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MOSKVICH CLAIMS RUSSIA'S JUNIOR TITLE: Easily the tournament's most experienced team with 11 Russian Leaguers on its roster, Moskvich swept the opposition during the 7-team Russian 18-under Championship held in Balashikha, May 3 - May 9. Moskvich defeated runner-up Spartak's junior squad 9-1 in the deciding game behind Alexandr Polyakov's 6-hitter and a 4-for-5 day at the plate. The right-hander posted a 2-0 record with one save and 0.77 ERA on the mound and led all batters with a .615 average enroute to the tournament's MVP award.

TORNADO LINEUP ONLY HALF SET: (April 11th) Despite some early offseason buzz, the MGU Tornado has found itself with only 14 of available 25 roster slots filled with opening day less then two weeks away. The club did landed star catcher Andrei Sazonov and 1999 ERA champ Rinat Makhmutov, but already raised eyebrows by bringing back Evgeny Gavryuchin and Ilia Panarin, who briefly appeared with the old MGU club and didn't play at all since '94 and '96, respectively.

THREE TEAMS FILE ROSTERS: (March 20th) VVIA, Spartak and Moskvich have announced player rosters for the upcoming season. Under new rules, each team will be allowed up to 25 players on active list. Unused roster slots may be filled at a later date.

LIBIN AND BOGATYREV REJOIN MOSKVICH: Alexei Libin and Alexandr "Boetz" Bogatyrev will be wearing Moskvich uniform again this season. Products of the Moskvich organization, the two players left the club after its inaugural RL campaign in 1993. Libin would proceed to win two national titles in 1994-95 with the Moscow Red Devils with Bogatyrev clubbing a single-season record seven home runs in '95 while with the Army Club. Alexandr, the younger brother of pitcher Andrei Bogatyrev, was probably the league's best at running the bases until he severely broke his leg in a collision with CSKA catcher Andrei Selivanov late in the 1998 season.

SEASON OPENER SET FOR APRIL 21: Russian League will begin the 2000 season on Friday, April 21, without national team players as Team Russia won't be back from its exhibition tour of Southern United States until May 3. Each of the league's five teams will play a 48-game schedule.

ARMY CLUB RETAINS ROSTER, ADDS TWO FORMER MGU-78 STANDOUTS: Four-time defending champion VVIA, first RL squad to reach .400 mark in team batting average last year, is about to return all its players from the record-setting campaign. They will only get better with addition of slugging catcher-first baseman Andzhei Tosta and utilityman Vladimir Timakov. Timakov, who spent last season with Moskvich after four years in the 78ers uniform, swiped a then RL-record 35 bases in 1997, but has been slowed down by an achilles tendon injury ever since. Now healthy, he and Alexandr Nizov will give the Army Club the two best speedsters in the game.

VVIA's designated hitter Maxim Yudaev got his record-breaking 51st hit on the last day of the 1999 season on Sunday, but lost out the batting title to teammate Alexandr Nizov by only three percentage points, .563 to .560. Nizov joined Iosif Gogishvili as RL's only Triple Crown hitters, finishing one homer and two RBIs ahead of fellow VVIA's Alexandr Fedorov.

VVIA Clinches Title!
With an unprecedented 9th straight knockout victory, 12-2 over second-place SKV on Sunday, Sept.11, the Army club secured its fourth RL championship in a row.

Grand Forks (B.C., Canada) International Baseball Tournament: Vladimir Petrov fell apart with his control and reliever Andrei Polstyanov yielded a grand slam to the first batter he faced in an 8-run second inning as the tournament's eventual winner Houston Sheraton Astros scored 15 runs on just six hits to beat Team Russia in the opening game. Russia went on to lose two more games, 5-2 to the San Francisco Angels and 5-1 to the St. Louis O.B. Clarks.

Russian Junior Team came back from an early 11-1 deficit but still lost 14-13 to the Netherlands in the European championship's final game on Friday, July 20. Italy defeated host Germany 8-4 in the bronze-medal game.

Russian Junior Team humiliated Germany 19-3 in the European championship semifinal game on Thursday. Russia topped its preliminary group with a perfect 3-0 record, having posted 15-1, 7-5 and 7-6 wins against France, Netherlands and Ukraine, respectively.

Pan Am Games: Two Orestes Kindelan's homers propelled Cuba to 5-1 triumph over Team USA in the final; host Canada settled for bronze with 9-2 thumping of Mexico.

Pennant races heat up in Japan; ... those who've traveled on Seibu Railways this year may have seen a man scraping gum off of train platforms. That's probably the guy who decided to release slugger Domingo Martinez ...

Cuba and the United States have made it to the Olympics with semifinal victories at the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Canada. Cuban legend Omar Linares erased early 2-0 deficit with a 3-run homer in the 3rd inning before relievers Jose Ibar and Luis Lazo turned in six scoreless frames in Cuba's 3-2 win against the previously undefeated Canadians. Team USA pulled out a 2-1 10-inning victory over Mexico.

European Championship: The Netherlands shut out Italy 3-0 to claim the European title. Earlier, France won the bronze medals with 8-3 win over Russia.

With both teams seeking their first set of Euro medals, France defeated Russian National Team 8-3 in the European Championship bronze-medal game on Saturday, July 30. France finished in fourth place in '91 and '93, while Russia was fourth in 1997.

European Championship semifinals: Russian ace Vladimir Petrov couldn't stop powerful Dutch lineup, led by former majorleaguers Eenhoorn and Faneyte, as the Netherlands blanked Russia 7-0 behind Rob Cordemans' one-hitter.
US-born left-hander Tom Urbani, another former majorleaguer, struck out 15 and also allowed only one hit as host Italy beat France 10-0 in 8 innings.

Pan Am Games: Canada outhits Cuba 14-4 in 8-1 trouncing, tops preliminary group with 4-0 record.