Numbered, not named
The league runs its fixtures by team number -- 8 versus 4, 30 versus 32, 47 versus 43, 1 versus 6, 31 versus 35, 42 versus 46 -- with the numbers reaching the high forties, which puts this at forty-plus clubs across six age brackets.
Not one of them is named on the public site.
The recurring instruction to managers is about keeping them alive: players are asked to re-commit to their managers to ensure no team forfeits any games in the next few weeks, and each manager must ensure his team plays the correct number of games.
Forty-plus clubs with no public identity is a great deal of baseball invisible to the city it is played in. A High Cheese team page belongs to the club rather than the season, so team 42 becomes a name with a roster, a record and somewhere for a player to re-commit.
San Antonio MSBL in detail
- Real hardball in five age divisions, in its fourth decade, on quality fields it says it earned.
- A schedule rebuilt monthly, in red, around rain, high school playoffs and stadium lights.
- Scores are phoned in, standings are published on a Tuesday, and managers must check their own record.
- Scores are telephoned in at the weekend and appear as standings on Tuesday.
- Games played is the only figure the league tracks publicly, and it decides the season.
- A league number for calling in scores, and a president who signs everything.
- Tryouts once a year, in February, and you pay to play.
- Four main grounds carrying the season, including a university, an air force base and a stadium.
- Standard baseball for the 45s, and a substantially different game for the 60s.
- A president's bulletin board that doubles as the league's only public record.
- No gallery is published.
- No sponsor is named.
- Top four in each division, and an All-Star team chosen by the players themselves.
- Thirty-two-plus years, counted by the league itself.
- A president, and a managers' meeting that functions as the board.
- Divisions, season length and tryout timing are answered; the fee is not.
- League rules, league policy, league forms and a set of yearbooks.
- Tryouts in February, ball from mid-March, Phoenix in October, and a managers' meeting in January.
- Nothing is for sale, but the uniform gets its own instruction.
- Umpires take lineups at the plate meeting and hold the clock.
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