UBL Constitution

I. Mission Statement: The Universal Baseball League (UBL) uses Sierra Fantasy Pro Sports Baseball '98 to provide a fun, free simulation league for the enjoyment of the owners.

The game does not need to be owned, but it is encouraged.

ICQ is encouraged as well, to facilitate communication between owners.

II. League Overview: The UBL consists of two leagues, the Eastern Hemispheric League and the Western Hemispheric League (EHL, WHL). The EHL consists of teams from the Eastern Hemisphere and the WHL consists of teams from the Western Hemisphere.

While FPS '98 does not include the actual cities in non-North American countries, we selected a city that has a close weather pattern. If there are problems, or you've got a better choice, contact us and we'll change it.

WHL cities include: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Seattle, Miami, Atlanta, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Mexico City, Caracas (Venezuela), Toronto (Canada), Alaska, and Havana (Cuba).

EHL cities include: London (England), Paris (France), Berlin (Germany), Moscow (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden), Zurich (Switzerland), Warsaw (Poland), Belfast (Ireland), Edinburgh (Scotland), Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain), Morocco, Vienna (Austria), Amsterdam (Holland).

There is no interleague play until the World Cup.

The Designated Hitter will be used in both leagues.

Divisional Breakdown:

Amateur picks will be awarded based on seasonal performance, with the worst team picking first.

Amateur draft picks can be traded, Free Agent Draft picks cannot.

IV. Collusion: Collusion is the owning of two teams by one person. This will not be tolerated. If anyone is suspected by another owner of colluding, the league presidents and the commissioner will come to a decision. Think "zero tolerance."

The Commissioner will handle all trade protests. The way these will be resolved is through a dialogue with the League Presidents concerning the nature of the protest. An email will be sent to the owner whose actions are being questioned, and the severity of the punishment (if any) shall be determined from the response to that email in concert with the League Presidents..

V. Trading: There is no limit on how many players can be traded between teams. Draft picks in the amateur draft can also be traded. Free Agent draft picks cannot be traded.

Trades are not official until both parties send the trade to the commissioners (this should be obvious, but this means that both teams need to send the details of the trade, including players received and given, to the commissioners) and word is received in the form of a league-wide email that the trade has been approved.

Trading deadline is July 31st.

The parties involved in the trade need to submit justified rosters as well as the players traded in their emails to the Commissioners.

The League Presidents and commissioner have the final say on trade matters.

VI. Free Agency: Free agency was voted on and decided by the owners of the UBL during the week of April 9-15, 2000. The system used in the game itself is the model used for the UBL, with the exception of the Free Agent draft.

V. Deadbeat Owners: Each owner is expected to participate in the day-to-day activities of his/her team. If the commissioner does not hear from an owner for 30 days of simulated games, the owner will receive a notice. If the owner does not respond to the notice within the allotted time on the message, then the owner will forfeit his position.

VI. Ownership criteria: Owners must have a valid email address. For signup purposes, no free email services will be accepted. This is to lower the risk of collusion. This means no hotmail, netscape, yahoo or the like will be accepted. If the owner wants to keep his/her ISP email address private, the use of a free service can begin after the owner is accepted for ownership.

VII. Drafting: The Amateur draftees will be "enhanced" by the commissioner. A selected amount of draftees will have their ratings increased to sustain a decent pool of talent. Also, some names will be changed to reflect the multinational flavor of the league.

For the end of season free agent draft, a selected amount of available free agents will have their ratings enhanced to further promote parity in the league.

End of season free agent draft picks are not tradeable, players received in the free agent draft are.

Owners may not trade amateur picks further than one season following the current season. You may trade this year's and next year's picks. No further.

VIII. Simulations: Seven games will be simmed on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday of each week. If injuries occur during the simulations, the Commissioner will make substitutions based on the active roster.

