{"id":2035,"date":"2009-02-18T07:01:53","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T07:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=2035"},"modified":"2009-10-18T21:00:11","modified_gmt":"2009-10-18T20:00:11","slug":"%e2%80%99balls-and-strikes%e2%80%99-with-the-mets-and-the-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=2035","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Balls and Strikes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 with the Mets and the Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Keeping<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

So far we have been concentrating on the BGB scorecards that you can download from this site, but I thought I would also show you two examples of other scorecards that I use.\u00c2\u00a0 The scorecard highlighted today is particularly useful to anyone who wants to track every pitch thrown in a game.<\/p>\n

Christopher Swingley has created an excellent series of scorecards, accompanied by an in-depth tutorial on how to keep score that played a crucial role in my scoring education.\u00c2\u00a0 His website<\/a> is therefore a highly recommended place to visit.\u00c2\u00a0 I started using his main scorecard back in 2000 (the earliest example I can find is from a game between the Yankees and the Red Sox from 22 June that year) and it has undergone several revisions since that point.<\/p>\n

The layout is similar to the BGB \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcInnings’ scorecard, partly because I based my card on some of my favourite features from it.\u00c2\u00a0 The main appeal of Swingley’s card is that it includes a very neat design for the plate appearance boxes that incorporates the diamond and outfield wall (the latter being useful for plotting where home runs land), a balls-and-strikes box and a list of abbreviations that you can circle to show how a player got on base.<\/p>\n

The list understandably doesn’t include all of the permutations you might come across (e.g. you need to add an \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI’ to indicate an intentional BB, there is no \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFC’ for fielder’s choice, nor an \u00e2\u20ac\u02dce’ for reached on an error), but you can download a version of this scorecard without the abbreviations if you wish.<\/p>\n

The game: 27 June 2008 – Mets versus Yankees<\/a> (pdf)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The completed example is from the first game of a unique double-header between the Mets and the Yankees from June 2008.\u00c2\u00a0 The opener was played in the afternoon at Yankee Stadium, allowing Brits to watch it live in the early evening here, before everybody decamped to Shea Stadium to play the second game.\u00c2\u00a0 Both teams made a series of substitutions near the end of the first game because of the shift in venue and I simply added a note on both sides of the scorecard pointing this out rather than trying to keep up with them all.<\/p>\n

Taking a quick look at the card, you will also see that I haven’t filled in all of the pitching line details and I haven’t \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcproved’ the card.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s quite likely that the scorecard contains a mistake or two (feel free to point them out), but this illustrates one of the main points about scoring: you can do it however you like.<\/p>\n

In this case, I was simply keeping a track of the game as it was going on and I didn’t intend to create any statistics from it or to retain the completed scorecard as a completely accurate record of what took place.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just a fun task that added to my enjoyment of the game, but that’s more than enough reason to keep score.\u00c2\u00a0 The reality is that some people even throw their completed scorecards in the bin when the game is over.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t imagine doing that, but it goes to show there’s no right or wrong way to approach keeping score.<\/p>\n

As for the game itself, the standout player was clearly the Mets’ Carlos Delgado as he led the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAmazins’ in a thumping victory against their Subway Series rivals.\u00c2\u00a0 His final three at-bats saw him bat in nine runs on two homers and a double, which more than made up for the two fielding errors he committed and are noted on the Yankees’ batting card.\u00c2\u00a0 Note that I’ve drawn an \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcX’ on the relevant outfield wall diagram to show roughly where the ball went in to the stands for the home runs.<\/p>\n

I’ve noted mid-inning pitching changes on the Mets’ batting card by drawing a squiggly line at the top of the relevant plate appearance box, but I haven’t made any note on the main scorecard section when a new pitcher entered the game at the start of an inning (as happened for all of the Mets’ pitchers).\u00c2\u00a0 This was based on the logic that you could tell which pitcher was pitching by looking at the pitching lines at the bottom of the scorecard.<\/p>\n

From a scoring point of view, this was quite a routine game to record.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps the one element to highlight would be that four players reached base on a Fielder’s Choice (FC).\u00c2\u00a0 On every occasion, a batter had reached first base on a single and then the next batter hit the ball along the ground allowing the fielding side to make the force out at second.<\/p>\n

With the three times this happened for the Mets, I’ve added the FC to show how the player reached first base and then just recorded the out for the player in the preceding box.\u00c2\u00a0 When Robinson Cano reached first base on a Fielder’s Choice in the third inning for the Yankees, I did actually note down \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFC’ as well for Jorge Posada’s force out at second to more clearly tie the two events together.<\/p>\n

Back to Balls and Strikes<\/strong><\/p>\n

The main reason I’ve used this scorecard over such a long period of time is that it’s the best one I’ve found for recording balls and strikes.\u00c2\u00a0 It uses a section with five boxes, the top two for strikes and the bottom three for balls.\u00c2\u00a0 You simply record the sequence by numbering the boxes and drawing an \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI’ to the left of the box every time a ball is fouled off after two strikes.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, Derek Jeter’s at-bat in the first inning for the Yankees went like this:<\/p>\n