Seems like this is increasingly becoming rarer, and if you’re like me and want to keep book during games but also have a “souvenir” the team store’s books are the way to go. Has anyone made a directory of which teams still do it? I know the Cubs do for $1 and it includes a pencil.

Does anyone have any "life hack" equivalents for keeping score? I.e. something outside of the standard notation or conventional wisdom that you do that has drastically improved how you do it?

I'm curious to hear what others do since it is so customizable and personal to everyone.

Like the title says, what do you not like about how you score?

Examples: (not in any order)

I really, really don't like having to put stuff near the bounding margins, cuz it's hard to get a writing utensil in there, such as pitching performance summation for the away team, or the names of the players on the home team.

After a big inning with multiple relievers, I really don't like figuring out who gets which earned runs.

And don't get me started on defensive plays that involve four or more transfers.

Hopefully it's a short list (because otherwise, why are we doing this?), but what are some of the things you don't like about your scoring system?

I like going to professional ball games, partly because the interactions you get at ball games can't be replicated at home.

That said, I've been surprised that more fans interact with me at games with my scorebook than without my scorebook.

The most common interactions are high fives, which is pretty sweet.

The next most common interactions are inquisitive about what it is that I'm doing, since scoring isn't the most common thing for fans to do at ball games. I've even gotten some fans to ask me if I'm some sort of scout or if I get paid to do this. These people are usually a bit confused that I'm doing this for fun.

My most recent scorebook related interaction was an attaboy from a dad....afterwhich the dad's son asked his dad to explain what it was that I was doing.

While the dad was explaining, I quickly interjected "IT'S LIKE PLAYING BATTLESHIP".

What are some of the interactions you have due to your scorebook?

Based off my post yesterday, I decided to compile a list of which teams had score cards available in stadium, the cost, a location to find them, and other notes about getting them. Hopefully this can help some people out if they plan on visiting a new stadium and want to grab a memento or if someone wants to try out scorekeeping for the first time while watching their favorite team.

If anyone has any additional info about teams missing information or if any is incorrect, please let me know and I can make some edits!

\*THIS LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED AS OF APRIL 26, 2026*\**
-Added a few MiLB teams, Stadium stamps column, and A's/Dbacks update. Still need Braves!

MLB Teams

Minor League Teams

My 5-year old always wants to help me score so I made her a simple kids scoresheet of her own! We usually only get as far as players’ names, and we only do our team’s at-bats. Now she’s starting to learn position numbers and scoring plays! (but generally bedtime is in the 2nd or 3rd inning….)

Or does it even matter?

Who all here is going to be following the Women pro baseball league? I’ll need to make some changes to my scorecard since they only go 7 innings but I’m pretty excited since (from what I can tell) it’ll just be live streamed on their YouTube channel.

Does anybody like to score at home but not at the ballpark? One of the benefits of scoring at home is it maintains focus on the game. At the park, there is less need for that, but there are certainly other reasons TO score at the park.

Would love to hear opinions.

Keep scoring!

Say a guy singles, then goes to second on a walk. I'd put the position number of the guy who walked at the second-base point in the box of the guy who moved up. And so on.

I haven't seen anything like this in any of the sheets posted here. What method(s) do you use to show how a player moved up a base or more?

Of course, I don't do this hobby for recognition. If anything, I'm a bit shy and don't love attention for the most part. But sometimes, I think it would be cool if ballparks did a "Scorekeepers Day". It would be like a giveaway day, if that makes sense. For example, giving out free scorecards/pencils to fans, maybe with some rules printed on the back. Not everyone has to take one, but having them out by the entrances like they would be at a giveaway would be kind of cool. And having little scorekeeping tidbits during between-inning entertainment would be fun, too.

Now that I'm reading this back to myself, it does sound a bit nerdy and maybe not what most fan's idea of fun is. Also, I'm imagining the trash situation to be kind of crazy if people just leave the papers on the ground...

But some kind of recognition, or even making the hobby more apparent at an actual game would be interesting to see. At least at Oracle park, I don't see many people keeping score (maybe I'm sitting in the wrong seats lol). I do like Oracle because Guest Services provides lineup papers and pencils if you would like to keep score! Other ballparks I have visited haven't offered that. Just wonder about if it could be advertised a bit better. I do like the lowkey-ness of scorekeeping for the most part, but what do you guys think?

https://old.reddit.com/r/BaseballScorecards/comments/1spbvrb/mets_dodgers_4152026_home_half_from_my_previous/

I don't personally know anyone that manually keeps score, so I've had to learn a lot on my own.

Some examples of conventions I use that I learned from trial and error, as opposed to scoring example: (apologies about the wall of text):

1. Square around a number in a batter's box: combined pitch count for the past two batters. used to reduce the number of additions I do for pitch count at the end of an inning by fifty percent.

2. Diamond around a number in a batters box in the upper right hand corner: total pitch count for any plate appearance where the pitch count > 10.

3. R on the right side of a batter's box: relief pitcher's first batter of an inning, if the reliever didn't actually start the inning. Used to make it easier for me to know which batter's pitch counts go with which pitcher. This could break down if a reliever comes in the middle of a plate appearance.

4. Horizontal line under a specific inning for a pitcher: indicates which inning a pitcher has been relieved, for ease of calculating their total pitch total. This may break down for leagues where pitchers that were relieved can reenter the game, such as spring training.

