Listed alongside the pine tar
Umpires appear in the league's opening answer, in the list of things that make this baseball rather than softball: wood bats, pine tar, helmets, cleats, catchers' gear, umpires.
Using officials as evidence of seriousness is a good instinct, and paying for them is part of what the tryout fee and the team payment cover. No assignor, crew, rate or route to working games is published anywhere. On High Cheese the crew attaches to the fixture, so an umpire working three leagues across seven venues sees his week where the clubs see theirs.
Northwest Independent Baseball League in detail
- Four teams in 2007, twenty-six by 2025 — everyone welcome, as long as you're not a jerk.
- A 2026 season schedule page, with fixtures reaching only the front page.
- Three leagues, twenty-six teams, and no table delivered to a plain reader.
- Finals on the front page, with each club's league printed underneath it.
- Expos, Outlaws, Cardinals, Cutthroats, Rangers, Steelheads, Rays — twenty-six in all.
- No batting or pitching figure is published, across three leagues.
- A published telephone number, an email route, and three separate invitations to write.
- A public tryout and draft — and if too many turn up, they build a new team.
- Seven venues, including two professional stadiums and the Portland Pickles' home.
- Three leagues — 18+, 30+ weekends and 30+ weeknights — and a fourth being considered.
- A news section carrying registration and season announcements.
- An album section, and two professional stadiums to shoot in.
- No sponsors named — and an open request for anyone with a ballfield.
- Playoffs in August and September, on top of a 14 to 16 game season.
- Four teams in 2007; twenty-six teams and nearly 300 games by 2025.
- Written throughout in the first person plural, and nobody named.
- Eleven questions, answered as a person would answer them.
- The fee structure explained rather than published: the manager pays, then collects.
- Late April to August, playoffs into September, with four weekends deliberately clear.
- An Apparel section in the main navigation, between the FAQ and Contact.
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