Customer Reviews

Baseball Scorekeeping: A Practical Guide to the Rules

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Baseball Scorekeeping

Do you care what your favorite player's batting average is? Are his on-base percentage and his slugging percentage important to you? Then you owe a real debt of gratitude to baseball's official scorers. All the statistics that are generated around the game of baseball depend upon the oft-maligned and seldom properly-appreciated scorers of the game.

And baseball scorers, as well as fans, owe a debt of gratitude to Andres Wirkmaa for writing this interesting and informative book.

Baseball Scorekeeping is a thorough and meticulous discussion of Rules 10.01 through 10.24 of baseball's official rulebook, pertaining to "The Official Scorer." It is an essential reference for any professional scorekeeper, and for anyone who keeps score seriously.

Until I read this book, I had no idea of the complex rules that go into keeping score, nor of the amount that a scorer must know to do his or her job properly. The scorekeeper must pay strict attention at all times to what is happening on the field, and must often use his or her judgment and discretion to apply the rules so that the resulting statistics will be meaningful and comparable.

Filled with examples and illustrations of complicated baseball situations, the book takes on the task of explaining not only what is required of the scorekeeper, but why. Despite the rigid format imposed by the rulebook, the author manages some humor in unexpected places. I particularly enjoyed his explicatory subtitles (he refers, for example, to the "...Seemingly Pointless, Unnecessary and Incongruous Exception to Rule 10.05(e)".

Wirkmaa clears up many misconceptions. A common one is that a fielder must touch the ball to be charged with an error. Not true! The difference between a misplay and an error, the difference between a plate appearance and an at bat, understandable explanations of a fielder's choice, and how to calculate earned runs, all are here. In this surprisingly fascinating book, you will also find out how a runner can be caught stealing and still be safe on base, how a pitcher can be credited with a strikeout while the batter reaches first base safely, and how a batter may have his plate appearance charged to one pitcher but the run he eventually scores charged to a second pitcher.

If you think you understand all of baseball's rules, buy this book and test yourself. Baseball Scorekeeping is a wonderful book to "dip into" occasionally just for fun. And when questions about scoring come up, you will find the answers here.

The book is printed on acid-free paper for a long shelf life.

As an official scorer for a university baseball team, I was pleased to run across Andres Wirkmaa's book, Baseball Scorekeeping. I was hoping to find a text that would serve as a guide to resolving those "knotty problems" that come up every once in a while that present real challenges to any official scorekeeper. Wirkmaa's handy little book accomplishes that, and more. It takes the reader through Rule 10 of the Official Rules of Baseball, step by step, with plenty of examples. Wirkmaa mixes a decidedly scholarly tone -- he is an attorney by trade -- with a sense of humor, all in a very approachable and engaging style. I would have liked to see a few examples of scoring notation to supplement each rule, but since many scorekeepers have their own symbols and tricks, this may have been difficult to do without confusing novice readers. The book is well written, clearly organized, and valuable to anyone who is involved in scorekeeping.

Mr. Wirkmaa patterns his book directly on the Rules of Baseball, therefore making it simple to go from the Rules to his interpretation of how the scoring would be handled for that particular situation. This type of editing lays out what is still a complicated subject in at least a methodical fashion.

My only disappointment on receiving the book was that he includes no diagrams on the scorekeeping itself. I wanted to see the actual scribblings when someone "runs the book." Not in there. I purchased another excellent book (not available through Amazon) entitled "The Scorekeeper's Friend" by Bill Glasco that has the level of diagramming (and explanations) that I was initially seeking.

All in all, any person serious about their scorekeeping should own Mr. Wirkmaa's book. I hope he follows it up with another.

This book does a very solid job of clarifying some of the finer points of scorekeeping that are somewhat vague and difficult to comprehend in the baseball rule book. I highly recommend it for anyone who is truly serious about improving the accuracy of their scorekeeping skills. Even novice baseball fans that like to score a game just for kicks while sitting at the ballpark can benefit from reading it.

If you're an official scorer at any level you need this book. I'm an official scorer for a minor league baseball team, and I keep mine handy during the games. Every now and then I'll need to pull it out to check a rule when something odd happens. Without it I would have been able to find answers in the official rule book, but not nearly as quickly or definitively.

I hope the author is working on an updated edition to reflect the scoring rule changes put into place in 2007! I'll buy this book again if he does!

I have yet to encounter a situation that isn't covered in this book of baseball rules. Unbelievably, I read it like a piece of fiction. It takes complicated information and states it in clear and concise language. It is by far the best book on baseball rules and scorekeeping I have ever come across.

I would just like to confirm what a previous reviewer stated for Mr. Wirkmaa's book. I took the reviewer's advice, bought the book on Amazon, and also went ahead and bought "The Scorekeeper's Friend" available at Mr. Glasco's website. The two taken together offer a winning combination for those aspiring to become competent baseball/softball scorekeepers. The former comprehensively explains the reasoning behind the scoring rules of baseball, while the latter shows you how to do it on a scorecard. Two thumbs up!

When I ordered this book, I guess I mistook the title to be a book on actually sitting down and scoring a game on a grid like you do when you go to the ballpark. In this way, I guess I accidentally stumbled onto this. Baseball Scorekeeping is a book which primarily focuses on the rules of baseball, but it is amazingly in-depth and, yes, fascinating (which is quit a feat since it is, after all, a book on rules). I was quite pleasantly surprised with the book, as it is exceptionally thorough in detailing and categorizing each and every facet of the game, and clearly the author, who is a baseball coach, knows his stuff.

The way this book is designed makes it easy to read and follow. The beginning chapters deal with official scorer's duties. After this, the book goes through systematically over the various rules for every thinkable situation and occurrence ( here are some categories: crediting runs batted in, base hits, stolen bases, bunts and sacrifices, put outs, fielder assists, scoring errors, double plays, walks/strikeouts, determining winning/losing pitchers, earned runs, saves). One aspect that makes this more enjoyable than your average "rule book" is that fact that the author not only explains the rules in depth, but gives a little background into the rule and also sets up a real-life game scenario for some of the rules. For instance, for clarification on what constitutes a sacrifice fly the author sets up a scenario where a runner from third scores on a ball caught in the outfield with less than two outs. The author also explains in a way that any reader can appreciate; he isn't a baseball snob or too technical with "rule speak", but clearly is knowledgeable about the game. He makes a point to make it as "reader friendly" as possible (which he stresses that he hoped to achieve while writing this book).

Also, Baseball Scorekeeping provides some rare and quirky rules that perhaps a baseball fan might not know. The next time you are watching baseball with a friend and want to impress him or her, you might see an odd play like catcher's interference and explain what is going on.

Baseball Scorekeeping is a gem for any baseball player or fan! I'm glad I accidentally found this!

If you think you know the baseball rules completely you must read this book first...! It's an excellent companion to the Official Rules of the game.
If you love the game, you'll love this book !

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the basics of score keeping. It is about as simple as it can get as the offensive numbers goes.