No, not that kind of scoring. Get yer mind out of the gutter. :)
Our commish keeps a pretty tight boxscore… even during an All-Star Game
We’ve been having a good discussion on the APBA Blog Facebook page on how we keep score in APBA (mostly centered around baseball). As in most things APBA, we all do things differently. Once again, the beauty of APBA and tabletop games in general is that we’re not restricted by the boundary of the game.
The score keeping methods are different: some score each at-bat, inning-by-inning. Others just track stats such as at-bats, hits and the like and total them at the end of the game.
The level of detail is different: Some will record every out down to the runner who is out on a fielder’s choice. Others will just mark a checkmark or X for an out unless of course, it is a strikeout.
The medium we use is different as well: some use pre-formatted documents such as MS Word that they can print out or copy when needed. Others use traditional notebook paper and one even uses notecards. There was mention of BallStat which reminds me I have to give that a try. Too many people have said good things about it.
IAL manager Don S can get three games on one side of graph paper
Scoring a game is an art that evolves for each of us. I would hesitate to look at any of my scoresheets when I first played the game. I know that even within my league, each of us has our own style. Colored highlighters, graph paper…each manager has their own unique quirks. “As long as you can read it”, our commissioner would say.
I did a bit of searching and found some How-tos on scoring a baseball game. Some good, some not so much. The best one I found was (perhaps appropriately) on The Art of Manliness website (the irony that it was co-written by someone named “Kate” wasn’t lost on me but I digress).
For years, I’ve designed my own score sheet to use in league play and replays. I believe I made it available in the past (I just checked. yes, I did) so in the interest of not re-inventing the wheel, you’re welcome to download it and make use of it if it works for you.
Happy Scoring!
There was a great conversation at Baseball Prospectus back in April about scorekeeping:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=16407
One word of disclosure, the author (Larry) is my younger brother, so I taught him how to keep score when we were just kids.
I love this topic, though. I always feel a bit like a voyeur when I see other people’s scorecards. How you keep score is a really personal thing, I think.
And he ground out to the shortstop. 6-3 if you’re scoring at home. But hey, if you’re scoring at home, you probably don’t care!
[rim-shot]