With high-tech scoreboards in pro baseball, scorekeeping could become a lost art. But look around at the next game you attend, and there’s likely to be somebody that’s keeping track with a pencil and paper, a tradition that extends back to when the game began.
It looks complicated, and yeah, it can be. But it’s not calculus, and if you’re doing this for fun, you might not need every single detail. If you’re learning to score so you can serve a team as an official scorekeeper, here is a lesson on how to learn the correct way.
The point of the scorecard is to create an accurate record of the game. A person reading a scorecard should be able recreate the game from beginning to end, just by looking at symbols, letters and numbers.
If you’re an official scorer, you should purchase a scorebook such as this one at a sporting goods store or online. For a free, loose-leaf approach,here's a site with many downloadable free samples.This particular one is my favorite, and it’s the one we’ll use for this lesson.
Note: There are as many scoresheets and formats as there are scorekeepers, and no way is truly the correct way. It’s all determined by what the use is and your personal preference. As long as it's accurate, it's fine.
An important tip. Use a pencil. Always. Trust me on this one: No matter if you’re doing this for the first time or for 50 years, you will need to use an eraser from time to time.
