To know list: 6 shots of wisdom to help you pitch that perfect game. (Know It All).

(1) TAKE THE PLUNGE

You can have a fantasy life and free time, too

So you think you know baseball, huh, big boy? You think you know it better--maybe even a lot better--than your loud-talkin' buds who double-dare you to doubt their guarantees of Austin Kearns' 40 homers and Mark Priors 20 wins? Those disputes are just begging for fantasy baseball (see Page 58) to settle.

The concept of fantasy baseball as we know it goes back only a few decades, but come on, people have been putting their money where their mouth is for as long as baseball has been around. So stop pussyfooting around, will you? Join a league (or start one!), trash talk a little, agonize over the big moments, jump for joy over the sour ones, perhaps win a few bucks ... and then finish with a group hug. How involved you get is up to you--and maybe your spouse.

I'm not sure I've got time for this. There are a number of ways to play without having to tediously monitor an entire lineup throughout the season. For example, set up a homer pool in which each team owner picks five or 10 players--most total homers wins. You can do the same thing with any other category. Errors? Hits? Ejections?

If the draft-and-done method sounds good but you'd like something more advanced, try a rotisserie league in which owners select a full roster of players and accumulate their statistics in a variety of hitting and pitching categories. Points will be awarded at the end of the season based on where your team ranks in each category.

I'm up for monitoring my squad, but I don't want to be married to it. All right then. Perhaps you set up a league online (you can do it for free) with a live draft, weekly transactions and a limited number of free-agent pickups. You'll need to check your team maybe once or twice a week. Or you can set up your own weekly "three-play," picking the players who'll hit the most homers, record the most strikeouts, etc.