitcher, but struggled with holding runners.

Offensively, Bury wasn’t incredible, but reliable above average to good. He was a respectable contact hitter, but he didn’t draw too many walks and did strike out a lot. Bury had a very strong bat through, often getting around 15-20 doubles and 15-20 home runs in the roughly 80-90 games he’d hit each year. Bury was a smart baserunner, but his speed was mediocre.

When not pitching, Bury was almost always in left field. His arm strength served him well there and he graded out as a pretty good defender in left. He made a few starts in center field as well, but struggled there due to a lack of range. Some called Bury the hardest working man in baseball, which led to a remarkable career.

Bury’s two-way potential was evident even as an amateur prospect. His was eligible in the 1980 EPB Draft and Novosibirsk grabbed him with the #1 overall pick. Bury would play 17 of his 20 pro seasons with the Nitros, becoming a beloved franchise icon. Before he arrived, Novosibirsk had been generally lousy. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Nitros had no playoff berths and only four winning seasons.

Novosibirsk didn’t think Bury was immediately ready, as he only made four relief appearances in his first year under contract in 1981. After that though, he had a full load in the rotation every year for the next 16 seasons. Bury also had an additional 70-85 starts in the field every year in that stretch. His remarkable durability had him not miss more than a week until his 15^th season.

Offensively, Bury was relatively steady in his career. EPB used the designated hitter, so Bury didn’t hit on days he pitched. The demands meant he never played 100+ games in the field in his prime years, but over a 162 game average, he had a .252/.286/.462 slash, 133 wRC+, 4.0 WAR, and 30 home runs.

It was Bury’s pitching that brought him the most acclaim. He was merely okay in his first two seasons, but the two-way effort still got him the 1982 Rookie of the Year. By 1984, he emerged as a legitimate ace. From 1985 through 1993, he was considered by many as the best pitcher in EPB, racking up impressive strikeout tallies.

From 1985-92, Bury led the Asian league eight straight seasons in strikeouts. His 424 strikeouts in 1986 was the third most in a season to that point (and still ranks sixth as of 2037). Bury also racked up big WAR totals, leading the league eight times in nine years from 1985-93. Seven of those seasons saw double-digits with the worst being 8.4. Bury also led in WHIP twice and quality starts thrice.

Despite his impressive talents, Bury only led in ERA once, posting a career-best 1.44 in 1987. He fell three wins short of a Triple Crown and never would lead the league in wins. Bury’s 1986 recorded 13.8 WAR pitching, which was the fourth-best season to that point in EPB (and is still sixth in 1986). When you add his 3.7 WAR offensively that year, you get an all-time EPB single-season record of 17.5. That’s a number at that point that had only been beaten by Beisbol Sudamerica’s GOAT pitcher Mohamed Ramos, who hit 17.9 and 17.6 in the 1930s.

Naturally, Bury was a regular on the awards podium. He was a five-time Pitcher of the Year (1985, 86, 87, 88, 90) and took third in 1989 and second in 1993. Bury also earned MVP honors in 1986, 1987, and 1989. He took second in 1985 MVP voting, second in 1988, and second in 1993. Bury tossed two no-hitters, the first with 16 strikeouts and two walks against Dushanbe on 4/1/88 and the second on 6/8/91 with 9 Ks and 2 BBs versus Yekaterinburg. He’s also one of only seven EPB pitchers to strike out 21 or more in a game, fanning 21 in 10.1 innings on 4/1/92 against Yerevan.

Bury’s talents made him one of the most beloved stars in Eurasian Professional Baseball. He also got plenty of love playing in the World Baseball Championship ten times from 1984-1997 for Russia. Pitching, Bury had 141.2 innings, an 11-4 record, 3.68 ERA, 197 strikeouts, and 2.4 WAR. Batting, he had 48 games and 45 starts, 40 hits, 23 runs, 11 doubles, 11 home runs, 37 RBI, a .270/.329/.568 slash, 151 wRC+, and 1.7 WAR.

Novosibirisk finally began to see steady success with Bury, as every season from 1983 to 1997 saw a winning record. The Nitros broke a 24-year playoff drought in 1983 and made it to the ALCS, but lost to Bishkek. They were one-and-done in 1985 and missed the playoffs in 1984, 86, and 87. Novosibirsk still thought Bury could lead them to the Promised Land, giving him a six-year, $3,464,000 extension in April 1986.

In 1988, Novosibirsk won its first (and as of 2037, only) AL pennant, ousting Bishkek. The Nitros fell in the finale to Minsk. Bury wouldn’t get back to the championship despite his best efforts. Novosibirsk made the playoffs seven times from 1989-96, but was one-and-done each year except for an upset ALCS loss in 1991. Although still beloved, Bury often shouldered the blame for their lack of greater playoff success.

