Play Quint-Inning at the All Star Game (or any game)

Once upon a time, about 15 years ago, in the days before DFS, I had developed a fantasy competition around a single ballgame. It would have been deemed illegal at the time based on the UIGEA definition of what constituted a legal fantasy game. Today, well, we can all go nuts.

Anyway, here are the rules. Feel free to modify based on whatever works better for you and your buddies.

QUINT-INNING

A game that drafts from the active rosters of two major league teams in a single game.

1. Start with five owners.

2. Prior to first pitch, conduct a simple snake draft where each owner selects five players off the two rosters. If you’re ambitious, auction off the 25 players giving each owner a budget of $50 of real or fake money.

3. Scoring is simple. For batters, singles, walks, hit-by-pitches and stolen bases are one point each. Doubles are 2 points. Triples are 3 points. Home runs are 4 points. Pitchers get one point for each complete inning pitched but lose one point for every run they allow.

4. At the beginning of the 5th inning, each owner has the option of doubling any future points for one player on his roster. We call that player the Quint. Points for all batters are doubled beginning in the 9th inning. That means the Quint’s points would be quadrupled.

5. At the end of each inning, you can cut players, claim players from the free agent pool or trade players. You must maintain five players at all times, so all adds, drops and trades must keep your roster square. Free agent claims are done in reverse order of the standings. If two teams are tied and both want the same player, it can be helpful to have a deck of cards handy – the owner who draws high card would get the player.

6. Quint-Inning is a betting game. Owners need to ante up to play, typically $5, though if you’re using a $50 auction budget, that works fine. It then costs $1 per inning to stay in the game for the second through fourth innings. Beginning in the 5th inning, the stakes increase to $2 per inning to stay in the game. You can use higher or lower stakes if you prefer.

7. Owners can fold at any time, forfeiting any monies they contributed to the pot. Their players are released into the free agent pool and are available to the remaining owners in reverse order of the standings.

8. The owner with the most points at the end of the game wins the pot.