Four rounds, published in advance
The format is set out in full. In the divisional round, second and third in each division play each other while the division winner takes a bye. In the quarter-finals the division winners are seeded one to four on overall record, with the top seed drawing the lowest surviving winner. The semi-finals pair highest against lowest and second highest against second lowest. The championship is best of three.
The standings page carries the clinching notation to go with it -- x for a playoff spot, y for a division, z for the overall one seed, e for eliminated -- and five tiebreakers in order: head to head, division record, run differential, runs scored, and streak.
Playoff eligibility is its own rule: a player must appear in at least half the games remaining from the moment he was added, and have his dues paid in full, with games on a previous club counting after a trade.
A postseason described this precisely deserves a bracket anyone can follow. A High Cheese league page keeps the seeding, the series and the champion attached to the season, with the appearance counts the eligibility rule depends on already totalled.
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.
- Every team must keep the book, and not keeping it costs a club its awards.
- 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 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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