Ferkovich: Oh scorecard, my scorecard
From SABR member Scott Ferkovich at The Hardball Times on June 23, 2016:
On Sunday, June 5, I went to the Tigers-White Sox game at Comerica Park. And I did something I haven’t done in a long, long time.
I kept score.
It happened more or less on a lark. Soon after entering the gates, my friend and I passed the scorecard pusher standing at his booth, looking jaded and forlorn. Not a very brisk business these days, selling scorecards.
I elbowed my friend. “Hey,” I said, “have you ever kept score at a baseball game?”
He shot me a look as if I’d just asked him if he’d ever milked a cow. “Not exactly,” he replied.
“Well,” I said, “today I’ll teach you how.”
What fit of nostalgia incited me to fork over the dollar for the scorecard and pencil? And what made me think I would play the scorekeeping instructor par excellence to my friend? I hadn’t filled out a scorecard since before NBC pulled the plug on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Rather than giving any pointers, it would be the blind leading the blind.
Oh, sure, I’d done it enough times in the past. But scorekeeping was never something I was good at. It is a skill that rewards the patient and condemns the lazy. And I am often in the mood to be lazy at the ballpark. My idea of a relaxing afternoon isn’t scribbling “4-6-3,” or “F7” onto a scorecard.
Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/oh-scorecard-my-scorecard/
Originally published: June 23, 2016. Last Updated: June 23, 2016.