City of Champions Cup

City of Champions Cup
Founded	2020
No. of teams	4
Country	United States
Current champions	Joliet Slammers
Official website

The City of Champions Cup was a one-off four-team league that was founded during the pandemic year of 2020. It came about in the vacuum created by multiple professional leagues cancelling or dramatically altering their seasons. Based in Joliet, IL, its teams were the Chicago Deep Dish (managed by Glenallen Hill), the Joliet Slammers (managed by Billy Petrick), the Nerds Herd (managed by Corky Miller) and the Tully Monsters (managed by Scott Spiezio).

Joliet finished 1st in the league with a 20-5 record, while Tully was 2nd at 14-10. Chicago went 10-17 to finish 3rd, while the Nerds Herd was 4th at 7-19.

Three players tied for the league lead in games played at 27, while two, GJ Hill and Alex McKenna, tied for the league lead in plate appearances with 113. McKenna also paced the loop in at-bats with 96 and runs scored with 22. Erik Ostberg led the league with 32 hits and 8 doubles, while McKenna and Kevin Watson led the league in triples with 2 each. Noah Vaughan was the league's top slugger with 10 home runs (he also led in walks, with 24) and Zach Kirtley was the top RBI man with 24. Nick Meyer far-and-away led the league with 21 steals, while Hayden Cantrelle and Korry Howell paced the circuit by being caught 4 times each. Hill led in strikeouts with 32. Ostberg led in batting average (.381), while Vaughan led in OBP (.471), skugging (.769) and OPS (1.240) and total bases (60).

Jake McSteen led the league in victories with 7, while Blake Marks paced the loop with 6 losses. Dietrich Enns paced the loop among those with 25-plus innings pitched in ERA with a 0.72 mark, while Ian Krol led the league with 19 appearances. Six pitchers tied for the league lead in starts with 8. Only two pitchers had complete games—Will Headean and Joe Lienhard—and both complete games were shutouts. Trevor Charpie had the most saves with 4. McSteen led in innings pitched (50) and hits allowed (46), while Vlad Nunez allowed the most runs (31) and earned runs (29). Four pitchers tied for the league lead with 5 home runs allowed. Nunez and Austin Shea tied for the league lead in walks with 24 each, while Headean paced the loop in strikeouts with 58. Shea hit the most batsmen with 10, while Christian Griffin had the most balks and wild pitches with 2 and 6, respectively. Shea faced the most batters at 212, while Enns had the best WHIP at 0.480 and K/9 IP ratio among those with 25+ frames at 15.1.

Major leaguers in the City of Champions Cup

• Dietrich Enns, pitcher
• Ian Krol, pitcher
• Bubby Rossman, pitcher
• Brock Stewart, pitcher
• Charlie Tilson, outfielder