Okay, here’s my blog post about creating an example baseball scorecard, written in a casual, first-person style:
So, I’ve been getting into baseball lately, and I wanted to try keeping score myself. It seemed like a cool way to really engage with the game, you know? I looked around online for, like, a simple template, but everything felt either too complicated or just…ugly. So I figured, why not make my own? Here’s how it went down.
Starting Simple
First, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen – nothing fancy. I knew I needed a grid, but I wasn’t sure about all the details. I basically just started drawing.
- I made a big square, then divided it into nine smaller squares (for the innings, duh).
- I added some columns to the left for the players’ names and positions. Seemed logical.
- I put a space at the top for the team names and the date. Gotta have the basics, right?
- I will draw 9 colums on the right-hand side for each inning’s records.
- I added some row at bottom for total score record of R, H, E and Final.
Adding Some Detail (and Making Mistakes)
Then came the tricky part – the little diamond thingy in each inning square. I messed this up a few times, I’m not gonna lie. I tried drawing it perfectly centered, then I realized it needed to be off-center so you could write stuff in the corners. That’s where you mark down, like, if someone got a single, double, triple, or home run. Or if they got out, and how.
I also realized I needed a way to track balls and strikes. So, I added some tiny little circles – three for balls, two for strikes. I saw some scorecards had four strike circles but from my understanding only maximum to 3 stikes can be count.
My first attempt, I sketched everything in the grid cells. I’m talking about, for each player for the batting order, and all 9 innings in one cell! It looks very busy and I don’t think it’s good enough for recording every hit, out, and run.
I have to redo it and create 9 colums and dedicate them for each inning.
Testing It Out
I watched a game on TV and tried using my homemade scorecard. It was…okay. It definitely helped me pay closer attention to what was happening, who was up to bat, and all that. But it was also kind of messy. My handwriting isn’t the greatest, and I kept having to erase stuff (pencil is definitely the way to go, by the way).
It’s pretty messy when I use it to record the real game situation. Because I forget to add the “how to record the OUT”.
I reviewed a lot of online resources, I learned the OUT can be record by using “K” symbol, and how to use number to indicate different field positions.
Tweaking and Improving
After that first game, I made some changes. I made the squares a little bigger, to give myself more room to write. I also added some extra lines at the bottom to keep track of the overall score (runs, hits, errors – that stuff). And I decided to print it out instead of drawing it by hand every time. Much cleaner!
It’s still a work in progress, for sure. I might try adding some color-coding later on, or maybe even design it on my computer to make it look super professional. But for now, it’s a fun way to keep track of the game, and it feels good to have created something myself. It’s not perfect, but it’s mine, you know?
I will keep use and revise the scorecard, and make it better step by step.
