Marking an RBI and MORE!

There ya go! Not only will that work for you, it should be really easy to pick out. that's the whole object. You don't want to spend a bunch of time trying to filter out all of the unnecessary garbage!

For anyone out there looking for an easy coaching "edge", here's one I used a few years back.

Go into any drawing program and draw a baseball field, complete with bases, foul lines and fence. Print one off for each of your batters and one for each pitcher.

When each batter comes up, mark where they hit the ball and the result. I.e. a grounder to 2nd that's an error get an "E" approximately where it was fielded. Mark it with a "G" for ground out of "F" for fly. If its a hit, mark it with a "S", "D", "T" or "HR" and where it was hit. Mark K's and BB's down on the bottom someplace.

Do the same for each batter each pitcher faces. Literally anyone who's at the game can do it and after about 20 ABs for the hitters and a 10 innings or so for the pitchers, you'll see an amazing picture taking shape.

This is very similar to what they do in the ML to chart pitchers and hitters although as you might expect, they get much more carried away with detail. But even for the little guys, doing this will definitely show trends that you can take advantage of on defense and things you can work on with your hitters on the offensive side.

The only thing I'd advise is to keep it very, very basic! That way you can have a player on the bench doing it to keep him involved in the game or you can stick some unsuspecting parent with it to "help out the team"!

I know a lot of people get bored with keeping score and many others think it takes away from the enjoyment of watching the game, but I find just the opposite. when someone keeps score, they soon find they are watching the same game as everyone else, but they are seeing it from a totally different perspective.

Because you have to pay much closer attention to what's going on, you see a lot of the subtle things that make it a great game. For instance, if there's a runner on 1st and a batter smacks on into the gap, most fans are looking back and forth from the ball to the runner to see if he's going to possibly make it all the way home or if they have a chance to get him.

A scorer can't do that. s/he has to keep watching that darned ball! Maybe the fielder picked up the ball and dropped it. That could be the difference in the batter getting a double or a triple, the batter getting an RBI or not, or the pitcher being charged with an earned run.

A good scorer learns to watch the umpires too. For instance, a slow grounder to short that the fielder get to and makes a questionable throw on with the batter/runner being called safe. if the ump gives the signal that the 1st baseman's foot was off the bag, that's usually a good indication that the runner would have been out and the SS gets an error.

If I have a question about a play like that and there was no signal, I have no problem asking the ump if he called the runner safe because the fielder's foot was off the bag. I've even been known to give an error to the 1st baseman if the throw was good and in plenty of time, but he didn't touch the bag or the runner. Heck, I've even been known to give a 1st baseman an error if the throw was rotten but he got it, still had plenty of time to get the runner and didn't.

To me, having to concentrate on those aspects of the game makes it much more interesting than just sitting there like a lump complaining that the game is too slow. Keeping score for a long time also gives you a much better perspective on how the different people involved are looking at the game.

The coach doesn't watch the same game the scorer, ump and fans watch. They are looking for something completely different than everyone else. The same goes for the ump. The things they have to watch for on any given play don't allow them to really see the game.

The game the fans see is totally different too! usually a fan is watching his kid or his team and isn't paying a lot of attention to what else is going on. In fact, that's a reason a lot of parents get angry with umps, coaches and scorers. There's a runner on 1st and their little one whacks a good one to the outfield and all they see is if the ball dropped safely before they start watching the kids run.

The batter motors around 1st and the coach is screaming "GO" "GO", and he's off to 2nd and now the 3rd base coach is screaming the same thing at the other kid! Both runners keep going and the 1st runner scores and here comes the ball to 3rd and here comes the kid. He slides, and the umps calls him safe!

Ol' dad is proud as a peacock because "his" kid just smacked a triple and got an RBI! But what he didn't notice because he took his eyes off the fielder was, the outfielder had the ball roll through his legs, and that's why the coach sent the kid to 2nd and why the other one was sent home.

After the inning is over and ol' dad is walking around getting congratulations for his kid's hit and he happens to walk by the scorer because he likes to see the written proof of the accomplishment. UH OH!

"HEY!" "You only gave my kid a single and you didn't mark an RBI!"

All of a sudden the scorer is the rottenest SOB on the face of the planet and has no consideration for the kid's feelings!