By the Heckler
BASEBALL BIG MOUTH baseball blog

In a game that cherishes tradition above all others, one aspect older than Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown quietly fading into the sunset of yesterday (without much ado) is the practice of scorekeeping.

For little money, fans can easily participate in this timeless practice and create an instant classic souvenir for themselves and future generations - all the while still enjoying the game, sitting comfortably at the ballpark, sipping a cold drink in between pitches and soaking up the sun – yet how many of us can truly say we ever have? Even the Heckler will admit to only doing it on one occasion: in Pittsburgh’s old Three Rivers Stadium, for a regular season contest between the Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals. Truth be told, having occasion to sit in a private box for the one-and-only time in my life (thanks to the employer of my now father-in-law) had a lot to do with it – hey, it helps to have a table in front of you, no doubt, not to mention an endless supply of chicken fingers – but at least I can count myself among those who have. Can you?

At one time a common site amongst the smattering of fans in both the bleachers and box seats alike, seeing someone actually holding a scorecard nowadays with pencil in hand, jotting down cryptic letters and numbers in concurrence with the game in front of them is now akin to a Kansas City Royals five-game winning streak. Even radio and television announcers would, at one time, routinely state, “for those scoring at home” and then recount the play 6-4-1 or another such combination of the latest putout. Do they even bother anymore? Not when I’m listening, that’s for sure.

The biggest obstacle for those a little leery of undertaking such a venture – first and foremost – is simply not understanding the actual act of just how one keeps a record of the game they are watching. I was lucky in that I grew up playing baseball with a father who managed my team most of the time. We would take home the scorebook at the end of each game, and I would analyze who-did-what and when as commonly as studying my multiplication tables. Okay, maybe I studied those scorebooks a little more than my math (truth be told) but hey – at least there were numbers on the card, and deciphering averages and earned-run-averages was actual math, so really, it wasn’t all lost time academically-speaking – not to mention that I became very familiar with keeping score. There was never any mystery about it to me. For my wife and others like her, though? It may as well be Egyptian hieroglyphics.

In actuality, however, it is rather easy once you understand everything, and it never fails to amaze neophytes how you can actually recount a game batter-by-batter and inning-by-inning (no matter what era it was originally played) simply by picking up one of these completed cards. Age has no bias on the scorecard, fans.

While some methods differ ever-so-slightly, essentially, keeping score is a simple system of numbers assigned to the various fielders, and letters assigned to various plays that happen during the course of a game. Give it a try some time. The Heckler guarantees you will not be disappointed at adding one of these gems (once completed) to your memorabilia collection. For $5 or so (the cost of a program with scorecard inside) it is well worth the time and meager financial investment. Pencil in a reminder to do so on your next trip to a ballpark near you.

For help on keeping score, here are two helpful links:
www.mlb.com
www.ehow.com

photo copyright Baseball Big Mouth and the Heckler
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Waxing Nostalgic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.