Scoring the Game

[Centerfield]

One of the things I want to be able to teach my son is how to score the game. So recently, fearing I had forgotten a lot of it, I started scoring games again. It was then that I realized that I never really learned how to do a lot of things and instead, use a lot of my own little tricks. The problem is, I don't know if what I'm doing is the right thing or not...and I don't want to pass along bad information to my son. So, a couple of questions:

1. When you turn the lineup over in one inning, what do you guys do? What I do (let's say it's the 4th inning) is to continue in the column for the 5th, and then put a line to show where the 4th ended. In the 5th, I just use the same column again. Is this how it's supposed to be done?

2. Advancing on throws: I draw a line and then note it "OT" (on throw). I'm almost certain this isn't right.

3. Runners advancing. If Reyes moves from second to third on a Beltran single, I draw the line, then note between 2B and 3B "1B-8" signifying single by the CF. If Reyes scores from second on a Beltran single, I put the same notation next to third base showing that Reyes went from second to home. Is this right?

Thanks for the help.

[Elster88]

1) I use only the one column for the entire inning (unless they bat around), just go to the top of it when the leadoff guy comes up.

[Methead]

I don't think there's a right or wrong way to score games, although I have my own way of doing it.

If an inning turns over, I do it the same way you do, but I wouldn't continue the 5th in the "5th" column... I'd just shift every inning over to the right by one, and re-number them at the top of the scorecard.

As far as advancing runners, I usually draw a solid line to show how far they got on their own, and dashed lines to show how far they advanced for other reasons. I don't write anything to show how they advanced unless it's a steal or passed ball or whatever.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I don't think there's any one way to do it. Everyone has their own style. Where you put OT I always would but a T.

I've heard that when a team sends ten or more batters to the plate in an inning, you're supposed to "divide the box." That never made sense to me. Unless you know in advance that they're going to bat around, you wouldn't leave enough space. I do what you do, I infringe upon the next inning, and then I draw a dark solid line around the "bulge" to show that those entries belong to the previous inning. And I hope that the next inning is a quick one, otherwise the scorecard is a hopeless mess.

When I fill out a scorecard, I always include the players' uniform numbers along with their name and position. If Reyes singles, for example, and goes to third on a hit by Lo Duca, I'll put a 1B in the lower right corner of Reyes' box, and a 16, in a circle, in the upper left. The circled 16 is kind of like a cross-reference, showing that Reyes got to third as a result of whatever Lo Duca did. This is something that I made up, and I don't know if anyone else does anything similar. But it always seemed like the easiest way for me.

[Guest Edgy DC]

1) If the team bats around, the ffifth-inning column becomes part of the fouth, with a line where the turnover took place. Even if you forget that line, you know where it took place because of where the lineup picked up in the next column. The sixth column becomes the seventh inninng, etc.

2) Why not? Part of the fun of scoring is individual variations.

3) That's more notation than I do. Good for youse.

Dring that 14-inning marathon, Keith showed a nice trick, where he outlined all the at-bats against a particular pitcher in a highlighter pen, then outlined that pitcher's name in the same color on the other team's side of the card. It makes it easy to add up to what he's responsible for, makes for quicker reference, and makes the thing look cooler. It won't do anything to dispel the "Keith is gay" position, but I liked it.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Also, I never bought into the conventional way of marking base hits: one horizontal line for a single, two for a double, three for a triple, and four for a homer. I always write 1B, 2B, 3B, and HR.

I should also say that it's probably been more than a decade since I've scored a game, with one exception, a minor league game I attended in Tennessee last year.

[Methead]

Here's an example of one of my scorecards... the classic "10-run 8th" game.

[soupcan]

Centerfield wrote: 1. When you turn the lineup over in one inning, what do you guys do? What I do (let's say it's the 4th inning) is to continue in the column for the 5th, and then put a line to show where the 4th ended. In the 5th, I just use the same column again. Is this how it's supposed to be done?

I do the same as you

Centerfield wrote: 2. Advancing on throws: I draw a line and then note it "OT" (on throw). I'm almost certain this isn't right.

Instead of 'OT' I'll write '4-3' or whatever the play was.

Centerfield wrote: 3. Runners advancing. If Reyes moves from second to third on a Beltran single, I draw the line, then note between 2B and 3B "1B-8" signifying single by the CF. If Reyes scores from second on a Beltran single, I put the same notation next to third base showing that Reyes went from second to home. Is this right?

I do a very similar thing, everyone has their own style.

My bugaboo is an inning-ending forceout. What do you do for the batter?

The runner is out 6-4. I write the 6-4 in the batter's box but then it looks like there were 4 outs in the inning.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I show the batter reaching first on a fielder's choice. In the runner's box, I'd put the 6-4 in the second base position, maybe with an FO next to it.

[Centerfield]

Thanks for the help. I wasn't sure if there was an "official scoring method" or if there is just an "official scorer" who scores the game in whatever way he pleases.

Shifting the innings over does make more sense. I think I'll do it that way from now on.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Never guess Meat was an architecht, wouldya?

I download the "enhanced vertical scorecard" from baseball-scorecards.com.

My scorecards look like Meat's, except for the cool architect handwiriting, and I draw a line from home plate to the part of the field the ball was hit. I indicate advancing on throws with a semicircle arrow over the diamond with the notation "th."

My dad taught me some whacky version which I appreciated but replaced with my own system once I had to score games as a reporter.

[Guest KC]

Last winter I made a list of about thirty-forty things that can happen in a
ball-game and made up a fake scorecard with it to illustrate scoring to a
friend of mine who wanted to learn for his softball team. I gotta find that
thing and scan it, it's pretty fun and we might get a kick out of picking it
apart for stuff.

[soupcan]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I show the batter reaching first on a fielder's choice. In the runner's box, I'd put the 6-4 in the second base position, maybe with an FO next to it.

