Baseball is back! *insert appropriate qualifiers about "meaningful* and *major league as necessary*.
One of the reasons I'm looking for new blood with the site is that I feel like baseball is a sport where the "conservative"-"progressive" spectrum is particularly pronounced, as it is with anything that's been around longer than anybody on Earth has been alive. (I'm referring to that spectrum just in regards to baseball rules and ephemera, as I promise you that discussions of actual politics on this site don't interest me in the least.) But baseball is evolving, sometimes for the better, sometimes - not so much so.
For example, I posted this not long ago:
One of the reasons I'm looking for new blood with the site is that I feel like baseball is a sport where the "conservative"-"progressive" spectrum is particularly pronounced, as it is with anything that's been around longer than anybody on Earth has been alive. (I'm referring to that spectrum just in regards to baseball rules and ephemera, as I promise you that discussions of actual politics on this site don't interest me in the least.) But baseball is evolving, sometimes for the better, sometimes - not so much so.
For example, I posted this not long ago:
Coverage of the important angle from @emmabaccellieri: how on Earth do you score this madness? https://t.co/S9Pjm5of0s
— Scorekeepers Union (@scorekeepers643) March 17, 2018
...and got replies along these lines:
As someone who has covered MILB and scored countless high school and youth league games, this change is a perversion of baseball, a complete travesty and should be rescinded immediately. @scorekeepers643 https://t.co/oH4KtUus5h
— Earl Vaughan Jr. (@EarlVaughanJr) March 17, 2018
So yeah, people have opinions. (For the record, I think that's a silly change and hope it never makes it to the majors. But I understand what they're trying to do and are glad they're playing around with changes?)
But regardless of where you fall on the "baseball traditionalist" spectrum, you end up having to react to the changes as a scorekeeper. If you're scoring in the minors, you're already trying to figure out what you do with that extra baserunner in the 10th, but the majors have a couple of quirks for us to work into our recordkeeping this season which we wanted to mention.
But regardless of where you fall on the "baseball traditionalist" spectrum, you end up having to react to the changes as a scorekeeper. If you're scoring in the minors, you're already trying to figure out what you do with that extra baserunner in the 10th, but the majors have a couple of quirks for us to work into our recordkeeping this season which we wanted to mention.
For one, MLB is cracking down on the number of mound visits this year, to go with their new regime on pace of play. I don't mind this - nobody enjoys a mound visit. I have enough conference calls to sit through on a given day. Still, I'm not looking forward to the first game decided by an excess, accidental visit (Fab Five, anybody?) Scoreboards have started tracking this too, which makes sense. But: are you tracking this in your books, and if so, how?
Meanwhile, most teams are employing some sort of shift from time to time, but Houston is taking it to an extreme, running an unorthodox 4-man outfield against some batters. This is one I have no issues with - if you can position your first baseman in a batter's nostril to guard against a bunt, you should be able to put your shortstop out in left-center, too, without anybody batting an eye. Still, though, it's tricky enough to teach beginning scorers to remember "outfield 7-8-9" without an extra body out there. How are your books reflecting the new notation?
Personally, I think I'm going to end up marking short "MV" notes batter by batter in my book for the first and using a lower case "s" for a shifted player, but your mileage may vary. What say you, Union? Comments below!
Personally, I think I'm going to end up marking short "MV" notes batter by batter in my book for the first and using a lower case "s" for a shifted player, but your mileage may vary. What say you, Union? Comments below!
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