Welcome to the Universal Baseball Association, Inc.

On November 1st, 2006, the Universal Baseball Association, Inc. (UBA, Inc.) was founded by I. Walter Orshipme.  The league was founded with a focus on the history of baseball, with each team named after a historical team that had previously played in their city.  From its founding UBA, Inc. has held its owners to a high level of professionalism, respectability and competence.  The league has only had two commissioners in its entire history.  I. Walter Orshipme was commissioner from season 1 through season 10, and Christopher Brooks has been the commissioner from season 11 to the present. I. Walter Orshipme was last seen wandering through the Amazon scouting players along the Colombian-Ecuador border. His team has since been managed by his nephew, Theodore Ormatt.

UBA, Inc. is a world made up of 32 teams in two leagues, the American League and the National League.  Each league has 4 divisions based on region (North, South, East and West), with 4 teams in each division.  A single championship season consists of 162 regular season games, with each division winner and the top two runners up (occupying the 2 Wildcard spots) in each league advancing to the playoffs.  The playoffs consist of four rounds, the Division Play-In Series (best of 5), the Division Championship Series (best of 5), the League Championship Series (best of 7), and, ultimately, the World Series (best of 7).

Each season lasts approximately 3 months. Anyone interested in joining UBA, Inc. should contact the commissioner.  

The name of the league comes from Robert Coover's classic novel, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Proprietor (Plume, 1971).

The Rules of the League

1. Classic Names. All teams must use classic names from real teams that played in your city in the past. For example, the San Francisco Seals rather than the San Francisco Giants or the New York Highlanders instead of the New York Yankees. If only one team has ever played in your city (such as the Arkansas (Little Rock) Travellers) then that name can be used, but if available go classic. If you are tired of teams called the BALLBUSTERS, then this is a peaceful oasis from the madness. A good site for picking team names is Baseball Reference. Negro League names are also popular choices for owners.

2. Banned Parks. The HBD sim is heavily geared toward offense. For those of us who love a good pitchers’ duel, this aspect is a real letdown. So in order to give an advantage to our pitchers, any ballpark with a cumulative offensive advantage of +9 or greater is banned. These banned ballparks include: 

Albuquerque, Colorado, Durham, Hartford, Huntington, Madison, Santa Fe, Scottsdale, and Tucson. 

There are plenty of good hitters’ parks still available, but this should take the edge off. Our all-time single season home run record is 72 and the all-time single season RBI record is 202. These are great numbers, but they are not ridiculous.

3. Commitment. While I certainly know that things happen, this should be a league that you are committed to. If you are just looking to try this out, I suggest you look for another league.

4. Have fun! We encourage as much good-natured ribbing, chatter about the games, and overall analysis as possible. But don’t be a jerk about it. We’ve all been in a league with one, and it can be frustrating. This is a game that we pay money to play, and enjoyment is fundamental.