I used to do this too but technically the batter doesn't reach first and it looks weird, like the inning ended when the runner got picked off or something after the batter reached base safely.

Maddening.

[Centerfield]

Poor Robin made 3 outs in 2 innings.

[Willets Point]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I download the "enhanced vertical scorecard" from baseball-scorecards.com.

You mean this? Got to add it to permanent links if so.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Yes sir, that's the one.

You can score balls and strikes if you like on it, though I must say I've never found a satisfying way to do that.

I'vee tried filling in the boxes 1, 2, 3 etc., or 1S (swinging strike 1), 2backwards s (for called strike on the second pitch) and F for foul, and 1L (first pitch ball low), 2H (second pitch ball high) etc. but then they start fouling them off and I lose count of pitches and sequence.

Most often I only note the count when it gets to be 0-2 or 3-0

[Diamond Dad]

keeping a "book" is becoming a lost art. At my son's little league game a few weeks ago, I handed one of my assistant coaches the score book and said, "here, keep the book" while I went to work with the boy who was going to be the next pitcher. When I game back, he handed me the book and had not written a thing on it. I looked at him quizzically and asked why he hadn't written anything and he looked at me like a cow looking at an ocoming train and said, "I thought you just wanted me to hold it for you." He had no idea how to record a game in a scorebook.

I've been teaching Mini Knight how to score -- he's pretty good at all the basics now (good handwriting practice, too!), but he gets confused on odd plays.

There is no "correct" way to keep a book, although I'd say that the object is that somebody else -- not you -- should be able to figure it out, so you should not use such individualized markings that only you know the code!

I like to indicate each "out" by putting a number in a circle. so, if a runner is forced out at a base on a fielder's choice ("FC") and is the third out of the inning, I'll have a "3" in a circle in that box to indicate that was the final out, even though the batter is shown as reaching base on FC and he was the last batter of the inning.

I like to draw an extra thick solid line underneith the box for last batter faced by each pitcher, to differentiate the at-bats against each pitcher in the game, but I like Keith's method (for an announcer who has a table to write on and a supply of colored highlighters!)

Most TV or Radio announcers use extra large scorebook pages so they can write in notes to themselves like "lined hard to 2b -- great play by Kaz" so when they are looking back at the at-bats of each hitter they are reminded of things to say about the previous at-bats. on a small traditional scorecard you don't have that much space, but I will put an exclamation point next to a great defensive play.

It's great to have a scorecard of a game to look back on. I have one hanging on the wall of my office in a frame -- along with the ticket stub from the game -- September 17, 1986. Last out was Chico Walker: "4-3"

[seawolf17]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I show the batter reaching first on a fielder's choice. In the runner's box, I'd put the 6-4 in the second base position, maybe with an FO next to it.

But that runner doesn't get credit for first base. I just put "FC" in the box, then mark the runner out at whatever base it happens.

I made my own scorebook on Excel to fit my needs and brought it to Staples to have it bound; it has no inning numbers across the top, so I don't have to cross out numbers and make a mess. It also allows me to keep all my games from one year in the same book.

[soupcan]

Diamond Dad wrote: It's great to have a scorecard of a game to look back on. I have one hanging on the wall of my office in a frame -- along with the ticket stub from the game -- September 17, 1986. Last out was Chico Walker: "4-3"

I took the scorecards from the first games my kids attended, put the ticket stubs and a picture of them at that game on a board, had them mounted and framed.

The kids like them but I like them better.

[Guest Edgy DC]

]My bugaboo is an inning-ending forceout. What do you do for the batter?

I write a big fat "FC" and leave it at that.

Nothing gave me better pleasure as a manager than consulting the book on a batter, realizing he grounded to second, yelling to the secondbaseman, "Brian, he hit it to you last time," watching the kid cheat into the hole and making another play. You can see the empowerment of knowledge derived from records inflating the kid's person.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Well, he doesn't get "credit" for the base, but at the end of the inning, there's one guy left on base, and it's the guy who reached on the fielder's choice.

[Centerfield]

soupcan wrote: I took the scorecards from the first games my kids attended, put the ticket stubs and a picture of them at that game on a board, had them mounted and framed. The kids like them but I like them better.

What a great idea. I'm going to steal it from you and pretend I came up with it.

[Elster88]

Hey! Stealing it and pretending it was my idea was my idea!!!

[soupcan]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Well, he doesn't get "credit" for the base, but at the end of the inning, there's one guy left on base, and it's the guy who reached on the fielder's choice.

Is that true?

The batter is counted as LOB even though he didn't reach base?

That's not right.

[Willets Point]

At the July 4 game last season whenever I missed a play MiniKnight filled me in on what to score.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Two outs, runner on first.

Batter grounds into a force out.

There's one man left on base.

It shouldn't matter (as far as LOB statistics go) whether the play was at second base or at first, it's still an LOB.

[soupcan]

If you say so I believe you but if the guy doesn't reach base he shouldn't count as LOB.

That's messed up.

[Guest cooby]

When I used to keep score for my son's little league games I always hated when there was a fielder's choice and the kid that hit into it (and sometimes their less informed parents) would insist that it was a hit, because "they were safe!"

Gotta admit though, when my husband played softball and I kept score, some of those guys acted more like babies than the kids did when they didn't agree with my scoring.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

When I'd score a Little League game, like for nine-year-olds, any time somebody hit a fair ball and got on base (except in the case of force outs) I scored it a hit. In other words, there was no such thing as an error. At that level, I figure that any fair ball that the fielder can't handle, for whatever reason, should be a hit.

[Guest cooby]

Yeah, I agree with that.

When they hit 11 or 12 though, they should be fielding cleanly, or no longer playing. Sounds harsh I know.