Article 10 – GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFFS

The Land O’ Lakes Grand Championship Playoffs shall be played to determine the LOL Grand Champion.

A – Each division shall determine a champion to represent their division during the Grand Championship Playoffs. The method of determining the division champion will be up to each division.

B - GCP Orgazinational Meeting

1) The organizational meeting shall be held no later than the Wednesday prior to the start of the GCP. Mandatory attendance is required of LOL officials, division commissioners and participating team managers or their appointed representatives.

2) The meeting’s purpose is to review the GCP rules and answer questions. At this meeting, the LOL Secretary/Treasurer shall provide rosters of participating teams. C – A lineup card shall be handed to the home plate umpire and opposing manager before the game.

3) Prior to the meeting, the LOL Secretary-Treasurer shall provide copies of participating teams' July 4 rosters to the respective managers. At the meeting, team managers shall indicate which players on the roster are eligible to play in the GCP.

C - A lineup card shall be handed to the home plate umpire and opposing team manager before the game.

D – Playing rules in Article 9 shall be followed unless amended below.

E – If all eligible players have entered the game and an injury occurs that requires the player to be removed from the game, the opposing manager will designate a player to reenter the game.

F – Ballpark and Playing Field

1) All ballparks must be enclosed by an outfield fence.

2) Foul lines must be chalked or painted to the outfield fence. All out-of-play areas shall be marked as such. The batter’s boxes, the on-deck circles and the coaches’ boxes shall be marked.

3) All sites must use a public address system and display an American flag at the games.

G – Scheduling

1) The LOL Grand Championship Playoffs shall start on the weekend before Labor Day weekend.

2) All teams shall be scheduled a home game on the first weekend of GCP play.

3) All teams must play each other once before playing a team for the second time.

4) When teams are playing each other for the second time, the home team in the first game will be the visiting team in the second game.

5) In the third game between two teams, a coin toss shall determine the home team.

6) The Grand Championship Playoffs will use a modified double elimination format in that a team is eliminated from the playoffs upon losing their second game of the playoffs.

7) Two games will be scheduled on the second and succeeding weekends of the tournament independent of the number of teams remaining. Games will be scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. Labor Day is a rain date if necessary.

8) All games shall start at 1:30 pm. No game may start after 3:00 pm unless the participating division commissioners agree.

9) No night games shall be scheduled unless both commissioners agree. Lights may be used to complete day games.

10) The visiting team shall receive the whole field for practice 45 minutes prior to game time (12:45 for a 1:30 game).

H – Rainouts

1) All Grand Championship games must be nine innings. Uncompleted games after the losing team has batted in the fifth inning shall continue from the point of suspension. Games stopped before the losing team has completed their at bat in the fifth inning shall be replayed from the start.

2) In the event of bad field conditions, the manager of the home team must call the manager of the visiting team. Each manager shall be responsible for calling their team’s players. Calls should be made at least two hours prior to game time.

3) The four commissioners and the LOL President shall decide scheduling of games in the event of postponed or suspended games. Majority vote rules.

I – Umpires

1) Four umpires shall be used in each game with the home plate umpire as umpire-in-chief.

2) Umpires shall be paid $55 for a complete game. If a game is rained out and the umpires are present, they shall be paid one-half the scheduled game fee ($27.50).

3) If a player is ejected from a game, the commissioners and umpires involved shall determine if additional sanctions or suspensions are appropriate.

4) The commissioner of a division is responsible for assigning umpires for their division’s home games.

5) The commissioner of a division may not umpire in a GCP game involving the team from their division.

J – Protests

1) The commissioners, or their designated representatives, present at the game shall resolve protests in a playoff game. If there is an even number of commissioners (or representatives) present, the chief umpire shall be the deciding vote.

2) If there are no commissioners or representatives present, the umpires shall decide the protest.

3) A protest must be made before another pitch is thrown and play continues. A reasonable amount of time shall be given to look up the rule in the rule book. Managers are required to have a rule book at hand. All decisions made shall be final.

4) The LOL Board of Directors may settle any dispute related to the Grand Championship Playoffs through the appeal process in Article 8. This includes, but is not limited to, protests on player eligibility.

K – Money Collection

1) The home team shall keep all money collected at a team’s first home game.

2) After all teams have played one home game; all money collected at the game shall be evenly divided after the following expenses are paid.

a) Umpire game fees

b) Baseballs used

c) Scorekeepers (if paid)

d) Park rental fees (if any)

e) Ball retrieval (if paid)

3) Donations shall be collected either by selling tickets at the gate or passing the hat.

4) The home team shall keep all concession stand revenue. The home team shall reserve the right to stop carry-ins.