Pitcher Mitch Keller digs in as his Pittsburgh Pirate teammates take the field prior to a game against the Cincinnatti Reds.

You Are Now Out at the Ballgame

Now that you’ve read (or at least skimmed) through the basics, it’s time to learn how the game itself works. And what better way to do that than to work your way through an imaginary game?

Here, we will start at the top of the first inning, with no one out, no one on base, and the top of the order coming up to bat. As you dive through and make decisions, the game will advance accordingly. Note that at this time, the website cannot keep track of things like "the number of outs in the inning," or "the number of balls/stikes a batter has," or "the score," so you are advised to at least try to do so yourself. If, at any time, you need to refresh your memory of anything in the explainer sections, you can do so by going to the side bar, and you can always return to the last page you visited by clicking the "Back" link at the bottom of each navigation section. This can especially come in handy if you want to go back to a previous decision point, and choose something else.

But with all that preamble out of the way...