[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 15^th Baseball Grand Championship was hosted in Taipei, Taiwan. The auto-bids for the 2024 event were MLB’s Washington and Houston, CABA’s Tijuana and Guatemala, EAB’s Busan and Sapporo, BSA’s Sao Paulo and Quito, EBF’s Chisinau and Dublin, EPB’s Yekaterinburg, OBA’s Port Moresby, APB’s Bandung, CLB’s Urumqi, WAB’s Port Harcourt, SAB’s Visakhapatnam, ABF’s Baku, ALB’s Amman, and AAB’s Lubumbashi. The at-large spot went to AAB runner-up Antananarivo, who had finished 111-51 for the second-highest win tally amongst the field.

There ended up being a three-way tie for the top spot at 13-6 between the European Baseball Federation representatives Dublin and Chisinau along with Southern Cone League champ Sao Paulo. The head-to-head tiebreaker was useless with a rock-paper-scissors between the three. The Dinos beat the Padres 4-1, but lost to the Counts 6-1. Meanwhile, Chisinau was defeated by Sao Paulo 5-3.



The next tiebreaker in line was fewest runs allowed, which ranked Dublin first (53), Chisinau second (58), and Sao Paulo third (74). The Dinos caught a break as they had the worst run differential (+21) of the three. The Counts led all teams at +37 while the Padres were at +22. Regardless, Dublin was crowned and was the first European team to win the Baseball Grand Championship. The Dinos had finished third the prior two years, which had been the best finishes for an EBF team.




With Dublin’s win, ten of the 14 major world leagues had won a Grand Championship and each populated continent had one. Chisinau’s second place was the first runner-up by an EBF team. Sao Paulo’s third place meant Beisbol Sudamerica had a top four team in three straight events.

Both one back at 12-7 were Bandung and Houston with the Blackhawks officially taking fourth on the tiebreaker. It was the third consecutive year without an MLB team in the top four officially. Bandung was tied with Dublin for the fewest runs allowed with 53.

Next at 11-8 were Lubumbashi and Tijuana with the Loggerheads officially sixth and the Toros seventh. Lubumbashi led all teams in scoring with 96 runs. The other two teams above .500 at 10-9 were Port Harcourt and Port Moresby. Last year’s runner-up Guatemala joined Quito, Washington, and Yekaterinburg at 9-10. Visakhapatnam was alone at 8-11. Five teams (Amman, Antananarivo, Baku, Sapporo, Urumqi) finished 7-12. Busan was alone in last place at 6-13.

World Series MVP Jude Hoffer of Washington continued his hot streak into the BGC, winning Tournament MVP. The 26-year old American in 19 starts had 20 hits, 12 runs, 4 doubles, 7 home runs, 13 RBI, 14 walks, 1.238 OPS, 278 wRC+, and 1.8 WAR. Hoffer had also taken second in MVP voting in the World Baseball Championship earlier in the year. Also notable offensively was Chisinau’s Abdullah Iosif with 21 runs, one short of the BGC record.

Best Pitcher went to Tijuana ace Richard Wright as the four-time Mexican League Pitcher of the Year had a 0.61 ERA over 29.1 innings, six appearances, a 3-0 record, 3 saves, 56 strikeouts, 6 walks, and 2.19 WAR. Wright’s WAR was the 6^th-highest by a pitcher in the event. Also notable was Guatemala’s Aamir Mujahid with a 0.39 ERA over 23 innings, which was the 3^rd-lowest ERA in event history (21 IP required)

Other notes: Tijuana’s Francis Newman had the 9^th no-hitter in BGC history on November 22, striking out 12 with three walks against Baku.