Over the years I have posted this article a couple of times on different websites, which no longer exist. I thought it was time to post it again…
6-4-3DP
F8
2-4CS
9-3-1-2FC
This is the language of baseball; and those who score the game, like Abbott and Costello, do indeed need to know “Who’s on First” in order to keep track of the events on the baseball diamond and to score the game.
Baseball is scored using a miniature picture of a baseball diamond. Each position is represented by a number…
1 – Pitcher
2 – Catcher
3 – First Base
4 – Second Base
5 – Third Base
6 – Short Stop
7 – Left Field
8 – Center Field
9 – Right Field
…and since the score book is too small to right whole words a series of abbreviations in the form of letters are used to indicate the action on the field.
S – Single
D – Double
T – Triple
HR – Home Run
RBI(s) – Run(s) Batted In
K – Strike Out (if the K is backwards it means that the player struck out looking and if the K is forward it means the batter struck out swinging) – the K is used because it is the only letter in the word strike that isn’t already designated for another action.
B – Ball
I – Interference
DP – Double Play
FC – Fielder’s Choice
F – Fly Out
TP – Triple Play
CS – Caught Stealing
PO – Picked Off
Once these symbols are learned along with using the drawing of the baseball diamond on the score sheet, scoring a baseball game is not difficult.
In the examples above 6-4-3DP = short stop to the second baseman to the first baseman for a double play (2 outs)
F8 = Fly out to the center fielder
2-4CS = catcher to the second baseman, runner is caught stealing and is out
9-3-1-2FC = Right fielder to the first baseman to the pitcher to the catcher out, the runner is out at home plate by fielder’s choice – a fielder’s choice means there was more than one option for to get a runner out
There is a place to score each player’s at bat. If a batter reaches base a line is drawn for each base the batter achieves. If that batter advances along the base path, the line along the base path in the drawing for that batter’s scoring line is drawn as he advances.
A score sheet has a space for each batter in every inning; there are extra innings provided if needed. Fans of the game will sometimes hear an announcer, who scores the game along with making his commentary, say that his score sheet is beginning to get messy. This usually means one of three things…either a team is using a lot of pitchers and the announcer is running out of spaces to write the names down, the manager is making a great many substitutions with players – this usually occurs in lopsided college games -, or a team has batted around and extra space is needed to score a batter’s second trip to the plate in the same inning.
Batting around means that all nine players have come to bat and the inning is still not over. When this occurs the scorekeeper uses the diamond diagrams intended for the next inning and then adjusts the score sheet accordingly. If this occurs more than once in a game, a score sheet can truly get rather messy and sometimes confusing when trying to keep it all in order.
There was a time in baseball when stadiums gave out free score cards to the fans and it was not uncommon to find a number of fans keeping score of the game as they watched; but like the days of “let’s play two”, it is a dying art.