Great American Baseball
Great American BaseballThis Constitution is current as of the beginning of the 1961 season. As always, the Commissioner reserves the right to make changes and/or additions prior to the beginning of each season of play. Corrections will be made and announced to league managers anytime mistakes are discovered.
I. League Structure
Great American Baseball will be composed of two 6 team leagues:
-American League
-National League
Pitchers hit in both leagues.
This is a continuous ownership league and all players, once drafted, will remain with your team until traded or released.
Teams will play a 154 162 (effective
with 1962 season) game schedule.
The teams with the best record in each league will meet in the GAB World Series, a best of seven format.
II. Beginning the season
The start date will be determined by the Commissioner. The season will run for a period of 6 (six) months. At a time set by the commissioner, each team will send to the commissioner a basic set of playing instructions and complete season pitching rotation. These will also be sent to all other members in the league. Each manager has the option to override his instructions or change his rotation by sending new instructions or rotation to the managers involved and to the commissioner prior to the first of the month in which the changes would occur. NO MANAGER IS TO PLAY ANY GAMES BEYOND THE CURRENT MONTH without the explicit permission of the Commissioner and any opposing managers involved. Should a manager drop out of the league during the season, his instructions and rotation remain in effect, with the addition of penalties assessed by the commissioner. The home games would be played by the commissioner or someone designated by him.
Your playing instructions should include the following:
Those items marked with an asterisk (*) must be referred to in your instructions. All others can be left up to the opponent if you wish.
Please remember to play the visiting team the way you would want it played when you are the visitor. Even when no specific instructions are indicated, USE GOOD JUDGEMENT.
III. Roster Rules
Full rosters will be limited to 30 players. You will have a field roster limit of 26 plus a 4 man reserve roster.
Field rosters must include at least one backup at each position. It must have at least 9 pitchers. A field player who plays multiple positions can be listed as the sole backup at a maximum of three positions.
Reserve roster players can be placed on the field roster at the beginning of a series in replacement of a like number of players on the field roster.
Uncarded players remain the property of their team unless waived. They return to GAB only if carded in the future.
IV. Waivers (NOTE: This section becomes effective following the 1958 season rookie draft).
Waivers are allowed only at a certain time each year (announced by the commissioner). Once trading begins, you will be allowed to carry all the players accumulated via trades or drafting. A deadline will be announced in which each team must meet the 30 man requirement.
Once all the waivers are in, the commissioner will publish the waiver list and the league will have a chance to claim the waived players. Draft order is the same as the Rookie Draft.
When submitting waiver claims, you must also include the player who must be cut from your roster to make room for the waiver claim. Players cut to make room for a claim will go into the next year's draft pool (if carded) and cannot be claimed by another team as a waiver claim.
V. Draft
Each year at a time determined by the commissioner, a phone draft will be held to allow teams to draft unassigned players. This draft includes all newly carded players and unassigned players that receive APBA cards for the new year.
The order of the draft will be determined by the won-lost percentage. The 4 teams with the worst record will be entered in a lottery for the first four draft picks, in the first round only. Second and subsequent rounds will be drafted on the basis of won-lost record, with the following exception: League winners draft in the bottom two positions based on their results in the World Series. In the event of a tie, wherein 2 or more teams have the same won-lost record, the Commissioner will flip a coin or draw straws to determine the draft order from among the teams involved in the tie.
There will be one draft pool for both AL/NL teams.
VI. Player restrictions
A. Starting Pitchers
Starting pitchers will be limited to their actual number of starts, with the exception of "D" rated (1-5) pitchers. These pitchers will be allowed to have actual starts plus one third.
Starting pitchers must have three days rest between starts.
In addition if you use a pitcher both as a starter and a reliever, you must meet the following guidelines:
a. to be used as a starter after relieving, the pitcher must have two days rest.
b. to be used as a reliever after starting, the pitcher must have one day's rest.
B. Relief pitchers
Relief pitchers will be limited in use to their actual number of innings plus 10%.
C. Non-pitchers
All non-pitchers will be limited to their actual games played OR plate appearances (in other words, cannot exceed BOTH), unless their actual plate appearances are less than 175 (160 for 1957 season); in which case the player will be limited to his actual number of plate appearances (cannot exceed actual number of plate appearances). Plate appearances=AB+walks+HP+sac. NOTE: Appearance in a game as a pinch- hitter only does NOT count toward games played for a player who is limited by games, unless this is abused (i.e., someone pinch-hits 154 games!) EXCEPTION: A non-pitcher who has an injury rationg ("J") of 0 (zero) AND appeared in at least 150 games may play in all games.
D. Stealing
Base runners are expected to run realistically and are limited to their steal attempts plus 15%.
VII. Playing rules
1. A starter cannot be removed unless one of the following conditions is met:
a. pitches three full innings. b. gives up three earned runs. c. allows seven baserunners via hits, walks or hit by pitch (errors are not counted). d. is injured.
