Keeping an accurate scorebook is an important part of tracking the game, tracking pitch counts and ultimately maintaining a sense of order to the game proceedings. It also comes into play when a game is postponed (e.g., rain delay), or in protest situations. On the more fun side, some people that keep a book do so to follow the game more closely, keep a record of the game that can be review play-for-play or even pitch-by-pitch at a later date, or to use in calculating player batting, pitching, and fielding statistics.

Every scorekeeper keeps the book differently. Scoring notations are different, different symbols and abbreviations are used, and different information is tracked. There is no "right" or "official" way to keep score. As a scorekeeper at a Little League game, you usually need to be able to:

• Report the inning and score
• Report the count for the batter
• Report the pitch count
• Track the batting lineup
• Track substitutions and playing time
• Recreate the situation (batter's count, runners on base, score, inning, etc.) after a delay

As long as you can reliably keep track of those items, you are keeping the book "correctly". A more advanced scorekeeper might also want to know where a given hitter hit last time up, be able to calculate batting average, on-base percentage, earned-run average, or any of dozens of other statistics that coaches, players, and baseball aficionados love to discuss.

Click the following link to see an online demonstration on keeping a good baseball scorebook.

Scorekeeping Info

Scorekeeping Demo