#82---PIT @ CLE, 3/9/2007

This spring training game was not very interesting. It did feature Adam Miller, the much-hyped Tribe pitching prospect, who had a great spring training but soon saw his career undone by injuries. Miller gave up a walk, an infield hit, induced a foul pop, and struck out three.

#81---BOS @ TEX, 4/3/2006

This was an Opening Day game in 2006, with Kevin Millwood giving up five runs in five innings in his Texas debut. Kevin Youkilis batting eighth, Ian Kinsler ninth, and Jonathon Papelbon working the eighth are reminders that a lot of things change in baseball in four years.

#80---OAK @ BAL, 4/7/2005

Oakland beat Baltimore 5-1 with Dan Haren pitching six, the only run he allowed being Brian Roberts' leadoff shot. Eric Byrnes' three-run homer off one of my favorite players, Steve Kline, gave them the lead in the eighth. What I like about this game, though, is it is one of the rare (102 games) appearances of Sammy Sosa as an Oriole. Also, the Baltimore lineup features two players that hit 500 home runs--and they batted fifth and sixth.

#79---OAK @ ANA, 4/18/2004

Oakland beat up on Anaheim in this early season encounter, but the Angels would prevail in the end, besting the A's for the AL West title by one game. Ben Weber and his double pump glove action was one of my favorite pitchers to watch. Barry Zito was a tad inefficient with his pitches, making 102 in just six innings despite allowing just one run on four hits, one walk, and four strikeouts.

#78---BAL @ CLE, 4/16/2003

Since Jake Westbrook was just traded by the Indians, I grabbed the first 2003 scoresheet I could find of his (if you haven't noticed, I generally cycle through seasons from 1998-present to pick the scoresheet of the week, with some earlier seasons sprinkled in). The Indians lost this game, but Westbrook pitched pretty well--it looks as if he was held to a 90 pitch limit as he tossed 5 2/3 allowing one run, two hits, three walks, and two strikeouts. Cleveland led 3-1 after Vizquel's fifth inning homer, but Billy Traber and Danys Baez let it slip away in the eighth and ninth, with Melvin Mora's homer to leadoff the latter frame the game-winner.

#77---DET @ CLE, 3/2/2002

This spring training game featured three homers by each side, including a pair as part of a three-run ninth inning rally for the Tribe. I don't recall Chris Coste, Todd Dunwoody, or Brooks Kieschnick being in the organization. But what's really funny is that for some reason I wrote down "475 ft" as the distance for Kieschnick's homer. Sure it was.

#76---DET @ CLE, 4/20/2001

I didn't track balls and strikes on this sheet--helpfully noted by "NO B/S", as if I might have thought this was a game in which every PA was resolved on the first pitch, including strikeouts and walks.

Self-snark aside, this was a pretty good game. The Indians led 3-1 after three, but Detroit scored two in the sixth and one in the seventh to go up. The Tribe tied it off Matt Anderson and CJ Nitkowski in the eighth, but stranded runners on first and third with one out. With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Einar Diaz singled home the winner off of Todd Jones. I have no recollection of Tiger catcher Cardona.

#75---NYA @ TOR, 6/6/2010

This was a silly attempt to show what a combination scoresheet based on the Reisner (situational) method and a traditional scoring system might look like. There are two diamonds in each scorebox. The first is to record the situation (including outs, for which you circle 0, 1, or 2 although they didn't show up well in the scane) and baserunner advancement before the conclusion of the at bat, as you would in the Reisner system. The second is for tracing the runner's progress around the diamond, traditional style. You need not record how he advanced, since the Reisner portion does that for you, but it is helpful to mark stolen bases and CS that you'll want to credit to the individual's stat line.

Scoring like this is not particularly viable--it's basically scoring the game twice, once using the Resiner system and once traditionally. But it does give you both the situation and the traditional, individual-focused picture at the same time.

Unrelated note: If you're interested in LL Bean's scoring system, which I've touched on before here, you'll want to read my recent posts at Walk Like a Sabermetrician. The first mimics Bean's system. The second includes one of Bean's own scoresheets and his scoring key, thanks to Henry and the Bean company.

#74---CLE @ TB, 4/8/2000

I always like highlighting games featuring Dave Burba. The Indians won this early season game at Tropicana Field 6-4 as Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome hit back-to-back homers in the fifth. Mo Vaughn's three-run shot in the bottom of the sixth concluded the scoring. Unfortunately, Burba was relieved after six by Scott Kamienicki, which is a thoroughly unholy thing to have happen.

#73---CLE @ MIN, 4/11/1999

This was a wild early-season encounter won by the Indians 9-8. Plenty of offense to go around, from two-run homers by Jim Thome and Wil Cordero, to a triple and two doubles from Richie Sexson, to a two-out, bases-clearing triple by Todd Walker.

One thing you'll notice on the sheet in a few places (see Guzman's fourth-inning at bat for instance) is the presence of a "?". Long before it was a LOST episode, ? was my version of Phil Rizutto's WW for "Wasn't Watching". The ?s in Guzman's at bat indicate that I knew two pitches were thrown, but I either didn't know whether they were balls or strikes or what the sequence was.

The ? was pretty common in my early sheets, largely as the result of scoring a lot of games off of the radio. Now it's been eliminated, as in the GameTracker era one can simply get on the internet and look up whatever it was that you missed, whether due to broadcaster incompetence and inattention or your own.