Hey everybody! Welcome to the official (well, as official as it gets) web page of the Rainbow Softball League, Bayview's gay and lesbian recreational slow-pitch league, now in our fourth season and playing every Sunday this fall on fields 3 and 4 at Lindell Park. I'm Angela, your commissioner, which mostly means I own the clipboard and the bag of bases and get to make the schedule, and I'll try to keep this page up to date every Sunday night after the games (or Monday, if there was a post-game at the Tin Roof, which, let's be honest, there was).

We are eight teams and about 115 players this fall, gay, lesbian, bi, straight, friends, partners, coworkers and one dad. If you can throw a ball sort of near somebody, you can play in this league. If you can't, you can keep score, cheer, or work the cooler. Everybody bats, everybody plays, everybody goes out afterward.

Three weeks in, six games each. Ties in the standings are broken by head-to-head, then by runs allowed. The top four after November 7 make the playoff (see the schedule).

RF = runs for, RA = runs against. Bandits: we love you. The season is long. Remember the 1997 Otters.

Gorgeous day, low seventies, a little breeze blowing out to left on field 4 (ask the Stingers' pitcher about that). Both fields, four time slots, eight games:

Commissioner's notes: Thank you to whoever left the extra bag of ice in my trunk. Please remember to rake the batter's boxes after your last game on each field; the parks department has been very good to us and we want to stay on their good side. And whoever's dog it is that keeps stealing foul balls behind field 3: we love him, but please leash him during games.

Every Sunday, September 12 through November 7, at Lindell Park, fields 3 and 4. Each team plays a doubleheader every Sunday. Game times are 10:00, 11:30, 1:00 and 2:30. The full matchups are on the printed schedule you got at the captains' meeting (and taped to the wall at the Tin Roof); here is the season at a glance.

Rainouts: if it's raining at 8 a.m. Sunday, call your captain. Rainouts get made up in the 11:30 consolation slot on Nov. 7 if they matter for the standings, and otherwise we let them go.

1. Co-ed. Every team fields ten, with at least four women and at least four men on the field at all times. If you're short, borrow from the other team; it happens every week.
2. Slow pitch. Pitches must arc between 6 and 12 feet. No windmills, no fastballs, no "accidental" line drives at the pitcher.
3. Everybody bats. The whole roster is in the batting order, whether or not they're playing the field that inning. You came out on a Sunday; you get to hit.
4. Seven innings or 65 minutes, whichever comes first. Ten-run mercy rule after five.
5. No metal spikes, no alcohol on the field (the park's rule, and a good one), no arguing with umpires beyond the one sentence you're entitled to.
6. Home team supplies the game ball, visiting team rakes the field afterward.
7. Be excellent to each other. This is a rec league. Some of us are very good, some of us are here for the sunshine and the friends. If you're the first kind, help the second kind. If you're the second kind, cheer for the first kind. Nobody has ever been cut from this league for being bad at softball, and nobody ever will be.

Noon till whenever, at the big picnic shelter at Lindell Park (the one by the playground, not the one by the fields). The league buys the burgers, dogs, veggie burgers and buns; everybody brings a side or a dessert or drinks. Trophies for the champs, the consolation champs, best costume from Halloween week, the Golden Glove (voted by the captains), and the coveted Spirit Award, which the Sirens have won three years running and everyone else is gunning for.

Partners, kids, dogs (leashed, please) and anybody you want to talk into playing in the spring are all welcome. Last year we had about 200 people. Bring a lawn chair. Bring a sweater; it gets chilly by 4.

Yes, we are already thinking about it. Spring season runs March through May. Sign-ups open October 1 and close at the BBQ on November 14. Returning players re-up with your captain. New players, or players who want to switch teams, e-mail me with your name, whether you've played before (it does not matter), what position you like (it does not matter either), and whether you have a whole team of friends who want to join together (that does matter; we may go to ten teams). We'll do a draft at the Tin Roof in January.

The fee is $30 for the season, which covers the field permit, umpires, balls and your jersey. Nobody gets turned away for the fee; talk to me quietly and we'll work it out.

Somebody at the last captains' meeting asked if the league would still exist after the year 2000 computer thing. Yes. Softball does not run on a computer. The schedule is done on a legal pad.

This league would not exist without the Tin Roof, the bar on Harbor Street that has been our post-game home since day one, sponsors the Foxes, hosts the draft, and lets us tape the schedule to the wall by the pool table; and Turning Pages, the bookstore around the corner from it, which sponsors the Wildcats, prints our schedules and lets us leave sign-up sheets on the counter. Go drink at one and read at the other. Tell them the league sent you.