2001 Legends of Cooperstown Constitution

Legends of Cooperstown

League Constitution

15 October, 2001

The Legends of Cooperstown (hereafter referred to as the LOC) is a Strat-O-Matic Hall of Fame set and past season set draft computer baseball league, formed to provide a means of interesting and competitive recreation for its members. The list of rules that follow, are provided in order to keep the league as exciting and competitive as possible.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The LOC will be strictly a computer baseball league. The LOC will use the latest version of the SOM game that is available at the start of the season. The full season will be completed with the version of SOM that the league starts with regardless if a newer version has been released after the season has begun play.

LEAGUE OFFICERS

The LOC will be governed by and run by the following offices:

A. Commissioner (hereafter referred to as M’Lord) just kidding!

B. 2 League Presidents, American and National

C. Secretary

D. Statistician

E. Webmaster

F. 3 person Regulatory Panel (Commissioner and League Presidents)

The Commissioner’s duties will include:

1. General league management, with an emphasis on maintaining fair play

2. Oversee league play and game play timelines

3. Maintain team rosters for league use

4. Organize the initial draft and subsequent season drafts (in the event there is no League Secretary)

5. Compile and distribute league statistics (in the event there is no League Statistician

6. Maintain the league website (in the event there is no League Webmaster)

7. Create new season schedules and see to pace of current season schedule as concerning game play (in the event there is no League Secretary)

8. Appoint and or recruit for new managers in the event of league openings

The League President’s Duties will include:

1. Oversee and direct their respective league play with an emphasis on fair play

2. Handle any league protests or discrepancies if possible, before passing them on to the Commissioner and/or the Regulatory Panel. Should a League President be involved in the protest, they cannot resolve it on their own, and the matter will be passed on to the League Commissioner for his ruling on the matter.

3. Provide backup to the Commissioner in areas of rosters, statistics, scheduling and draft

The League Secretary’s duties will include:

1. Record, Maintain and distribute completed drafts and rosters to league members

2. Create and maintain league schedule, with an emphasis on league timeline

The League Statistician’s duties will include:

1. Record, maintain and distribute league statistical files

2. Track usage, warn owners of potential overusage and report to the commissioner any instances of player overusage.

The League Webmaster’s duties will include:

1. Maintain and update the league site

2. Monitor and maintain the e-groups mailing list.

The Regulatory Panel, made up of the Commissioner and the 2 League President’s, is the next step a team owner make take a protest or discrepancy to after it has been reviewed by their respective League President. If a problem cannot be resolved, or is not resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, it will be reviewed by the Regulatory Panel. A 2/3 vote by the Panel will be the final say on any matter.

Should one of the members of the Regulatory Panel be involved in a protest, his place will be taken by a member of the league designated by the Commissioner. This action should be rotated so that each member of the league is involved.

LEAGUE STRUCTURE:

The LOC will be composed of 16 teams, divided into two 8-team leagues: American League and National League.

This is a continuous ownership league and all players, once drafted, will remain with your team until traded or released. The LOC will only use the computer version of the Strat-O-Matic game (hereafter referred to as SOM).

A waiting list will be established with prospective team owners, to fill any available team slots. In the event that there are not 16 general managers, HAL will be designated to draft, generate a computer manager, and play, for any team without a human owner. Every effort will be made to fill available team managerial spots from the waiting list, before resorting to using HAL. It is felt that a league of 16 will best distribute the talent available each year into a challenging and competitive league, yet allow for the best prospects of filling available team ownership should it become necessary.

The league will be composed of the Hall of Fame set plus a number of hand created Negro League players, along with a selected Past Season set to be voted upon each year. Voting and selection of the next Past Season to be used will be done one year in advance, to allow team owners to purchase the new set if need be and to allow time for research.

As new Hall of Fame players become available from SOM, they will be added to the free agent pool each year. New players are eligible to be drafted from the free agent pool and protected at season’s end. In the event that SOM releases a Negro League set, those players who have been hand created for the league, will be replaced by the cards that are part of the Negro League set. New Negro League player cards will then be added to the free agent pool.

Roster size will be 35 at the start of each season, but may fluctuate during the season to accommodate trades.

After each completed season, a cut date will be determined by the Commissioner, and teams will be required to cut down to 10 Hall of Fame set/Negro League players. Teams containing more than 10 Hall of Fame set/Negro League players during the regular season are still required to cut down to 10 by the cut date. At no time during the year may a team go below 10 Hall of Fame/Negro League players on a roster.

THE INITIAL DRAFT

The roster of each franchise in the LOC will be created through a 2-step procedure, the initial Hall of Fame Set/Negro League Players and Past Season set draft, and on a yearly basis, free agent and Past Season set player draft. Free Agents are any Hall of Fame/Negro League players that are released to bring teams down to a pre-draft number per team of 10.

