
Abidjan again took first in the Western League standings with an 108-54 record, earning their fifth playoff berth in six years. The Athletes did it with historic scoring, as their 1003 runs were the second-most in West African Baseball history behind only Cotonou’s 1012 from 2014. Last year’s WL runner-up guaranteed a repeat WLCS appearance, finishing 14 wins ahead of second place.
Cape Verde took the #2 spot at 94-68 for repeat wild card berths, while Freetown (93-69) and Bamako (91-71) were close behind for the remaining spots. The Foresters also earned repeat wild cards, while the Bullfrogs are back in the postseason after having a seven-year streak snapped in 2022. Freetown allowed the fewest runs in the WL at 707. Accra was the first out at 86-76 with reigning WAB champ Conakry sixth at 85-77. The Coyotes had their postseason streak ended at five seasons.
The Vulcans had their own impressive offense scoring 945 runs, led by 3B Okoro Yusuf for his fourth consecutive Western League MVP. The 26-year old Nigerian was the fourth to win 4+ MVPs in WAB history and the first to do it consecutively. In his seventh year for Cape Verde, Yusuf led in hits (234), triple slash (.393/.451/.713), OPS (1.164), wRC+ (198), and WAR (10.1). He added 43 doubles, 45 home runs, and 165 RBI. Yusuf has led in OPS and WAR in all four MVP seasons.
His all-around bat was enough to take MVP despite historic power by Abidjan’s Abdel Aziz Ashraf. The 28-year old Egyptian LF became WAB’s new single-season home run king with 71 dingers, passing Yossoupha Diop’s 69 from the prior season. Ashraf also had 165 RBI, the sixth-best in WAB history to that point. Ashraf was all dingers though with only 6.1 WAR despite that power.
Abidjan did get the Pitcher of the Year from Ibrahima Camara in his third season. It was the first full-time run in the rotation for the 23-year Senegalais righty, leading in WHIP (0.95), K/BB (10.0), and FIP- (73). Camara had a 16-1 record, 3.02 ERA, 209 strikeouts, 184.2 innings, and 5.1 WAR. He did miss about a month in the summer to a shoulder strain, but still stood out against a relatively weak field.
Bamako upset Freetown 2-1 in the first round, then got rolled 2-0 by Cape Verde. For the Vulcans, this was their first Western League Championship Series trip since 2010, which saw a defeat to Abidjan. That was the Athletes’ most pennant, as they had gone 0-4 in their WLCS trips since. CV put up a valiant effort, but Abidjan survived 3-2 to end their 12-year pennant drought. The Athletes now had 14 Western League titles, leading the league.

Port Harcourt was a surprising top seed in the Eastern League at 104-58, ending a seven-year playoff drought. Their last playoff berth saw a WAB title back in 2015. The Hillcats pitching staff set new EL records for strikeouts (1855) and K/9 (11.59). PH was the only WAB team to allow under 700 runs in 2023 with 658. In second place was Kano (96-66), who led the EL with 975 runs scored. The Condors bounced back after a surprising 74-88 run in 2022 that ended a six-year playoff streak.
There was a significant drop down to Ibadan and Yaounde, taking the remaining playoff spots at 86-76. The Iguanas got repeat wild cards while the Yellowbirds earned their fifth berth in six years. Last year’s EL champ Niamey and Libreville tied for fifth at 81-81. The Lakers had their playoff streak end at three years.
Although Niamey missed the cut, they had the Eastern League MVP in 3B Batch Kargbo. In only his second year starting, the 23-year old Gambian led in homers (62), total bases (421), slugging (.700), and OPS (1.087). Kargbo added 130 runs, 151 RBI, 161 wRC+, and 7.3 WAR. He would miss some time in later years to knee troubles, but Kargbo would be the face of the Atomics for the next decade.
You could’ve given the MVP to Pitcher of the Year winner Jacques Ahouansou of Port Harcourt, although he finished third in MVP voting. The 24-year old lefty from Benin had WAB’s 11th Triple Crown pitching season with a 25-4 record, 2.34 ERA, and 372 strikeouts over 254 innings. He was the first WAB pitcher with above 370 Ks in more than 20 years with his mark ranking 23rd on the leaderboard.
Ahouansou also led in K/BB (14.9), quality starts (26), shutouts (5), FIP- (46), ERA+ (203), and WAR (11.9). The WAR mark was the second-best single season ever for a WAB pitcher behind only Kouadio Diao’s 13.69 from 1977. The Hillcats had locked up Ahouansou back after the 2021 season to a seven-year, $46,500,000 deal.
Ibadan ousted Yaounde 2-0 in the first round, but promptly got rolled 2-0 by Kano in round two. The Condors were back in the Eastern League Championship Series for the first time since making four straight appearances from 2016-19. Kano pulled off the 3-2 upset at top seed Port Harcourt for their third pennant in seven years. The Condors became 16-time EL champs, earning more subleague titles than any other WAB team.

The 49th West African Championship would be the fifth finals meeting between WAB’s two most storied franchises. Kano had beaten Abidjan in their 1975, 1999, and 2001 encounters, while the Athletes’ lone win was 2000. The 2023 rematch was far less exciting as Abidjan swept the Condors, marking the third finals sweep in four years.
Despite their many finals berths, this was only the fifth WAB title for the Athletes (1982, 1994, 2000, 2009, 2022). They’re 5-9 in the finals all-time now while Kano is 12-4. CF Morel Koffi was finals MVP in his Abidjan debut, as the 29-year old Ivorian had been a big free agent signing. He joined at four years and $76 million after six years with Ouagadougou. In 9 playoff games, Koffi had 7 hits, 5 runs, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers, and 8 RBI.

Other notes: 2023 was the final year for Lawrence Nassif, who retired as WAB’s all-time leader in hits (3766), doubles (704), and RBI (2338). He also finished second in homers (755), runs (1959), and games played (2881) behind Darwin Morris. Nassif was only the ninth in any world league to reach 700+ doubles to that point. As of 2037 among all pros, he ranks 18th in hits, 16th in doubles, and 13th in RBI.
Fares Belaid was well on the way to reaching Nassif’s tallies at only age 34. In 2023, Belaid joined him as the only WAB batters with 3500 hits and finished the year at 687 doubles. Belaid was already the triples leader (353) and close to becoming the stolen bases leader, finishing the season at 1160. Mandjou Adado played his final season in 2023 to finish as the steals leader at 1199, followed by Morris at 1165.
Belaid and Clarence Cole became the 10th and 11th to reach 1500 RBI. Ibrahim Sani and Edmilson Monteiro both got to 2500 hits, making 23 to reach the mark. Douba Abdramane was the 7th pitcher to 200 wins. 2B El Hadj Khouna won his 7th Gold Glove.
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