Written to guarantee three pitchers
Anything not covered reverts to Major League Baseball rules. What the league adds is specific: one pitcher may throw five innings and every other pitcher three, which guarantees a hitter sees at least three arms in nine. No pitcher re-entry, ever. Two innings maximum for anybody in extras. Starters removed may return, in the same spot in the order. A new inning will not start 2 hours 45 minutes after first pitch in the regular season, and there is no clock in the playoffs. A ten-run rule after seven applies in the regular season and playoffs but not in the championship.
Extra innings escalate by round. Regular season: runner on second, no outs, for two innings, then bases loaded with two outs. Playoffs: natural baseball for three innings, then a runner on second, then bases loaded and two outs. Championship: natural baseball, all the way. Making the game harder to end the further you get is a genuinely elegant piece of rule-writing. High Cheese keeps a league's rules beside its schedule and computes the table from the games, so a format that differs by round is applied by the fixture rather than remembered by the umpire.
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.
- 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.