Divisions and Rules for the Chicagoland tournament on July 25th!

Tournament organizer Doug “Al Haig” Schuyler: “I’m in charge”

The 2015 Chicagoland APBA World Series Tournament is almost a month away!  The divisions have been selected for Tournament which will be held on July 25th at the Grayslake Historical Society in Grayslake, IL. 

Doug Schuyler has organized all 28 teams into four divisions.  Each team will face every other team in their division once in the first round.  The two teams with the top W-L records will go on to the second round.  Playoffs will be cross-bracketed with #1 facing #2 in different divisions.

Without delay, here are the divisions. 

*** denotes division leaders  

Will Scott Fennessy win his second Chicagoland trophy?

Game rules will be similar to past tournaments with one exception…. we will have a four man rotation!  Should make it more interesting. 

It seems like a long list of rules.  A lot of them are just common sense and quite honestly, a few of them are actually rules of the APBA Game itself. 

APBA Chicagoland World Series tournament rules

General

• The basic game will be used with either old school boards and booklet, or the newest version. The dice roll winner will determine which version is used.
• You may bring any MLB team 1900-present. (APBA issued cards only – no copies allowed)
• 20 man max roster (bring APBA roster sheet for your team). (regular and xb cards may be used. No xc’s allowed. Bring regular and xb roster sheet for your team)
• Top 2 teams from each division will advance to the playoffs
• One division head will be chosen to assist in keeping track of scores.
• The DH will be used for all games to speed up play for games and tournament.

Pitching

• A 4 man rotation will be used.
• No j-4 starting pitcher may start
• No pitcher only rated as a reliever (denoted by an asterisk next to the pitcher’s grade) may start.
• Regular APBA basic game pitcher grade advancement will be used; 5 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run=equal a grade advancement(example: for grade D pitchers who pitch 5 innings without allowing an earned run will advance to grade C, six innings without allowing an earned run for a grade C pitcher to advance to grade B, etc.) One grade advancement for each additional inning without allowing an earned run. Any pitcher that allows 5 earned runs in any 3 consecutive innings is lowered one letter grade.
• Starters must pitch at least 5 innings unless affected by grade reduction.
• Relief pitchers with *asterisk are limited to two innings or 6 total outs.
• Any relief pitcher is advanced one letter grade for only the first batter they face in the middle of an inning only.
• All pitchers will be grade D starting the top of the 10th inning to ensure speed of game and tournament.
• In the final championship game, any pitcher rated as a starter may start that game. A relief pitcher may not start.
• Pitchers cannot bat but may pinch run.

Fielding

• Total team fielding and optional fielding ratings will be used.
• Any player who does not have a fielding rating for a position will be considered the lowest fielding rating at that position if placed into the game.
• The manager must declare deep or in with a runner on third base. If not declared, the infield will be considered deep.

Baserunning

• A manager must declare whether or not a runner is playing it safe. If they are playing it safe they would only advance as far as the batter. For example, with a runner on first base and the batter doubles, the runner would only advance two bases and go to third and not score despite what the board says. All board steal results or thrown out trying to steal are negated if the manager was playing it safe the runner.
• No limit to sacrifice attempts.

Housekeeping rules

• Any injury is only sustained for that game. The player may return to the lineup for the next game.
• Roll for home field prior to the game. High roll wins home field advantage.
  Re-roll both dice if they go off table or out of box
• If one die rolls off, then only re-roll that die.

I’m really looking forward to this.  Sadly, organizer Jim Saska will not be there even though he had a hand in getting this together.  Jim, it won’t be the same without you. 

The big question is… will Craig Christian bring his dreaded dice tower??