Crooked Number
Any inning where a team scores two or more runs, so called because the digit written in the linescore is not a straight 0 or 1.
A crooked number is any inning that produces two or more runs. The name is pure scorebook vernacular: 0 and 1 are drawn with straight lines, while 2 through 9 have curves and angles, so a big inning literally puts a crooked figure in the box.
It carries more weight than the arithmetic suggests. Most innings in youth baseball produce zero or one run, so an inning that produces three or four is usually where the game was decided. Coaches talk about hanging a crooked number because that single inning does the work of five ordinary ones.
There is no statistical threshold beyond two, and no official recognition of the term. It appears in linescores, dugout talk, and broadcasts, never in a rulebook.
Bleacher Notes builds the linescore inning by inning as plays are narrated, so a crooked number shows up in the box the moment the second run of the inning crosses.
What is a crooked number in baseball?
Any inning in which a team scores two or more runs. The phrase comes from the shape of the digits: 0 and 1 are straight, while every number from 2 up is crooked.
Is one run a crooked number?
No. One run writes a straight 1 in the linescore. A crooked number starts at two.
Let the scorebook keep itself.
Bleacher Notes scores every play from a single spoken sentence, applying these rules for you. In beta now, free for parents.