Ah, yes, OPENING WEEK!! As we collectively celebrate the END of the Winter that just wouldn't go away, and the BEGINNING of the "games that matter," I wanted to remind you that as a part of your preparation, be sure and have plenty of copies of my custom scoresheet on hand!
You can download it HERE - for free!!
Also, this season I will be continuing my intermediate scorekeeping series, "For Those Of You Scoring At Home" - a selection of topics beyond the "first steps" of the art of scorekeeping, aligned for use with the scoresheets I've designed. In 2013 I started with "Counting Pitches" and very soon I'll be wrapping up that trilogy and moving on to new stuff!!
In case you missed them:
Part One (tracking balls, strikes, and pitch counts)
Part Two (tracking pitches in order)
Counting Pitches: Part Three will detail keeping track of pitchers and pitching changes!
Future entries in the series will cover movement around the bases, graphic depiction of batted ball behavior, tracking and calculating RISP, and a variety of unusual scoring decisions & rules.
If you have any ideas for topics to cover, or any other crazy questions, please let me know! I want to be YOUR source for scorekeeping insanity!!
You can leave a comment here, or you can contact me on twitter or facebook!!
Over the offseason, I happened to find your blog while searching for baseball scorecard. I think this is a great resource. I do have a question or two though. Most of the abbreviations I do seem to get, including the very "clever" BLS for Broken Louisville Slugger. My question is what is XX or XXX on your scorecard? I'm not sure, but I have a feeling it may be a play where an outfield assist was made. The other abbreviations I am a little unsure of are PO (putout), PkO (pickoff), FLS (no clue?) Please let me know if I right or wrong. Here's hoping for many continued years of scorekeeping!
ReplyDeleteSean, thanks a bunch!!! Nice job on spotting the "BLS," many scorekeepers have their own idiosyncratic tracking issues, mine is broken bats (just so you know, then...a BBS is a broken-bat single, and I always credit the pitcher for breaking the bat, ha ha).
DeleteXX or XXX is another strange item I keep track of...for those plays where 2 (XX) or 3 (XXX) outfielders (sometimes infielders) collide, or nearly collide, I mark it so and keep notes about it.
PO is, indeed, a putout...I record them in the boxes on the right so that I can balance my scorecard. PkO is a pickott. FLS is a "flying Louisville Slugger" - a ha!! - where the batter lets his wood go soaring!!
One more thing...a BLS in parentheses indicates that the bat was broken during the AB, without parenteses indicates the AB ended with the broken bat...same thing goes for FLS.
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