THE HALL OF FAME SET/NEGRO LEAGUE PLAYERS DRAFT

The Hall of Fame set/Negro League players (hereafter referred to as HOF/NL) draft will provide the basis of each team’s roster for subsequent seasons.

1. It will be a 10 round, serpentine fashion draft, with the order being determined by a draw done by the Commissioner.

2. The HOF set draft will be conducted by e-mail, with the intent to complete it as soon as possible. With 160 players to be drafted, it is hoped that a round per day can be completed so as to complete the draft in approximately 2 weeks.

3. No trading of draft picks is allowed.

INITIAL PAST SEASON PLAYER DRAFT:

After the completion of the HOF/NL set draft, rosters will be filled out through a Past Season draft, similar to subsequent season drafts.

1. The initial Past Season draft order will be in reverse of the order used in the HOF/NL set draft and will be in serpentine fashion.

2. The initial Past Season draft will consist of 25 rounds

3. No trading of draft picks is allowed.

4. The draft will be conducted by e-mail, with time allowed for each pick within reason.

Teams will draft up to 35 players, and with the exception of the 10 initial HOF/NL players drafted, may contain any number of HOF/NL players as are available.

YEARLY PAST SEASON PLAYER DRAFT:

1. Prior to the end of a current season, a Past Season set to be used for the next season will be voted upon by league members. The Commissioner will put forward 5 Past Season sets and the new season will be determined by majority vote. Any league member may put forward to the Commissioner, a Past Season to be used in the vote. Seasons that are already owned by members will also be considered as a priority to keep new purchases of season disks at a minimum.

2. Each team will draft from the selected Past Season set plus the Free Agent pool and any player who meets the league minimums for at bats or innings pitched may be drafted.
Minimums are 80 Innings pitched as a starter or starter/reliever to be used as a starter, 40 innings pitched or 10+ saves as a reliever (10+ saves by a reliever requires no minimum innings pitched), 100 plate appearances by a position player. Starter/Relievers with less than 80 innings pitched must be used exclusively in relief.

3. The annual Past Season draft start date will be determined by the Commissioner. Specifics on the draft will be determined at the end of the regular season, including a list of which players are available.

4. The draft will be conducted via e-mail.

5. If a manager for some reason cannot or does not want to participate in the draft, his team may be drafted for by HAL.

6. The draft order will be determined by each team's winning percentage, with the 4 worst percentages going into a lottery to decide who gets the number 1 through number 4 picks. This will apply to the first round only. The second round will have the worst winning percentage picking first and so on. Ties in winning percentages will broken by a tie-breaking system as follows: 1. Worst Road Record 2. Worst head-to-head record 3. Coin toss, by the commissioner, with the commissioner determining who gets "heads" and who gets "tails". If the commissioner's team is involved, a neutral manager will make the coin toss.

7. The draft will run consecutively with the overall worst winning percentage having the # 1 pick for each consecutive round (starting in the 2nd round) and continuing in this order until the draft is complete.

8. Any manager who is not available during the specified draft period or who does not make his selection in a timely manner will be skipped. The skipped manager is then able to draft in the skipped position at any point he wishes to make his selection.

BEGINNING THE SEASON:

The start date will be determined annually by the Commissioner, but generally will coincide with the 1st of November each year. The regular season runs for 5 months, through March with the post-season following immediately thereafter.

THE SCHEDULE:

The LOC will play a 160 game schedule as designated in the league set-up files and this will be also be made available on the web page. There will be inter-league play each year, with a series of 3 home/3 away games with the other league each season. This provides for 48 inter-league games and 112 league games per season.

The dates on the schedule are not actual dates, but games should be played in the order they are in the schedule. No manager is to play games beyond the current set being played.

All games from the previous set should be played, the stats files sent to the Commissioner and the visiting opponent, and the latest monthly stats and rosters downloaded from the web page or e-groups list before beginning play for the next set.

The schedule will be divided into 8 sets of 20 games, with roster transactions including trades and minor league call-ups occurring before the next set is begun.

Games will be played via a split format, with each team having the opportunity to play 80 home games and 80 away games. For league games, this will provide for 8 games played as the home manager and 8 played as the visiting manager versus each team. For inter-league games, because of the limited number of games, home/visiting designation will be rotated for each opponent through subsequent years. I.E. Team A of the American League has 6 games total versus Team H of the National League in a given season. In 2001, each team plays one 3 game series as the home manager. In 2002, each team plays one 3 game series as the visiting manager.

SERIES REPORTS:

Managers are to send opposing managers and the Commissioner, game results files via email. If the opposing manager wishes to receive any additional reports, such as box scores, he must inform the home manager.

