Scoring a Baseball Game

1
Scoring a Baseball Game

• INFO 419

2
the basics

• no one right or wrong way
• the scorecard
• players, innings, the diamond
• positions numbers
• who did what, when, to whom
• earliest known scorecard 10/6/1845 (in collection
  of NYPL) 1st box score in newspaper later that
  month

3
why score?

• statistics, performance
• reconstruct game, look for patterns
• historical record
• baseball people are geeks

4
why baseball?

• pace
• discrete acts
• nothing can happen without the ball
• others, yes, much less elaborate and little
  decision making (chess)

5
important concepts

• at bat (AB) plate appearance, except sacrifice
  hit/bunt, walk, hit batsman, interference
• hit (H) player reaches base, except when
  exceptionally good fielding fails to result in a
  putout
• error (E) misplay (fumble, muff or wild throw)
  which prolongs time at bat or life of runner,
  permits runner to advance (cf WP, PB)

6
error

• attempt to reconstruct what should have been
• accurately gauge performance of hitter (BA) and
  pitcher (ERA)
• important enough to be reported in line score
• belief that people should be held accountable for
  their actions, good and bad

7
other concepts/definitions

• run batted in (RBI) player reaches home because
  of battters hit, stolen base, sacrifice fly,
  infield out, fielders choice, walk, hit batsman,
  interference,
• earned run (ER) run for which the pitcher is
  held accountable, etc
• operational definitions

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official scorer

• makes all decisions, usually a newspaper reporter
• scoring has 2 components
• recording representation
• decision making
• recording as well as creating reality of what
  happened, an act of information representation as
  well as creation