The Wide, Wide World of Baseball

[j.tom]

Here in the real world, we love October for packed stadiums, playoff baseball and not feeling compelled to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates anymore. In the Wide World of Baseball, the Major League playoffs happen in September, leaving October for a different kind of excitement. If the WWoB were a real-world entity, it would probably operate on some sort of league calendar. If it did, October would be the beginning of the new league year.

October 1 marks opening day for each of our International Tournaments. It is a very fun day to live sim and switch through the different tournaments watching the live scores. That is what I have been doing for the last 20 minutes.

By the end of the month, each tournament has crowned a champion.



Africa Cup


For the first time, the Democratic Republic of Congo wins the Africa Cup! Led by the Africa League's Mellal Omwayo, who had a .952 OPS in the tournament, and young starter Bayisa Boudiaf, who put up a 0.71 ERA in his Africa Cup debut.


Tournament MVP: Habtamu Berui (Nigeria) - 72 PA, .390/.486/.898, 8 HR, 284 OPS+
Best Pitcher: Tom Oliver (South Africa) - 24.2 IP, 0.36 ERA, 26/1 K/BB, shutout vs. Zimbabwe








Asia Cup



For the third straight year, and 5th in the last 6, Japan wins the Asia Cup. Japan capitalized on huge performances by former NPL star Kenta Inouye, who hit put up an 1.157 OPS, current NPL star Zaijiro Nakamura, who hit a tournament-leading 7 runs, as well as Latin League pitcher Keiichi Curval, who pitched 22.2 shutout innings in the tournament.


Tournament MVP: Kuang-an Ngui (China) - 71 PA, .314/.507/.608, 4 HR, 204 OPS+
Best Pitcher: Yin-ti Huang (Mongolia) - 24.0 IP, 0.38 ERA, 31/3 K/BB, 1171 ERA+







Caribe Cup



For the fourth straight year, and the sixth overall, the Dominican Republic wins the Caribe Cup. It took the DR three games to beat Cuba, led by Liga DominiCubana alumni Marcos Maez and Santos Reyes.


Tournament MVP: Marcos Maez (Dominican Republic) - 79 PA, .373/.519/.678, 5 HR, 212 OPS+
Best Pitcher: Ricky Bendezu (Puerto Rico) - 25.1 IP, 0.36 ERA, 35/2 K/BB, shutout vs. Antigua and Barbuda







Euro Cup


The Cinderella story of this year's Euro Cup was Team Latvia, bolstered by an influx of players from the Baltic League. However, their run ended at the hands of Everton Turner, Zak Butler, and the firepower of Team England, who earned their 4th Euro Cup.

Tournament MVP: Everton Turner (England) - 77 PA, .397/.532/.724, 4 HR, 217 OPS+
Best Pitcher: Angel Rodriguez (Spain) - 34.1 IP, 0.26 ERA, 55/2 K/BB, 2 shutouts







Latin America Cup


Team Venezuela wins their 7th Latin America Cup, led in part by Simone Demeo, this past season's Major League home run leader, and Major League veteran Emilio Contreras.


Tournament MVP: Alex Garcia (Colombia) - 56 PA, .426/.518/.851, 5 HR, 262 OPS+
Best Pitcher: Javier Mireles (Panama) - 1 start, 8.1 IP, 15/1 K/BB, 0.00 ERA








Middle East Cup


The Middle East Cup ends with a Saudi Arabia victory over Turkey, their 6th cup title. Led by tournament MVP Radi Abdul-Quddus, they lost just one game on their way to the championship.


Tournament MVP: Radi Abdul-Quddus (Saudi Arabia) - 77 PA, .313/.403/.627, 6 HR, 197 OPS+
Best Pitcher: Akara Evren (Turkey) - 22.0 IP, 0.82 ERA, 31/3 K/BB







States Cup



Surprisingly enough, this is Florida's first States Cup championship. Led by the experience of Mike Hopkins and Kyle Cochran, they swept Texas in two games in the championship series.







