Give your youth baseball scorekeeper a guide
Most youth scorekeepers are volunteer parents. Give them a guide that says how you want things scored, so three different parents scoring three different games still produce the same book.
Youth baseball is unique. The scorekeepers are volunteers, they’re inexperienced, and most of them have a son on the team (the players aren’t perfect, either).
So I gave our scorekeepers a guide. It did three things: It cleared up common rules mistakes, it set our own rules where the book doesn’t fit youth ball, and it told them what to pay attention to.
You may disagree with some of these. That’s okay! Here are a few of ours…
When we’re hitting, there are no errors. If one of our hitters puts the ball in play and reaches base safely, it’s a hit, even if the shortstop boots it. An error can only be scored for extra bases after that. This rewards the players who consistently put the ball in play, which is what we want.
Fielder’s choice only if an out is recorded. If the infielder throws to another base and gets the out, it’s a fielder’s choice. If he throws to another base and no out is recorded, the batter gets a hit. There’s no guessing about what he could have done.
When we’re fielding, be charitable. We only scored errors on the obvious stuff, like a dropped pop-up, a dropped throw or a grounder through the first baseman’s legs, and we tracked outs by position instead, which tells us far more.
Wild pitch versus passed ball. If the pitch is in the dirt, it’s a wild pitch. If the catcher should have caught it, it’s a passed ball.
Stolen base versus wild pitch. If the runner was moving on the pitch, it’s a stolen base, NOT a wild pitch.
Defensive indifference. We almost never scored it.
Whatever you decide, make sure your scorekeepers know it before the first game. What would you score differently?
Still have a question? Ask Coach Fungo.
“There are times when I don't want our scorekeepers going 'by the book.'”
I wrote the long version of this when I coached the Spiders: Youth Baseball Scorekeeper's Guide on SpidersElite.
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