Note-taking is a tough task. It requires you to have an organized mental system to judge what is important and what isn’t necessary to recount for general understanding. Looking at box scores can give you a general understanding of what went on in a baseball game. Then there’s the scorecard. It’s a triumph of shorthand. This simple system, through development over decades, has a broad language and style that is the textbook definition of a picture saying a thousand words.

Deciding I wanted to learn how to fill out a scorecard came about for several reasons. Mostly that I wanted to learn more about the game. One of my favorite comedians talks about her love for sports and mentions that she enjoys filling out scorecards when she watches games live.

I also thought it might help me get a better idea of the flow of a game. I can still look at the box score and team stats of a football game then piece together a good idea of how the game went. I can’t say I can do that with a baseball box score. What I realized is that it’s because there are so many more details that matter to me when trying to interpret how things went, such as what part of the line up scored, what sort of pitch counts were occurring, etc.

On the other hand, I know baseball fans who bring books to the game because they enjoy being at the ballpark and listening to game being played. In the same way, I’ve often been playing Dodgers home games on my computer and just listening to Vin Scully call the game while I putz around on the internet.

All of this introduction to basically say that I was having a bad day and decided to drive a few hours away to catch a Double A game between the Richmond Flying Squirrels and the Erie Seawolves where I decided I would also learn to fill out a scorecard on the fly.

I decided in the morning that I would head down for the game. So I started looking online for instructions on how to fill out a scorecard. I was shocked at how many different methods people have posted. Here are a few that I found by typing in “how to fill out a baseball scorecard” via Google.

http://www.baseballscorecard.com/downloads/tutorial.pdf

http://www.wikihow.com/Mark-a-Baseball-Scorecard

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/05/29/how-to-score-a-baseball-game-with-pencil-and-paper/

http://baseball.about.com/od/baseball12/ss/howtoscore.htm

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/baseball_basics/keeping_score.jsp

I was planning on getting a program for the game and thought there was a pretty good chance there would be a scorecard in it. If there wasn’t, I’m sure I would have been able to get one from somewhere in the stadium. If not, I was already bringing a notebook to take down my thoughts about the game, so I would use that if I had to.

I got the stadium about 90 minutes before the game started. I had already missed out on the free t-shirt giveaway and the courtyard area was packed with Girl Scouts who were getting to have a sleepover at the park after the game. Sadly, they weren’t selling cookies.

But I got 32 oz beer and some food – a pound of curly fries, a burger, and some chicken tenders then found my seat. If you’re reading this then it’s not likely that you need to be reminded that minor league baseball is quite awesome. However, it can always be restated because the beer, food, hat, and ticket cost me less Tubmans than I’ve got fingers on one hand.

I mean got this great hat.

Richmond Flying Squirrels (The Winning Run/ BL)

And this was my viewpoint for the game (one of the opening pitches).

First pitch from Richmond (The Winning Run/ BL)

There was a scorecard in the game program but the gloss on the paper made it nearly impossible to write on it with the pen I brought. So by the 2nd inning, I was madly scribbling together a scorecard in my notebook. I had missed the announcement of the lineups so I spent part of my time trying to cobble together everyone’s position. I didn’t mark basepath travel or pitch counts. It’s pretty sparse but if you gave me some time, I could give you a decent account of the game that would go beyond the box score.

My first attempt to score a game. (The Winning Run/ BL)

I know I missed a lot. But I was engaged the whole time into the game. It also went by rather quickly. When you’re keeping track of the action, you’ll see that there’s a lot more going on in baseball than you think.

Derek offered to help me learn how to score a game. The beauty of the internet is that we cued up a game from earlier that day and watched it together while chatting online. I had run out of printer ink though so I sketched out another scorecard, using the following as a template.

http://www.baseball.org.il/images/Scorecard.pdf

And here is what I got.

A little practice can go a long way. (The Winning Run/ BL)

I think I did a much better job this time around.

As I looked over the various instructions and thought back to some of the methods people have discussed with me in the past week, I’m amazed at the richness of baseball vocabulary. Even as I was learning from Derek, I think we disagreed on which K was a strikeout looking and a strikeout swinging. If the shortstop fields the ball, tags a force-out at 2B and then makes the throw to 1B for the double play, how do you score it? My first thought was to put down 6-3 DP but I got another suggestion of 6-6-3 because the first number is the person who fields it and then subsequent numbers are for each player that is involved with an out. But what about a cutoff man? 8-6-2 play to catch someone at home plate?

The language of the baseball scorecard is something amazing to converse over. If you look carefully you see what’s important to the scorer when they follow the game. One of the above linked examples includes writing a line to illustrate the direction of a ball put into play. Some scorecards include balls and strikes as that can tell you how a pitcher and line up are squaring off against each other. Other people instead look to the bottom of the card to see the inning totals and innings pitched to get a similar idea.

As I am finding my baseball storytelling voice, the scorecard is a fun way to define that voice and get snapshots of its development. I haven’t looked it up so I’m speculating that Vin Scully probably keeps a scorecard of the games among what must be a serious list of concise notes as he calls and comments on games all by himself.

We keep track of the things that are important to us. Our notes take on a language that allows us to share stories and relate our interpretations of events. So how we track things becomes an integral part of that retention.

BL