• Injured Pitcher: The #1 long relief pitcher will take the place of the injured starter. If there is no LR, then the #1 middle reliever will take the place of the injured starter, and so on.
• Injured fielder: The player who plays the same position with the most at-bats will take the place of the injured player. If there is no replacement then the following rules apply:
• Catcher: A Catcher will be called up from AAA and a player who is not in the lineup will be sent down.
• 1B: An outfielder with the most at-bats will replace the injured player.
• IF: another infielder, with the most at-bats will take the place of the injured player. If no player is available, then a player will be called up from AAA and a player not in the lineup will be sent down.
• OF: another outfielder with the most at bats will take the place of the injured player. If no player is available, then a player will be called up from AAA and a player not in the lineup will be sent down.

IX. Movement: Policies on team movement changed during the 2007 season. What follows are the guidelines for stadium and city movement as per those changes.

Stadium: 7 years.
Can change before then (AFTER 5 YEARS), but it costs a first-round draft
pick. (if they have traded the pick, they can't move)
City: 15 years.
Can change after 10-- costs a 2nd and 3rd round pick (no first-rounder)
Can change after 7--costs a first round pick

New owners, of course, can change their stadium at the beginning of their first full season.
If a new owner wants to change their city:
A) Must be approved by the League President FIRST then sent to the Commissioner for approval
B) Must have a reason to do it. "I don't like the altitude of my city" Isn't a good enough reason.
should they come up with a "story"-esque reason, then that's damn near instant approval on my part. Hell, if y'all use your imaginations that's wonderful.
C) Must be at the start of a new season. No mid-season changes

X. Spring Training: The UBL's long standing policy of computer only Spring Training assignements changed during the 2017 season

• Spring Training allocations will be determined by computer, however owners are allowed to select up to 5 players to allocate any points over the minimum. The owner allocated players must be in LOW. Owners are not forced to select players to manually update Spring Training Allocations, and any player not specified by the owner will recieve the standard computer Spring Training assignments.
  The minimums are :
  Pitchers
  FA (at that position) - 10%
  AS - 10%
  HdRn - 10%
  CO - 15%
  EN - 10%
  Each pitch - 10%
  Hitters
  FA (at that position) - 15%
  CH - 20%
  PH - 20%
  SP - 20%
  AS - 10%
  This will typically leave 10%-20% to allocate for pitchers and 15% to allocate for hitters.
  Owners simply need to email the Commish the player name and which rating categories the remaining points over the minimum should be allocated in.
  Any owner not submitting allocations for players between the Aged roster posting and the Spring Training roster posting, will receive Computer Allocations for Spring Training.

XI. Miscellaneous:

• The archive file is available via email upon request due to site space limitations.
• The Commissioner (Cameron) and League Presidents agree not to abuse their power. In the case of a circumstance that power is abused, retribution shall be put up for a vote.
• No team is allowed to take the Kingdome or Fenway Park as their home stadium, due to programming errors in the game itself.
• Denver is not an acceptable location for a team.
• Emails will be sent out periodically by the Commissioners. If a policy question is brought up in the emails, league owners are expected to respond.
• There will be no trading with computer-owned teams.
• Trading deadline is July 31st, non-negotiable.
• One email per team per sim period is all that will be allowed when dealing with roster changes, lineup moves, free agent claims, trades, etc. Any superfluous emails will be deleted.
• All points of this Constitution can be amended by a majority vote of the league owners, or by consensus of the League Presidents and commissioner.
• Players cannot move directly from AAA or Active rosters to the Low roster. Players must sit in the Free Agent Pool until the next sim session. Owners are responsible for any players that remain in the FA Pool.
• Post- or pre-season, extra qualified positions can be removed by request of the owner of said player. Not during the season, but after the WC or before Opening Day.
• Stadium changes, team name changes, and any team movement must take place after the season ends.
• Playoff rosters are limited to 25 men. Rosters can be manipulated between playoff rounds.
• Players that have not reached certain criteria can retain rookie status for the next season. The criteria are as follows:
• Pitching requirements: 10 games played. Batters/Position requirements: 25 games or 100 AB