Global Amateur Championship


The United States wins their 4th straight Global Amateur Championship with an emphatic 10-0 victory over Team Italy. Led by tournament MVP Mike Oxford, the U.S. went undefeated, winning their games by a combined score of 153-23.


Tournament MVP: Mike Oxford (United States)
Best Pitcher: Jorge Mercado (Curacao)



Next up is the Latin League, Liga Brasil, Sudi-Afrikaanse Liga, and Liga Gran Colombia seasons. Players now head home and prepare for either those seasons, or the Olympiad tournament coming up in February.

[j.tom]

Originally Posted by 20_range

Wow! I love seeing so many of my logos out in the world! Let me know if you want something touched up or altered, or anything new

Your many incredible international logos are what really got the ball rolling for the international expansion of this save, they were such a great source of inspiration.


Thanks so much! I'll definitely throw some ideas your way in your logo requests thread as inspiration arises.

[j.tom]

Our newest league put out banger after banger on its first opening day, with each game coming down to the wire.

[j.tom]

I'm going to pick one outstanding game by a single player for each month, as often as I remember to do it. This may be the first of many of these, or I might forget about tomorrow.

Anyways, our top performance for November comes from South Africa in the SAL, where Gqeberha's Hisham Kirop defeated his hometown Durban Indringers all by himself. The Seemeeue stormed back from a 5-1 deficit behind Kirop's three home runs, and a final score of Kirop 7 - Durban 6.

[j.tom]

Performance of the Month: Jonathan Tamayo

The Latin League's Panama Niveladores get a heck of a gift on Festivus 2058 from Jonathan Tamayo (Career stats), who threw the first no-hitter of the 2058-59 LL season against the San Salvador Volcanoes. As of January 1, Panama is 22-18 and firmly in the playoff picture.




Leagues in Progress (as of Jan. 1, 2059)

Latin League - 40/80 games complete - Standings


Liga Brasil - 46/60 games complete - Standings


Liga Gran Colombia - 46/60 games complete - Standings



Suid-Afrikaanse Liga - 40/60 games complete - Standings


Coming up in January, the playoffs in South Africa, Brazil, and Gran Colombia, and we'll find out if anybody makes the 2059 WWoB Hall of Fame class.

[j.tom]

Hey friend, I heard you like Hall of Fame Voting Results.




As can be expected with worlds this new, nobody was elected to the Hall of Fame across any of our leagues this year. The closest was Puerto Rican 2B Alex Rios (Stats), who earned 72% of the vote in the EuroLeague. No other player earned more than 40% of their respective leagues' vote.


However, we do have some players who have already been inducted. The first of which were voted in back in 2056.


Ottawa native Gene Messier was the Canada League's first superstar, winning 4-straight MVPs from 2044 to 2047. Some fans were left with a bad taste in their mouths however, when Messier took the big check and left for the Saudi League. Messier never matched his greatness overseas, but was welcomed back by his home country with a first-ballot Hall of Fame induction.




Youp Dohmen, a native of Emmen, Drenthe in the Netherlands, won the 2045, '46, and '47 Nederlandse Honkbal Liga MVP's before heading to the Major League, where he spent 4 years as one of the league's best catchers with the St. Louis Cardinals. Dohmen was elected first ballot in 2056 with 87.9% of the vote.






For my money, the Filip-Indo League's Satya Ernalia earned his induction the most. Ernalia was elected in 2058, after spending his entire career in the FIL. An Indonesia native, he led two different Indonesian teams to FIL titles in 2044 and 2050, and won the league's MVP award in 2045 and 2048. Since he's our first inductee into a league where he was a lifer, he will be honored this upcoming season by the FIL. The MVP award will be renamed to the Piala Ernalia (Indonesian for Ernalia Trophy).

