Bleacher Notes
For tournament directors · baseball & softball

Every game scored. No scorekeeper at a single field.

GameChanger only works when a volunteer has two free hands for two hours. Across six fields all weekend, that person does not exist. Bleacher Notes hosts your tournament and scores it by voice: a parent says the play out loud, and your bracket moves.

In beta now. Drop your email and we'll send your invite. No spam, ever.

  • Free to host, always.
  • Bracket, pool play, derby.
  • Works even with zero scoring.
Recording0:04
Field 4 · Bot 3 · 2 out

A parent in the stands said

“Ground ball to short, runner scores from third, out at first.”

Scored as6-3 GOR3 scores · +1 RBIparsed in ~0.5s
Fall Classic 10U · Saturday6 fields · 18 teams
F1Hornets · River Valley4 – 2Bot 3
F2Comets · Rapids7 – 3Final
F4Bandits · Sharks3 – 1updated just now
F5Wolves · Surge12:30

Bracket, standings, and the public page all move off this board. Nobody is sitting at a scoring table.

Sample event · scored from the stands● F1 · Hornets 4, River Valley 2 · Bot 3F2 · Comets 7, Rapids 3 · Final● F4 · R. Diaz · 4-3 ground out, R3 scoresF3 · Bandits vs Sharks · 11:30, Field 3● F6 · J. Reyes · 2-run double to the gapBracket · Semifinal 2 seeded from pool play
The Sunday morning problem

Your bracket is only as live as your least available volunteer.

Every director runs the same play: ask each team to bring a scorekeeper. By the third inning one parent is chasing a younger kid, one got pulled to coach first base, and one never opened the app. Two fields go dark and you are the one texting coaches for a final so you can seed the semis.

Scoring by voice takes three seconds a play instead of two hours a game. That is the difference between a volunteer who quits in the second and one who finishes the weekend.

The board without voice scoring11:15 a.m.
F1Hornets · River ValleyBot 3 · 4-2
F2Comets · Rapidsno score since 9:40
F3Bandits · Sharksfinal texted to you
F4Wolves · Surgescorer stopped in the 2nd
F5Bulldogs · Currentnobody claimed the book

1 of 5 fields reporting · 2 finals still by text message

22 seconds

What you are asking a volunteer to do.

How it works

From the bleachers to your bracket in one sentence.

Three steps, every play: someone says it, an AI that knows baseball turns the words into the play, then fixed scoring rules update the stats and your standings. No menus, no math, no scoring table.

01 / Talk

A parent narrates the play out loud.

Hold to record, speak the play the way you'd tell another parent in the stands. Compound calls work: "strike one, then a flyout to right, R3 tags."

Example

"Line drive single to right, runner on first to third."

02 / Parse

An AI that knows baseball reads every play.

It knows the lingo. "K looking," "6-4-3," "passed ball," "runners on the corners." Ambiguous calls are flagged for one-tap confirmation, never silently guessed.

Becomes

Single, right fieldrunner on first → third

03 / Advance

Stats, standings, and the bracket update themselves.

RBIs, batting average, ERA, and fielding decisions are all calculated by fixed baseball scoring rules, never guessed by AI. When the game ends, the final posts to your bracket and the winner advances without anyone telling you the score.

On your board

F4 final · Bandits 5, Sharks 3 Bandits → Semifinal 2

FREE TO HOSTFor directors

Run the tournament. The bracket runs itself.

Build the bracket, assign games to fields and times, and hand every team one link. Finals post themselves as the games are played, so the public bracket and standings stay current all weekend without you refreshing a spreadsheet between innings.

Cost to host
$0
Scorekeepers
Zero
Setup
One afternoon
Harvest Classic 10UPublic bracket
live
Semifinal 1Final
Riverside Reds7
Mason Bay3
Semifinal 2Live · Bot 6
Northgate Owls4
Valley Storm4
ChampionshipUp next
Riverside Reds
Winner of SF2
Reds advanced on a final scored from the stands1m ago
Brackets

Every format you actually run

Single and double elimination, round robin, pool play into a bracket, and home run derby. Seeded or set by hand.

Schedule

Games across every field

Assign each game to a field and a time. Every team sees only what is next for them, so the questions stop.

