Don't know why I haven't posted this before, I've been playing this game for 10+ years everytime I go to a MLB game with at least one other person (best when you go with 4+ people).

First, you have to determine a "draft order". Normally, I'll just write down a few numbers and put them in a hat and have everyone draw, but it can obviously be done anyway you like. The number everyone gets is their draft position for the home team...it is in reverse order for the away team. For example, if I am attending a game with 3 of my friends for a total of 4 of us and I get 4th pick for the home team, I'm 1st pick for the away team. This is to try and even out the talent as much as possible. Also, if you do have 4 or less players, you can take 2 per team to make almost every at bat (minus the pitcher in nl games) more meaningful...1st gets 1st and 8th picks and 4th gets 4th and 5th etc. A lot of times this is my favorite way to play because it makes every at bat more exciting.

Also, if you go with a total of 5 (or 6 if it is an AL game) people counting yourself, you can also redraw out of the hat for "wild card" draft order where you can draft one more player after both teams are drafted in order to make every at bat interesting. Just up to the discretion of you and your friends how many players are taken.

After the draft order is determined and the players are drafted, the game begins. It is helpful to at least have a piece of paper (I normally do it on the scorecard since I keep book every game anyway) so you can keep track of scores. The way the game works is each time your player "does something meaningful" you receive a certain number of units. Here are the unit values for each possible stat. It's pretty straight forward.

single = 1 unit, double = 2 units, triple = 3 units, homer = 4 units, grand slam = 8 units

stolen base = 1 unit, walk = 1 unit, intentional walk = 1 unit

ground into double play = -1 unit, caught stealing = -1 unit, strikeout = -1 unit, thrown out advancing an extra base = -1 unit, error on defense = -1 unit

A couple plays are up to you guys to decide. If somebody lines into a double play, you have to determine whose fault it was, the hitters or the baserunners. Others that cause confusion can just be decided when it happens, its pretty straight forward though.

Yes this means that normal ground outs or fly outs, runs scored, rbi's, sacrifices, whatever else I did not list do not have a unit value assigned to them simply because it starts to get confusing when trying to keep book. Also, a HBP does not warrant a unit because your player did not "earn" anything by getting hit.

One twist to make it more interesting in the end of the game is: If your player gets a "game winning" (in the teams last at bat) or "walk off" hit, it is worth double the amount of normal. So say it is a 4-4 game in the bottom of the 9th and Pujols hits a grand slam, that hit alone is worth 16 units! If he had just singled, it would be worth 2 units, etc...

You can make your unit size as much as you want; 25 cents, 1 dollar, 5 dollars, 10 dollars, 100 dollars, I don't care. I normally play just 1 dollar so I don't lose bank at a game that I spend 50 dollars on beer at . The normal amount of units won or lost per person is anywhere from negative 30 to positive 30, but I have seen more or less won or lost before.

Here's how total scoring works. All of these "scoring plays" are added to everyones total units during the entire game. For example, if I draft Pujols with my first pick and he goes 3/4 with a HR (4 units) 2 singles (1 unit each) and a fly out (no blood), he will earn me 6 total units.  If my other players ground out every other at bat, I will end the game with +6 units on the scorecard. Let's say my buddy's player goes 0/4 with 4 strikeouts and the rest of his team grounds out every at bat. He will end the game with -4 units. On the walk to the car, my friend would pay me the difference since I am ahead of him which would be 10 units.

The payout is the trickiest part about this. Here's an example from a game I attended last year of how the ending values came out once the game was over.

Bob - 13 units,     Joe - 6 units,    Mike - 3 units,    Gary - 2 units

With this example, Bob was the big winner netting 28 units profit (7 from Joe, 10 from Mike, and 11 from Gary). Joe lost 7 units to Bob, got 3 units from Mike, and 4 more units from Gary, netting at an even 0 units won. Mike lost 12 units (10 to Bob, 3 to Joe, and gaining 1 from Gary) and Gary was the big loser losing 16 units (11 to Bob, 4 to Joe, and 1 to Mike). 2 main reasons we dont exchange per at bat: 1) It gets too confusing figuring out who owes what and everyone always ends up needing more change than they have and 2) they WILL kick you out of the game if they catch you gambling (it's happened before)

I hope this is easy enough to understand, if you have questions just let me know. I'm going to a Pirates game Saturday for my first game this year, can't wait to play this game!