At Sunday's game, Kate and I had tried to figure out what the shorthand used to report on batters' previous at-bats meant. We figured out HBP and 1B easily enough, but BB and FC? So I spent my Monday morning reading about scorekeeping and the afternoon trying it out, watching the archived TV broadcast of the Mets' Sunday loss in Houston and following along on paper.
I used the scorecards and tutorial at
Christopher Swingley's site, more or less following his conventions. It was kind of difficult to pay attention to every little pitch, so my pitch and strike counts were always a bit off, but otherwise I think it was an alright first attempt.
There were some tricky moments, too, like when Dave Williams gave Carlos Lee a 3-0 count with two outs and a runner on second, and then decided to intentionally walk him. I recorded this as an IBB, but I'm not sure if it technically was, since only the fourth ball was intentional. Then in the eighth, Scott Schoeneweis threw a wild pitch on his fourth intentional ball to Lee, advancing the runner on second. I recorded IBB on Lee's line and the WP on runner Hunter Pence's, which makes sense to me.
I wouldn't say the whole process is fun, exactly, as much as sort of stressful and annoying. And filling in little boxes totally flashed me back to my (non-sexual) role-playing days. I completely don't get how you're supposed to be able to handle this while also participating in the other requisite activities such as beer drinking, eating peanuts, and making fun of the people in nearby seats.
