Never did a live draft before. How does this work?
Brian, First of all - congratulations. You made the finals with almost no prior experience with the mystery format (something like 8 prior teams). Amazing. Anyway, the draft. For some of us, the draft is as much fun as the regular season. The draft will be 12 or 14 rounds and the rules are simple. When your turn comes up, you can pick any available player. All players are available unless they have already been drafted. You must use one of your draft picks to pick an available stadium. At the conclusion of the message board draft, we do the autodraft. The players drafted in the live draft become exclusive-rights players. In the autodraft, you list your drafted players at the bottom of your rankings; since they are exclusive-rights players, no one else can put them on their draft list. If someone makes a mistake and drafts someone else's player, they have to give them back to the team that drafted that player. After the autodraft, the preseason and season play as normal.
Additional Tips. This is an 80 mil league, so people will be drafting "value" players. So, although Amos Otis was a great player, he is unlikely to be drafted because his salary is too high. I recommend waiting til a late round to pick your stadium that will match the strengths of the players that you've drafted. Perhaps someone can find a 70s message board draft where you can see an example. You could also post a note in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s Leagues Message Board asking for advice on who to draft. Also, don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.