Baseball Book Review: The Joy of Keeping Score

There are two reasons to head out to the ballpark. One is to passively watch the game, the other is to actively see it, and you can't do the latter without a scorecard. In this slim gem of a volume, Paul Dickson clearly explains and translates the quirky documentation system, which looks like cuneiform to the uninitiated, for recording what happens on the ball field, and why true fans are so adamant about doing it.

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"No other American sport has anything that genuinely approximates the scorecard - that single piece of paper, simple enough for a child - that preserves the game both chronologically and in toto with almost no significant loss of detail." - Tom Boswell in the Washington Post

The Joy of Keeping Score
by Dr. Donald McKim

The Joy of Keeping Score

Baseball Book Review | Baseball Books | The Dugout / Book Reviews by Dr. McKim

Keeping score at a ball game is one of the rituals that countless fans engage in and enjoy as an integral part of the game itself. This superb little book will enhance that joy as it cleverly explains and illustrates baseball score keeping. The first several chapters talking about the "Basics" of the scorecard, then advanced scoring techniques, before the chapter on "Scoring and Baseball History from A to Z" takes us through the alphabet with an appropriate "letter" for the many dimensions of score keeping. The final chapter gives us fascinating pictures of "Scorecards of Historic Games" such as the 1951 Giants-Dodgers playoff, Nolan Ryan's 300th victory, Don Larsen's 1956 perfect World Series game and Cal Ripken, Jr.'s record-breaking 2,131st straight game on September 6, 1995.

Dickson, author of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (1989) and The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary (1999) as well as a host of other baseball books, is a great guide through the basics of how to score a baseball game. A whole variety of systems are in place from the intricately complex to the astonishingly simple. Any system involves the fans more closely in the game and tends to ratchet up the enjoyment level. Score keeping has evolved as baseball itself has evolved and as the compilation of records and statistics has grown. The scorecard has been called the "membership card into baseball." Dickson quotes the Washington Post's Tom Boswell who wrote: "No other American sport has anything that genuinely approximates the scorecard-that single piece of paper, simple enough for a child-that preserves the game both chronologically and in toto with almost no significant loss of detail." Dickson shows us a variety of scoring systems as well as the advanced techniques so that the game "lives on" through the scorecard.

The march through the alphabet explaining some aspect of the scorekeeper's joy is a clever way of approaching the subject. Dickson is rich in historical detail as in his "E is for the Eisenhower-Coolidge Continuum." President Eisenhower is known as "the most celebrated scorer among great public figures." But it was first lady Grace Coolidge who was known to keep a "perfect scorecard" and to "stay in the presidential box at Griffith Stadium long after the President had slipped away." In fact, reports Dickson, "President Cal didn't see the point... He was so indifferent that at the opening game of the 1924 World Series, he rose to leave when the score was tied at the end of the ninth inning. Grace Coolidge had to literally pull him back into his seat by his coattails." Dickson also notes that this Eisenhower-Coolidge pairing is interesting because "it emphasizes a point that scorers have long observed: women are as likely to score as men."

"K is for K as in Strikeout" tells us that this symbol for "strikeout" comes from the "back rather than the front of the word 'strike.'" Baseball pioneer Henry Chadwick, who was the New York Herald's first baseball editor, first used the symbol in 1868 in Beadle's Guide of which he was the editor. He often said that the abbreviations he used were linked mnemonically to the movements described. As far as he was concerned, the letter "K" is the "prominent letter of the word strike," adding that "the letter K in struck is easier to remember in connection with the word, than S." Other aspects of Chadwick's system, however, have dropped out, such as "L" for "foul" and the use of letters, not numbers, for defensive plays.

"Z is for Zamboni on Field and Other Zany (but relevant) Scoring Notations" completes Dickson's alphabet and includes fascinating descriptions:

An unofficial scorecard sold outside Camden Yards in Baltimore lists team rosters and each player's salary.

Sportswriter Red Barber told of Henry McLemore whose wife created immense score sheets for the 1938 World Series and used the classic notation HWHI for "He walked him intentionally."

Hall of Famer Phil Rizutto introduced "WW" into his scoring when he was a Yankee announcer. It stood for "wasn't watching."

Great pictures from the glory days of baseball illustrate this book along with photos of various scorecards, ballparks, and baseball programs. Featured on the cover and in the book are photos of the venerable Connie Mack who famously waved his scorecard from the dugout to position his players on the field. A six-page bibliography completes the book.

"Y is for Year-by-Year Timeline of Scoring Rules Changes" traces the evolution of how the rules of scoring have changed over the years. Yet what hasn't changed and what Dickson's book so charmingly conveys is this essential joy in scoring a baseball game. Past, present, and future generations will continue to delight in this activity and Dickson's book helps add to this joy.

The Joy of Keeping Score

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The Joy of Keeping Score

Author(s):Paul Dickson.

Harvest Books.
July 1997.
128 pages.

ISBN: 0156005166.

The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball
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Baseball Almanac has an informative scoring section which includes free downloadable scorecards. Buy the book, download the cards, learn to score, then share (upload) you scorecards with us.

Cool Papa Bell recalls in the book, "I remember one game I got five hits and stole five bases, but none of it was written down because they forgot to bring the scorebook to the game that day."

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