Baseball score sheet
Here's a print-it-yourself scoresheet that Jonathan developed for the family. Everyone has chipped in comments and improvements over the years until we're pretty happy with it.
Some explanations are in order, but for those of you who are impatient to grab a file, we'll start with the links:
Remember, don't just click the link — use your browser's "Save link as..." feature.
And please, link or bookmark this page, rather than the scoresheets themselves, as those file names are subject to change.
About this score sheet
Ok, here are the promised explanations, in FAQ style.
It's free, right? Right. However, if you take one to the park, try it out, and decide you like it, it would be nice if you'd to say so. We can only count downloads from here — not happy fans.
Why isn't there a place to record [my favorite stat]? Bookstore score sheets often include columns for ERA, batting average, pitchers' W/L records, and other season-long stats. I don't see the point — not only is that info going to be in the newspaper tomorrow, it'll be on the scoreboard at the park quicker than you can calculate it. Ultimately, faced with limited room on an 8.5 x 11 page, I stuck to the items that matter in this game. Ok, but how about pitch count? That'd probably be the next thing to add if there were a bit more room. But, at least at the Metrodome, this is displayed on the pitching scoreboard and updated after each pitch.
Every other score sheet I've seen is black & white — why is this one colored? Partly because it's just nicer looking. Partly because it helps the diamond guidelines be useful while you're writing but unobtrusive overall. Partly because it helps when proving the score: note that the proof section is color-keyed to the inning totals.
How come you say "any two AL opponents" — what about National League games? Again, a real-estate issue. NL games will likely feature more than three players in the 9-hole. If you're scoring NL and can write small, you could maybe split each of the rows for, say, batters 8 and 9.
What are all the little doodads in each play box?
So, for example, here's a batter who took a ball, a strike, and then two more balls; hit an RBI single on the 3-1 count; and then got caught stealing, catcher to short, for the second out of the inning:
How come the balls and strikes aren't laid out like every other score sheet I've seen? Because this one is better? Seriously, I just like reading balls and strikes from left to right in the same order that the count is pronounced. Call me eccentric.
Why two columns at the bottom of every inning? Use the white area for recording this inning's walks, runs, left on base, etc. Use the colored area for running totals. Then the final entrys will be the ones you use in the proof. (By the way, I put Hit Batsmen and Catcher's Interference together on one line because, come on, how often do you see an interference call? So if both happen in one game, you'll just have to keep them straight on your own.)
Why twelve innings? Isn't that a lot of wasted space? Commercial score sheets usually have room for ten. In 2003, the majority of Twins extra-inning games went longer than 10 innings. But only four of them went longer than 12. Having a place to record innings 10, 11, and 12 means that almost every game (158 out of 162 that year) will fit on a single sheet. Why that matters to me is open to psychiatric study.
These are Microsoft Word documents — how about another format? I sure tried. Adobe Acrobat couldn't produce a correct PDF from the original, nor could four third-party PDF generators. Sun's Open Office can read the Word file but things don't line up properly any more. Visio was too touchy. Not many people have access to Illustrator. If you have other suggestions, drop a line.
How do I print these? If you want ten copies, go into the Word File/Print dialog, set Pages to 1 and Number of copies to 10. Print. Take the sheets out of your printer and put them back into the paper tray (how to orient them varies from printer to printer). Go back to File/Print, set Pages to 2 and Number of copies to 10. Print. Voila, a two-sided score sheet.