It is a note of pride that the current league boasts 6 of the 9 original I-75 Mail League charter members from 1980, and 8 managers with 20+ years of league membership. As the revamped league hurtles into the future, the managers proudly rededicate themselves to the League mantra: The Foremost Strat-O-Matic Brains in the Country.

A replacement manager who inherits an existing roster has the option to protect up to five fewer players than other existing franchises, selecting non-retained players from the other rosters to fill up his retention roster to the prescribed number. If more than one team has a manager change in the same season, then a draft format devised by the Czar will be used to redistribute players onto retention rosters. The replacement manager selects his retention roster before the waiver draft.

By December 15^th, or two days after the new season fielding ratings are released on the SOM website, whichever is later, all managers that are committed and accepted for the upcoming season must submit a list of 15 18 17 or 18 players from their previous season roster that shall be retained.

After the waiver draft, all nonretained players on the roster are returned to the player pool and are available for drafting by any team in the March preseason draft. The list of retained players for each team is posted on the website. If a team, for any reason, fails to submit a retention list by the deadline, the Czar will be responsible for determining the retention list for the subject team.

Once retention lists have been received and verified for the entire league, The Czar will declare opening day for the Hot Stove season, and bestow onto each manager 14 draft picks for the upcoming March draft. The Hot Stove season will run from that day until the completion of the draft on Draft Day. after which all trading will be frozen until the completion of the Draft. During the Hot Stove season, unrestricted trading of retained players and/or draft picks among member managers is permitted. All trades must be submitted to and approved by the Czar before they become effective. At no time during the Hot Stove season shall a manager’s roster of combined players plus draft picks drop below 25 or exceed 37.

The Convention officially begins on the Saturday night before the Sunday Draft with the League Meeting. The Czar presides over the festivities, welcoming all the managers and handing out awards from the previous season. The Czar also provides a treasury report, and directs any discussion from the attending managers regarding rules changes or important League decisions. Only managers physically in attendance are given the right to vote on rule changes. Non-attending managers may provide opinions on topics of interest, either in advance, or via telecon, but are not allowed to vote unless give specific approval of the Czar. All active managers are given the right to vote on rule changes. For proposals initiated before the draft, managers may cast their vote live, either in person or via phone or instant messaging, or cast an absentee vote by registering his vote ahead of time with the Czar. For proposals initiated at the draft, managers must be "live" to cast votes, either in person or via phone, or instant messaging only.

The Hot Stove season is considered closed after the Draft is completed.

All players are eligible to be drafted, regardless of whether the player is carded. Only officially carded players, however, are eligible to play during the season. Officially carded players consist of cards appearing on the regular roster plus cards identified as Additional Players by Strat-O-Matic. Electronic carded players are not eligible to be used in League play. Exception: electronic carded players that are retained by the team during the previous off season are eligible to play.

The Draft consists of 31 rounds, through which each team selects 30 players and one Ballpark from the eligible pool. Managers begin each draft with 100 bidding points. In the first 12 rounds, draft picks will be made simultaneously (i.e. Grand Prix style). Each manager will receive the player drafted if no other club chooses him in that round. If two or more clubs draft the same player, managers will submit secret bids in writing, with the player being awarded to the highest bidder. All unsuccessful bidders from that phase of the round retain their bidding points and must simultaneously resubmit a pick. If two clubs tie for the highest bid, a rolloff of three 6-sided dice will determine the winner. Each round is considered closed after all ties have been resolved and each team has been awarded one player.

All players not retained are eligible to be drafted. Trading is allowed during the Draft. The Draft consists of 14 rounds.

1. Teams that do not make the playoffs are seeded 1 through 6 by overall winning percentage from the previous season, highest to lowest.
2. Teams that do qualify for the playoffs are seeded 7 through 12 by overall winning percentage, lowest to highest.
3. In the case of ties in the overall winning percentage, the team with the lower winning percentage in head-to-head play from the previous season will be awarded the lower number seed.
4. In the case of a tie for head-to-head winning percentage, a coin toss presided over by the Czar determines draft order.
5. Playoff record, playoff seeding, or playoff finish does not affect seeding.

Rounds #2-14: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 , 5 ,4, 3, 2, 1

Every series during the season is 5 games in length. Each month, teams play two series at home and two series on the road, alternating home-road-home-road. Exception: To expedite the season and postseason, five 5-game series shall be played in August and September, followed by two 5-game series in October to complete the season. The schedule identifies the order that these games are played, for pitching rotation purposes. When playing a road opponent who cannot be opposed live (i.e. face-to-face, phone, internet, proxy, or Netplay) the visiting manager must submit a Computer Manager file, complete with rosters and a legal rotation for the series. The home team manager uses HAL to computer manage the visiting team. Anyone on the league's permanently ineligible list cannot be allowed to proxy. Either HAL or SuperHAL CM instructions may be used. Home team managers are responsible for seeing that the visiting manager's CM’s are installed and configured properly. Home team managers are not allowed to "override" CM decisions during gameplay, unless the CM attempts to use a player that is ineligible to play. The home team manager is not responsible for any bone-headed strategies or moves that HAL may make on behalf of the visiting team, so long as the strategy is legal, based on League rules.

1. 1^st through the 20^th: Game play period.
2. 21^st through the last day of the month: trading/statistics period.
3. On or before the 20^th: managers should email boxscores/series stats to the visiting managers.
4. 25^th of the month: deadline for reporting home series results/status to the league.
5. 25th of the month: managers’ deadline for submitting game result files to the Statistician.
6. 28^th of the month: managers’ deadline for submitting next month’s active roster to the Statistician.
7. 28^th of the month: announcement deadline for trades to become effective for the upcoming month.
8. Last day of the month: managers’ deadline for sending Instruction Sheet/Computer Manager to the next month's road opponents.
9. 1^st day of next month: Statistician sends out updated roster files, which include the active rosters for all teams for the upcoming month, and incorporate any trades made during the trading period.
10. For October play, it is expected that all games shall be completed and game result files submitted no later than October 10^th.

