[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 2021 Baseball Grand Championship was the 12^th edition of the event and the first to be hosted in the Arab World, centered on Cairo, Egypt. The auto-bid teams were MLB’s New Orleans and Detroit, CABA’s Tijuana and Puerto Rico, EAB’s Changwon and Kyoto, BSA’s Valencia and Fortaleza, EBF’s Hamburg and Munich, EPB’s Perm, OBA’s Vanuatu, APB’s Palembang, CLB’s Nanjing, WAB’s Yaounde, SAB’s Delhi, ABF’s Faisalabad, ALB’s Jeddah, and AAB’s Kampala.

The host cities had been determined long in advance, but the host Cairo ended up with the wild card spot, having taking ALB runner-up at 100-62. The move was controversial as 101-61 Christchurch and 100-62 Lilongwe had similar stats as their league’s runner-up.

For back-to-back tournaments and for the fifth time overall, the World Series winner also earned the Grand Champion honor. New Orleans finished with the top spot at 15-4, leading in scoring (106) and run differential (+35). Right behind were Kampala (14-5) and Palembang (13-6). The Peacocks allowed the fewest runs by a healthy margin at 54, but were towards the bottom in runs scored at 75. Their +21 differential was tied for fourth-best while the Panthers’ +16 was sixth.



The prior year, Denver staked a claim as the best in baseball history with a combined 140-54 record between the MLB regular season, playoffs, and BGC. The 2021 Mudcats were very close behind though at 138-61; the second-most combined wins by a Grand Champion. MLB’s American Association in particular could credibly call itself the strongest subleague in the world, now having five of the first 12 Grand Champions.



Kampala was the third African Association of Baseball team to finish in the top two, joining 2015 champ Johannesburg and 2014 runner-up Harare. Palembang was the second Austronesia Professional Baseball franchise to make the top three, as Zamboanga took second in 2013 and third in 2018.

Next were five teams at 11-8 with the tiebreaker formula officially giving fourth place to Tijuana. Detroit, Hamburg, Munich, and Vanuatu each also placed 11-8. The Tigers had the second-best run differential at +32, allowing the second-fewest runs (62). Munich was third at +27 and Hamburg tied Kampala for fourth at +21. Both German teams joined New Orleans in scoring 100+ runs.

The two remaining teams with a winning record were Delhi and Kyoto at 10-9. Next saw Fortaleza and Puerto Rico at 9-10, then both Cairo and Yaounde at 8-11. Finishing 7-12 were Nanjing, Perm, and Valencia. In a three-way tie at the bottom at 6-13 saw Changwon, Faisalabad, and Jeddah.

Although Valencia was near the bottom, their third-year LF Santino Garza was named Tournament MVP. The 25-year old Venezuelan in 19 starts had 24 hits, 16 runs, 5 doubles, 12 home runs, 19 RBI, a 1.287 OPS, and 1.7 WAR.

Detroit’s Marty Allen was Best Pitcher in his fifth year with the Tigers. The 24-year old Anoka, Minnesota native in four starts had a 0.55 ERA over 33 innings, 41 strikeouts, 2-0 record, and 2.1 WAR. Allen was one of only eight pitchers to have an ERA of 0.55 or better over 21+ innings. Kampala’s Ermias Tadele also joined that group in 2021, posting a 0.51 ERA over 35 innings, 42 strikeouts, 4-0 record, and 2.0 WAR.

Other notes: Cairo set a BGC team record with 40 doubles and Hamburg’s pitching staff had the best-ever BB/9 at 1.88. Cairo’s Basel Mubayed became the second player in BGC history to steal four bases in a single game.