Scorekeeping

....Red Bear

You know me....I'm a pitchers dad....everthing is an error if it's hit in fair territory....

 

accurate stats

I am the scorekeeper and statistician for Western Alamance HS,and have been for a number of years. I too believe in fundamental baseball, have read the rule book dozens of times and continue to refer to it in questionable situations. I have had a son on the team but do not now, and have been told I am a tough scorekeeper then and now. I try to follow the rule book as I read it and always confer with the head coach after each game for his opinion on the validity of my decisions.

I show no bias or give no one player preferential treatment in order to boost his ego! I call them like I see them and am always open for discussion on my rulings. If after review of the rule book, I am found to be in error, I correct the scoring to reflect this.

I have dealt with numerous bleacher scoring moms and dads, however that are a little misinformed as to the actual wording in the official rules of baseball. I get many grumbles and harsh words when I have ruled a players' hit by virtue of an error, or give them a fielding error when dad thinks he made an exceptional effort to field a ball hit 3 steps from him. I do know what exceptional effort means and what routine, fundamental baseball is all about.

Era is a little tougher when one reconstructs the inning, factoring in the errors, pb,wp,etc., but I try to be as fair as humanly possible and show no favoritism individually or to either team!

I consider my stats as the most accurate representation of what has gone on during the course of the game,as well as the season!

Thank you for letting me ramble on this, but there are some scorers out there that adamant about their love of the game and accuracy of reporting!

 

Anytime I've ever done stats for a game, on questionable calls I talked with the coaches. We got to the point where we'd just have hand signals on close plays at what they thought it would be.

We had a game a where we had ourselves making 9 errors. After the game, the other team reported it as six errors. They said that on a couple of them, the players had to make what they deemed as an exceptional play so they gave it a hit. We see the players make it in practice on a routine basis, thus considered the play routine for the player.

 

You, sir, are a treat. Thank you for what you do.

 

It's funny you mentioned this game MVaughn. Of the few I have seen, this game was one of them. I was talking to aguyyouknow when your son was pitching. We both counted at least 4 errors by the 2nd inning, but when you looked up at the scoreboard, it said..................."0". If I recall correctly all but 1 run was unearned, but I bet it was not scored that way.

 

Scoring

Scoring will always be a tough job and a sore spot with most parents when it doesn't go their kids way. just bad human nature. i have heard every excuse in the world from parents trying to "buy" a hit.

 

Keeping Score

I'm not the official score keeper for Whiteville but I have kept score for about 12 years.....I might not know all of the rules but one thing that I do know is the difference between a hit and an error. The bad thing is that we have a very fast runner (Quan Gaddy) that had beat out two infield balls in the game the other day. I recorded hits as I should. But the last time he came to bat...he hit one to the SS and most likely would have made it safely at first but the SS mishandled the ball so I recorded an error. This is a judgement call and I'm more apt to record reaching on error than giving a hit whether it's my son or not! In my scoring book, no one in high school has hit over .490. That was Blake Murray (Jr-SS) on the Scotland High School JV team last year! He's now SS for the varsity team!
This is the first year that I hadn't put any stats together. I normally keep stats from hits to Ground outs and Fly outs down to pitches. I still keep all this, I just hadn't put it in a spreadsheet, yet! But this year, it doesn't seem that important because official stats are posted on our county website (www.columbuscountybaseball.com).

 

I keep a scorebook in the pressbox and there is a 2nd one kept in the dugout. We sit after every game and compare and discuss differences. I have also been accused of being too tough but stick to my guns. We set a state record for batting average last year, and it was probably low based on my scoring according to the coaches, but they usually defer to my unbiased judgement.

 

How can anyone enjoy watching a baseball game when you have to keep stats?

 

I think it's fun because you always know what's going on and it forces you to pay attention to the game and not sit and talk or something.