Scoring help

[Guinnypint]

I like to keep score of alot of games and the other night in the Yankee Jays game Giambi grounded out to Scutaro who was the third baseman but because of the shift was actually at second, is this scored as 5-3 or 4-3. Thanks for the help.

[Macker]

No matter where Scutaro was positioned, he was in the lineup as the thirdbaseman, so it's scored 5-3.

[Guinnypint]

^^
Macker,
Thanks for the help and letting me know I am not the only adult who scores games as a hobby! LOL

[Patriot]

What I mark on my scoresheet in this kind of situation is 5(subscript 4)3. The subscript reflects the fielding position where the play was made. So I also score a popout to the pitcher's mound caught by the third baseman as 5(subscript 1).

Of course, if one uses an advanced coding system like that of Project Scoresheet, the location of every play is recorded in detail. But I find the subscript (or you could do parentheses, brackets, superscript, whatever) an easy way to record oddities like that while still using a simple coding system.

[SABR Matt]

When I hand score, I have four symbols I use to mark unusual events.

I mark position of the play with a little x.
If it was a great play, I use ! next to the player making the great play (such as 5-3! if the third baseman throws it into the dirt and the first baseman makes a great scoop)
On errors, I don't just say E5, I add a letter for what kind of error: C for catch, B for bobble, T for throw)
If no error was charged but I believe one should have been (such as fly balls lost in the sun or an outfielder misreading a line drive that should have been caught or an infielder waving at a groundball as it goes by), I mark the result as 1B-E(fielder #)

[CubsFaninBflo]

You have some great ideas, Matt. I use colored pens when I score. I mark all balls in green, strikes in red. Fouled off piches are marked with a small red "x". I just got the idea to score stolen bases based on the pitch call (green for ball, red for strike). I score all walks, HBP, and catcher's interference in green (automatic "go"), strikeouts in red (the ultimate "stop"), base hits in blue, other plays in black.

[Patriot]

CubsFan, you may be interested in this if you have not seen it (someone else's color-coding system).

http://alexreisner.com/baseball/scorekeeping/gallery/riggs

As for me, I can't score in ink (too many scoring changes/mistakes and I don't like whiteout). Heck, I have a hard enough time not dropping my pencil under the couch/seat.

[SABR Matt]

I love that idea of using multiple colors.

I need larger scoring boxes...I would track more things if the damned boxes weren't so tiny.

[Macker]

I find it easier to use scoring books with no boxes for the count. I use numbers for called balls & strikes, symbols for fouls, and lines indicating where balls went (with and arc, or no arc, of the line along with various smaller lines indicating where/how the ball was hit.)

[SABR Matt]

Do they make large print scoring sheets? I'm visually limited...it'd be nice to be able to read my own score cards.

[Patriot]

Matt, I'm surprised that a smart and enterprising guy like you hasn't made his own scoresheet. I've found Excel to be a surprisingly useful tool to make my own sheets (manipulating the row and column widths and putting borders in).

Also, have you tried sheets that don't have room for every hitter to bat in every inning? Personally, I like the 9x9 traditional grid, but if you want bigger boxes, that's a way to enable it.

[SABR Matt]

I'm an Excel master when it comes to functionality and formulation/calcualtion, but I have never bothered to mess with formatting much (other than column width, text alignment, bold font, cell colors, font colors and whatnot...the routine stuff)

Also...you can't make a baseball diamond in excel. I like score cards that have the base path diamond and even a rough outfield outline so I can mark the position of each batted ball with an X.

[Macker]

you can't make a baseball diamond in excel.

Sure you can. One of the Basic Shapes in Auto Shapes is a square tilted on one corner. It's perfect for a baseball diamond.

[SABR Matt]

Really?

That makes the infield the entire square though...how do I get the outfield in there?

[Macker]

You can use an arced line to create the outfield barrier. Once you are satisfied with one box, you just copy it to fill your columns.

[SABR Matt]

How do you put both into the same box though? I was under the impression that Excel didn't allow multiple images to be placed into one cell.

[Patriot]

It just does.

I don't know if this attachment will work (it's an Excel file)...I threw it together real quick from another scoresheet I already had. The outfield drawing is awful, I recognize, but it's just to give an idea of what is possible.

[SABR Matt]

Wow...that's pretty good actually. The outfield drawing could be made a little smoother but it's pretty solid.

BTW, I've never understood the need for the need for a 9X9 grid...batting around is too common...as are extra inning games.

I could probably be happy with a two-sided page for each team and a 6X9 grid (which is what you have in that example).

That model leaves enough space to track pitches unlike the prefab sheets I get...and I could probably track batted ball trajectories too.

[Patriot]

I should point out that that one is similar to those at this website (designed by Alex Reisner). The big difference is that his are portraits instead of landscapes, so they have less room.

http://alexreisner.com/baseball/scorekeeping/
(see "Traditional scorekeeping" at the bottom of the page)

[CoachDan]

I'd like to add that anyone seriously interested in scorekeeping should check out the "Situational scoring" at Alex's site!

dan