ČBA announced awards for 2021
Czech Baseball Association (ČBA) awarded Extraliga awards for 2021 season at Gala in Prague on Saturday afternoon. Besides that Czech Hall of Fame also saw its growth.
Possibly for the first time in 25 years, A team of Draci Brno saw none of their players or coaches awarded. Draci also had no one in Lineup of the Year and the only award they achieved was for sixteen year old Hugo Pejchar who won Fair play award. On the other hand Extraliga champions Arrows Ostrava took the most awards. One of their players, Petr Čech even took two personal awards and was named into the Lineup of the Year.
Coach of the Year went to the head coach of European championship national team winner Filip Procházka, but also to the departing head coach of senior national team, Canadian Mike Griffin. Tomáš Špilauer took Referee of the Year award, becoming only fifth referee to take this prize.
A long term Arrows Ostrava player, currently fifty three year old Ota Kaňok was inducted to Czech baseball Hall of Fame. The last time he played in Extraliga was in 2006, but based on the statistics from 1995 to 2006 the excellent batter had only one season where his batting average fell below .300. In 1997 he became the best batter of Extraliga with 48 hits, .505 BA and .573 OBP.
Awards:
Best batter in Regular Season: Martin Mužík, Sokol Hluboká
Best pitcher in Regular Season: Jan Novák, Sokol Hluboká
Most homeruns in Regular Season: Marek Minařík, Tempo Praha
Best fielder in Regular Season: Petr Čech, Arrows Ostrava
Best batter in Playoffs: Jakub Malík, Arrows Ostrava
Best pitcher in Playoffs: Boris Bokaj, Arrows Ostrava
MVP playoff: Jakub Kubica, Arrows Ostrava
Team of the Year 2021: Arrows Ostrava
Coach of the Year 2021: Filip Procházka
Long-term coaching contribution: Mike Griffin
Referee of the Year: Tomáš Špilauer
Junior of the Year: Michal Zelenka, Tempo Praha
Extraliga Personality Award: Petr Čech, Arrows Ostrava
Fair Play Award: Hugo Pejchar, Draci Brno
