Benchwarmer Baseball Rules

Timelines

This is the basic breakdown of deadlines for each season, subject to change:
 

Entry Fees and Prizes

The cost for a season of Benchwarmer Baseball is $55.  Entry fees go toward costs for the web site, stat services, and potentially post-season rewards. It also helps to cover the great amount of labor behind the game.  New players of Benchwarmer Baseball should sign up for a user ID and password to obtain a team.

The charter league of Benchwarmer Baseball, the Hall of Fame League, has a lower entry fee.

Multi-team discounts are available.  Each team beyond the first gets a $10 discount.  Benchwarmer owners can pick up additional teams.

In future seasons, a non-refundable deposit may be collected toward the end of summer from owners who intend to return for the following season.

There is also a program called Benchwarmer Benefactors that allows an owner to pay one up-front fee, but never have to pay again.  There are extra benefits for family members and for transferring free seasons to other BWB owners.  See the program details for further information.

Group Pricing

Benchwarmer Baseball also offers special pricing discounts for owners who want to join as a 4-team division, 8-team conference, or a full 16-team league. See the web site or contact BWB for more details on price and availability. A single owner will be responsible for paying the package price. The teams in the package must remain grouped together and in the same position within the league as they originally joined. No additional discounts will be provided for the group – including the free team for the league champion (although free extra teams in additional leagues will be available for post-season tournament winners).

As a point of clarification, League packages do not get an extra free team for the league champion (the package price includes 6 free teams). However, Conference or Division packages will get a small discount for league championship teams. A conference package will receive a $10 discount if the league champion comes from that conference and a division package will receive a $20 discount for any league champs. If any prize winners from the Benchwarmer Bash come from a package, whether it is league, conference, or division, that league will receive a $30 discount for the seasons covered by Bash prizes.

While an exception or two was provided in 2008, bonus Orphan teams that may be given away to new owners cannot be used for Orphans that are part of a package.

Owners who join as a package may have some input on the league naming. Groups who join as a full league will also have the option of running their own drafts outside of the BWB process.

Prizes

Modified 1/14/10

There are no cash prizes for this game.  Currently, the reward for division and playoff titles is a hearty "Well done!" and a virtual slap-on-the-back.  Cash prizes would mean a higher entry fee, plus a higher level of scrutiny on transactions and other moves that doesn’t exist today in a game played “for fun.”

However, the league champion will get his/her team for free for the next season, plus the opportunity to play for free for one season with an Orphan team in another existing league or a team in a brand new league.  In 2007-09, all division winners received as an extra bonus a free team to be used as an orphan or in a new league, but that was intended for a limited time.  Beginning in 2010, the remaining division winners will get a discount from their team fee for the following season (set at $10 off the entry fee initially).  The conference champion who loses out in the league championship series will get an extra free team for the next season.

Teams that win the other postseason tournaments – the Gore Cup and the Bottom Feeder Open – will be allowed to pick up an Orphan/new team for the next season for free.

There is a final tournament in the post season that includes all the league champions – the Benchwarmer Bash. The winner of the tournament will get their team for free for two additional seasons and the runner up will get one free year.

Prize Recap

• Winner of the Benchwarmer Bash - Two free seasons for the team that won the title.
• Runner up of the Benchwarmer Bash - One free season for the team that finished 2nd.
• League Champions - Winning team free for the next season; An additional bonus team that can be used for a new or orphan team the next season.
• Conference Champions (not winning the league title) - $10 off the same team for the next season; An additional bonus team that can be used for a new or orphan team the next season.
• Division Champions (losing in the Conference Title Series) - $10 off the same team for the next season.
• Winners of the Gore Cup and Bottom Feeder Open - An additional bonus team that can be used for a new or orphan team the next season.

All discounted and free seasons are non-transferable* and only apply to the winning team (it cannot be used for another team that the same owner plays in a different league).  The Benchwarmer Bash prizes are cumulative; so a League Champion that wins the Bash will get three free seasons for his/her team or a Division Champion that wins the Bash will win two free seasons and the discount for winning the division will be applied in the third season.  Winning additional championships will extend the free/reduced prices.

*Benchwarmer Benefactors, who paid one large up-front fee and never pay again, can transfer free seasons to any BWB team/owner.

Referral Bonus

Owners - new and returning - who refer additional new owners to Benchwarmer Baseball will receive a bonus for each paid new team (amount subject to change).  To avoid the hassles of refunds, if an owner has already paid, the bonus will generally be applied for the next season.  If the team making the referral is already playing for free, the bonus will automatically be carried over to the next season.

The referral bonus is only provided for one season and is not applicable if the "new owner" is a previous member of Benchwarmer Baseball.  The referral is applied only once per owner (or co-owners), regardless of how many teams they purchase.

Late Payment of Entry Fees

Currently, BWB requires new owners of new teams to pay before drafting. On the other hand, returning teams may conduct off-season business before payment and existing owners who pick up new teams can start up before paying their fees. We must, however, try to encourage payment by means other than the early payment discount.  Thus, if you do not pay by certain times, there will be roster penalties:

Once payment is received, full rights are restored.  If you need more time, please contact BWB and we can work something out.  The idea is to not string out the process all summer.

At any time, if the league office considers the owner has abandoned the team, it reserves the right to take over the team before the Week 10 deadline and find a new owner.  This will occur if repeated attempts to contact the team fail and/or it is evident that no actions are being taken on the team's behalf or the owner is not logging in to the web site.

Terminology

Throughout this rules manual the following terms will be used – hopefully on a consistent basis:

• Players: refers to Major League players, not participants in the BWB Game.
• Owners: refers to participants in Benchwarmer Baseball.
• Teams: may also be used interchangeably to refer to participants in the game.
• Week: 6 games in the Benchwarmer Baseball Season
• Series: All series during the regular season are 3 games.
• Opening Day: Unless otherwise noted, this refers to the Week 1 transaction deadline for Benchwarmer Baseball, not the first major league game of the season.