The Bill Veeck's Leg League (BVL) is a NL-only Strat-O-Matic Baseball computer league, with its season running April thru approximately November. The league was founded in 2000.

A. The 14 teams are divided into two divisions, the Gaedel and the Minoso, and play a balanced 156-game schedule.

B. League dues are $20 annually. Dues cover expenses such as the yearly engraving and shipping of four traveling plaques honoring the league champs, MVP, Cy Young Award winner, and Manager of the Year, plus one round of drinks for those in attendance when the Rookie Draft is held in Las Vegas in the “odd” years. Dues must be paid in full no later than February 1 to reserve a place in the league.

Organizationally the league is run by the managers as a group, with some responsibilities handled individually and some by committee. The committees generally rotate on a yearly basis:

A. The 3-man Executive Committee (3-year commitment) oversees the league, including assigning the other committees. After reviewing league feedback, it determines league issues including which proposals are brought to votes. While the Executive Committee’s primary responsibility is to enforce the Constitution, it may make unilateral decisions in the best interest of the BVL, with the exception of overruling the Trade Committee.

B. The Statistician creates rosters and coordinates statistics regularly during the season.

C. The 3-man Trade Committee reviews all trades. If any trade is determined by a 3-0 vote to have been unfair (by their definition) the trade is rejected and sent back to the teams involved. If not re-submitted, the trade is vetoed. If re-submitted, the process begins again. Trades are presumed to be approved if not officially rejected within 48 hours of submission.

D. The Compensation Committee will organize and operate each season's Compensation Voting and Draft.

E. The Webmaster will keep the website updated.

F. The Treasurer will collect and disperse all monies as directed by the Executive Committee.

G. The Draft Coordinators will schedule, organize, and run the Rookie Draft. (Odd years must be present in Las Vegas.)

H. The Logomaster will create and maintain all league and team logos and drink beer at an alarming rate.

I. The Membership Committee will actively keep a managerial “waiting list.”

A. The BVL uses only National League players. If a player has two cards, only the NL card will be used.

B. The BVL does NOT use uncarded, “computer-only” players.

A. ROSTERS

1. Before each season, each team may protect up to 22 players from their previous season's roster. Teams may protect carded or uncarded players. If uncarded players are not protected, the team waives its ownership to those players.

2. Rosters may consist of carded or uncarded players. However, uncarded players must remain in the minor leagues.

3. All teams must have a minimum of 1,400 Innings Pitched (IP) and 650 Plate Appearances (PA) at each position on their roster. They must also have a backup at each position on their active roster at all times. Violations will result in Penalty Points. The Executive Committee reserves the right to make waiver adjustments to any team not in compliance with these or any roster rules.

4. Before each month's games, teams must report their starting rotation and list of minor leaguers to the statistician. Teams must use the same 25-man active roster for the entire month (home and road games).

a. Teams may never deviate from their scheduled starting rotations. Starter rest will be enforced throughout the month. For example, assume the pitcher that starts on your May 1st game is a non-asterisked (four days rest) pitcher. He may not start again until your May 6th game. Then again on your May 11th game and so on. Rotations renew each month so the pitcher that started the last game of the current month may start the first game of the following month.

b. During September, all players with usage left may be activated. Such players may be activated for some September series but not others as a means of controlling usage. Teams may include road instructions such as, “Let Jones start at second base until he accumulates 10 plate appearances. Then deactivate following that game.” Teams may NEVER instruct the home manager to make in-game moves, such as “Remove Smith once he pitches four innings in his start.” Such instructions are illegal in any month. Once the game starts, the road team is in HAL's hands.

B. PLAYER USE (Also see PLAYING RULES)

1. For the regular season, all players may be used a maximum of 110% of their actual ML PA/IP. This number is calculated
by CDROMBB. (A "plate appearance" is defined as at-bats plus walks.)

2. Managers are responsible for not over-using players and are subject to penalties if they do. Once players are used up, their regular-seasonal eligibility immediately ends. Intentional overuse may result in dismissal from the league. Accidental overuse will be penalized as follows: 1 Penalty Point for every out a pitcher is overused & 1 Penalty Point for every plate appearance a batter is overused. The Executive Committee also may dole out penalty points for violations of league rules such as lateness. Penalty is the loss of a draft pick according to the following:

ACCUMULATED PENALTY POINTS PENALTY

0 - 25: None

26 - 50: Loss of 5th round pick

51 - 75: Loss of 4th round pick

76 - 100: Loss of 3rd round pick

101+ : Loss of 2nd round pick

All penalties will be assigned to the manager, not the franchise. If a manager does not have a penalized pick (i.e., he had already traded it away), he can either trade for his original pick back or forfeit a pick one round better in the following year's draft. Exception: See Rule V.C.1.

