I switched scorebooks this summer in the interest of checking out some alternatives. I started scoring with the free cards the Cotuit Kettleers used to hand out as recently as 2009, but have since migrated to spiral-bound books of scoring blanks.
The standby for me for the past three seasons has been C.S. Peterson’s Scoremaster. I would order one or two every spring from Amazon for $7 (though the vendor claims a massive discount from a list price of $30 which is absurd because I don’t remember paying close to that).
Here’s a scoresheet from Peterson:
Apologies in advance as the scan doesn’t do much justice to the detail on the form, but there it is. Pretty dense, kind of cramped, but it did the job for the most part and didn’t have any obvious irritations.
Peterson’s is a good book. I’m familiar with it, it has a pitch count tracker which one can see on the far right. It is soft covered so it isn’t very rigid in the lap and it has no pockets to stash ticket stubs, 50-50 raffle tickers, or other detritrus picked up at the ball park.
This summer I tried something new, a very trendy super scorebook complete with an introduction, a set of how-to-score instructions, a fold-out cheat sheet with common symbols and abbreviations, and yes, a memento pocket inside of the back cover. This version is called the Baseball Scorekeeper and is priced at $13.56 onb Amazon, twice the Peterson price. It even has co-authors, Stuart Miller and Zack Hemple.
I liked it. It was a little basic but it also got the job done, it just didn’t get to the level of obsessive detail that Peterson’s does. The lack of a pitch count tracker was an issue, and the player hit column just noted hits, not doubles, triples, etc.
I’d recommend the Scorekeeper to a beginner, wish Peterson’s came in a hardcover version and while I’m giving advice, would tell the Scorekeeper guys to consider an elastic band of some sort — like Moleskin notebooks have — to help hold the thing together when it is folded open and both sides are in use.
Next season I’ll try something else.
And to hell with scorekeeping apps. Yes yes yes I’ve heard of Gamechanger, and have tried the iScore app. Only douchebags take tablets to ballgames unless they’re getting paid to bring one there. Give me paper and pencil and a bag of peanuts in the shell.