OFFICIAL ROTISSERIE LEAGUE RULES (quickly typed from Harry's fax and not proofread yet)

April 30, 1991

I. OBJECT
To assemble a lineup of 23 American League baseball players whose cumulative statistics, compiled and measured by the methods described in these rules, exceed those of all other teams in the League.

II. TEAMS
There are 12 teams in a duly constitued Rotisserie League composed of American League players.

III. ROSTER
A team's active roster consists of the following players:
5 outfielders, 2 catchers, 1 2nd baseman, 1 shortstop, 1 middle infielder (2nd base or shortstop), 1 !st baseman, 1 3rd baseman, 1 1st or 3rd baseman, 1 designated hitter (who may play any non-pitching position), and 9 pitchers.

IV. AUCTION DAY
A major league player draft in the form of an open auction is conducted on the first weekend after Opening Day of the baseball season. Each team must acquire 23 players at a total cost not to exceed $28. A team need not spend the maximum. The League by general agreement determines the order in which teams may nominate players for acquistion. The team bidding first opens with a minimum salary bid of 10¢ for any eligible player, and the bidding proceeds at minimum increments of 10¢ until only one bidder is left. That team acquires the player for that amount and announces the roster position the player will fill. the process is repeated, with successive team owners introducing players to be bid on, until every team has a squad of 23 players, by requisite position.

Only players on the major league roster or disabled list of an American league team may be nominated.

Players eligible at more than one position may be shifted during the auction.

No team may make a bid for a player it cannot afford. For example, a team with 50¢ left and 2 open spots still to fill is limited to a maximum 40¢ bid for one player.

No team may bid for a player who qualifies only at a position that the team has already filled.

Players who begin the season on an AL team's disabled list may be frozen or auctioned. If selected, they may be replaced (see Art. XII). Replacements on Auction Day come after all other proceedings, and priority is given in reverse order of the previous year's finish (priority of new teams vis a vis old will be set by pulling numbers out of a hat).

V. POSITION ELIGIBILITY
For purposes of the Auction, a player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 20 or more games in the preceding season (including minor league games). If the player did not appear in 20 games at a single position (including DH), he may be auctioned only at the position he appeared most frequently. Any hitter may be assigned to the DH slot. Once the season starts, but after Auction Day, a player becomes eligible for assignment to any position at which he was eligible for Auction purposes, or at any position at which he appears at least once in the current year.

Team owners must prove eligibility for position changes to the satisfaction of the League secretary. In other words, if you want to move George Bell to 2nd base from the outfield, you must tell the League Secretary the date of at least one game in the current year that he played at second (so that the Secretary can verify the claim) in order to make him eligible for the move (if Bell had played 20 or more games at 2nd base last year, there's no problem with verification.

VI. FEES
The Rotisserie League has a schedule of fees covering all player personnel moves. No money passes directly from team to team. All fees are payable into the prize pool and are subsequently distributed to the top four teams in the final standings (see Articles VIII and IX).

1. Basic: The cumulative total of salaries paid for acquisition of a 23-man roster on Auction Day may not exceed $28.

2. Transactions: $1 per trade (no matter how many players are involved) or player activation from the Reserve List. In a trade, the team that will pay the transaction fee is determined by the trading parties.

3. Call-up from the Free Agent Pool: $1.

4. Reserve: $1 for each player placed on a team's Reserve List (see Article XII).

5. Activation: $1 for each player activated from the Reserve List (see Article XII).

6. Waivers: $1 (see ARticle XIII).

VII. PLAYERS SALARIES
A player's salary is determined by the time and means of his acquistion and does not change unless the player becomes a free agent.

The salary of a player acquired in the major league auction is his auction price.

The salary of a player called up from the Free Agen Pool during the season is $1 until the first game on the Monday after August 1st and $2 thereafter.

The salary of a player claimed on waivers is $1 until the first game Monday after August 1st and $2 thereafter.

VIII. PRIZE MONEY
All fees shall be promptly collected by the League Treasures, who is empowered to subject owners to public humiliation and assess fines as needed to insure that payments are made in a timely fashion. The principla shall be divided among the first four teams in the fianl standings as follows:

1st Place 50% 2nd Place: 25% 3rd Place: 15% 4th Place: 10%

Fees for any season (including the preceding offseason) should be collected and prize money distributed by or on Auction Day.

IX. STANDINGS
The following criteria are used to determine team performance:
*Composite Batting Average *Total Home Runs *Total RBIs *Total Stolen Bases *Composite ERA *Total Wins *Total Saves *Composite Pitching Ration (Walks + Hits)/Innings Pitched

Teams are ranked from first to last in each of teh eight categories, and given points for each place. For example, in a twelve team league, the first-place team in a category receives 11 points, the second-place team 10, and so on donw to zero for last place. the team with the most total points wins.