3. Except in the postseason, pitchers listed as "Starter" only may not relieve. Pitchers listed as "Relief-Only” may never start. Pitchers designated by SOM as an "*" starter (usually determined by 200 IP + 30 starts) may pitch with only three days rest. All other starters need four days rest. (As noted in SOM's Super-Advanced Rules.)

4. A player may play a position not listed on his card only in the following circumstances:

a. Outfielders may change as per SOM's Super-Advanced Rules;

b. If due to injury he is without enough players to field a team;

c. Teams may use a position player to pitch under SOM's rules ONLY IF his team is behind by at least 10 runs AND the
game is in the eighth inning or later.

5. Pinch-runners are permitted at anytime with the following exception: If a pinch-runner tries for the lead and fails to get it, he may not be removed for another pinch-runner as long as he continues to occupy the same base. (This applies to the human playing the games only.)

6. PLAYERS WITH SEPARATE BATTING AND PITCHING CARDS IN THE SAME SET (i.e. The Brooks Kieschnick Memorial Rule)

a. Only one of the player's cards may be active in any given road series. The owner of the player must specify in his road instructions which of the player's cards is to be used in that series.

b. If during a home series the player's pitching card enters the game first, his owner may use the player's batting card only to pinch hit for the player's pitching card. Afterwards, the player's batting card may remain in the game and play the field at any rated position other than pitcher. The player's batting card cannot return to pitch unless allowed by rule IV.B.4.c. (i.e., a non-pitching card can only pitch if his team is down by 10 or more in the 8th inning or later).

c. If the player's batting card enters the game first, the player's pitching card can enter only as a substitute for the player's batting card.

d. The player's pitcher's hitting card (i.e., the generic cards SOM uses for pitcher's hitting) cannot be used to pinch-hit.

e. Usage of the batting card and the pitching card is tracked separately. The pitching card "burns out" when its usage reaches the card's 105% IP limit; the batting card burns out when its usage reaches the 105% PA limit. PA incurred by the generic pitcher's hitting card and IP incurred by the hitting card do not count against the other card's usage.

[Note: this rule to be automatically removed if and when Strat-O-Matic revises its baseball computer game engine to treat the two cards as a single player.]

C. TRADES

1. The BVL allows trading at the following times:

a. The Pre-Draft trading period, beginning after the Protected Lists are handed in (approximately 2 weeks);

b. The Post-Draft trading period, beginning shortly after the Draft and lasting approximately 1 week;

c. In-Season trading, which continues through July.

2. In-Season trades must be reported to the league no later than the 20th of the month to be active for the following month. Trades reported after the 20th will not count for the upcoming month.

3. Trades may be for any asset (carded players, uncarded players, draft choices through the 10th round) except ballparks. Trades for draft choices may be only for "this year and next year." For example, during the 2007 pre-draft trading period, you may trade 2007 and/or 2008 draft picks. But you may not trade 2009 draft picks until the 2008 pre-draft trade period.

4. Intricate or conditional trades are permitted but:

a. The full conditions must be spelled out in complete detail at the time of the trade;

b. Any trade that could be considered a "trade back" -- that is, automatically or through conditions completely or partially reversed the following year -- is prohibited.

c. Trades agreed to during a non-trading period must be finalized by both parties during a legal trading period.

5. All trades must be submitted to and approved by the Trade Committee. The Trade Committee will include its rationale with any trade rejection. There are no appeals for any decision made by the Trade Committee.

a. In the absence of a member of Trade Committee (travel, etc.), or the inclusion of a Trade Committee member in a trade, a member of the Executive Committee will stand in.

D. BALLPARKS

Each BVL team has a ballpark. These are permanent unless its NL team actually moves to a new city. This does not apply to NL teams who simply build a new local ballpark.