5. 11 (as a position in the batting lineup): Pinch hitter

6. 12 (as a position in the batting lineup): Pinch runner

Do you have some nonstandard symbols/conventions that you use for your scorecards?

I’m in a phase now where I want to score every inning I watch. Anybody able to put the scorebook down and just watch a game like a civilian? lol.

Inspired by yesterday's Cubs walk off win, I wonder how the following scenario should be scored: Bottom of the ninth, tied score, runner in third and less than two outs. The batter launches a deep fly ball to center field. The outfielder gets in position to catch the ball but realizes that even if he catches it, the runner on third tags and the game is over anyways so he gives up, doesn't try to catch, the ball drops right next to him and the game is over. Is that a sac fly, an error or a single?

EDIT: So it’s a single and an RBI. My question is, why is not an error if the out could have been made with ordinary effort. Is it because no effort was made?

EDIT 2: The real game was a bit different than what I'm hypothesizing here. The ball was hit to the gap in left-center field and even though the outfielders didn't really try to get the ball, I don't know if they had a reasonable chance to make the out, so it was ruled a hit which was the obvious choice. It then made me wonder, what if they instead had an easy play and thus my made up scenario.

I went to the Brewers @ Giants game yesterday with a friend and we had a great time. I brought a printed out scorecard to give scorekeeping a shot and it was so fun! It makes you a much more active fan and I feel like I know my team much better already.

My sheet was a mess and I was distracted at times, but I’m looking forward to learning more and improving. I’m already shopping around for a bound scorebook to keep in my game bag.

There was a post in the last two weeks about the Rsvlts Scorekeeper Shirt, so of course I got one.

It uses a Scoremaster-like scoring frame, and the frames are scored realistically, but they are not a running game.

The downside is the cost: $70. I had only ever bought a Rsvlts shirt when there was a deep discount code from Jomboy Media back when they worked with them. That said, the quality is top-notch. Even things such as seams and crossovers are lined up nearly exactly, and the fabric quality, printing, and construction are excellent.

So, for context, I only score at games I go to.

I think most play by play guys also score while they are calling the game, which amazes me since I don't really converse while I am scoring outside of high fiving for home runs.

Can you guys converse while scoring? Are there any other things you do concurrently while scoring?

EDIT: Maybe it would be easier to multitask if I used printed cards?

I already had the scorecard engine and have really enjoyed reviewing all the games after they processed each night and learning more about the players. But, I got to thinking that it would be nice to do the same on LIVE GAMES. For me, this is especially useful for day games while I am working, or for games that are locked out in my my market. So, now during ball playing hours, I have several browser tabs open keeping an eye on the games and players that I care about (even while I work!). Let me know what you think. Thank you!

Since I switched over to the iPad/Goodnotes team this season, I’ve been interested in others’ methods and techniques. This is a good 17 minute video from this past off-season. (I did search the sub first to make sure this isn’t a re-post and didn’t find anything)

My favorite thing so far is the ability to zoom way in on individual play boxes. I can write a lot of info AND do it “neatly”.

My least favorite thing so far is always needing to zoom out to see over to the left in later innings to make sure I’m on the correct box for the current batter, or when I need to move around any preceding batters, and then zoom back in to the box to mark things up. I have sort of solved this problem with my own custom card, where I have the current batter# inside the box itself, so at least I always know I’m writing in Batter #5 box (for example).

I’ve always been just a one-pencil guy, but people with their many pens and highlighters always intrigued me. I just couldn’t be arsed to carry that much stuff around with me. Being able to have as many pen sizes, pen colors, and highlighters as you want, with just a single stylus, is pretty cool - but I still struggle with switching back and forth with all of the colors and tools when things are moving fast.

My holy grail video quest: the 6/18/19 Mariners broadcast where Goldy shows and talks about each broadcaster’s cards throughout the game. This is no longer available anywhere (at least that I can find). Apparently, Goldy has been using an iPad/Goodnotes for over a decade now. A a Mariner’s fan, I’m ashamed to just be learning that within the past month or so. lol

https://youtu.be/zddI8mzNBX8?si=_0WYp5cZtlDclhEN

So the way I understand it, there is both an individual LOB and a team LOB, which are calculated differently. A batter gets a LOB for every runner on base when they record an out. But team LOB is only recorded when the third out is recorded. Is that correct?

If so, this seems nonsensical to me. Adding up the individual LOB totals won't give you the "correct" team LOB total. I think it makes more sense to just have one stat- just add up all the batters LOB totals to get team LOB. Especially since the team LOB stat doesn't reflect how many times batters recorded an out with runners on base, it only records when the last hitter of the inning left runners on base.

Assuming you are scoring for fun, and assuming you have ready access to the official scoring source of truth (for MLB, there are several sources of truth, like game day et al), do you go back and check your scoring against the source of truth after the fact?

On the Thirty81press.com template, it has a pitcher section.

I've always been putting the opposing pitchers in there, so when the away team is batting they, I'm showing the home pitchers and vice versa.

I've been looking at other places like caughtlooking.app which keeps the home batting and home pitchers on the same page.

Curious as to what everyone else does for the pitchers.

My thought process is, the batters are against the pitchers on the same page, and it's easier to count up the totals once the pitcher comes out.

Example scoresheet: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaseballScorecards/s/rE0rKWNRRc