How to keep score in baseball.
The paper scorebook looks like a secret code until someone shows you the trick. Here's the whole thing in 90 seconds: the diamond, the 1–9 position numbers, the shorthand, and how a whole at-bat fits in one little box.
- Length
- 1:30
- Covers
- Diamond · numbers · shorthand
- Level
- Total beginner
- 0:05Anatomy of a scorebook
- 0:13Position numbers (1–9)
- 0:22Reading a play as a code
- 0:30One box, one at-bat
- 0:39The shorthand (K, BB, E)
- 0:46Watch one play score itself
- 0:58Or just talk: scoring by voice
- 1:19Score any game. Just speak.
Keeping score by hand looks like a code. Let's learn to read it.
Start with the page. Down the side, the lineup. Across the top, the innings. Each little box is one trip to the plate.
Every position has a number. Pitcher is one, catcher two, around the infield three, four, five, the outfield seven, eight, nine. The one to remember: shortstop is six.
Now any play is just a code. Six, four, three, a double play. The numbers, in the order the ball travels.
Inside the box is a tiny diamond. The batter reaches first, rounds to third, and when they come home, you color it in.
You only need a handful of marks. A K is a strikeout, backwards if he's caught looking. B-B, a walk. E, an error.
Put it together. Ground ball to short. He throws to first. Out. Six to three. One away. A whole at-bat, in one little box.
That's the whole game, by hand. Precise, and slow. Or, just talk. “Ground ball to short, out at first.” “Single to left.” “Strikeout swinging.” “Fly out to center.”
The old way took all of that. The new way? Just talk.
Score any baseball game. Just speak. Bleacher Notes. Free for parents.
Want the written version? Every term in the video, position numbers, fielder's choice, the backwards K, ERA, OPS, is in the scoring glossary, and the rules behind them are on the scoring rules page.
Or skip the pencil. Just talk.
Bleacher Notes scores every play from a spoken sentence, the way the video shows. In beta now, free for parents.