Tryout, draft, livestream
Anyone 21 or over with no collegiate eligibility left and no professional contract may register online and try out — Season XI's tryouts are Saturday June 13, 2026 at Meador Park in Springfield. The fee to try out is $20. The coaches then run a 13 to 15 round draft, and the teams are announced immediately afterwards on a livestreamed draft show hosted by Rance Burger. The league expects to draft about 84 players into six clubs.
Broadcasting the draft the moment it finishes, so every man finds out at the same time in the same place, is a better piece of theatre than most professional organizations manage. A High Cheese free agent pool runs all season alongside that, so a player who misses one Saturday in June is still visible to six managers in August rather than waiting for next year.
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.
- 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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