I have always been fascinated with keeping score at baseball games. I think that started as my love for statistics was created with me entering the baseball card hobby and thoroughly going over the back of every card. Until I purchased Total Baseball and the Baseball Encyclopedia (and before I had internet access) baseball cards were my source of player statistics and the weird trivia provided by the old Topps cartoons.
Last week, I was able to attend my 3rd straight Opening Day and my 4th overall. While the Royals once again lost, I am happy to report that tonight they moved to 4-1 on their 4th straight walk-off win. I can always dream that this will be the year although I know it won't have a good chance of happening until some of the game's best prospects in baseball get called up. We are hopeful that the best farm system in baseball will equate to the Royals making the playoffs by 2013 or 2014. By that time I will have waited almost 30 years for them to get back there. Here is a copy of my scorebook from Opening Day.
If any of you regularly keep score at games you attend, I would love to hear about it along with why you do it.
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| Royals - 3/31/11 |
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| Angels 3/31/11 |
I can't actually go to games, since I live 5 hours away from the stadium on a good day, but I score along at home fairly often.
ReplyDeleteI score because I feel like I learn a little bit about the game every time I do it, even if all I'm doing is memorizing a team's players, or their jersey numbers.
I also like to learn things on my own that I'd normally have to go to baseball reference for, like who makes a lot of putouts, or where people tend to hit the ball. I know all that information is all readily available, but putting it all together on my own makes it stick better.
I don't remember exactly why I started keeping score, but I do for almost all of the games I watch.
ReplyDeleteOne time I went to a game for a giveaway item, & my friend and I stayed to watch a couple of innings before leaving for the main game we wanted to see. I didn't keep score at the early game, and he commented that I seemed "lost" without my scorecard.
-Paul