[FuzzyRussianHat]

With the 2024 season complete, West African Baseball became the tenth world baseball league to complete 50 seasons of play. Below is a quick look at the history of WAB thus far



The most successful team overall has been Kano with 12 championships, a mark only hit to this point in world history by EPB’s Minsk and SAB’s Ahmedabad. The Condors lead all teams in finals berths (15) and have the most playoff berths (30) and first place finishes (14) among the Eastern League teams. Despite sharing the EL with Kano, Lagos has the second most titles with 8. The EL has beaten the Western League 35-15 in the championship so far.

Abidjan has been the best regular season team by a healthy margin, averaging an impressive 95 wins per season. They also led all teams in playoff appearances (34) and first place finishes (19). The Athletes have the most runner-up finishes, going 5-9 in the finals. Bamako notably has gone 0-8 in their finals tries.

Abidjan and Kano are the only teams to make the playoffs in more than half of WAB’s seasons, although both Lagos and Kumasi are close at 24 berths. The Athletes and Condors also both have made it to the LCS in almost half of the seasons with 23 trips apiece.

Despite the lopsided finals record between the leagues and some dynasty runs, 16 of WAB’s 22 teams have won it all at least once. All but four teams have made it to the finals at least once. Ouagadougou, Benin City, and Douala are the originals without a pennant along with expansion Bouake. The Dingos are the only of that group to never make the LCS. Douala has been easily the worst team with only one playoff trip and an average of 69.7 wins per season over 50 years. They’ve only finished above .500 in five seasons.