[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 88^th European Championship started with Madrid holding on for a 4-3 home win over Antwerp, despite the Airedales getting the tying run to second base in the ninth inning. The Conquistadors then won 5-3 in game two and 2-1 on the road for game three, putting them on the precipice of a sweep. The Airedales wouldn’t go down without a fight, taking game four 5-4 in ten innings on a walkoff RBI double by Dietmar Bruderle.

Antwerp dominated game five 7-1, then got their first win in Spain 2-1 for game six. Game seven would also be a 2-1 result with Madrid scoring solo spots in the fourth and fifth innings and the lone Airedales run in the fifth. Conquistadors starter Alexander Schafer gave up one run and five hits over seven innings with six strikeouts. Martim Franco then had the dominant two inning save, striking out five with one hit allowed. It was his ninth save of the playoffs, one short of the EBF record.

Madrid avoided the collapse to end a 37-year title drought, becoming five-time European Champions (1955, 1987, 1990, 1999, 2037). They’re the first Spanish team in the pole position since Barcelona in 2007. Gold Glove 2B Gustavo Barny was series MVP, going 11-24 with one homer and three RBI. Schafer was also huge on the mound, winning his two starts with a 1.26 ERA in 14.1 innings.



Other notes: It was the final season for four-time Pitcher of the Year Nejc Novak. After 20 seasons for Munich, the 41-year old Slovene was forgettable in 85 innings for Dublin with a 4.13 ERA, 7-2 record, and 0.1 WAR. The seven wins made him the 3^rd in EBF history to join the 300 win club, finishing at 301. He was one behind Gianfranco Marinis’s 302, but one better than Jean-Luc Roch’s 300. Novak is one of only 47 pitchers in all of professional baseball history to record 300+ wins.

Novak finished with a 301-158 record, 3.02 ERA, 4223 innings, 4156 strikeouts, 125 ERA+, 66 FIP-, and 130.8 WAR. He finishes 6^th in pitching WAR, 7^th in strikeouts, and 4^th in innings on the EBF leaderboards. Novak is also the playoff leader in wins (26-10), games (64), starts (43), innings (337), hits allowed (290), and WAR (10.6).

Among all leagues, Novak has the most pitching playoff wins and is second only to EPB’s Matvey Ivanov for WAR (11.2). He had a 2.16 ERA with 342 strikeouts, 178 ERA+, and 66 FIP- in the postseason, playing a huge role in three European Championships and seven conference titles for Munich.

In hitting milestones, Danut Alecsandrescu became the 23^rd member of the 600 home run club while Robert Frohlich and Heinz Hackenberg grew the 500 homer club to 55 members. Eduard Yurkov was the 17^th to reach 3000 hits and Henri L’Ecuyer was the 50^th to 2500 hits. Mark Schroder was the 29^th to 1500 runs scored. 1B Waldemar Riemers won his 10^th consecutive Gold Glove, becoming the 6^th at any position to do it in EBF and the 3^rd at first base.

Promotion/Relegation: Below are the promotion and relegation from 2037 throughout European baseball. Also of note to retain balance, the Northern Conference’s West Division champ Hamburg would get switched to the East Division.