Pitchters' offensive stats are not counted. Nor are the pitching stats of a position player called in to pitch.

In cases of ties in an individual category, the tied teams are assigned points by totaling points for the rankings at issue and dividing the total by the number of teams tied.

In cases of ties in total points, standings are determined by comparing placement of the tying teams in individual categories. Respective performances are calculated and a point given to each team for bettering the other. Should one team acquire more points than the other, the team is declared the winner of the tie. If the points are equal, the tie stands.

X. STATS
The weekly player performance summaries published in the USA TODAY constitute the offical data base for the computation of standings in Rotisserie baseball.

The effective date of any transaction for purposes of statistical calculation is the Monday immediately after the transaction is reported to the Leauge Secretary. this is becuase the cumulative stats printed in the USA TODAY on Tudesday include games through the preceding Sunday. Transactions reported before the first game on a Monday take effect that same day.

Transactions recorded on Auction Day, including trades and call-ups to replace disabled players, are effective retroactive to Opening Day.

Performance stats of a player shall be assigned to a Rotisserie League team only when he is on the 23-man roster of that team.

Standings shall be tabulated and issued in a regular and timely fashion, as determined by the League owners.

XI TRADES
From the completion of the Auction, until the first game on the Monday after August 1, Rotisserie League teams are free to make trades of any kind without limit, so long as the active rosters of both teams involved in a trade reflect the required position distribution upon completion of the transaction (23 active players are not rquired, however). Trades made from the day after the season ends until rosters are frozen prior to Auction Day are not bound by the position distribution requirements.

Trades made after rosters are frozen and before the start of the Auction must observe position requirements to the extent that a team cannot, as a result of a trade, have more players at a position than are allowed (e.g., 4 catchers, assuming that one catcher si moved to DH). Also, the transaction cannot leave a team with more than the maximum or less than the minimum number of "keepers." These trades may not include any player who is not on a frozen roster. Each player received in these trades must be kept, unless dropped under the "one change" rule (Article XIV).

Trades do not affect the salaries or contract status of players.

Each trade is subject to a $1 transaction fee. The fee is not affected by the number of players in the deal. ALL TRADES INVOLVING CASH, PLAYERS TO BE NAMED LATER, OR FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Team owners suspected of collusion may be banned upon a unanimous vote of the other owners.

A player may be traded regardless of his status (active or reserved, disabled or in the minors).

Trading an "open" spot (e.g., a disabled or demoted player who has yet to be reserved, released, or waived) does not convey priority for pick ups from the Free Agent Pool. for example, a first place team receiving an "open" spot from a last place team does not become first in line for Free Agent Pool replacements. A last team receiving an "open" spot has first priority by virtue of its place in the standings.

A player, as the result of a trade or trades, may not appear on the roster of the same team twice in the same season. For the purposes of this rule, a season includes the preceding offseason and the following offseason.

XII. THE RESERVE LIST
A team may replace any player on its 23-man roster who is:

To replace such a player, a Rotisserie team must first:

A team reserves a player by notifying the League Secretary and paying the $1 transaction fee. A reserved player is removed from a team's active roster effective the start of the first game on the Tuesday after formal notificationi is given and placed on the team's Reserve List. There is no limit to the number of players a team may have on its Reserve List. Reserving a player protects a team's righ to that player. A suspended player may not be reserved, released, or replaced.

Once a specific action has been taken to remove a player from tis 23-man roster (via release, waiver, or reserving), a team is then free to select any player eligible at that position from the Free Agent Pool of players not already owned by another Rotisserie team. The salary assigned to a player selected from the Free Agent Pool is $1 before the first Monday game after August 1, and $2 thereafter (see Article VI).

A call-up from the Free Agent Pool takes effect the first game on the Monday following the team owner's notification to the League Secretary of the call-up (a call-up on Monday before the first game will take effect the same day).

Call-ups of the same player by more than one team will be settled by giving priority in reverse order of the last official standings.

When a player on a Reserve List returns to active major league duty, he must be reinstated to the active 23-man roster of his Rotisserie team before the first game on the Monday two weeks after his activation or BE WAIVED AUTOMATICALLY. This means that a player can go a maximum of 20 days withour Rotisserie reactivation if he was reactivated by his major league team on a Tuesday, and a minimum of 14 days if reactivated by the majors on a Monday. Failure to notify the League Secreatry of Rotisserie reactivation shall be considered a waiver of the player on the Reserve List. The date that the USA Today prints notification of a player's activation is the "trigger" date for the purposes of this rule. If the USA Today fails to print the activation, then the time frame shall be 14 to 20 days after the League Secreatry is formally notified by any team owner that major league reactivation has taken place.

The above rule applies regardless of whether an active replacement player exists for the reserved player.

A reserved player may be voluntarily waived at any time after his major league activation.

The Leauge Secretary will not be responsible for informing team owners when players on their Reserve Lists become activated by the players' major league teams.

