I think all baseball fans should know how to keep score, as a matter of fact it should be a prerequisite to becoming an actual fan and you should have to take a test on keeping book.  If you pass you get an official baseball fan badge.  I touched on the importance of keeping score in a previous post so here I am going to give you the very basics.

First of all you have to know the positions by number, because in baseball we use , jersey #, last name, position #.  So if Johnson is leading off playing shortstop in the first line for the book you would right (91, Johnson, 6).

Position Numbers (very important)

1=Pitcher

2=Catcher

3=First Base

4=Second Base

5=Third Base

6=Shortstop

7=Left Field

8=Center Field

9=Right Field

Now that you know that you can actually start recording the play and the result in each little box for each player.  So lets say the leadoff hitter hits a ground ball to shortstop and the shortstop throws him out at first base.  In the first box you write 6-3 (this is how the ball traveled from player to player to record the out, 6 being shortstop and 3 being first base).  After you do that make a small 1 in the bottom right corner to depict which out the player made in this case it was the first so we use 1.  After the player make the third out you write 3 and circle it.  Then what comes next is a little artistic expression.  I simply draw a diagonal line through the bottom right corner of the box so I know to start the next inning in the next column.  Some people draw a dark line around the entire box to make sure they don’t miss it, I have even seen people draw an arrow pointing to the the next innings box to make sure they get it right.  How you do this is up to you but you must remember to move over 1 and down 1 for the next inning.

The reason you want to know the numbers is when a player makes an out you can mark it properly, I also use this as a coach.  If a hitter on the other team is coming up and he is 0-3 with three ground balls to first (marked in the book as 1-U) I will shift my defense that way and continue to pitch the kid the same way.  U means unassisted, which means the first baseman fielded the ball and stepped on first base himself.  There are more complex rules and we will cover them later but this is Keeping Score 101.  Also, remember in an earlier post I said you would be the information guru, it is true, because whoever is keeping the book is who I look to for information regarding players and their at bats.

Share your score keeping techniques @ samflamont@tumblr.com or simply post them in the comment section, in which case I may share them as a post.

Thanks for reading, we will cover more on Keeping score in later posts.