#37---KC @ CLE, 9/20/2001

This sheet is included here as an example of how not to keep score. You can’t see it from the scan, but in the sixth inning I switched to scoring in pen. I don’t know why I did this, particularly in the middle of a game, but I did.

There are some people who swear by scoring with ink. If you can pull it off, more power to you, but for me, it’s a disaster. I am too impatient, as I want to write down everything as soon as it happens instead of taking a second to make sure the pitch was actually a ball, or to wait for the official scorer’s ruling. Raul Ibanez’ double in the seventh inning illustrates why pencil is imperative for me.

I don’t know what on earth I was thinking when I wrote down “15” for Alomar’s at bat in the first. A pitcher to third putout of a batter-runner would be worth explaining in more detail. In fact, it was a lineout to third, so it should have been “L5”. So there’s another tip if you are incompetent like me: avoid lower case letters that might be confused for numerals.

#36--OSU v. UM, 5/25/2005

It is the week of the year in which my attention is fixated on the eternal struggle between good and evil, and so here is a scoresheet of one battle in that war. This 2005 game was in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. The Buckeyes scored two runs in the second, but a ninth inning run by UM tied the game. In the twelfth, OSU regained the lead on Matt Angle’s two-out single, but back-to-back Wolverine doubles tied the game, and Angle’s error made it a runner at third and one out. After Ohio walked the bases loaded, Rory Meister coaxed a 323 double play and the threat was averted.

In the thirteenth, Jason Zoeller drove home Jacob Howell with a double and Paul Farinacci cracked a three-run homer to make it 7-3. Rory Meister struck out the side in the bottom of the frame (albeit while allowing two singles), and the Bucks were staying in the winner’s bracket. They would go on to defeat Minnesota for the Big Ten Tournament championship, thanks in large part to this defeat of the evil maize-clad hordes.

#35--Tampa @ St. Petersburg, 6/22/2000

This was a game between the Tampa Yankees and the St. Petersburg Devil Rays that I attended in St. Pete. There were no future stars playing in the game, but some names that stood out to me were Pete LaForest, Andy Phillips, Juan Rivera, and Brandon Backe (playing shortstop at this point in his career and batting eighth).

#34---COL v. SD, 4/4/1999

This was an Opening Day game played in Mexico. Local hero Vinny Castilla had a good game, going 4-5 as the Rockies rolled 8-2. It is a very sloppy sheet; sloppy handwriting, listing two right fielders for Colorado, not recording the line score for the San Diego 9th...certainly not my best effort.