2. Pitchers cannot be used as pinch hitters unless they are also rated at another position, or if they were actually so used during the season being replayed. They can be used freely as pinch runners.
3. Hit & Run plays can be used anytime the score is + or - 3 runs. The batter must have a rating of two or better on the hit and run.
4. Catchers are not allowed to play both ends of a doubleheader unless forced to due to injury in the second game.
5. Rainouts are counted if the game is official; the stats and results count. If the game is not official, replay the game using the same pitchers and lineup. In case of an official tie, save the results, replay the game and notify me.
6. Injuries count only in the game they occur. No subsequent games are affected.
VIII. Manager suspensions
Managers can receive suspensions from the league offices for any of the following reasons:
1. Late stat reports ("p" files) 2. Violation of player restrictions 3. Upheld protests by an opponent
Suspensions will be enforced by the commissioner and will consist of the following penalties:
1. The manager is suspended from play for a period of time to be determined. 2. Games played during the suspension will be done by the commissioner or someone designated by him. 3. A draft pick may be taken away depending on severity of infraction.
Multiple infractions (especially late stats) will result in the expulsion of the manager from the league at the commissioner's discretion.
IX. Stat reports
"P" files should be sent to the commissioner's office, postmarked by the 25th of each month. "P" files sent via e-mail must be received by the Commissioner no later than the last day of each month.
Since some are not familiar with how to extract a "p" file a brief description follows:
1. Place a blank diskette in drive "A". 2. Change to the directory of your data disk (for instance, c:\bb\game\GAB.ddr). In the directory, there will be a file that is called something like "P012047.S58." 3. Copy this file to the disk (copy p0*.* a:\). If still not sure please call the league offices for further instructions.
After extracting the "p" file, keep a copy for yourself until you are sure the leagues office has a good copy and has updated the master file. Also remember to empty the "p" file before playing the next month. On the league diskette to be sent out by the Commissioner, there will be a program called "zerop.exe." Place this file in the data disk directory and run it each month. It will rename the current pfile (as an example, I rename mine "pfile.may, pfile.jun, etc. for easy reference) and create a new pfile with 0 bytes.
X. Tiebreakers, end of season
If two or more teams are tied for a league title at the end of the season, the winner will be determined by a 3-game playoff. Commissioner will flip for home field advantage. Games 1 and 3 (if necessary) will be played by team with home field advantage, game 2 will be played by opposing team.
XI. Post season play
In odd numbered years the National League will have the home field advantage in the World Series, with the American league having the home field advantage in even numbered years. The year is the actual season we are playing.
Player restrictions for the post season are as follows:
Non-pitchers:
Players are restricted based on the number of games they played during the regular season as follows:
| Actual games | WS |
| 0-10 | 0 |
| 11-19 | 1 |
| 20-39 | 2 |
| 40-59 | 3 |
| 60-79 | 4 |
| 80-99 | 5 |
| 100-119 | 6 |
| 120+ | 7 |
In addition, players limited by plate appearances are limited in the series as follows:
Multiply regular season limit by .063 and round up. Example: 100 X .063 = 6.3, rounded to 7. These players are still limited by games also.
Starting pitchers:
Pitchers are limited in starts during each series. Their actual starts for the year is the limiting factor.
| Actual starts | WS |
| 0 - 6 | 0 |
| 7 - 18 | 1 |
| 19 - 29 | 2 |
| 30+ | 3 |
Starters must follow a 2 day rest rule.
Relief pitchers:
Each reliever will be limited to innings pitched for the WS according to the following chart:
| Actual innings | WS |
| 0-5 | 0 |
| 6-19 | 1 |
| 20-39 | 4 |
| 40-69 | 6 |
| 70-99 | 8 |
| 100+ | 10 |
Post season game schedule:
National VS American
Assume 2 days rest before start of series:
day 1 - game 1
day 2 - game 2
day 3 - travel
day 4 - game 3
day 5 - game 4
day 6 - game 5
day 7 - travel
day 8 - game 6
day 9 - game 7
XIII. Official dates
The various dates for the following functions will be set by the commissioner and updated in the newsletters.
a. Rookie draft b. Trading c. 30 man roster and waiver cuts due d. waiver list sent to each manager e. waiver claims due f. final rosters due g. organization diskettes sent to each franchise h. season start
XIV. Trades
No trade is official unless reported to the Commissioner within 48 hours of being made. Notification may be via telephone (leave a message if not home), U.S. mail, or e-mail. All managers involved in trading should watch the newsletters carefully to verify that the league office has a record of your trade.
XV. Dues
The Commissioner shall have the power to assess league dues each year in order to defray his expenses of postage and telephone calls. The World Series champion will be exempt from league dues the following season, so long as the same manager owns the team.
XVI. Misc.
Any item not covered herein shall be dealt with by the Commissioner in his discretion.