It was a fair critique when looking at his playoff stats. In 17 starts with Novosibirsk pitching, he was 7-7 with a 3.01 ERA over 137.2 innings, 168 strikeouts, and 5.3 WAR. The 96 ERA+ is firmly below average, but his 57 FIP- suggested Bury may have had bad luck. His batting tallies were undoubtedly crappy in the playoffs though. In 45 games, he had a .191/.228/.321 slash, 72 wRC+, and 0.2 WAR. Perhaps the physical demands of two-way service wore him down too much by the end of the season.

In May 1992, Novosibirsk gave Bury another five years and $4,750,000. In his final seasons with the Nitros, he had fallen out of the awards conversation. Bury still was a very solid pitcher, but gone were the 300+ strikeout seasons. He still had positive offensive value until his final season with the Nitros in 1997 with -0.3 WAR. Bury missed the final weeks of the season to a strained triceps and Novosibirsk’s playoff streak ended at six seasons. He was able to join Alvi Tahiri as the only EPB pitchers with 5500+ career strikeouts.

Bury was at a crossroads as he was soon to be 38 years old entering 1998. Novosibirsk opted to begin a full rebuild and didn’t re-sign their superstar. He’d remain immensely popular and kept a good relationship with Nitros management. Once his playing career was over, his #8 uniform was retired. Bury wasn’t ready to retire yet and ended up signing a one-year, $1,300,000 deal with Kyiv.

He looked merely decent with the Kings, who ultimately traded Bury at the deadline to Ufa. The Fiends wanted to push to break a decade-long playoff drought and succeeded in getting a wild card spot, although they were one-and-done. This would be Bury’s final season playing in EPB.

Bury’s velocity had dropped noticeably at this point. He was regularly hitting triple digits in 1995, but had dropped towards the mid 90s. It would drop into the upper 80s in the next few years, effectively ending his time as a pitcher. In his final two seasons, Bury only pitched a total of 33.2 innings. He found a suitor in EBF’s Amsterdam Anacondas, but they wanted to use him primarily as a hitter.

In his one year in the Netherlands, Bury excelled in that role. He played 129 games with 37 home runs, 95 RBI, a .316/.346/.600 slash, 169 wRC+, and 5.7 WAR. It was an impressive season for anyone, but especially a guy at age 39. He was a free agent again for 2000 and MLB’s Charlotte hoped they could catch that same lightning in a bottle. Also hoping to cash in on Bury’s international celebrity, they gave him a three-year, $14,280,000 deal.

It was a terrible deal ultimately for the Canaries. A herniated disc cost Bury the first month of the season. When he came back in May, he looked mediocre at the plate. Although a small sample size, Charlotte decided to eat the rest of his big contract, cutting him on May 28. Three years later, he was back in Europe, signing with Zurich.

Bury rebounded in 76 games for the Mountaineers, posting 110 wRC+ and 1.8 WAR. Zurich made the conference finals, but didn’t go beyond that. This ended Bury’s career in the Northern Hemisphere, but he wasn’t ready to call it quits. He ended up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, signing with Kinshasa.

Bury struggled in 62 games for the Sun Cats, posting -0.3 WAR and 83 wRC+. It was also the only season in his career without at least one pitching appearance. He wasn’t retained after 2001 and still wanted to play somewhere. Unfortunately, Bury’s goose was cooked. After going un-signed in 2002, he retired at age 42.

For his combined pro career, Bury the pitcher had a 287-190 record, 2.41 ERA, 4595.2 innings, 5771 strikeouts, 1067 walks, 436/574 quality starts, 176 complete games, 121 ERA+, 67 FIP-, and 138.9 WAR. Offensively, he had 1602 hits, 788 runs, 276 doubles, 324 home runs, 855 RBI, a .253/.287/.462 slash, 133 wRC+, and 41.1 WAR.

His combined 180 WAR was a record among any two-way player and would only get topped by China’s Chuchaun Cao’s run from 2012-24. At retirement, the only players in world history with more career WAR was OBA/MLB SS/2B Jimmy Caliw (214.0), BSA pitcher Mohamed Ramos (205.1), CABA/MLB SP Ulices Montero (191.7), and CABA/MLB 1B Prometheo Garcia (189.1), Clearly, Bury was one of the most impactful players in baseball history.

In just EPB as a pitcher, Bury had a 287-187 record, 2.38 ERA, 4562 innings, 5754 strikeouts, 435/569 quality starts, 175 complete games, 122 ERA+, 67 FIP-, and 138.5 WAR. As of 2037, Bury is fifth in pitching WAR, second in strikeouts, and sixth in wins. From just his pitching, a case could be made for Bury as a top five all-time ace in EPB.

At the plate, he had 1320 hits, 638 runs, 227 doubles, 263 home runs, 671 RBI, a .248/.282/.450 slash, 133 wRC+, and 34.0 WAR. The combined 172.5 WAR is the EPB all-time mark with the closest foe being SP Alvi Tahiri at 160.9. The playoff disappointments hurt him in some of the conversations regarding the EPB GOAT. However, no one argues against Bury as a candidate for that spot. If there was ever a guy who deserved a unanimous Hall of Fame induction, he was the guy.