Standings

Live records and tiebreakers

Wins, losses, run differential, and pool tiebreakers recompute the moment a final lands. No manual recount at noon.

Public page

One URL anyone can follow

Bracket, schedule, and scores on a page that works in any phone browser. Grandparents included, no app required.

Invites

A whole field of teams at once

Invite every team in a batch. Each gets their own slice of the event, and you never touch a password.

Fallback

Works even with zero scoring

No parent scoring a game? The bracket still advances on the final you enter. Scoring is the upgrade, never the requirement.

GameChanger alternative

GameChanger scores a team. It doesn't run your event.

Most of your teams already have it, and it makes a good box score when someone commits an entire game to their phone. It was never built for the person running the tournament, and it still needs a body at every field.

Get every game scored

Across six fields, all weekend.

GameChanger

One volunteer per team taps the batter, the result, the location, and each runner, for two hours. The fields where nobody volunteered never get a box score.

Bleacher Notes

Hold one button, say the play, release. Three seconds a play means the volunteer is still scoring in the sixth.

Run the bracket

Pool play, seeding, semis, and a final.

GameChanger

Not what it does. You run the bracket somewhere else and re-key every score by hand.

Bleacher Notes

Bracket, pool play, seeding, standings, and a public page. Finals advance the winner on their own.

Cost to the event

What you and your teams pay.

GameChanger

Teams pay per season, and families pay again to watch the stream.

Bleacher Notes

Free to host, free for every team you invite. Voice scoring and season stats stay free for parents forever.

Watch the at-bat

The reason the parent came.

GameChanger

Eyes on the phone, tapping through nested menus. Look up to see your kid already on second.

Bleacher Notes

Eyes on the field. The phone is in your peripheral vision; your thumb is on the record button.

Get coach intelligence

Decisions you can make between batters.

GameChanger

A grid of stats. The coach is the one interpreting it.

Bleacher Notes

One sentence with a confidence score. "Bring in Reyes for the next two righties."

Bring a season with you

Years of history matter to families.

GameChanger

Locked in.

Bleacher Notes

One-way CSV import from GameChanger. Teams start where they left off.

Where they win

GameChanger has a decade of teams, a mature video product, and season history that families care about. If your event is one team deep and somebody loves tapping, it is a fine scorebook. Our argument is about the other five fields. See the full comparison.

FREE FOREVERFor the parents you invite

Stop tapping. Watch your kid.

The bleacher rule: if scoring takes your eyes off the field, you will miss the at-bat you came for. That is why volunteers quit in the third, and why your bracket goes stale. Bleacher Notes runs in the background. They talk; it scores.

  • Voice scoring, one hand on the phoneHold a button, narrate the play. Release to score it.
  • Full season stats for their playerBatting average, OBP, OPS, hit chart. No coach tier required.
  • Pitch counts without a clickerEvery pitcher's count, this inning and total, tallied as you score.
  • Light on data, not videoEach play sends a few seconds of audio to score, so it sips data instead of streaming it.
  • One-tap correction, no rescoringMis-parsed an at-bat? Tap the line, edit the field, move on.
William Wichert#99 · P · 9U
Sat · Hornets vs River
.312AVG
.398OBP
.421SLG
9RBI
14H
1T1Single to right, R1 to third1B · RBI 0
2T3Walk on a full countBB
3T5Double to the gap, 2 RBI2B · RBI 2
4T7At the plate now2-1 count
COACH TIER · OPTIONALFor the coaches at your event

Decisions, not dashboards.

Coaches show up to your event, tap one link, and have their games, their field, and their lineup. The optional insights tier turns the scoring their parents are already doing into a sentence between batters. Nobody at your event is required to buy it.

  • Pitcher fatigue, batter trends, and lineup advantage in plain English.
  • Lineup exchange by QR or 4-digit bump. No emailed CSVs at the plate meeting.
  • Import a season from GameChanger, keep the parent scoring free.
Pitcher fatigue
conf 0.81

Anderson is at 78 pitches. His K-rate dropped 31% after pitch 70 in his last 3 starts.

Consider Reyes warming up. River has two righties due in the 6th.

