Keep score or forfeit the awards
Scorekeeping here is compulsory and the penalty is aimed at players rather than captains: teams that do not keep the book have their players ruled ineligible for post-season awards. In an argument over the score or the number of outs, the team keeping score wins unless an official scorer is present or the umpire overrules, and the home book takes precedence.
Umpires record the start time before the game and sign off the final score afterwards, which makes the result an officiated document rather than a claim.
A forfeit is scored 9-0.
A score reported once on a High Cheese league page becomes the standings, the team's record and each player's line in the same moment -- and the appearance counts that decide both awards eligibility and playoff eligibility come out of it automatically.
Philadelphia Amateur Baseball League in detail
- This is not a beer league. This is not softball. Sundays, wood bats, and a real draft.
- Every game on a Sunday, three and a half hours, with the next game's start time as the clock.
- Divisional tables with clinching marks and five tiebreakers.
- Sixteen players minimum, and a rule that lets a benched man leave with a refund.
- An official statkeeper, post-season awards, and no public numbers.
- Two league addresses — one general, one for the commissioner's business.
- A $150 deposit before a free agent joins a team, and no uniforms ordered until it is paid.
- Tarken and Edgley, with published ground rules and a groundskeeping rota.
- No professional pitchers, six innings of college pitching a season, and a fine for breaking someone else's bat.
- A golf outing, a Phillies game, and a newsletter to subscribe to.
- A photos section sits in the main navigation.
- The homepage notes outside coverage and names no sponsor.
- A divisional round, a bye for each division winner, and a best-of-three championship.
- A live draft with a lottery, a supplemental round, and a keeper pool for disbanded clubs.
- A commissioner and a co-commissioner, approving every trade and every fill-in.
- Can I pitch, will I play, and what happens if we only have eight?
- One rulebook of thirty-five numbered sections, published in full on the web.
- A year of deadlines: 31 January, spring training, week seven, the last game in June.
- Uniforms are league-ordered, and a trade means paying to change the name on the back.
- Umpires record the start time, sign the final score, and may inspect any bat.
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