[j.tom]

If anyone has ideas for more leagues to add to this game, feel free to give suggestions! So far on the to-do list I've got:


International Leagues:
- Liga Ibérica (Spain/Portugal)
- Rossiyskaya Liga (Russia) / Liga Blizhnego Zarubezh'ya (Near Abroad League, for former Soviet nations)
- Thịy Līk (Thailand)
- Ellinikó Protáthlima (Greece)
- Najeriya League (Nigeria)


Other Stuff:
- Little League and/or LLWS - I have tried a Little League World Series in a past game with limited success, mostly because I set it up as a tournament rather than a league. Since tournaments can't generate real players, it generated temporary players to fill all of my rosters. I was actually okay with this, obviously most kids who play in the LLWS don't ever play pro baseball. What sucks though, is that temporary player stats obviously do not get saved. So I had a league that pretty much gave me a champion each year... and that was it. Not great.

Anyone have experience with creating players younger than high school before? I figure I can set the age limits for this specific league's player generation to 10-12, and do the same with active roster limits. But, what happens to them after? Do they start playing in high school, or will I just end up with a bunch of 13 year old free agents? I don't want 13 year old free agents.

- Canada Cup and Oceania Cup. I'll have these done by October 2059.

[j.tom]

The inaugural season of the GCL wraps up February 4, 2059, with the Maracay Toros winning the Serie Gran Colombia over the Cúcuta Centinales. The Toros were led by LF Mario Martinez and SP Miguel Aguilar.


Alfredo Pacas gets 4/6 votes and wins MVP. As league MVP in the GCL's "rookie" season, the Liga Gran Colombia Rookie of the Year Award will know be known as El Trofeo Pacas.


Maracay's Miguel Aguilar wins pitcher of the year unanimously.

[j.tom]

League MVP: Nazario Parracho
Best Pitcher: Ruben Martinez



In Liga Brasil, the underdog Salvador Tucanos sweep the Brasilia Gatos Pretos in Série Brasil 2059. The Tucanos were led by 2B Masashi Fujiyama and SP Fernan Hoppfer.

[j.tom]

League MVP: Asmerom Uuka - Bloemfontein Rose
Best Pitcher: Owen McLean - Bloemfontein Rose


Gqeberha knocks off Bloemfontein in six games in the Suid-Afrika-Reeks (South African Series). The Seemeeue were led by our old friend, 3B Hisham Kirop, and SP Zak Peel.

[j.tom]

Breakout Latin League star 1B Jorge Hernandez earns this month's performance of the month, in a game where Managua needed all of his offensive output to squeak out a win. I can only imagine the glare coming from first base as the bullpen was doing its best to waste his hard work.

[j.tom]

Next up in March, we will have the Latin League playoffs, and we'll head to Seoul, South Korea for this year's Olympiad tournament...

[j.tom]

For the first time, the Quito Cinchonas are Latin League champions! Quito was led by 2B Daniel Vigil and SP Joaquin Rivera. This is the 12th time in 16 years that the Latin League champion comes out of Liga Sudamericana.





LC MVP: Alex Hinojosa (Panama)
LC Pitcher of the Year: Pedro Navarro (Nassau)


LS MVP: Rafael Rocha (La Paz)
LS Pitcher of the Year: Keiichi Curval (Porto Velho)

[j.tom]

The Olympiad tournament kicks off with the week-long regular season, in which defending champion Germany puts up a disappointing performance, missing out on the Olympiad playoffs. In Group Five, South Africa makes the playoffs over fellow 2-4 teams India and Czechia.





In pool 2, a huge upset as Team South Africa goes 4-2 and wins a tiebreaker over Japan. They enter the final 4 as a heavy underdog to Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Cuba.





In the semifinals, South Africa's luck finally runs out. They fall to the D.R., 4-1. Meanwhile, Cuba crushes Venezuela, setting up a rematch of the Caribe Cup in the championship game...





In an instant classic, Cuba barely squeaks out a victory in a game that was tied 4-4 heading into the 9th. The Cubans needed each of the 4 runs from 1B Jerry Flores' grand slam to avoid a choke from their bullpen. This is Cuba's first Olympiad title.