DEFAULT INSTRUCTIONS:

A set of default instructions will be due to the Commissioner before the start date of the season. Each manager will send in a set of default instructions to include:
1) Starting rotation.
2) Starting line-ups vs. RHP / LHP
3) Manager tendencies
4) Player settings
5) Define substitutes
6) 25 man field roster
7) 0-10 man minor league roster

The default instructions are included in the stat and roster updates that will be sent each set. The computer manager "HAL" will be used for all games not completed and turned in by the 3^rd day of the designated next set. The default instructions will be used for all games during the regular season unless notified by the road manager before the 3^rd day of the designated next set. If changes need to be made to default instructions, it will be the owners’ duty and responsibility to contact the Commissioner with the changes.

If a manager fails to send instructions by the 3^rd day of the designated next set, the opposing manager has the right to go ahead and play the games, setting the opposing team up using the default instructions.

GAME SET-UP

The following is a list of Rules used in the LOC:

A. Super Advanced with BK/WP/PB

B. Ballpark effects

C. Clutch Hitting

D. Super Advanced Steal System

E. Super Advanced Strategy Charts

F. Do not use Miscellaneous rules

G. Use Closer Rules

H. Do not use injuries

I. Use SADV Fatigue Rules

J. Allow GBA on Pitcher’s cards

K. All games will be played versus the opposing manager’s CM unless arrangements are made by the opponents for the games to be played FTF or by Netplay.

L. There will be no DH in the LOC…old-time baseball at it’s best.

M. The League will be left unlocked, but if complaints are upheld by the league’s governing bodies, future leagues can or may be locked. It’s only a game and it’s hoped that fair play is observed by all.

TEAM ROSTERS:

Each team will have a 25-man field roster, with the excess designated as Minor Leaguers.

Teams that have players that receive two cards will use the card that has the combined total stats of that player.

There will be no limit on the amount of times you can farm and promote players; however, no re-assignments will be allowed during the middle of a set of games. Only before the start of a set will you be allowed to re-assign players from your field roster to your minor league roster and vise versa.

Rosters will expand up to 35 players the last set of the regular season.

TRADES:

Unlimited trading during the off-season is allowed and encouraged from the completion of the regular season until the pre-draft cut date.

Trades during the regular season are effective for each subsequent set of games in relation to the set that they occur.

All trades must be reported to the e-groups list and approved by the Commissioner within 24 hours of the trade by both of the managers involved. By approval, this means minimum roster size and/or player card set type are allowable by league rules.

Trades may contain unequal numbers of players, but at no time may a team’s roster contain less than 10 HOF players.

Draft picks may never be traded.

Trades may not involve the following:

1) Players to be named later.
2) Unethical transactions.
3) Any Draft Picks.

BALLPARKS:

Ballparks in the LOC are tailor made to your specifications concerning singles, home runs and photographs. Build your team to fit you ballpark…or vice versa.

A manager may not cut or trade a ballpark. The only way a ballpark may be changed, is if a new manager takes over an existing franchise and wishes to, or by a maximum of 3 each season in ballpark single and home run numbers. I.E. a stadium’s ballpark single may be moved from 1-7 to 1-10 or 1-4 maximum in 2002.

MISCELLANEOUS GAME PLAY RULES:

1) A starter must have a minimum of 3 days rest between starts. Remember, that the league schedule will include days off.

2) Non-pitchers are allowed to pitch using the SOM function.

3) Pitchers will be allowed to pinch-hit and pinch-run.

4) Players will only be allowed to appear in rated positions.

5) A starting pitcher not rated as such, may not relieve.

6) A relief pitcher, not rated as such, may not start.

LIMITATIONS:

1. Pitchers are limited to their actual number of innings on their card each year.

2. Batters will be limited to their actual number of plate appearances on their card.

3.     Overuse of a player will result in the possible loss of that player to free agency and/or other fines as listed below:
           1st offense - Written warning. No repercussions unless over-usage is deemed blatant by the League President and /or Commissioner.
           2nd offense - Immediate loss of player to free agency and loss of 3rd rd draft pick.
           3rd offense - Immediate loss of player to free agency and loss of 2nd rd draft pick.
           4th offense - Immediate loss of player to free agency and loss of 1st rd draft pick.
           5th offense - Immediate loss of player to free agency and one year suspension from playoffs.
           6th offense - immediate loss of player to free agency and dismissal from league.

Any player that is overused in the regular season will not be able to participate in the playoffs.

Note: The penalty for player over-usage in the playoffs is as follows: Any player that is overused in the playoffs will become an automatic free agent and will return to the annual rookie draft pool.

TIE-BREAKING SYSTEMS:

If teams are tied for first place in their league at the end of the regular season, or the number 4 and 5 teams are tied at the end of the regular season, then the following guidelines will determine who will be the home team for a 1 game playoff

1. Head to head record

2. Best record within their own league

3. Best record against the other league

4. Best road record

5. Coin toss by the Commissioner. The Commissioner will determine who will be "heads" and who will be "tails". If the Commissioners team is involved, then one of the League Presidents will conduct the coin toss.

