Scorecard
A big moment for me growing up was learning how to keep score at a baseball game. Sometime in the late 1960s when my Dad took me to a Reds game at Crosley Field, we stopped at the stand inside the gate and bought my first scorecard. Throughout the game Dad made sure I knew the numbers assigned to the fielding positions, how to create a scoring diamond when a player got on base, and to leave enough space in the player blocks so that I could fill in any substitutes. It was a lot of fun, and yet not as easy as I thought it might be. I’m sure there was a play that a shortstop bobbled a hard hit grounder in the hole, the batter reached first base safely, and I turned to my Dad and asked whether it was a hit or an error. My Dad told me to be patient, pointed to me to the centerfield scoreboard, and finally it flashed, “E 6”. The official scorer in the press box had made the call, an error on the shortstop that I could record on my scorecard.
Keeping the official score at an MLB game has an interesting history. The early official scorers were newspaper writers in the cities where the games were played. While scorers make judgment calls that do not affect the progress or outcome of a game, they do make decisions that impact player statistics. As a “player’s numbers” began to enter into contract negotiations, there became increasing pressure by the players on the hometown newspaper scorers to make favorable decisions on their behalf. Some baseball historians even claim that one of baseball’s storied records, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941, was made possible due to a couple hometown favorite calls. Beginning in 1958, several major newspapers, including the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and New York Times, actually prohibited their writers to be official scorers due to the scoring conflicts.
In 1980, MLB took control and hired official scorers who reported directly to the Commissioner’s office. Over the past forty years much has been put in place to ensure scoring fairness. MLB Rule 10.01 requires the official scorers to view the game only from the press box so that each scorer has the same perspective on the game. Scorers are permitted to review replays to make sure the rulings are correct, and can correct a ruling for up to 24 hours. There are even rules in place to give guidance to scorers on very close calls. Rule 10.05 provides that the scorer “give the benefit of the doubt to the hitter when the scorer believes the decision to credit the batter with a hit is equally valid to an alternative scoring decision”. And in Rule 10.16, in terms of whether to credit an earned or unearned run to the pitcher (more later), the scorer is to give the “benefit of the doubt to the pitcher”. Yes, baseball has its curious rules!
Sometime along the way Dad taught me to enter a peculiar “INT” in my scorecard for interference, a judgment call made by an umpire on the field, not the official scorer. “Offensive Interference” is the most common one. The rule sounds easy – when a member of the offensive team physically hinders the defensive team, the ball is dead, and an out is called on the baserunner. Of course there are numerous variations to the rule depending on the particular play. One of the most disputed ones, and often not called, is that a batter running to first base must stay within the outside lane (foul territory) in the last 45 feet to the base. In fact, just last week in the Brewers vs. Marlins game, first base umpire Marty Foster called the Milwaukee pitcher Zack Godley for “obstruction” when the Miami batter Isan Diaz ran to first base on the infield side and touched Godley in his pathway. If anything, it was “offensive interference” on Diaz. Instead, mark that “OBS” on the scorecard with an “E 1” for the pitcher.
“Spectator Interference” has gotten the most ink over time, especially since we’ve seen it happen in prime time during the playoffs. Bottom line, if an umpire judges that a fielder could have caught a fair or foul ball over the field such that the fielder is not reaching over the plane of the field, an umpire may rule the batter out. In the first game of the 1996 ALCS between New York and Baltimore at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter hit a fly ball to the right field wall and a 12-year old Yankee fan reached over the wall to deflect it from Orioles rightfielder Tony Tarasco and over the fence. No interference was called, and the Yankees went on to prevail in the game and the series. More recently, in the fourth game of the 2018 ALCS between Houston and Boston, a ball hit by Jose Altuve into the stands for an HR was wrongly ruled an out due to fan interference with Red Sox rightfielder Mookie Betts. I call it poetic justice! And then there’s the play at Wrigley Field in the sixth game of the 2003 NLCS, but let’s not go there.
During the first month of the 2021 season there were numerous catcher’s interference calls. Catcher’s interference is when the catcher hinders the batter’s opportunity to swing at a pitch. It happens mostly when a catcher gets too close to a batter or reaches out his mitt on a pitch that he doesn’t think the batter will swing. A former Red Sox and Yankees star, Jacoby Ellsbury, actually holds the single season and career record for being a batter who gets catcher’s interference calls. He was known for letting pitches get deep into his stance and taking later swings. Current White Sox catcher, Yasmani Grandal, has three catcher’s interference calls against him already this year. Typically, he might see that once per year. Mark that “INT, E 2” in the scorecard.
Another interesting entry on the scorecard is “FC” for fielder’s choice. This scoring might involve a number of plays where an offensive player (batter or runner) reaches a base due to the defense either putting out or attempting to put out another baserunner. It sounds easy, but sometimes it takes experience or a little bit of a crystal ball to make the FC scoring decision. For example, let’s say there is a runner on first base and the batter hits a sharp ground ball in the hole. The shortstop hadn’t realized that the baserunner was running on the pitch, throws to second, and the runner is called safe. While it seems like the official scorer might easily rule an FC for the batter reaching first, it could be ruled a hit if the scorer determines the batter might have beaten the throw to first. The impact of an FC ruling is that the batter is not credited with a hit but is credited with an at bat and plate appearance.
One last dive deeper into the weeds is that an official scorer has the last call on whether a run is either earned or unearned. This can get complicated when many runs are scored during an inning. After the conclusion of the inning, the official scorer has to recreate the events of an inning and envision how many runs would have crossed the plate without the assistance of an error (including catcher’s interference) or passed balls (wild pitches count against the pitcher as being earned). Interestingly, the new extra innings rule adds a little intrigue to this scoring decision. In the tenth inning, each team now begins the half inning with a runner on second base (the one who made the last out in the ninth). For scoring purposes, that runner is deemed to have reached base by an error. No actual error is charged to the defensive team, and if the runner does score, the pitcher is not charged with an earned run.
I thought I was a baseball guy who knew the nuances of the scorecard until a couple nights two years ago. I was a guest in the press box of a friend who is an official scorer of a minor league team. He entered the scoring decisions electronically while at the same time keeping his own handwritten scorecard. It became all too clear how tough a job he had. I remember on a couple calls thinking about how my Dad might have scored it. Sometimes I think that’s why I’m writing this blog. Baseball truly does give us a lifetime of memories.
Until next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach