This little book is perfect if you are interested in score keeping at baseball games! And we all owe it to the Father of Keeping Score, and developer of the box score, Henry Chadwick !
Great photos throughout! And Chapter 4 - Scoring and Baseball History From A to Z - is a particularly informative chapter! Lots of cool baseball anecdotes too, like WW being Phil Rizzuto’s scoring notation for “wasn’t watching", the fact that First Lady Grace Coolidge regularly kept score in the presidential box at Griffith Stadium, and that baseball is actually in the Bible-“In the Big Inning"! (ok, the last thing is a joke, but still fun!) There is a lot of technical information on actually scoring the game, and if you are interested, this would be the perfect book to learn from! ( )

A short book and easy read with lots of interesting photos and graphics, The Joy of Keeping Score provides, as the title suggests, a brief history of and testimonial for the process of keeping score while watching a baseball game. As a lifelong scorecard keeper myself, I was looking forward to a bit more than I actually got, here. I already knew why I liked keeping score, so I didn't need the encouragement, and I skipped entirely over the chapter explaining how to score a game. But there was some interesting history, particularly of the various forms of scorekeeping that have been developed over the years, and some nice anecdotes regarding the pitfalls experienced by official scorers from season to season. So I'd say this book is good for folks who are just getting interested in baseball and want to know what scoring the game yourself is all about, and for more knowledgeable baseball fans who don't mind skimming over familiar material in order to glean some bits of interesting trivia. ( )

Do you know little about keeping score in baseball, but love the history of the sport? Do you keep score in the stands, watching TV, or listening to the radio? This book has something to offer for each. Beginning with chapters on basic score keeping and more advanced techniques, then moving into a quirky alphabetical list of fun facts, score keeping in French, presidential score keeping and more, Dickson's fifteen-year-old homage to the history and technique of keeping score still has plenty of interesting tidbits for today's fan.

When my brothers were in Little League, my dad first taught me to keep score. I think he may have done this partly to give me something to do and keep me from asking him what inning it was and what the score was. In fact, after I started keeping my "unofficial" score book in the stands, the mothers started asking me. The review by blackdogbooks inspired me to pick this book up; I thought it would be the perfect quirky book to get me geared up for baseball season (last year I read a book on umpiring; I seem to have a trend going here). In only a little over 100 pages, I added a few notations to my score keeping arsenal and learned a bit about baseball statistics and history while I was at it (my favorite anecdote involved presidential score keeping). I'm definitely passing along a recommendation to my father. ( )

Every year, as winter cold begins to thaw from fingers and toes, a tiny, dormant seed begins to take root in the heart of every baseball lover. The sports section of morning newspapers, still delivered in darkness and crisp air, blossom with the news of team trades and acquisitions. A countdown begins, given whispered voice only among the most devoted, to the time when pitchers and catchers will report to the already warm and green fields of Arizona and Florida. More than any New Year, it is a time of renewal and hope; it is next year – the year that every fan has decided, “we’ll finally get ‘em.” It is Spring Training, and Opening Day is just around the corner.

Like every other baseball fanatic, the news of teams reporting for Spring Training stirs my soul. Days are more complete with morning box scores and day games on the radio, with arguments in cubicles over who will win the pennant or the World Series. And whether from a radio broadcast, an ESPN televised game, or in person, scoring the game puts me at the heart of the action on the field more than anything else.

For the beginner or the professional, Paul Dickson’s [The Joy of Keeping Score] is the single best resource for the art of score keeping. Dickson’s beginning premise is that scoring offers a closer involvement with a baseball game and provides an unequaled understanding and appreciation. Nothing else stimulates attention to the details and subtleties of the game’s movement. Nothing else cements such vivid memory and sentiment.

[The Joy of Keeping Score] provides basic and advanced systems of score keeping, detailing infinite potential notations to describe every field event, whether offensive or defensive. My own personal scoring notations were drawn from several different suggested schemes in the book. Dickson encourages creativity and eccentricity, explaining that each score card should be a personal creation, but one that any true fan and score keeper could decipher. He applauds marginalia listing the duration of the game, weather conditions, or notations regarding remarkable plays. Whatever technique draws the fan into the game and makes them a part of the action; whatever delivers the game to the fan in a way that it can never belong to the player or manager.

But more than just a dry manual, [The Joy of Keeping Score] also provides a lively treatise on the development and history of both the game and the art of the statistic. For example, did you know that a putout is credited to the catcher, not the pitcher, for a strikeout? And speaking of strikeouts, have you ever wondered where the backwards K originated? Henry Chadwick, also the developer of the box scoring system and the publisher of the first baseball scorecard, developed the symbol in the late 1800s. Do you know how the backwards K differs from the regular K in meaning? Read the book for that answer. The book reproduces famous scorecards, including one from the day that The Babe called his home run; one from the 1951 Giants-Dodgers game, with Thompson’s “shot heard round the world;” and one from the longest game ever played, a 1981 Rochester Red Wings-Pawtucket Red Sox AAA game, featuring Cal Ripken, Jr., and Wade Boggs, that lasted 33 innings over 8 hours. Other memorabilia and photographs are also reproduced, identifying the unifying thread of history and sentiment that runs from the earliest scrimmages of “town ball” to last year’s San Francisco Giants World Championship.

Dickson’s book will resonate with any true fan of the game, whether a score keeper or not. If you’ve never scored a game, use [The Joy of Score Keeping] to outline a beginning foray into the world of the statistic; you may get hooked on the sense of belonging that keeping up with the minutiae of the game brings. If you’re a pro, I’ll wager that you learn something and add some new technique to your scoring system. In either case, reading Dickson’s book will make spring and the new season come alive for you.

An all-time favorite!
5 bones!!!!! ( )