The barrel must be wood
The league's bat rule is written with unusual precision. No metal bats. Technically it allows any non-metal bat that is wood or wood-composite: the handle may be metal or metal composite, but the barrel must be wood or non-metal.
It supplies nothing. The league does not provide bats to players or teams, and it attaches a warning that reads like it was written after an argument: wood breaks -- do not borrow or loan a bat or a piece of equipment unless you can afford to replace it or accept the loss.
Games run to a three-hour limit across all six divisions.
The league publishes both by-laws and league rules from its footer, and managers are expected to know and understand the playing rules, the standing rules and the code of conduct.
A rulebook that distinguishes a handle from a barrel needs to be readable at the field. A High Cheese league page keeps the current version beside the fixture it governs.
Tri-Valley MSBL in detail
- Six divisions from 18 to 72-and-over, thirty years in the East Bay, twenty-three national titles.
- Saturdays for the older divisions, Sundays for the younger, three hours a game.
- Schedules, stats and standings share a separate site.
- Results feed a stats program managers are required to keep current.
- Managers maintain their own online rosters, on pain of forfeit.
- Managers must enter batting and pitching stats, and failing to costs the team its playoffs.
- A league email, a telephone number, a contact form and four named officers.
- $250 to $300 a player, a hundred more for the uniform, and a waiver with no exceptions.
- Seven East Bay cities, and the league says it is always looking for more.
- A news section, and a player quote doing most of the recruiting.
- A fields gallery with a view-all link; no game photographs.
- No sponsor is named.
- A tournament champions page of its own, and officers who have played Cooperstown.
- Started 1992, reorganised in 2019, and twenty-three national championships.
- Four officers, each introduced with a biography they wrote themselves.
- The most complete FAQ in this directory: times, fields, fees, bats, waivers and playing time.
- By-laws, league rules and an e-waiver sent by the manager.
- A sixteen-game season plus playoffs, on weekends split by division.
- Uniforms cost about a hundred dollars and are not sold by the league.
- No crew or assignor is named.
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