• Between 25 and 37 players on the total roster.
• 25 players on the active roster, except for October game where all players are active.
• Total roster must have a minimum of 1500 innings at all times.
• Total roster must have a minimum of 600 AB traceable to each position at all times. At bats for players with multiple positions cannot be double counted, but can be distributed among carded positions to fulfill the 600 AB requirement.
• Active roster must have two players capable of playing at each position at all times.
• A minimum of four players capable of playing the outfield on the active roster at all times.

1. Hot Stove Season – The Czar declares the opening of the Hot Stove Season on or after December 15^th. This trading period continues until the completion of the Draft on Draft Day. Trading of players and/or draft picks is permitted. All teams must maintain preseason legal rosters at all times.
2. Regular Season – Trading is permitted beginning at the completion of the Draft and ending at midnight Eastern Daylight Time July 28th. Trades do not take effect until a league officer has been informed of the swap. Trades made before the 28^th of the month are effective for the next play period. Trades made after the 28^th of the month become effective for the following play period. Only trading of players is permitted. No trades involving future draft choices or future considerations are permitted. All teams must maintain regular season legal rosters at all times.
3. Postseason – Trading is permitted between October 31st and December 15^th. No trades involving future draft choices or future considerations are permitted. All teams must maintain preseason legal rosters at all times.

Before playing any October games, managers are obligated to establish player limits separately for all their home and road series, based on the remaining player eligibility for the season. All players on the total roster are considered active, unless the team manager specifically decides to inactivate a player. Once set, teams are held to those individual series limits with no changes being allowed. If the games are not played live, it is the responsibility of the home team manager to ensure that the stated series limits are not exceeded for both teams. Responsible managers that exceed limits in any given series will be subject to penalties. If the visiting team is being managed by a computer manager, a player is eligible to play the next game as long as he has not completely used up his allotment of AB or IP. Such a player may exceed his series AB/IP limit during the course of one game, but after that game, he must be toggled off as ineligible for play for any subsequent games.

In a one-game playoff to break a tie for third or first, limited players will be allowed to exceed their regular-season limit. Teams must stay in rotation they had followed at the end of the season, but relief pitchers are considered fresh.

The Pennant series begins with the division winning team’s pitchers fresh. The advancing team shall be allowed one day of rest between series. When advancing to World Series, each team is allowed one day of rest between series. Additionally, the victor of the shorter Pennant series shall gain one additional day of rest for each day that his series was shorter than his opponent's. Travel days (between Games 2 and 3 and between 5 and 6) shall be considered a day of rest for all pitchers. Knockout series play should be completed by Nov. 15 Oct. 31, Pennant Series by Nov. 30 15, and the World Series by Dec. 15 Nov. 30.

1. The League uses the most recent version of the super-advanced X fielding chart.

• Infield in or in at the corners
• Sacrifice bunt with runners on first and third
• Throws to third
• Outfielder robbing homers
• Catcher blocking the plate
• Cutoff rules
• Clutch fielding ratings
• Outfield in
• Ballpark effects
• Weather effects
• Runner being held chart
• Groundball result chart
• Outfielders modified defensive positions
• Closer rule
• Star-no star rule for starters
• Lomax rule.
• Superadvanced pitcher fatigue rules.

• playing an infield defensive players out of position (except in emergency);
• bringing in a position player to pitch
• Pitch count
• Pitch around
• the delayed steal of home
• the additional supplementary steal rules
• individual balks, wild pitches and passed balls
• realistic pitcher usage
• solitaire player rest system
• Max Rules modifications.
• Player injuries

Utilization of players in the I-75 Mail League shall be subject to the following restrictions:

1. An exception to this rule is the outfielder modified defensive position rule.
2. If injuries temporarily eliminate all players available for a given position, a manager should insert the most suitable replacement. That player would assume a 5 fielding rating, the worst e factor available at that position, and a throwing arm of +5.
3. A player may not be pinch-hit or pinch-run for if his removal would leave no players carded at that position available to play his position.
4. At all times during the season, a manager must carry at least two players capable of playing each position on his active roster.
1. An exception to this rule is when a player does not have in injury roll on his card, the manager must carry at least two players capable of playing that position on his total roster. Deleted.

C. Pitchers are permitted to pitch only in the capacity listed on their card.

1. All managers must draft 1500 innings of eligibility each year.
2. At all times during the season, a team’s total roster must carry at least 1500 innings of eligibility.
3. All pitchers are limited to the actual number of innings listed on the card for the season.
4. Starting pitchers must pitch five innings or allow three runs or fall into fatigue before being removed. Exception: It is legal for a visiting using a CM to replace a starting pitcher any time with a different legal reliever.
5. Starter-Relievers and Relief-Starters are bound by all guidelines assigned to pure starters. For example, when a starter-reliever is shifting from one role to another, he is ineligible to pitch for the 4 days preceding or following a start (3 days if he has a star), regardless of how the games fall on the series schedule.
6. Starter-Relievers and Relief-Starters are not limited in the number of starts that they can make.
7. Starting pitchers must stay in rotation. No days of rest are allowed for between series or months.
8. All active pure relievers on the active roster are considered available to pitch at the start of a given series.
9. The computer tracks and determines when a pitcher falls into endurance.