What is Reddit's opinion of The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball?

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http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Keeping-Score-Influenced/dp/0802715702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342900184&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+score+a+baseball+game

This is a great way to learn about the game and the strategy involved. I would also start watching baseball games now and read the local beat writers daily columns on the O's.

If you can keep score at a baseball game you'll know more than 70% of the people at the stadium.

I can only answer two and three.

1. I follow Bob Carpenter, the Nationals' TV play-by-play announcer, on Twitter; he posts photos of his scorebook after each game. He also sells the scorebook he uses.

There was also an old contributor to Athletics Nation by the name of Jeremy F. Koo who shared some neat-looking scoresheets.

1. I don't recall what exactly prompted me to take up scoring. I think I remember seeing someone carrying a filled-out scoresheet while leaving a Giants game circa 2004 and thinking it looked cool, but I'm not 100% sure.

I learned via a combination of developing my own system, using the terminology the Giants used for their video board, and using "how-to" guides printed in various books and programs. The book The Art of Keeping Score was a nice resource, too.

I continue to keep score because I like the idea of having a unique record of just the games I've attended. I'm able to notice certain trends (ex. a certain pitcher having good starts whenever I see him) and keep track of milestones. Also, in an age where physical tickets have been phased out by so many teams, my scoresheet is often the only tangible souvenir from a certain game.

Here's an album from a game I scored a couple years ago

First thing you'll want to do is familiarize yourself with everyones position. 1-pitcher, 2-catcher, 3-1st base, 4-2nd base, 5-3rd base, 6-short stop, 7-left field, 8-center field, 9-right field.

After a ball is put in play, you'll mark in order of who touched it. If it was a ground out to shortstop, it'll be a 6-3.

If someone got on base, draw a line on the basepath to where they got. (optionally, put a little tick to signify thats the base the ended on. E.g., if its a double put a tick on 2nd base. if they single, then advanced to 3rd on another hit, put ticks on 1st and 3rd base.) If a player was forced out, I draw a line halfway towards the base they were forced out on, then draw a perpendicular line to signify they never made it there.

I'll also signify how they advanced to that base. On this scorecard I signified the play that advanced them (E.g., 4-3) but now I put the player number who advanced them.

When there's a pitching change, I draw a squiggle line above the first batter he faces. On this old scoresheet, I only did that if the change happened in the middle of the inning. You can see an example on the Mariners scoresheet towards the end of the 4th inning (after they batted around and brought Jones out for a 2nd plate appearance that inning. )

If there's a change in whos hitting (pinch hitter, new pitcher) I'll draw a squiggle line to the left of that box. You can see this happened twice in the 7th inning for the Mariners with Gillespie replacing Chavez, and Romero replacing Ackley.

This is how I do it, you may come up with your own styles or freehand. Joy of Keeping Score is a pretty decent book that discuses the history and art of keeping score. As everyones is sure to be different, I'm sure more people can post and indicate how they keep score differently than me. The best thing to realize is that there isn't a 'correct' way to do it, just a lot of suggestions on how others have done it.