Matchup advantage
conf 0.92

Reyes is 4-for-7 vs LHP in the last month. River just brought in Marquez (L).

Leave Reyes in. Drop the bunt sign for Chen.

Pinch hit
conf 0.74

Patel hits .420 on first-pitch fastballs. Marquez throws first-pitch FB 68% of the time.

Patel for Diaz at the bottom of the order.

Why we built it

Built by parents who spent a weekend chasing scores instead of watching baseball.

01

Hosting stays free.

There is no organizer tier and no per-team fee, because directors are how teams find us. We would rather run your event for nothing than charge you for the privilege of bringing us 18 teams.

02

Stat integrity is non-negotiable.

Every stat is computed by fixed baseball scoring rules, never by an AI model. The AI understands narration. The scorebook does the math.

03

Nobody at your event is forced to pay.

Voice scoring, season stats, and at-bat history stay free for every parent, forever. Coach insights are an upgrade, not a toll gate on your tournament.

FAQ

Questions directors ask before they commit a weekend.

Don't see yours? Email hello@bleachernotes.com and a real person on our team will write you back.

Can I run my little league tournament on Bleacher Notes?

Yes, and hosting is free. You build the bracket (single or double elimination, round robin, pool play into a bracket, or home run derby), assign games to fields and times, and hand every team one link. Because the parents in the stands are already scoring by voice, the public bracket and standings update live without a scorekeeper at any field. You can still advance a game on a final you enter by hand.

What does it cost to host a tournament?

Nothing. There is no organizer tier, no per-team fee, and no charge for the public bracket page. Hosting is free on purpose: organizers are how teams find us. We make money downstream on optional coach and parent add-ons that nobody at your event is required to buy.

What if nobody on a team is scoring?

The event still runs. Any one parent, or the coach, can cover a game, and the bracket advances on a final score you or the coach enters by hand if nobody scored pitch by pitch. Scoring is the upgrade, never the requirement, so a quiet team never blocks your bracket.

Do my coaches have to learn new software before first pitch?

No. Setup is yours, not theirs. Coaches tap one link and see their games, their field, their next opponent, and their lineup. Scoring is holding a button and saying the play out loud, which is about a 30-second explanation at the plate meeting.

How is Bleacher Notes different from GameChanger?

GameChanger scores a team. It does not run your event. There is no bracket, no pool standings, no public tournament page, and a box score only exists if a volunteer taps through nested menus for two hours. Bleacher Notes hosts the tournament and scores the games by voice: the scorekeeper says the play out loud ("ground ball to short, runner scores from third") and the app handles the menus, the math, and the bracket.

Is voice scorekeeping actually accurate?

Yes. Bleacher Notes uses a streaming speech-to-text model paired with a baseball-specific parser that understands lingo like "K looking," "6-4-3," "passed ball," and "runner stretches into a double." Ambiguous calls are flagged for one-tap confirmation, not silently guessed. All stat math runs on fixed baseball scoring rules, never on an AI model, so the scorebook itself is guaranteed accurate.

Does it work for softball?

Yes. Bleacher Notes supports youth baseball and youth softball, including travel ball, rec league, and middle and high school. The parser handles softball-specific play patterns (slap hits, illegal pitches, age-specific dropped-third-strike rules), and rulesets switch automatically by league.

Do we need cell service at the field?

A basic connection, yes. Each play sends just a few seconds of audio to transcribe and score, so it works on a modest signal and stays light on data, with no video to upload. Recording fully offline and syncing once you are back in range is on our roadmap, not in the app yet.

Is it really free for parents?

Yes. Voice scoring, season stats, and full at-bat history are free forever, for every parent, and the free tier is not a stripped-down trial. Dugout insights are an optional paid add-on: $59/year surfaces live reads for your own player, and $99/year covers a coach's whole roster.

Can teams bring their GameChanger history?

Yes. Bleacher Notes supports one-way CSV import from GameChanger, so a player's career batting average does not reset when a team switches. Export from GameChanger, import in Bleacher Notes, and pick up where you left off.

Free to host · baseball & softball

Your next tournament can score itself.

Hosting is free and the beta is open. Drop your email and we'll set up your first event with you.

The beta is open. We'll only email you your invite, nothing else.