The Finer Points of Scorekeeping

My dad kept score for my baseball teams as a kid, and taught me how to do the same. I would keep score on and off during college when I went to Twins games, and just recently got back into the habit. My goal is — excepting games where it’d be a social faux pas to be nose-deep in a scorebook — to keep score when I attend games in person.

There are many resources on the basics of keeping score. At a minimum you should understand the flow of a baseball game: what are strikes, balls, outs, etc. Once you know the standard rules, you can learn the basic notation. A fly ball to center field is “F8”, while a ground ball double play hit to the second baseman, who throws to the shortstop, who then throws it on to first, is scored “4-6-3”.

Once the conventions are understood, each effort to keep score is based on how much detail you wish to encapsulate within the scorebook. To what extent can someone looking back at your scorekeeping reproduce the motions of the game?

Here’s my approach, in bullet form. Then, we’ll go over a scorecard to get context.

• Keep track of the count, but not pitches. Specifically, don’t worry about foul balls with two strikes. Track the count in the upper-right corner with small dots; balls go on the left, strikes on the right.
• Track how a runner reached a base, unless it is the result of another batter’s play. A runner getting a single then stealing second should have both “1B” and “SB” notated; a runner getting a single then going to third due to the next batter’s hit will only have “1B” listed, with their trip on the paths showing them at third.
• Double-plays are noted on the batter’s spot, unless they reach via fielder’s choice. In that case, notate each out separately.
• Outs on the base paths are noted with a line orthogonal to the path, prior to the base.
• Notate how a runner reached base at the final destination. Singles, walks, etc. are notated near first base; doubles near second; and so on.
• Track RBIs attributed to a batter in the bottom-left corner.
• Each time a batter or runner is out, notate it in the bottom-right with the number out it is in the inning.
• Notate the end of an inning with a diagonal slash.
• Notate a new pitcher by a horizontal line immediately prior to the batter they first faced.
• Notate a pinch hitter or defensive sub by a vertical line between innings where this occurred. Pinch runners are just noted as a sub in the appropriate line, but not marked on the sheet.
• Exceptional plays can and should be noted in whatever way seems appropriate. A large “WOW”? A scrawled “diving stop”? Whatever fits the moment.
• Similarly, feel free to add miscellany as space allows. Did something funny happen? Find a margin to write it down.

That is a lot of information, and it definitely felt strange trying to write it all down. I did not write these rules prior to embarking on scorekeeping; they’ve evolved naturally as I found ways of making sense of what happens in a game, and new situations arise that make me reconsider.

Let’s look at this scorecard to learn more.

We’ll focus almost exclusively on the bottom page of this scorecard. It’s more interesting.

Consider the sequence in the bottom of the 2nd inning. We can see there is no count, so the batter, Belt, swung at the first pitch. The sequence “6-3” means they grounded out to the shortstop, who threw to first base. It was the first out, as seen in the bottom-right.

Then Davis walked on 4 pitches: that’s what the “BB” near first base means. We see the count was 3 balls when the play happened, meaning the fourth pitch caused the walk. At this point, I just drew in a line going to first base.

We see Crawford flew out to center field — F8 — on a 2-1 count. That was the second out of the inning.

Slater singled on a 2-0 count. Since this automatically advances the runner, Davis, who was on first, I don’t write anything on Davis’s box. I just move him to second.

Finally, La Stella grounds to first base with the pitcher covering on a 3-1 count. This is the third out, and we draw a slash to make that extra clear.

There are a few more interesting events that happened. In the 7th inning things got a little wild. The catcher Wynns singled on a 1-2 count. The following batter, Estrada (note the vertical line telling us there was a new player, and that we specifically write “PH, 7” in Estrada’s line to make it clear) struck out. That was the first out. Then, another pinch hitter Bart walked on a 3-1 count. Wynns advances to second. Somewhere in here, Yastrzemski came in as a pinch runner at second base for Wynns. I don’t explicitly say when, which is perhaps an error in my approach.

In either case, a new pitcher comes in to face Flores. But look! Back in Wynn’s/Yastrzemski’s box, we see an out. The X means it happened at second, and it was a pickoff from the pitcher to the second baseman (1-4). So, that runner is eliminated for the second out of the inning.

Finally, Flores strikes out on a 2-2 count to end the inning.

How do we know for sure the pickoff happened from the new pitcher, not the old pitcher? One hint is how the game typically works: it would be strange if the old pitcher stayed to face a new batter after the walk, picked off a runner, then was removed from the game.

However, we can be confident in this report: Check back on the top page where we record the pitchers for the opposing team. We see that Ramirez pitched “0.2” innings, which means he got 2 outs. (Don’t worry about the non-decimal decimals.) Go to the penultimate column, “BF”. This stands for batters faced. We see how got 2 outs while only facing a single batter. This makes it clear that Ramirez got the final two outs in the inning, by the pickoff of Yastrzemski and the strikeout of Flores.

It’s worth noting that there is some puzzling through a scorecard in hindsight. However, I don’t often look back at them. It’s fun to have a record, but the enjoyment for me is the process, not the product. Forcing myself to pay attention to the game, to all the details¹Check out the top of the 6th, where Garrett reached first on “CI”. That stands for Catcher’s Interference, when a batter hits the glove of the catcher while swinging. I don’t think many people in the crowd caught that., puts me in a clear state of mind. The time passes quickly and wonderfully.

I’ll continue to tweak how I keep score, and may even consider how I might redesign a scorebook. I did some initial research to end up with the Eephus Halfliner scorebook I currently use, but there are a few adjustments I’d make were I crafting a scorecard for myself. Most notably, I’d love a dedicated spot for balls and strikes; my dots are horrifically inconsistent.

Scorekeeping is one of the many analog tasks people find enjoyable despite the digital counterparts being more detailed and efficient. Getting back to this habit has been a joy, and something I will continue to do for the rest of my life.

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  Check out the top of the 6th, where Garrett reached first on “CI”. That stands for Catcher’s Interference, when a batter hits the glove of the catcher while swinging. I don’t think many people in the crowd caught that.