OLY MVP: Jesus Rivas (Cuba) - 47 PA, .459/.574/1.297, 10 HR, 388 OPS+
OLY Best Pitcher: Zak Peel (South Africa) - 15.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 27/4 K/BB, 0.92 FIP


Next up, the League of Legends tournament before Opening Day for the Major League...

[mariosin]

This is peak

[j.tom]

2055, '57, and '58 UK League Pitcher of the Year Ryan Smith put up March's Performance of the Month in the Olympiad for England, facing just three over the minimum in a shutout of Colombia in their first round robin game. Unfortunately, this and a 1-0 shutout of Mexico in game 2 were the only highlights of the round robin for England, who lost out from that point on.

[j.tom]

Mexico's Tabares Academy defeats the USA's Team Rivera in the 2059 League of Legends, our tournament for draft eligible prospects in the weeks leading up to the Major League season. Tabares fell in the first game of the 3-game series, then won a 16-inning classic in game 2 to keep the series alive for a 1-0 nailbiter in game 3 for their second LoL championship.





LoL MVP: Douglas Haagen (Team Krabbendam-Bakker) - NEL 2060 draft class




LoL Best Pitcher: Quentin Vanderven (Team Birkbeck) - 2059 PSL draft eligible

[j.tom]

Major League opening day is almost here, some big names are joining new teams for 2059...


SP Evan Thomson - Asuncion Angeles (LL) >>> Mexico City Aztecs (ML) / 7y, 125.6m



1B Sebastien Ricci - Boston Shamrocks (T-II) >>> Huntsville Rocketeers (ML) / 8y, 212.6m



SP Ajamila Munusamy - Louisville Sluggers (ML) >>> Sacramento Grizzlies (ML) / 7y/126m



SS Fabian Seegers - Colorado Gold Sox (ML) >>> Huntsville Rocketeers / 4y, 122.8m



SP Ross Acres - Minnesota Chiefs (ML) >>> Sacramento Grizzlies (ML) / 3y, 64.2m



Alfonso Velazquez - Charleston Rockets (ML) >>> Huntsville Rocketeers (ML) / 7y, 231m





Jit Wei Fok - Wuhan Plums (PSL) >>> Providence Bees (ML) / 7y, 299.5m



Jon Valdivia - San Diego Padres (T-III) >>> Boise Cutthroats (ML) / 4y, 108m



Blake Nichols - Jacksonville Redcaps (T-II) >>> Sacramento Grizzlies (ML) / 8y, 143m



RP Vern Burrell - Calgary Stampede (T-II) >>> Mexico City Aztecs (ML) / 3y/120m



3B Fernando Regino - Louisville Sluggers (ML) >>> Huntsville Rocketeers (ML) / 4y, 160m



CF Hiang-ta See-to - Shanghai Emperors (CPL) >>> Mexico City Aztecs (ML) / 5y, 123m



3B Ciaran Riley - Bratislava Apollo (EURO) >>> Huntsville Rocketeers (ML) / 5y, 128.4m



1B Hitoshi Abalo - Tokyo Athletics (NPL) >>> Huntsville Rocketeers (ML) / 8y, 187.2m





Huntsville and Sacramento are newly promoted Major League teams, and went on spending sprees with their newly acquired budget room.


There are still some big names on the board, including the current record-holder for career home runs in the Major League


Arup Manushi



Keiichi Curval



Alberto Gomez

[j.tom]

Happy Opening Day! Major League Opening Day comes around each year on April 20. There are some other leagues that have started up in the last week or so, we'll check in on them later.




Charleston Rockets fans... look away. On opening day, Francis Ledru throws the 6th shutout of his career, which gives us a chance to highlight him a bit. He deserves it, as the only pitcher to throw multiple no-hitters in the Major League so far, a feat he accomplished before his 21st birthday...

[j.tom]

Performance of the Month: Fernando Serna

This month's best performance comes from the Continental League (T-III), where Atlanta's Fernando Serna left the Boston Shamrocks with zeros in the hit column.