Safety first, and it says so first
The rulebook opens on safety rather than on play: the safety of players, managers, umpires, fans and staff is the highest priority and everybody's personal responsibility, and the board may suspend or cancel any game, practice or event if personal safety is at risk.
Then the condition of entry. Every manager and player must sign the league's waiver and release of liability before taking part in anything. Anyone without it on file is ineligible and participates at their own risk, and anyone who lets such a person play assumes personal risk for any claim made against the league.
The playing rules follow Major League Baseball with published exceptions, indexed in ten parts: uniforms and equipment, game length and run rule and cancellations, rosters and player eligibility, free agents and fill-ins, lineups and batting order and defence, courtesy runners, player conduct and team responsibilities, umpires, ejections and suspensions and forfeits, and scores and tiebreakers.
The details are exact. A uniform is at minimum a hat, a numbered jersey, baseball pants and appropriate footwear -- no open-toed shoes, sandals, shorts or sleeveless shirts under any circumstance. Fill-ins are excused the matching jersey but must have a number on the back. Teams get a three-week grace period to complete uniform purchases, and so does any player joining mid-season. Helmets are required for batters, on-deck batters and runners. And the only authorised baseball is the Wilson A1010, provided by the league and issued to the umpires before each game.
A rulebook this specific needs to reach a manager at the field. A High Cheese league page keeps the current version beside the fixture it governs.
Savannah Adult Baseball League in detail
- Southeast Georgia's premier baseball league, in three divisions and two seasons a year.
- Spring from the Sunday after the Super Bowl to August; fall from the Sunday after Labor Day to mid-November.
- The rulebook has a section for scores and tiebreakers; no table is published.
- Results are written up with pitchers, innings and how the game turned.
- Twenty-odd clubs, two of which forfeited the rest of a season for want of players.
- The league's own reports carry pitching lines; no statistics are published.
- A league address plus personal addresses for the president and secretary.
- A new player interest form, a reply within two to three business days, and a draft pool.
- A field locations page, a field maintenance supervisor, and county permits for practice.
- A news page that is a social feed, written well and hosted elsewhere.
- Photographs and video ride along with the league's social posts.
- No sponsor is named on the league's own pages.
- A championship series in each division, reported game by game as it happens.
- A champions grid back to 2014, with the Royals taking five of six 18+ titles.
- Five officers, each introduced by the teams he has played for.
- Roughly ten dollars a game, seasons that start the Sunday after the Super Bowl, and a straight answer on your chances.
- A ten-part rulebook and a compulsory waiver and release of liability.
- An open board meeting in November, a spring coaches' meeting in January, and teams forming from January.
- Uniforms are the player's own cost, on top of the fee.
- Umpires get their own rulebook section and are issued the game balls.
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