The year has three states
January is the draft, and being drafted commits a player for the season. February through August is open -- teams may contact anyone in the pool and a player may join whichever he likes. The season itself runs April to August, ending in a seven-team postseason with the All-Star Game on 21 August and the championship series on the 22nd and 23rd.
From the end of the season until the following January, everyone is draft-eligible again.
That is a genuine baseball calendar rather than a registration window, and the consequences of the date are real. A season entered once on a High Cheese league page puts the draft, the opening day and the championship weekend into every player's own calendar, so nobody registers in December thinking it means what it means in March.
Pancho Coimbre Baseball in detail
- Founded in 1959 and still playing in the North Meadow, in what may be the longest continuously running independent amateur league anywhere.
- April to August, weekend doubleheaders, with the fixture list living inside a scoring app.
- Twelve teams, eleven of them alive for seven playoff spots in July.
- Weekend recaps written up game by game, with pitching lines and who drove in what.
- Twelve clubs in the Pancho and Coimbre divisions, from Harlem to Flatbush.
- Official statistics live in GameChanger, and the league fee pays for it.
- A contact form for teams and sponsors, and Instagram for everything about a specific club.
- A free agent pool, an annual draft in January, and different rules depending on the month.
- The North Meadow of Central Park, with occasional games on Randall's Island and in Red Hook.
- American League rules, signed by the managers, enforced on an honour system — with forfeits available anyway.
- The Punch Out podcast, plus season previews and weekend recaps written team by team.
- The league credits its photographers by name.
- Teams were once named for the restaurants that backed them; sponsorship is still invited.
- Seven teams, a bye for the top seed, and a championship series at a professional ballpark.
- Three commissioners in sixty-seven years, a Caribbean league circuit, and permits handed over by handwritten note.
- A commissioner since 2015 and three league administrators, in a line running back to 1959.
- The league answers the awkward ones directly: no guaranteed spot, no guaranteed playing time.
- The charter, revised June 2025, with a code of conduct addendum attached.
- There is a cart in the header and nothing published to put in it.
- Ground rules are agreed with the home plate umpire before every game.
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