Getting Started with Keeping Score
So, I decided I wanted to really get baseball, you know? Not just watch it, but understand the flow, what actually happened play-by-play. Someone mentioned keeping score, like the old timers do. Seemed like a neat idea. Went out and bought a scorebook. Just a basic one, nothing fancy. Looked pretty confusing at first, all those boxes and little diamonds.
First time I tried it was a disaster. I sat down at a local league game. Got the lineups okay, wrote the names down in the slots. Then the game started. First batter gets a hit. Okay, uh… where do I mark that? How? I just kinda drew a line to first base. Then the next guy hits into a double play. Forget it. My page looked like a mess, scribbles everywhere. Couldn’t keep up at all.
Figuring Out the Squiggles
Realized I needed to actually learn the shorthand. Found some guides online, looked at how people marked stuff. Okay, this makes a bit more sense. Numbers for positions, right? Pitcher is 1, Catcher 2, First Base 3, and so on. K for a strikeout. BB for a walk. Got it. A simple ground out to shortstop, thrown to first? That’s ‘6-3’. Fly out to center field? ‘F8’. Okay, okay, I can try this.
- Got the lineups again. Wrote ’em down carefully this time.
- Paid close attention to the first batter. Strikeout swinging. Okay, I put a ‘K’ or ‘KS’ in the box. Felt good.
- Next batter walks. ‘BB’ it is. Drew a line to first base on the little diamond in his box.
- Batter hits a single to right field. The runner on first goes to second. Okay, mark the single, draw the line to first for the batter. Then, for the runner who was on first, I darkened the line from first to second in his box.
The Actual Process at the Game
So now when I go, first thing is grab a roster or listen close for the lineups. I write down the players’ names and their numbers down the side. Fill in their positions too, helps remember who is who fielding.
Then the game starts. Pitch by pitch isn’t usually necessary for me, just the outcome of the at-bat. Guy grounds out 4-3 (second base to first)? I write ‘4-3’ in his box and mark the first out for the inning. Someone hits a double? I draw a line from home to first, then to second, write ‘2B’ next to it. If an RBI happens, I make a little dot or note for that too.
It’s not always clean. Sometimes plays are weird. Rundowns are a nightmare to score accurately. Sometimes I just write a little note if I can’t figure out the exact scoring code fast enough. Like, “weird play between 3rd and home”. Later, I might try and decipher it. Keeping track of substitutions is another thing, gotta note who comes in and when.
Why Bother?
Honestly, sometimes my scorecard still looks messy. Sometimes I miss a play if I’m grabbing a drink or talking. But doing this forces me to watch every pitch, every play. I understand strategy way better now. Why they shifted the defense, why they pitched around a hitter. Plus, at the end, you have this cool record of the entire game. You can look back and see exactly how the runs scored, who played well, who made the errors (I mark those with an ‘E’ and the position number, like ‘E6’ for shortstop booting it).
It took a while, lots of messy pages and scratching things out. But I started doing it, kept practicing at games, looked up the symbols when I got stuck. Now, it’s just part of going to the ballpark for me. Makes the whole thing more engaging than just sitting there watching passively.
