I had a realization :: For all this research and talk I’ve been doing about baseball scorekeeping, I’ve never kept score of a baseball game myself. Last year I had a similar realization and ordered beautiful scorecards from the Eephus League of Baseball Minutiae, but they’ve been just sitting on my shelf. So, after seeing Roger Angell’s scorecard, I decided to go back and watch Game 6 of the World Series (I only got home for the 9th inning), attempting to keep score of the game along the way. I wanted to see what it felt like to document those amazing moments - if they carried as much weight with a pen as they do watching that game live. Its insanely difficult to keep score. I had to pause the game several times to look up how to document simple plays in baseball that happen often. Fielder’s choices created a mess of my scorecard. Substitutions, especially double switches when a player doesn’t come in at the same position, are insane. What’s the difference between a flyout and a popout? I’ve never found myself more captivated by a baseball game. Not because I knew the potential outcome, but because of the level of attention it required for me to actively keep score. I wasn’t even logging balls / strikes. I think there’s some level of forecasting that comes through in keeping score. Logging every play, you can start to feel momentum through your pen. You feel the momentum of an inning. Of course, this can just as easily be killed by a double play or a guy watching a called 3rd strike, but I really felt like I was in touch with the swings of the game as I logged it. I love scanning the scorecard in hindsight. You can see when it got exciting. Homeruns jump out at you. You can watch pitchers collapse. Errors carry an all new weight when see the damage they inflict after what should have been the third out. There’s certain things that can’t be replicated on a scorecard. David Freese’s triple carried far more weight than any other hit in the game, yet it appears on the scorecard as just another hit. David Freese’s HR is beautiful in its isolation of the 11th inning column. 
I had a realization :: For all this research and talk I’ve been doing about baseball scorekeeping, I’ve never kept score of a baseball game myself. Last year I had a similar realization and ordered beautiful scorecards from the Eephus League of Baseball Minutiae, but they’ve been just sitting on my shelf. So, after seeing Roger Angell’s scorecard, I decided to go back and watch Game 6 of the World Series (I only got home for the 9th inning), attempting to keep score of the game along the way. I wanted to see what it felt like to document those amazing moments - if they carried as much weight with a pen as they do watching that game live. Its insanely difficult to keep score. I had to pause the game several times to look up how to document simple plays in baseball that happen often. Fielder’s choices created a mess of my scorecard. Substitutions, especially double switches when a player doesn’t come in at the same position, are insane. What’s the difference between a flyout and a popout? I’ve never found myself more captivated by a baseball game. Not because I knew the potential outcome, but because of the level of attention it required for me to actively keep score. I wasn’t even logging balls / strikes. I think there’s some level of forecasting that comes through in keeping score. Logging every play, you can start to feel momentum through your pen. You feel the momentum of an inning. Of course, this can just as easily be killed by a double play or a guy watching a called 3rd strike, but I really felt like I was in touch with the swings of the game as I logged it. I love scanning the scorecard in hindsight. You can see when it got exciting. Homeruns jump out at you. You can watch pitchers collapse. Errors carry an all new weight when see the damage they inflict after what should have been the third out. There’s certain things that can’t be replicated on a scorecard. David Freese’s triple carried far more weight than any other hit in the game, yet it appears on the scorecard as just another hit. David Freese’s HR is beautiful in its isolation of the 11th inning column. 

I had a realization :: For all this research and talk I’ve been doing about baseball scorekeeping, I’ve never kept score of a baseball game myself. Last year I had a similar realization and ordered beautiful scorecards from the Eephus League of Baseball Minutiae, but they’ve been just sitting on my shelf. So, after seeing Roger Angell’s scorecard, I decided to go back and watch Game 6 of the World Series (I only got home for the 9th inning), attempting to keep score of the game along the way. I wanted to see what it felt like to document those amazing moments - if they carried as much weight with a pen as they do watching that game live.

  • Its insanely difficult to keep score. I had to pause the game several times to look up how to document simple plays in baseball that happen often. Fielder’s choices created a mess of my scorecard. Substitutions, especially double switches when a player doesn’t come in at the same position, are insane. What’s the difference between a flyout and a popout?
  • I’ve never found myself more captivated by a baseball game. Not because I knew the potential outcome, but because of the level of attention it required for me to actively keep score. I wasn’t even logging balls / strikes.
  • I think there’s some level of forecasting that comes through in keeping score. Logging every play, you can start to feel momentum through your pen. You feel the momentum of an inning. Of course, this can just as easily be killed by a double play or a guy watching a called 3rd strike, but I really felt like I was in touch with the swings of the game as I logged it.
  • I love scanning the scorecard in hindsight. You can see when it got exciting. Homeruns jump out at you. You can watch pitchers collapse. Errors carry an all new weight when see the damage they inflict after what should have been the third out.
  • There’s certain things that can’t be replicated on a scorecard. David Freese’s triple carried far more weight than any other hit in the game, yet it appears on the scorecard as just another hit.
  • David Freese’s HR is beautiful in its isolation of the 11th inning column. 
November 1, 2011 105

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