Dress as a real team
The rulebook, updated December 2024, runs ten sections. The uniform rule is the one nobody else has: every club must wear a Major League, Minor League or Negro League replica of a past or present team, or something the directors approve, in matching design with numbers required — which is why the league fields Rockies, Padres, Iron Pigs and Devil Rays rather than local nicknames. Helmets are mandatory with no option and catchers wear one under the mask. Wood or composite wood only, in every division. Cleats are the player's choice, metal, plastic or none. Games stop for a new inning after 2:40 in a seven or three hours in a nine, run-ruled at ten runs after five — fifteen for the 48+ — and a tie is a completed game. Standings run on percentage, then head to head, then inter-division record, then runs against, with a forfeit charged one run against per scheduled inning.
The sharpest rule is the makeup one: the league does not reschedule rainouts, the managers do, and a game never made up is a forfeit against both clubs. High Cheese keeps a league's rules beside its schedule and computes the table from the games, so a rule that costs two teams a game is applied rather than argued.
Inland Northwest MABL/MSBL in detail
- Two hundred players across eastern Washington and north Idaho, May to October, wood bats.
- Four divisions on four different days, doubleheaders on Sundays, twenty minutes between games.
- Percentage, then head to head, then inter-division record, then runs against.
- Ties are final, five innings makes it official, and no result is published.
- Twenty-two clubs across four divisions, dressed as real franchises.
- Scored through GameChanger; nothing published on the league's own pages.
- Bret Fink, president, on 208-641-9255, plus a contact form.
- A workout on April 12, a draft, and a rule about who owns a new player.
- Local high schools, Hart Field for the workout, and occasional games at Avista Stadium.
- Categories for 18+, 32+, league news and tournaments — and a standing call for players.
- A 2025 class of six, inducted at a golf club in Liberty Lake, each with a filmed citation.
- The rulebook makes room for a sponsor on the shirt; no sponsor is named.
- Double elimination in summer, single in fall, and a national circuit of 500 teams.
- Champion and runner-up every year — Phillies five straight, then Rockies three.
- Bret Fink is president; three past presidents are named with their years.
- Who, when, where and how to join are answered. Only the fee is missing.
- A ten-section rulebook, waiver and application forms, and proof of age required.
- A workout in April, baseball from late May to October, and a fall league after the summer one.
- Replica uniforms are required; nothing is sold.
- An Umpire Coordinator, a two-hour rain deadline, and a bill if you miss it.
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