If teams are tied as the number 2 play-off qualifier at the end of the regular season, then the following guidelines will be used to break the tie

1. Head to head record

2. Best record within their own league

3. Best record against the other league

4. Best road record

If both of the league winners have the same record at the end of the regular season, the following guidelines will be used to determine home field advantage in the World Series.

1. Best road record

2. Coin toss by the Commissioner with the NL team being “heads” and the AL team being "tails". If the Commissioner’s team is involved, then one of the League Presidents will conduct the coin toss.

Only a coin toss is necessary, should the number 3 and 4 playoff qualifiers end the regular season tied.

All playoff games, regardless of whether they are of the one game or series variety, are considered post season games, but their playing does have implications as far as days off, etc. for the remainder of the playoff time period. Any one game playoff is played without a day off from the end of the regular season, nor is their a day off between it and the start of the next segment of the play-offs.

PLAYOFFS:

All playoff games will be played by the home team’s manager, versus the visiting team’s computer manager. Every effort should be made to try and arrange for the playoff games to be played either via Netplay or by neutral parties as agreed upon by the opponents and the Commissioner.

At the end of the regular season, the 2 divisional winners will qualify for the League Playoff Series. An additional 6 teams, (3 in each League with the next best records other than division winners) will qualify as wildcard teams.

Round One of the playoffs will be a 1 game knockout round between the number 3 and 4 qualifying wildcard teams. Home field will be determined by a coin flip by the Commissioner.

Round Two of the playoffs will be a best of 7 series between the number 2 team and the winning team from Round One. The format will be 2-3-2, with the number 2 team playing the first 2 games and last 2 games, if necessary, at home.

The Round Two series winner will meet the Regular Season Champion in the League Championship Series. All Championship Series games will use the best of 7 format, with the home field advantage going to the Regular Season Champion. The format will be 2-3-2, with the Regular Season Champion playing the first 2 games and last 2 games, if necessary, at home.

The League Championship Series winners will advance to the World Series. The team with the best winning percentage during the regular season will hold home field advantage in a best of 9 series. If the two World Series teams had the same regular season record, then the tie-breaking system will be used to determine home field. The format will be 2-2-2-2-1, with the team with home field advantage playing games 1 and 2, 5 and 6 if necessary, and game 9 if necessary at home.

PLAYOFF LIMITATIONS:

Player usage in the playoffs is based on their actual player card stats. All rules still apply in all playoff games as far as pitcher usage, players playing out of position and starting at a particular position. The following limitations are for the entire length of the playoffs and World Series

FOR BATTERS:

500+ PA                                                unlimited

100- 499 PA                                          10% of card listed at bats plus walks

FOR STARTING PITCHERS:

200+ innings                                        unlimited starts as per 3 day off rule

125-199 innings                                   unlimited starts as per 4 day off rule

80-124 innings                                     10% of card listed innings pitched

FOR RELIEF PITCHERS

 75+ innings                                         unlimited innings as effected by rest

 40-74 innings                                      10% of card listed innings pitched

There will be 3 days between the end of the regular season and the start of a playoff series, except for any one game playoffs, which will begin the day after the end of the regular season. There will be one day off between road and home games for all playoff series. There will be 3 days off between the end and beginning of all playoff series, for example, between the end of the LCS and start of the World Series.

RULE CHANGES

All future permanent changes to LOC rules require a positive vote from a minimum of 2/3 of the league managers who are in good standing. Members in good standing are determined by the commissioner. The commissioner may make minor administrative changes and decisions on un-addressed or poorly addressed matters, subject to a veto of the majority of the owners. The League Presidents and the Regulatory Board have the right to make temporary decisions when a problem surfaces.

There will be a period following the regular season for league members to submit proposals to the commissioner for rule changes. This period will generally be the month prior to the start of the next regular season (October). The commissioner will consolidate these proposals and forward a ballot to all members in good standing for a popular vote. Denial of "good standing" status may be made by the commissioner after considering factors such as timeliness, rules infractions, over-usage infractions, etc.

PENALTIES FOR LATE SENDING:

I am sure all of you are aware of how important it is to send information on time. Any time the League office issues a due date, and it is not met, games will be played using your default instructions. If there is a problem meeting league deadlines, simply contact the league officials to make arrangements on when the games will be played or to have someone else play the games.

Most of all, I hope everyone has fun and enjoys the league. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about the history of the game, meet some new friends, enjoy some healthy competition, be creative, and a host of other things. Keep any ideas you have flowing in and I’m sure we’ll all have a successful league…the best Hall of Fame set based league on the internet!