Rule Question

I guess the guy from Williamsport forgot to mention that when we talked a few years back. He told me the reason was they didn't want to encourage anyone to keep stats for LL because they didn't want any chance they'd be use to give any awards, or God forbid, select All Stars.

And you're absolutely right that I take it seriously and believe me, you aren't the first one to say that and I never take offense at it.

In the big scheme of things, I think everyone, at least on this BB or that knows me personally knows how I feel about youth baseball not being much good from a statistical point of view. At least for much more than to make a kid or more importantly a parent a warm and fuzzy.

Most youth coaches who depend on stats for choosing or placing player generally are sharp enough to consider a fudge factor that will take into account scoring miscues, so I don't really worry about that aspect of it either.

When it really starts to bother me is when stats are used for "important" things like they were in Arizona for the Jr. Olympic selections or when they are used to get a kid a scholarship, or something else "important".

You see, I believe that everything about "good" baseball is based on learning skills and repeating them over a period of time. That's the way it works for players, coaches, and umpires, so why not the same way for scorekeepers?

I don't have a lot of respect for any player, coach or umpire who won't work to get better, so why would I have a different attitude about a scorekeeper. The thing that grinds on me is that its such a simple thing to do! all anyone has to do is read a few pages of the rulebook and do the best they can under those guidelines.

Heck, I almost always disagree with another scorekeeper who's doing the same game I am, but as long as they are doing their best, I don't get too excited. But, when they do something really bad like give a player a hit that just went between the legs of an infielder because he didn't touch it, I'll try to point out the error of their thinking, with the rulebook. After all, what good are the stats if the things they're based on are wrong.

As players get to the level where others are making judgements not just on a batting average or a pitcher's won/lost record, and ERA, RBI's, Slugging Ave, SB's, fielding percentage and all the other things really begin to take on significance, giving one player a warm and fuzzy usually means giving another one the shaft, and that just isn't right.

Just as you take great pains to educate people about the rules and Ag takes great pains to educate people about coaching, I do the same thing with the score book. Its just my way of trying to make the game better by preserving its integrity.