Forming a New League? What You Should Know
By Doug Crandall - Contributing Writer
06/19/2006
Most of us have been involved in a new league and have seen first-hand what makes the new league a success or a failure. It is my goal to help you to start a new league or to show you what to look for if you are getting into a new league. Here goes….
Step One: Rules
The most important intervention for a new league is a good set of rules. The rules need to be fair and consistent and most importantly, they need to be clear and precise. The less gray area you have in your constitution, the better your league will be. Try to remove all the loop holes possible.
The first decision to be made involves the format of the league. What will it be? All-star? Real life? NL or AL only? Most recent year played, a historical single-year format or will it cover multiple years?
Will this be a CM league or will it be a Net-Play league or will it involve both? Or, will the format fall somewhere between these options or combine a few of them. Will you allow 100%, 110%, etc. usage of players. Will you use a rule that states a player must be used 50% or he must be cut at season’s end? Your league will need a group site (I use yahoogroups) to place all files and results.
For a real life league, you probably want to limit your size to 20 or 26 teams. This allows you to have some players available to improve teams through a draft or some other allocation method. This format is for the more serious managers who enjoy the challenges of platoon players, less than stellar pitching and having to deal with multiple .220 hitters. Starting a league this big will be very difficult due to finding owners for that many teams.
For an all-star league, you will want to play with all of the players available. Your league size should be between 10 and 18 teams. The more teams you have, the lower your standards for all-star status become. This format is more for the less serious manager who simply enjoys being able to parade around his all-stars. While the competition can still be fierce, there is still joy in Mudville after the game.
Realize that the new league is likely to evolve and adjust in its initial years and do not become frustrated if it begins to change from your own personal image of what it should look like. Your league is comprised of members and the members change and have different desires but, generally, members want to have fun and compete. If competition is not there the league will quickly fall apart.
Get Organized
Create a system that delegates powers to several owners and also allows those owners access to all files etc. This allows for a league to function even if its top leadership suddenly decays. It also allows for league members to check on results and other data. I recently dropped out of a league because the commissioner would delete all the files and so there way no way to check on his honesty when a question arose. Stay clear of a league where you don’t trust the commissioner! Duh!!!
Administration
Your league must have league officers or committees to handle small disputes such as trade committees, rules committees, etc. It is imperative that these committees handle the disputes and that the disputes do not become league wide. This can cause lots of problems with league harmony.
Reiterate to your league members that these are used for extreme cases and not all trades in the league need to be looked at by a trade committee, and league rules proposals need to be handled during the off-season.
Be stern but fair and demand organization. Create a system of accounting that is organized. Disasters occur and the league needs to be able to survive them and react quickly sometimes.
Most owners like realism or a game that imitates life as much as possible. The game is flawed in this respect but try to stay true to life as best as you can. Inter-league play is a must. Leagues that are essentially two distinct leagues within a league become just that! Inter-league play, while it may be uncomfortable to some, allows league members to communicate better and compete against one another. It creates unity.
Eliminate "freak" cards and loopholes. Nobody likes the idea of someone pinch hitting for Albert Pujols in the 7th because a freak card has a HR for its entire “2” column.
A big question: Roster size
OK, you now know your format and have decided on the number of teams you want to include. Your next decision is how many players can a manager have on his team? Do you want to allocate every player or leave a large enough pool of players for managers to pick from next year?
Maybe you can have any Free Agents picked up during the season must be released at season's end? I think 25 players should be a minimum and 35 should be a maximum, although I have seen leagues with as many as a 50-man roster including players who have not been to the major leagues yet.
The first draft
Now, we move on to the fun stuff. How do you fill out the teams? Draft all of the players, draft some and allocate some, draft just players with a card or allow all players, including minor leaguers and high school players to be drafted, make random picks by position, give each manager a budget and bid for players? I suggest you use a system that you are comfortable with and have had experience with.
What kind of limitations will there be on the players you can choose? Do you need a minimum of two players per position? Can players play out of position? Do you have a budget for your team that must be considered?
How many players versus how many pitchers? Are there a minimum number of pitchers for each team? How about starters versus relievers? You need to decide how the makeup of each team is constrained before you even try to fill out the teams.
Constitution
All of these things, and more, should be included in a constitution for the league. This is a compiled list of many of the things you find important about the running of your league and should be completed prior to trying to obtain managers for the teams.
It should cover the behavior and practices of the league, teams and managers. It should give you a good guideline of how your league is run, what you expect from the managers and some idea of how things will continue in the future.
Without that last item, you may just end up with one of the one-year wonder leagues.
Disputes
Lastly, you will need to include some way to handle disputes in the league. A committee, a commissioner or some other method could be used to handle the disputes. Clearly defined penalties for various infractions of the league rules should also be spelled out in the constitution.
The hard part: recruiting
At this point, you have the basic structure for your league worked out. Now comes what can be the toughest part of starting a new league – getting managers for your teams.
The more teams your league is to have, the more difficulty you will have in finding enough of the right type of managers to handle all of the teams. Friends are one source. Managers you know from another league are another good source to draw from.
Lastly, there is the advertisement route. This is the source with the most danger to your league, but can also bring you some of your best managers.
Try to fill your manager vacancies with experienced managers who have a proven track record of being reliable. Try to keep these guys. Do what ever if necessary to get them into your league and keep them.
If you have little owner information to go on, ask for references, but realize that you may get a clunker for a manager. This could be someone who cheats at the game, someone who is always late reporting results or someone who leaves the league in the middle of a season. Try to make plans on how to handle these situations before they arise.
Accept the fact that bad apples will get into your league from time to time. Work hard at eliminating bad apples and recruiting a solid league membership. The extra time spent on getting stable owners is well worth the effort.
Worst to first
An imperative aspect of the league is a method of improving the bad teams so they become competitive over time. This can be in the form of some unique rules.
I have been in league where the teams that missed the playoffs were awarded extra draft picks or allowed to draft Free Agents before the draft begins. I can help you with more if you would like. You can email me for some ideas I use in my leagues at Crandall@pld.com.
Overall, try to remember that playing in a league is supposed to be fun! If you are the one running the league, be prepared for a fair amount of work outside of simply running your own team. Know in advance that with every decision you make, you will never please all of the managers in the league. Try to be as fair and impartial in your decisions as you can.
Make sure to communicate with your managers on a regular basis. They are joining to have fun and like to be kept up to date on league results, trades and happenings.
Many leagues I am in use AOL Instant messenger. The league needs to use something similar to increase league communications. It makes it very easy to see who is online at the time and can make playing games much quicker. Arrange for regular newsletters, schedule blocks of games in reasonable doses and stay in touch with your managers!
I hope this helps and your league is a big success!