E. THE LEG LOTTERY

Each year a draft lottery will determine the first three overall picks in the Rookie Draft. The Leg Lottery will include only the eight non-playoff teams with the team with the worst record having a 22 percent chance to get the first pick, the second-worst record a 19 percent chance, and so on, down to the team with the eighth-worst record having a 3 percent chance. The Leg Lottery is held on New Year’s Eve, with the picks being revealed one at a time (the final two at once) from January 1-7.

F. ROOKIE DRAFT

1. The Rookie Draft will be held in March on a date TBD by the Exec Committee after canvassing availability and preference. The draft will be held on a Saturday in odd-numbered (Vegas) years, and on a Sunday in even-numbered (non-Vegas) years. A chat room will be set up online for the draft with telephone back-up access.

a. The standard number of league-provided draft picks is 13. No team will end the draft with more than 35 players on its roster.

b. If a team has a pick taken away through penalty, they will finish the draft with 34 players.

c. The draft is in reverse order of the previous year's finish, with the Leg Series loser drafting 13th and Leg Series winner drafting 14th automatically.

2. There is no time limit on draft choices, but after approximately three minutes expect to be razzed mercilessly.

G. COMPENSATION DRAFT

In 2002 a player Compensation System took effect.

H. PLAYING RULES (Also see PLAYER USE)

1. All Super-Advanced rules, including Super Hal, are used with the exception of the Weather.

2. Injuries are allowed but for no longer than the balance of the series only. Unless specified in instructions, HAL will create a new lineup.

3. Starting pitchers may not be removed from a game until they have allowed three (3) runs or pitched four (4) innings.

4. No pitcher may start an inning with a zero fatigue rating. If a pitcher reaches zero during an inning, he may finish the inning, but he must be relieved before the next inning.

5. Face-to-face and Netplay (with limitations) are allowed. For Netplay, each team may play three road Netplay series and unlimited home Netplay series. This will allow the average team to play six Netplay series, or 36 Netplay games. Any games played via Netplay will constitute a series as far as this limit is concerned.

A. Six teams advance to the BVL playoffs, the two division winners (the #1 and #2 seeds) and the non-division winners (wild cards) with the four best won-lost records (seeds #3 thru #6).

1. No unowned team may advance to the playoffs. The highest- ranked owned team take their spot. Unowned teams may participate in all other league activities at the discretion of the Executive Committee.

2. The first round of the playoffs pits the wild card teams against each other with the division winners receiving byes. The #3 seed (the wild card team with the best record) will play the #6 seed (the wild card team with the worst record), while the #4 and #5 seeds play each other.

3. In the second round, the #1 seed plays the lower remaining seed, while the #2 seed plays the higher remaining seed.

4. The winners will play for the BVL championship, aka The Leg Series.

B. Schedule. All series are Best-of-7 with the higher seed designated as the home team for games 1, 2, 6, and 7. Each series begins with no injuries. A day off (travel) is recorded after games 2 and 5.  For the purposes of pitching rotations, two days rest will be added between series, plus any days for unplayed games.  Meaning if a series goes 6 games, a day off for Game 7 (not needed) plus two more days off will be added allowing an * starter who started Game 6 to come back again to start Game 1.  However no matter what type of rest HAL assigns a pitcher, no starter may ever start Game 7 of one series and Game 1 of the next.

C. Postseason usage limits are 15% for division winners and 20% for wild cards. Meaning, if a division-winner pitcher has 100 carded innings, he’ll have 15 post-season IP. A wild card player with 100 innings will have 20 post-season IP. (Remember, he has to play an extra series.) In case of fractions, always round higher.

1. Players overused during the regular season cannot participate in the postseason without penalty. If a manager chooses to use a player overused in the regular season during the postseason, the player's overuse will be multiplied by 5 in determining penalty points. However, no teams will be allowed to surpass a total of 125 team PP's by activating a player for the playoffs.

(Example: Joe Slugger was overused by 20 plate appearances in the regular season which would cost his team 20 penalty points. If Slugger was activated for the postseason, it would cost his team 100 (20 x 5) penalty points, with his team forfeiting at least [depending upon other PP] a third-round draft pick the following year.)

All voluntary usage penalties must be paid in the subsequent year's draft. This is an exception to Rule IV.B.2. If activating an overused player for the postseason would cause the owner to forfeit a draft pick he no longer owns, he may substitute a higher draft pick that he does own. If he does not have a pick in his possession sufficient to satisfy the penalty incurred by activating the player, he may not activate that player for the postseason.