When a player is reinstated to the active 23-man Rotisserie roster from a team's Reserve List, position requirements may be met in three ways:

When a player is placed on the Reserve List, he may not accrue any statistics for your team until he is reactivated by you and his major league team.

Placing a player on the Reserve List and activating a player from the Reserve List are both subject to the $1 transaction fee.

XIII. OUTRIGHT RELEASE AND WAIVERS
Under certain conditions, a Rotisserie player may be released outright or placed on waivers.

When a team activates a plyer from its Reserve List, his replacement may be placed on Waivers (Article XII). When a team fails to reactivate, within the 14 to 20 day time limit, a reserved player who is active for his major league team, he is automatically waived (Article XII). Such a player may be waived at any time after his major league activation.

A player no longer on the active roster of his major league team and whose Rotisserie League position is taken by a player activated from the Reserve List may not be placed on waivers but must be released outright. This is to prevent a team from picking up a player on waivers merely for the purpose of releasing him and replacing him with a player of higher quality.

The waiver period begins after the start of the first game on the Monday after the League Secretary has been notified that a player has been waived and lasts one week, at the end of which the player shall become the property of the lowest-ranked team to have claimed him, based on the last official standings. The team that waived the player originally, however, receives the lowest priority.

To make room on its roster, the team acquiring a player on waivers must assign the player to a natural opering or waive a player at the same position played by the newly acquired player.

Waiver claims take precedence over the replacement of an injured, released, or demoted player. A player on waivers may be claimed as a replacement by a team witha roster opening at hism position only if no other team lower in the standings claims the player on waivers.

A team may acquire on waivers only no more than one player in a given week and no more than five in a gien season.

A player who clears waivers returns to the Free Agent Pool.

The fee for acquiring players on waivers is $1. The new salary of a player acquired on waivers is $1 or $2 (see Article VI) but his contract yer status does not change.

A player may be given his outright release only if he is:

A suspended player may not be released or replace.

XIV. ROSTER PROTECTION
Each team must retain, from one season to the next, no fewer than 7 but no more than 12 of the players on its 23-man roster. The names of players being retained must be recorded with the League Secretary on the day following Opening Day for the American Leauge (USA Today prints major league rosters the day before Opening Day). After the rosters of protected players are given to the League Secretary, only one change is allowed before the Auction in addition to any changes brought about by:

A change resulting from a demotion to the minors counts against the one change allowed. The one allowed change may involve dropping, adding, or the substitution of a player.

Frozen rosters must not violate position requirements.

Protected players must be on an American League roster or disabled list. Minor League players may not be protected.

The cumulative salaries of players protected prior to Auction Day are deducted from a team's $28 salary limit, and the balance is available for acquisition of the remaining players needed to complete the team's 23-man roster.

The League Secretary shall promptly notify all teams in the league of each team's protected roster, including player salaries, contract status, and amount available to spend on Auction Day.

Any owner who has not notified the League Secretary of his or her protected roster by the day after Opening Day will not receive information on the protected rosters of other League members.

A player can remain under a specific contract for only three years. Any part of a year counts as a full year.

To retain a player who finished the previous season on the reserve list, the owner must pay a $1 activation fee. Both the reserved player and his replacement may be kept.

XV. TEAM OWNERSHIP
League teams may not be sold or given to nonowners. Teams that are abandoned during or after the season revert to the League. Auction and trading fees are payable as soon as the team is abandoned. An owner may give up his or her ownership to an already established co-owner.

Prospective owners or co-owners require unanimous approval from all other League owners before ownership is conferred.

An owner or co-owner may be banned from the League only upon the unanimous vote of all the other owners. A co-owner may not vote on his partner's banishment.

Team owners may have consultants. Consultants are not authorized to make any transactions. Consultants may not make bids at auctions unless the owner is not present and has authorized the consultant to make bids.

In any year in which more than one team becomes available, a NFL-style draft may be used to distribute the pool of players from the abandoned teams to the new owners. A mini-Auction or pre-Auction to distribute such players is specifically prohibited.

XVI MISCELLANEOUS
The League Secretary will not accept "standing" roster changes (e.g., "if New York reactivates Mattingly anytime from now until the end of the season, I want to reactivate him automatically and get rid of Dale Berra").

Each team must accrue at least 900 innings from their pitchers onver the cours of the season or else be penalized with a last place finish in the ERA and Ratio categories.

Beginning with the 1989 season, all salaries and transaction fees are doubled.

If a strike interupts the major league schedule, an official season for this League's purposes is 568 games played by the AL teams.

XVII. AMENDMENTS
Amendments to these Rules must be voted on by representatives of all 12 league teams. Nine votes in favor of an amendment are required for enactment.

In general, each team is entitiled to one vote on any issue, regardless of the number of owners or co-owners.