Read "Fnarf." In other news, there's some wacky, wacky stuff happening at the end of the Mariners-Blue Jays game. Yikes!

Hearing the lineup announced and writing it in my scorecard was about as exciting as anything I can remember, though I wasn't diligent and had my own half-assed, made-up method of keeping score that I rarely kept up past the third inning.

Also, not only was re-entry allowed when I was a kid, but we would occasionally take the train to Wrigley after school and just walk in, find abandoned seats, and watch the last couple of innings.

Bizarre game-tying shenanigans. Into the 10th!

Holy shit, GRAND SLAM?! This must be what it feels like to follow a GOOD baseball team!

I grew up on the occasional Cubs or Sox game, sitting next to my dad, who always keeps score. I've been to a few games on my own lately, and filling out a scorecard is really just part of the ballpark experience for me. It's a nice record of the game, it lets me figure out interesting game stats efficiently, and it gives me something to do between pitches when I'm out of peanuts. I suck at the notation, but hey, that's what practice is for.

I remember when I discovered the magic of Project Scoresheet, and abandoned the almost useless traditional scoresheets they printed in the programs and started recording pitch counts (ball swinging strike, called strike, foul, in play) and what field the ball was hit to. I used to have to photocopy them myself out of the book -- not a Bill James Abstract, I can't remember what it was called. Good times. Baseball is the perfect succession of discrete events for that kind of thing.

90% of the scorecard keepers I've ever seen at a game, though, have been elderly women.

I've kept a scorecard at almost every game I've ever been to.

I grew up an hour north of New York City, so, sorry, that makes me a Yankees fan. The wisdom of keeping score at the game became wonderfully apparent to me when I kept (with my dad's help) one particular game of my youth, the tickets for which were my 10th birthday present: May 17th, 1998, the Yankees against the Twins; the game that would later be known as David Wells' Perfect Game.

I have the scorecard that I kept, two ticket stubs, the beanie baby (remember those???) and associated "commemorative" card that were given out as the promo that day, and a hastily snapped photo of my name on the screen at old Yankee Stadium during the "Happy Birthday" announcements. I had my mother frame it all, with the scorecard as the centerpiece; it continues to hang proudly in my mom's living room back east.

(Fun Fact: the very next year, while I was away at summer camp in Ontario -- thanks for nothing, Canada! -- the other 3 members of my family would go to the Stadium on my mom's birthday: July 18, 1999 -- David Cone's Perfect Game.)

Bill Savage? This stinks of nepotism!

This is off-topic, but this Fox news story about Dan Savage bashing Christian teens has me dumbfounded. I'm reserving judgement:

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top…

Oh #10, why must you BE?

@10 Why don't you stop pretending? Nobody believes that you're "dumbfounded", or gay, for that matter.

@12: Nobody can really believe the Internet, especially Slog, can they? It's a healthy skepticism; but I assure you that my sexual identity and dispositions are very real.

@13 And I'm sure that after November 6th, we'll never hear from you again.

What kind of nut-job keeps a scorecard any more when it's all right there on ESPN on your BlackBerry? (Well, my BlackBerry — you guys are all probably using dumber phones.)

And oh, @13, go suck curdled milk.

@14: Oh you'll be hearing from me all right, just with a different screen name and avatar.

@10, 13,

I have no real reason to doubt your sincerity and/or sexuality. What I will point out to you is that this is A POST ABOUT KEEPING SCORE AT FUCKING BASEBALL GAMES YOU SUB-MORONIC IDIOT. Holy crap, Dan already has a post up about that topic, where I'm sure plenty of folks would be more than happy to engage you. Idiot.

Thoroughly enjoyable post Bill. I'm too easily distracted to keep score at games, and now that the Beavers have fled Portland never really have a chance to do so anyway, but appreciate from the comments portion that you occasionally have to write in a "WW" (wasn't watching) for a missed play. Such entries would surely comprise at least half my card.

@9 New to Slog are we?

@Chicago Fan
Thank you for posting. I thoroughly enjoyed the read.

thanks to one and all. And totally jealous of the perfect game. Fnarf, Project Scoresheet was an OCD too far for me. Recording every pitch etc. just takes it out of the realm of fun and into the realm of work.

In contrast to Fnarf, the Project Scoresheet methodology cured me of my theretofore strong scorecard habit. It's not that I object to the collection of all that information ... no, it's that I found myself paying much more attention to the scoring process than to the game I was scoring.

So I went cold turkey. I let Dave Smith (king of Retrosheet) and his colleagues do all the dirty work for me.

Yes, it does mean that I lack evidence for the momentous events I've seen in person, such as a no-hitter and (yes, it's true) Mickey Morandini's one shining moment:

PIRATES 6TH: Van Slyke singled to right; Bonds singled [Van Slyke to second]; King lined into a triple play (second to second to second) [Van Slyke out at second, Bonds out at second]; 0 R, 2 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Phillies 1, Pirates 1.

PS. to Chicago Fan -- will I see you at the SABR convention in late June? It's just a hop, step, and a jump away from you in Minneapolis.

@10: I watched the video through, and there's nothing terribly offensive in it. Speaking here as a Reconstructionist Jew...

My dad taught me to keep score at the first Pirate's game he took me to when I was 7, back when they were still pretty good (1978, for the record). We kept score at every game we went to, and even every game we listened to on the radio.

Thanks for the memories, Bill. I was missing him today (his birthday is coming up), and this really made me smile.

Guilty as charged, but being a cheapskate I use my own system on graph paper, so no chance of ending up in your situation.

@15--keeping a scorecard helps you track the rhythm, the story, of the game for yourself. Or, sometimes--like far too many Mariners games--it simply keeps you awake.

I traveled on business a lot in the 90's and went to a lot of different ballparks, and was surprised at how many didn't sell scorecards, only the more expensive program. Late-expansion teams (eg, Marlins) seemed more prone to this. I don't know if it was totally a money-making issue, or simply the newer fans didn't have interest in keeping score.

Beautiful article, Bill. I've been critical of your comments on Seattle, and it sucks that the only one allowed to post on the big 3 Sports in Seattle's finest paper lives in Chicago - but I love your love for baseball. And I share your love for score keeping - but mine is all about sinking deeply into the rhythm of the game itself, tracking the trends, keeping the stats at the ready for my neighbors. I almost always toss them after the post-game review. Hope to be in Wrigley for the first time next month. I am sure I will be thinking about this article. Well done and thanks.

Loved that article CF.