And away we went
In January 2015 Tony Lewis decided to keep extending the lives of ballplayers who had the game taken from them too early — men who had trained for years only for it to stop, and for whom competitive softball did not sit right. A year of working out how it would function produced a first commercial that drew over 60,000 views, and, as the league puts it, away we went. It calls itself the most professionally run nine-inning wood bat adult league in the country and has the decade to argue it: 250-plus games played, 800-plus players, 3,000-plus spectators a year, rock concerts, a livestream radio show, a podcast and thousands of dollars given to local not-for-profits.
Nothing in this directory does more with a season than the GRBL. It is also running that season across a website, a YouTube channel, a shop, a draft show and a set of hand-written recaps. High Cheese puts the whole of it at one address the league owns — the schedule, the standings, every roster and every player's record — so the six people doing all of this get one place to put it.
Grip N Rip Baseball League in detail
- Sundays at noon, three and six, with the night game billed as Baseball Night in the Ozarks.
- North and South divisions, ranked on win-loss, then head to head, then runs allowed.
- Every result carried inside its own write-up, with the records beside both clubs.
- Ducks, Suckers, Mavericks, Metropolitans, Showmen and Locos — each named for its town.
- An all-time player list, career batting lines in the Hall of Fame, and a 98 mph record.
- [email protected], a contact page, and a VP who asks for your ideas.
- $20 to try out at Meador Park, a 13-15 round draft, and 84 places across six clubs.
- Meador Park in Springfield, with a swimming pool 450 feet from home plate.
- Five innings max for any pitcher, three for the rest, and extra innings that change by round.
- Every game of the season written up, from opening day to the last out of the championship.
- Every Sunday game streamed free on YouTube, with play-by-play and post-game interviews.
- $400 to sponsor a player, $1,000 for a team, $250 to throw tacos at the crowd.
- An Eliminator round, a semifinal double header, and the Howard Bell Championship.
- Eleven seasons, 800 players, and a Town Ball Era that started in Season V.
- A commissioner, a VP of marketing with a Sports Management master's, and a Hall of Fame coach.
- All five answered, plus how hard the pitchers throw.
- A published rulebook, a dues sheet with every tier priced, and a hall of fame standard.
- Tryouts in June, a season from August to October, and one spare weekend held back.
- A cart on every page, and a custom hat that only team sponsors get.
- The clock, the lightning rule and the called game all sit with the officials — none are named.
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