D. Playoff teams must submit a 25-player post-season roster to the Statistician before playing any games. These rosters may not be changed throughout the post-season.

E. Injuries. Post-season injury rules differ from regular-season injury rules in three respects:

1. Regular-season injuries will not continue into the playoffs;

2. Injuries will be limited to Balance of Game +1.

3. Injuries are measured by DAYS, not GAMES.

F. Breaking ties. If two teams are tied, and both teams will either go to the playoffs or both miss the playoffs, the tie-breaking procedures are: First, head-to-head games vs. that opponent; second, division record; third, coin flip.

1. If there is a tie and one team will go to the playoffs and one will not, a playoff game will be held (with all regular-season limits applying). Home team will be determined by a coin flip. This game will be played on Day 157 as noted previously.

2. In case of a three-way tie where only one team will advance to the playoffs, slips of paper will be drawn from The Leg. The winner (having drawn the "1") will have the option of either playing both teams 2 and 3 at home, or the winner of the 2 vs. 3 matchup (2 is home in that one) on the road. This is a single-elimination process.

G. All Starting pitchers may relieve in the postseason as designated by the SOM Super-Advanced rules.

PREAMBLE: The major conceit of single-league (NL-only or AL-only) leagues is intra-league player movement. Many leagues simply take a “tough luck” approach to teams losing players. The BVLL, however, designed an advanced Compensation System which roughly replicates the talent values of players “lost” TO the AL (“Outgoing Players”) by using their counterparts arriving FROM the AL (“Incoming Players”).

CONCEPT: Although the system contains some complexities and technicalities involving player eligibility, Compensation revolves around the concept of "unexpected loss." This ensures the integrity of the Compensation System, by precluding teams from trading (or drafting) their way into the Compensation draft.

SYSTEM: At the time a team acquires a player (through draft or trade), he falls into one of three categories: he is under contract to a real-life NL team, he is under contract to a real-life AL team, or he is owned by neither.

1. If he is already in the AL, he is not eligible for compensation due to failing to adhere to the "unexpected loss" principle. Such players will be listed as "pounded" and will be listed with a "#" symbol next to their names on league rosters and draft lists. The only way a player can lose his pounded status is if he returns to the NL during the season he was pounded; otherwise, you lose all rights to this player after the season.

2. If a player is in the NL or is a free agent, he now falls into one of the following categories:

a) He has an NL card only this year;

b) He has an AL card only this year;

c) He has both NL and AL cards this year;

d) He has no card this year.

If he falls into category a), you have the right to either keep him as one of your 22, or cut him back into the draft.

(If he has returned to the AL or does so before our draft, as a “#” player he will not be eligible for compensation by whoever drafts him.)

If he falls into category b), you still control him when the Compensation Draft comes around. At that time you will choose between seeking compensation or the alternative, known as “Retainer Rights.” You'll do one, and give up the other.

If he falls into category c), you must protect and keep his NL card in order to have this option next year.

If he falls into category d), you needed to protect him uncarded as one of your 22-max to continue your ownership of this player.

Managers will vote for the compensation order, listing the most deserving 1st, next most deserving 2nd, etc., all the way down the “Outgoing” list. Outgoing players will be ranked by their AL card “value” (usage + quality) with lesser consideration given to age and potential.

Managers are NOT eligible to vote for their own players. If irregularities in a manager's ballot are apparent (the obviously undeserving receiving undue support to undermine the process), the Executive Committee may invalidate such ballots and take disciplinary action. THIS VOTE MUST BE AS HONEST AS THE GAMES.

Once the results are tallied, the compensation draft order will be determined and it will be run a couple of weeks prior to the rookie draft.

Any owner failing to submit a compensation list by the deadline will be assessed 30 penalty points, and the Executive Committee will make compensation decisions for the team using their best judgment.

Teams lose Retainer Rights on any player who has not received a SOM card for three consecutive seasons.

Shortly after the Compensation Order is determined, the Compensation Draft takes place. This is approximately 1-2 weeks prior to the Rookie Draft via e-mail with results posted on the Message Board by the Compensation Committee.

Players with both AL and NL cards may receive compensation, but that compensation will be limited to the “value” (usage + quality) of the AL card.