After the exciting offseason, people across the country were looking forward to the next season of Robin Island baseball!



Shinosaka continued to dominate in the SBL, despite Aorin controlling the early part of the season before Toramoto took over for a bit. Both teams finished with excellent records, but the Shrikes held on to the SBL pennant and will head back to the RICS. The Tigers' bitter rival Joestar had an awful season, becoming the league's punching bag and finishing with the worst record the Federation had seen yet. 

Over in the RBL, the reigning Senators had a terrible early season while San Juan dominated all season. The Monarchs, not decimated by injuries this season, put up a great fight for first place, but the Shockers held on for their first RBL crown. The Senators, Emeralds, and Robins all had fine seasons, but simply didn't have the firepower to catch up to San Juan and Queenston. The Canaries had a bad season and fans in Yosemite responded in kind (along with the relocation confirmation), placing Yosemite in dead last in attendance again. The league has confirmed that they're narrowing down the field for the owner of the expansion franchise but don't anything to announce currently.

The league is doing well financially, every team with the exception of two are earning plenty of revenue. Obviously the Canaries aren't doing well, but league officials are worried about the status of the Shinkyo Robins, who, despite playing in the largest city in the country, have not earned the finances that owner Simon Walker had hoped. 

The second Robin Island Championship Series will be played between the San Juan Shockers and Shinosaka Shrikes. The reigning Federation champs have a chance to defend their throne while the Shockers want to bring the crown to Robin Bay. 

NEXT: The 1956 RICS!

Hey caught up with this thread and decided to be a monarchs fan until a city resembling Arizona gets a team

1957 RIBF Offseason:

Some notable trades happened in the offseason:

Aorin sent two minor leaguers, SP Yoshikazu Nakao and CF John Mooris, and major leaguer RP Tsuneari Ogata to San Juan for CF Naoaki Fukuhara, hoping to finally push through to the playoffs.

Joestar, the league's worst team, sent one of their better players, 1B Yoshiyuki Yokoyama, to Yosemite for three minor leaguers. Some speculate this is the beginning of a rebuild for the Crusaders.

Toramoto was busy in the offseason, trading for SP Sueo Tanaka from the Shrikes and 2B Shunsen Koa from Yosemite, the latter of which received C Fuminobu Kawai from the Tigers.

Additionally, three teams made changes to their jerseys this offseason.



Shinosaka decided, as the only champion of the RIBF, they would add two stars on their jerseys and hats for their success. Two brown stars were placed over the shrike on the home, two were placed over "Shinosaka" on the road, and the shrike on the hat was replaced by two stars. Other teams were not happy about the changes.



Toramoto also made changes, removing the unique split-color style they had been using. Their equipment manager had complained about the difficulty of remembering which color went on which side, leading to the change. The wordmark and numbers are now orange with a black stroke on the home and white with a black stroke on the road. The sleeve striping was also made one color, as well the pants striping, which is now orange on both sides.



Finally, the most substantial changes were made by the Carp. A new script was added to the road jersey, with a unique tail and crossbar inspired by the flowing rivers of Aorin. Sleeve and placket striping were added to the road as well, with white accenting the jersey throughout. The number font on both jerseys was also changed. 

No news was given about either the Canaries' new name or the SBL expansion team. Commissioner Aoyama stated that the city would be announced next offseason.

NEXT: 1957 RIBF Season

Last edited by QCS (6/23/2020 1:51 pm)

Section30 wrote:

Love the new script for the Carp, big thumbs up from me

Glad you like it! I knew I wanted the Carp to have a script, but having never made one before, I used the Royals, Nationals, and Orioles as references for this one. I think it turned out good, and I plan on making more for teams down the line.

The 1957 RIBF season has concluded, here the results!


The story of the season was Joestar, who jumped from worst to first in the Shinsakai Bay League. The Shrikes fell to third, like many other teams, bitten by the injury bug. The Tigers had a decent season, but just couldn't pull it together enough to defeat their rivals across the river. Finally, the Carp finished last in the league, seemingly not able to get themselves in order to make the playoffs.

The Robins came out of nowhere to put together the best season the Federation has ever seen, notching 91 wins with an insane pitching lineup of Nozomu Nishizawa, Atsushi Furukawa, and Taizo Miyagi to start off and CL Sumiki Nishimura to close out any games necessary. Also out of nowhere, the Canaries found themselves in second place, but not anywhere close to challenging the Robins. The Monarchs, Shockers, and Senators all had okay seasons, but Sens fans should be furious with management because they had two of the most dynamic and best hitters in the sport right now: 1B Bryan Lengen and 3B Masakatsu Masuda, who led the Federation in most hitting categories, including batting average, home runs, total bases, and hits. The Emeralds were just bad this season.

Both teams in the RICS this year are first-timers, but just about every expert is predicting a Robins victory here. Their dominant pitching will face the dominant hitting of the Crusaders, who had a killer lineup that would've swept almost every stat if not for the Senators. Either way, it will be great series!

NEXT: 1957 RICS
 

1958 Offseason

Only one identity change occurred during the offseason.


The Shockers changed their away jersey to be only brown text, no more white. No other changes were made.

In expansion news, Commissioner Aoyama finally gave more information on the 1959 expansion process: the SBL would be receiving a team in the Frozen City, Hokkyo. They'll be owned by Masaru Kurosawa, owner of luxury goods manufacturer White Lily. Meanwhile, the Yosemite franchise will be owned by Stewart Keighley, owner and founder of Yosemart, a retail chain in Roosevelt. Both franchises will receive brand-new stadiums to be completed by the time they begin play in 1959. Nothing regarding brand identity was announced.

San Juan was considered the "champion of the offseason" after making several moves to improve after missing the postseason in '57. They traded for Aorin stud SS Yoshio Taniguchi, the inaugural SBL MVP. After bagging him, they worked out a deal with reigning champs Joestar to give up the former Reliever of the Year Lee Tupper for defensive powerhouse LF Mitsuyoshi Ito. The only notable retiree was Vertlac's SP Heitaro Nozaki, serving three years for the Emeralds befogging hanging it up at age 36.

NEXT: 1958 RIBF Season