[FuzzyRussianHat]

The ninth Baseball Grand Championship was hosted in Rome, Italy. The auto-bids for 2018 went to MLB’s Kansas City and Las Vegas, CABA’s Guyana and Leon, EAB’s Osaka and Seongnam, BSA’s Concepcion and Maturin, EBF’s Munich and Birmingham, EPB’s Krasnoyarsk, OBA’s Sydney, APB’s Zamboanga, CLB’s Nanjing, WAB’s Yaounde, SAB’s Kanpur, ABF’s Ankara, ALB’s Jeddah, and AAB’s Kampala. The wild card at-large spot went to APB runner-up Johor Bahru, whose 108-54 record led amongst the qualifying finalists.



Through the first eight BGCs, the Arab League hadn’t had a team crack the top four. Jeddah changed that in impressive fashion by winning at 14-5, bringing the cup to Saudi Arabia. It was the fifth different league to win the Grand Championship in five years. Great pitching led the way for the Jackals, allowing the fewest runs at 45 with a 2.31 ERA. That pushed Jeddah to the crown with the third-best run differential at +29.



Concepcion was alone in second at 12-7, scoring the most runs (99) with the second-best run differential at +36. This gave the Chiefs back-to-back second place finishes. The only other team that had been in the top two twice was Denver, who won in 2013 and took second in 2015. The prior year, Concepcion ended up in a three-way tie at 12-7, but ended up second on the tiebreaker formula.

There was a four-way tie next at 11-8 between Leon, Osaka, Seongnam, and Zamboanga. Officially after going through the tiebreakers, the Zebras were third with the Orange Sox fourth, Lions fifth, and Spiders sixth. This was Zamboanga’s second time in the top three, having finished second in 2013. They joined Concepcion, Denver, Phoenix, and Goyang as the only teams to crack the top three twice.

Behind them were five teams at 10-9; Kampala, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Yaounde, and Kanpur. It was the Vipers who had the best run differential at +39. Birmingham and Krasnoyarsk were both 9-10. Five teams finished 8-11 with Guyana, Johor Bahru, Maturin, Munich, and Sydney. Ankarra was 18^th at 7-12, while Nanjing was alone in last place at 5-14.

Reigning Japan League MVP Shigeyori Suzuki of Osaka was named Tournament MVP. The 26-year old right fielder from Japan in 19 starts had 19 hits, 18 runs, 13 home runs, 22 RBI, a 1.392 OPS, 281 wRC+, and 1.8 WAR. Also of note, his Orange Sox teammate Tomofmi Shimada stole 16 bases, setting a new BGC record that hasn’t been beat as of 2037.

Zamboanga’s Frans Mahisa earned Best Pitcher honors. The 33-year old Indonesian had been a middling starter for a decade with Batam before coming to the Zebras in a deadline trade in 2018. In 31.1 innings, Mahisa was 3-0 with a 0.57 ERA, 45 strikeouts, 10 hits, 2 runs, 5 walks, and 2.0 WAR. He was the ninth pitcher to that point with 2+ WAR in his BGC effort.

Other notes: The sixth no-hitter in BGC history went to Ankara’s Clint Ray, who struck out 12 and walked one against Yaounde. Kansas City’s Ichisake Kawasaki became the first player to have a four home run game in the BGC, going 4-4 with 6 RBI against Johor Bahru.