The weekly You Are the Scorer post will be used as a thread for scoring queries for the rest of the year, so please leave a reply below if you have a question or comment.
To hunt through the first 50 You Are the Scorer questions, click here.
Joe Gray discusses why statistics and milestones are so useful in baseball, and then turns to explore what milestones are achievable in the British top tier.
–
I like to say that I’ve always been a sports fanatic. The truth is, though, that – womb judo aside – I was largely unaware of sports for the first 4 years of my life, and then spent the next 4 years researching the subject, before achieving official fanatic status on 26 June 1990, the day that David Platt turned on Paul Gascoigne’s 119th-minute free-kick and connected for that volley against Belgium in the second round of the soccer World Cup.
In the same way that I’ve “always†been a sports fanatic, I’ve always had a liking for numbers. It was no great surprise, then, that baseball – a sport mainly played on the wrong side of the Atlantic but with an unparalleled wealth of numbers to easily compensate for the geographical inconvenience – would grab my attention. Continue reading
The weekly You Are the Scorer post will be used as a thread for scoring queries for the rest of the year, so please leave a reply below if you have a question or comment.
To hunt through the first 50 You Are the Scorer questions, click here.
The weekly You Are the Scorer post will be used as a thread for scoring queries for the rest of the year, so please leave a reply below if you have a question or comment.
To hunt through the first 50 You Are the Scorer questions, click here.
The weekly You Are the Scorer post will be used as a thread for scoring queries for the rest of the year, so please leave a reply below if you have a question or comment.
To hunt through the first 50 You Are the Scorer questions, click here.
Scenario: With the home team leading 13-1 after 6 innings, the starting pitcher switches places with the right fielder to preserve the moundsman’s arm. The right fielder gives up 9 runs in the next 2 innings, though, so the starter is brought back to the mound to pitch the top of the ninth. With the home team now leading 13-10, he strikes out the side in order to close out the game.
As the official scorer you give the starter the win, as all of the rulebook’s criteria are met, but do you also award a save?
A – Yes.
B – No.
Highlight the text below to reveal the answer:
Answer: B – No.
Rule 10.19(b) states:
[The official scorer shall credit a pitcher with a save when] He is not the winning pitcher.
Scenario: The visitors hold a 2-1 lead and the team’s starter has two outs in the bottom of the ninth and is yet to concede a hit. However, the next batter up lines the first pitch right back at the mound, and the ball deflects off the pitcher’s knee into the outfield. The batter-runner slides into second base and is called safe, and you pencil in a double on your scoresheet. The pitcher needs medical attention and is relieved by a lefty, who had been warming up in the bullpen. The first thing the reliever does is to throw the ball to the first baseman for an appeal. The runner at second is called out for missing the base, and the game is over.
As the official scorer, do you credit the starter with a no-hitter?
A – Yes.
B – No.
Highlight the text below to reveal the answer:
Answer: B – No.
Rule 10.02(c)(1) Comment states:
If a relief pitcher enters a game and his team initiates a successful appeal play that results in one out, the officer scorer shall credit such relief pitcher with â…“ of an inning pitched.
Thus, while the hit is nullified, the starter is not given a complete game and therefore cannot be awarded a no-hitter. Instead, it would go down as a combined no-hitter.
Scenario: A game starts at noon and the last out is made at 16.10. During the game there is a 60-minute delay for rain and a 10-minute delay to adjust the umpire crew after the plate umpire twists an ankle.
As the official scorer, what do you put down as the duration of the game in your report?
A – 3 hours.
B – 3 hours 10 minutes.
C – 4 hours.
D – 4 hours 10 minutes.
Highlight the text below to reveal the answer:
Answer: B -Â 3 hours 10 minutes.
Rule 10.02(l) states:
Time required to play the game, with delays deducted for weather, light failure or technological failure not related to game action.
Rule 10.02(l) Comment states:
A delay to attend to the injury of a player, manager, coach or umpire shall be counted in computing time of game.
Scenario: With a runner on first the batter appears to have a hit a run-scoring triple, but the preceding runner is called out on a appeal play for failing to touch second base.
The batter obviously loses a run batted in, but, as the official scorer, to what do you downgrade the triple?
A – A double.
B – A single.
C – No hit (just an at-bat).
Highlight the text below to reveal the answer:
Answer: C – No hit (just an at-bat).
Rule 10.05(b)(2) states:
[The official scorer shall not credit a base hit when a] batter apparently hits safely and a runner who is forced to advance by reason of the batter becoming a runner fails to touch the first base to which such runner is advancing and is called out on appeal. The official scorer shall charge the batter with a time at bat but no hit.
Scenario: In a 6-inning regulation game called because of rain, the starter leaves after 4 innings with an 8–0 lead. In the fifth, a reliever strikes out the first three batters, and in the sixth a second reliever does the same thing.
The rulebook says that the starter would have needed to pitch 5 innings to be eligible for the win in this game, and so the win should go to the more effective reliever. However, they turned in an identical performance. So, as the official scorer, to whom do you award the win?
A – The starter.
B – Reliever one.
C – Reliever two.
Highlight the text below to reveal the answer:
Answer: B – Reliever one.
Rule 10.17(b) Comment states:
If two or more relief pitchers were similarly effective, the official scorer should give the presumption to the earlier pitcher as the winning pitcher.