Written up like a front office
The league publishes biographies rather than a list. Tony Lewis founded it and is its commissioner. Stephanie Lewis is VP of Public Relations and Marketing — the daughter of a hall-of-fame coach, co-owner of a hot yoga business she has run profitably for sixteen years, holding a Master's in Sports Management from Missouri State, and the site says plainly that if you have an idea she would like to hear it. Steve Lael is Director of Baseball Operations: a Lincoln Land University Hall of Famer who finished playing at Missouri Western, then coached for thirty-plus years, mostly as head coach of the Branson Pirates, and was inducted into the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame — and, the league notes, refuses to be put out to pasture.
Introducing your administrators as people rather than titles is how a volunteer organization gets taken seriously. High Cheese hands those roles real permissions on the league's own page, so a director of baseball operations is an account that runs baseball operations.
Grip N Rip Baseball League in detail
- Baseball's Ultimate Second Chance: six Ozarks clubs, wood bats, nine innings, since 2015.
- 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.
- 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.