Baseball: The World's Game (OOTP 22 Fictional World)

[MrNFL_FanIQ]

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There ended up being a tie for both the European League’s top seed and the North Division title. Defending Eurasian Professional Baseball champ St. Petersburg and Minsk were even at 94-68, but the Miners took first in the tiebreaker game. Minsk earned repeat playoff berths, but their first division title since 2023. The Polar Bears had won the division each year since then, but easily took the first wild card. St. Petersburg allowed the fewest runs in the EL with 454.

The second wild card race was also centered in the North Division with Kazan (85-77) edging out both Gomel and Moscow at 82-80. The Crusaders ended a 13-year playoff drought and led in scoring with 598 runs. Last year’s ELCS runner-up Nizhny Novgorod collapsed to 61-101. For the 2020 expansion Griffins, this was their first winning season.

There was no contest in the South Division with 91-71 Samara as the only team above .500. Rostov and Voronezh were distant second placers at 79-83. The Steelers earned their second-ever playoff trip (2024) and first division title. This ended Volgograd’s reign atop the division with the Voyagers finishing 75-89. They had won the last six division titles and had a seven-year playoff streak. It was also Volgograd’s first sub-80 win season since 2015.

Even with the drop off, Voyagers LF Seriozhenka Gusarov won European League MVP. The 27-year old Russian led in runs (92), total bases (362), triple slash (.341/.379/.646), OPS (1.025), wRC+ (223), and WAR (9.3). Gusarov added 191 hits, 42 home runs, and 94 RBI. He committed to Volgograd long-term in September with an eight-year, $101,300,000 extension.

Minsk’s Nehor Pomerantz won Pitcher of the Year by winning the ERA title (1.48) and leading in quality starts (30). It was the second POTY for the 29-year old Israeli lefty, who also won it in 2022. Pomerantz had a 19-6 record over 260.2 innings, 348 strikeouts, 200 ERA+, and 8.9 WAR. He signed a four-year, $16,280,000 extension before the season with the Miners, but Pomerantz would be traded to Vladivostok after the 2028 campaign.

Both division winners won 3-1 in round one with Minsk over Kazan and Samara over defending champ St. Petersburg. The Steelers earned their second-ever European League Championship Series trip (2024) while it was Minsk’s first since 2023. The Miners hadn’t won the pennant in 15 years, the longest-ever drought for the historical powerhouse. The ELCS went all seven games for the first time since 2022. Minsk ended their drought and outlasted Samara 4-3, becoming 21-time European League champs.



The Asian League’s power was concentrated in the West Division. Nur-Sultan took first at 100-62, becoming the first of the 2020 expansion teams to earn a division title or a #1 seed. The Setters allowed the fewest runs in the AL at 490. Defending AL champ Yekaterinburg was second at 95-67 and Omsk was third at 92-70. Both earned wild card spots with the Yaks getting their fourth playoff berth in five years. The Otters bounced back from a 64-98 mark in 2026, ending a two-year playoff skid.

The East Division was weaker, but still competitive with Krasnoyarsk (88-74) outlasting Novosibirsk (86-76) and Vladivostok (85-77). The Cossacks’ playoff streak grew to ten years with their ninth straight division title. The Shibas had the top offense at 658 runs.

Vladivostok first baseman Erik Farkas won Asian League MVP, leading in runs (104), home runs (53), RBI (132), total bases (388), slugging (.634), OPS (.989), wRC+ (191), and WAR (8.6). His season was only the 12^th in EPB history to that point of 130+ RBI. The 28-year old Hungarian lefty also had 194 hits and was second in batting average at .317, although he was 31 points from the Triple Crown. After the season, the Shibas extended Farkas at $96,500,000 over eight years.

In his fourth season, Nur-Sultan’s Sergei Zarubaev won Pitcher of the Year. The 26-year old Russian lefty led in ERA (1.95), wins (23-6), and WHIP (0.85). Zarubaev had 272 innings with 251 strikeouts, 158 ERA+, and 7.0 WAR. Also of note was the fourth Reliever of the Year win for Omsk’s Vitali Kolyayev. The 31-year old had a 0.78 ERA and 37 saves over 81 innings with 134 strikeouts and 6.0 WAR. Kolyayev became the seventh in EPB history with 4+ ROTY wins.

Nur-Sultan outlasted Omsk 3-2 in the first round and Yekaterinburg held on 3-2 on the road over Krasnoyarsk. That marked only the second time in a decade that the Cossacks didn’t advance to the Asian League Championship Series. The Yaks had a shot at their third pennant in four years, but the defending champ was denied 4-1 by the Setters. Nur-Sultan became the first of the 2020 expansion teams to earn a pennant, an impressive feat in only their eighth season.



In the 73^rd EPB Championship, it was the league’s winningest team Minsk and newcomer Nur-Sultan. The series went the distance with the Miners returning to the throne 4-3 over the Setters. It ended the 15-year drought for the Belarusian capital and made them 14-time EPB champs (1956, 62, 66, 69, 85, 88, 90, 91, 96, 2000, 01, 02, 11, 27). Minsk was the first franchise in all of baseball history to win their league’s top prize 14 times.

The result notably crowned an eighth different champ in eight years. 12 different EPB teams have won it all in the last 13 years with only Chelyabinsk repeating, remarkable parity for the top spot. LF Erik Rode was finals MVP in his fourth season as primarily a backup for the Miners. The 26-year old German had nine playoff games with 18 hits, 9 runs, 1 double, 3 triples, 3 homers, and 10 RBI. Rode’s 1.589 OPS and .545 batting average were both the second-best in EPB playoff history (20 plate appearances required).



Other notes: Gomel’s Araz Aliev broke the EPB single-game strikeout record, fanning 24 over 11 innings against Moscow on July 20. Three EPB pitchers had previously gotten 22 Ks. Aliev was only the third in all of baseball history to strike out 24+ in a game. East Asia Baseball’s Do-Kyun Lee had the record 26 over 11.2 innings back in 2016. The Asian Baseball Federation’s Rami Naqvi had 24 in 1999 and is the only one to do it without extra innings.

Ufa’s Marko Nyrko had two no-hitters, the first on May 6 against Chelyabinsk and the second facing Omsk on June 18. He became the 6^th in EPB to have multiple no-hitters in the same season. In other pitching milestones, Kirill Ibadov was the 18^th to 300 saves and Svyatoslav Tyahnybok was the 59^th to reach 3500 strikeouts. Yekaterinburg had a season attendance of 1,761,467; the second-best in Asian League history behind their own 1,818,253 the prior year.

In hitting milestones, Talgat Nurgaliev became the 22^nd member of the 500 home run club. Nikita Kadeyev was the 28^th to reach 2500 career hits. RF Timofei Averkin won his 9^th Silver Slugger. LF Brandon Chunchignorov won his 12^th Gold Glove and SS Denis Antipov won his 8^th. Chunchignorov became the 5^th at any position in EPB with 12+ Gold Gloves and tied the position record.