You Can't Tell the Players Without a Scorecard

   After the last out is made, and the game is over, fans file out of the stadium with their programs in hand.  They recount the game and the different plays that took place that day.  Ask these same fans 10 years later what happened in that game and most of them probably couldn't tell you.  Inside of that gameday program that they bought is a scorecard.  If it was filled out, fans at that day's game would be able to tell you play by play for as long as they have it.
   Scorekeeping dates back to the 1800's.  Not only is it a fun way to track the game, but it also preserves the tradition and history of baseball.  However, it seems to be a dying art form in today's game.  Teams have an official scorer, and the people in the press box keep their scorecards, but how many fans, either at home or at the game, keep one?  Maybe people now are too busy or too preoccupied to sit with a pencil and scorecard and track the whole game.  Maybe they simply were never taught how to.  There is so much going on at the stadiums now that sometimes it seems like the game is a mere sideshow, lost in a carnival atmosphere.  Sure, people know who won or lost the game, and even who hit a home run, but how many people know exactly what happened for the rest of the game?  That's why the fans who keep a scorecard are a rare breed, and hold information that would otherwise become lost in time and memory.
   Keeping a scorecard may seem difficult and intimidating but is actually pretty simple.  Each position is assigned a number;  1-pitcher, 2-catcher, 3-first baseman, 4-second baseman, 5-third baseman, 6-shortstop, 7-left fielder, 8-center fielder, and 9-right fielder.  Once you understand this, and know K is a strikeout, the rest is pretty much personal preference and a scorer's own personal stamp on a game.  Some scorers might record a great diving play by the third baseman to get the runner at first as 5-3*.  The asterisk means that it wasn't just another ground out, third to first, but a great play to get the out.  The scorer can make notes during the game to highlight key points to be remembered.  Like I stated earlier, keeping score is about personal preferences and documenting the game any way that you want.  Although the basic concept of keeping score is the same, no two scorecards are alike, and that is what brings the fan closer to the game, and the game closer to the fan.
   Keeping score of a baseball game, in person or at home, is a fun way to connect fans with part of the tradition of the National Pastime.  Even though it may seem like a dying art form in this fast paced world that we live in, keeping a scorecard is essential to preserving the history of the game.  It is amazing how a simple piece of paper with a grid on it could give you so much insight into and a keepsake of the players and games of years gone by.