October 27, 2011
Not long ago, Tom of The Angels in Order posted a scorecard he kept while watching game six of the 2011 World Series. I thought it would be another opportunity to look at how other people keep score. Naturally, Tom keeps score a bit differently than I do. But, that’s the great the great part of scoring a game. You make your system work for you. There’s only one thing I need from the scorecard. Can I figure out what happened during the game? Do I know what all the markings mean? Let’s find out.
Right away in the first inning, I see something that I like. On Schumaker’s single, there’s a line showing where the ball went. That’s an easy thing to do, and would be nice to have later on. On that same box, you see that hits are denoted by horizontal lines in the box in the upper left corner. This is another common way of showing it, different than the 1B, 2B, and 3B notations. I’m more visual, so I like seeing the 2B on my cards. I wonder where the idea of the horizontal lines started? I also notice that home runs are circled. That’s a nice way of drawing your eye to an important event. I also like how Tom took the space to add some commentary to the card. I’m guessing that since this game was scored from TV, the notation on Pujols’s strikeout leading off the sixth denotes where K-Zone says the pitch was. Apparently the Rangers caught a break. I can also see that Holliday being picked off base during the same inning was a huge play by Napoli. I also see that Tom reacted to the end of the eighth with relief. I love the way it keeps the scorecard more alive.
The rest of the card follows just as you’d expect. You can see the Cardinals battle back whenever they needed to. Tom has clearly noted just how close the Rangers were to winning the game, and the series. (I wonder if he made the “1 strike away” notations in real time, or after the game when they became more significant) But, as we all know, the Cardinals prevailed in dramatic walk-off fashion.
And the scorecard shows you how it happened.
Thanks Tom!
(And don’t forget; if you’ve scored a game send in a scan so we can all enjoy it.)
(And don’t forget; if you’ve scored a game send in a scan so we can all enjoy it.)
Nice work at decoding, you nailed my markings, especially the K-zone pitch location on the Pujols strikeout! And yes, I did add the "one strike away" after the fact. Also, 3 hash marks on the vertical is a batting change, and 3 on the horizontal is a pitching change - tho I dont always keep up with the pitching. I usually cut out the box score from the next days newspapaer and attach it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the hash mark explanation. I love the idea of attaching a box score to the scorecard, just in case. Thanks for letting me share the card.
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