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Thread: Sports Ball

  1. #251
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Not to change the subject, but seeing this thread bumped reminded me that tomorrow is my debut as the scorekeeper for my daughter's new softball team. I know the rules pretty well, but I've never kept score. It's not just how many runs each team has. It's recording every pitch and every play of the entire game in a special scorebook. Below is one of many examples I found online.

    I didn't offer; I was "volunteered" by the coach. I must have looked like the biggest nerd of all the parents at practice. As a lifelong baseball fan, I'm looking forward to it testing my knowledge and accuracy. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is my eyesight. I'm mildly nearsighted, which means I need or at least prefer glasses to drive, watch TV, walk around in the city, and watch softball as a spectator. But, unlike most people my age and older, I don't reach for reading glasses when I need to see up close. I take my glasses off for reading, working at a computer, cooking, and so forth. I suspect I'll be fidgeting with my prescription sunglasses the whole game - on to see the field (and players' numbers) and then off to see the book. Someone needs to make "reverse reading glasses" with the lenses up high so they can be looked under instead of down low to be looked over.

    Last year, on a different team, one of the girls' mothers was our scorekeeper and it was obvious she had done it many times before. She even settled a dispute with the other team at one game. Their scorekeeper came out empty-handed to dispute the score or how many outs there were or something like that. Our scorekeeper took her book out there and showed everyone. That shut up the other team right away. When she and her daughter went out of town for a week or two, that coach "volunteered" a guy from South Africa to keep score and it seemed to cause him a bit of stress. Later he reminded us he had never watched baseball until he came to the USA a few years prior and he didn't necessarily know all the rules. Maybe I'll do better. We'll see. I hope it won't turn something I enjoy into something I dread.


  2. #252
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    My sister actually did that for fun when she lived in Madison and would go to their minor league baseball games. She really enjoyed it, but admittedly it was for her own benefit and there was no pressure to get it all correct.

    Also, I'm a fan of the word "voluntold." "Oh, yeah, I was voluntold to do this."

  3. #253
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    ^ I might have to use that word.

    Yeah, I've seen fans with scorebooks in the stands at baseball games. There's a part of the game that drawn in statistics nerds. I had a friend in 7th and 8th grades who I still remember well. Long before smart-phones, when students might hide a comic book or magazine inside a textbook, Jay's classroom contraband was a notebook full of baseball numbers in his incredibly neat handwriting. I think he played a game something like today's fantasy football, in which the wins and losses of a fan's imaginary team were based on real players' hits, RBIs, stolen bases; pitchers' ERAs; and whatever else.

    I went to a different high school than he did and never saw him again. I imagine he has done okay in life with a mind for numbers like that.

  4. #254
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    Quote Originally Posted by George View Post
    with a mind for numbers like that.
    I guess that does fit. My sister has a doctorate in math.

  5. #255
    Severed Member JoeW's Avatar
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    The leagues I’ve been involved with hold classes for scorekeeping before the season starts.

    It’s pretty complicated and you need to know how to do it right. Not a smart move to voluntell someone with no experience to do that job if they want accurate results. At least you remain blameless when they ask some obscure scoring question and they didn’t bother to show you the ropes beforehand.

  6. #256
    Senior Member sandydandy's Avatar
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    NBA playoffs are underway. Our beloved Craptors are on the verge of elimination. The first couple of games in Philly we were hiding behind the excuse of the refs being biased, but tonight’s game 3 was an absolute joke on the part of our miserable excuse for a roster. We had the lead for the entire game and the 76ers chipped away at it and came back to win. On home court and we still lost in OT, even with Harden having fouled out. 76ers are just too strong. Most likely we’ll be swept, or we may win one if we’re lucky and bow out in 5 max.

    Interesting tidbit: Jimmy Kimmel had a woman on his show a few weeks ago who displayed a remarkable ability to predict winners. Not sure if she was a psychic, she may have been. She correctly predicted who would get the final rose in latest season of the Bachelor, she also predicted the winner of the NCAA Final Four, and when asked who would win the NBA title she said…Philadelphia 76ers. So yeah, we’re done like dinner.

    Oh well, better to be eliminated in the first round before becoming emotionally invested.

    Go Leafs Go is next…but they’ll go to the golf course early too, like they’ve done every year for the last 55 years. I have zero faith in them.

    That leaves only our beloved Blue Jays to make us smile, who are actually looking quite good so far in this young season, and are predicted to go far this year. Baseball has always been my favorite sport, but I need to wait for the weather to warm up before I properly start watching. Need to get in the correct summer mood, and gloomy miserable weather outside doesn’t help.

  7. #257
    Senior Member sandydandy's Avatar
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    Well the Craptors are out...okay I shouldn't call them that, they made it competitive with their game 4 win, and surprise dominance in game 5 on the road. In tonight's game 6 however, they were only competitive for the first half. Sixers exploded (especially Maxey) in the 3rd quarter, and they left us in the dust in the 4th. So we're out but at least we made a series of it, unlike the Nets who were swept and humiliated like the chumps they are.

    I'll be rooting for a Heat vs Warriors final.

    As for us, it's now Go Leafs Go.

  8. #258
    Senior Member sandydandy's Avatar
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    NBA Finals settled last night, Warriors win their fourth title in 8 years. People hate them, people are annoyed by them, but I'm different. I enjoy witnessing excellence. Steph Curry is the finest player on the planet today. The organization was in the gutter for a couple of years after we beat them in 2019, and it's an amazing motivational story watching them claw all the way back from rock bottom to win another title. Coach Kerr even said that it was the most unlikely championship. Just an amazing representation of what the Warriors organization is all about: excellence and nothing less.

    I feel really good for Klay Thompson given the terrible injury he had to overcome, for which he had to take two years off. I especially feel good for Andrew Wiggins. He's a Toronto boy and even went to the same high school as me for grades 9 and 10. Can't help but feel very proud of the kid.

  9. #259
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    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...p-game-seattle

    I know Rugby isn't too popular in the USA, but today, a good friend of mine who I grew up with, guided New York to it's first Major League Rugby title today as head coach.
    Damn proud of him, he was a journeyman player himself, played in NZ, Japan, USA and England, was told at high school he'd become nothing and achieve nothing by some teachers.
    He'd coached the New York Old Blues to some success a few years back also, was part of the coaching team for the Japan Sunwolves Super 15 team and also was part of the USA Eagles coaching side a while back too.
    I did ask if he'd need an assistant, all I ask is a few hoodies and a decent pay 🤣

  10. #260
    Senior Member sandydandy's Avatar
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    Basketball's summer wheeling and dealing is starting to get very interesting with Kevin Durant declaring he wants out of Brooklyn. Our Raptors are said to have a good shot at landing him in a trade...which is also true for half a dozen other teams.

    It's a nice thought, honestly. Having the best player in the league playing for your team. Realistic however? Not so. The only real asset we have, and that Brooklyn will demand, is the rookie of the year Scottie Barnes, and I am very uncomfortable with the idea of giving him up...even for Durant. Barnes could become one of the most dominant players in the league in the coming years. The rest of the team is expendable in my eyes. Sadly for us, I don't think Brooklyn will even look at any trade proposition without Barnes included.

    Still, it's a fun thought. Durant was apparently a Raptors fan when he was younger, and dreamt of playing for us. Something that gets brought up in our local media every time he becomes a free agent, yet he doesn't even spit in our direction at those times. I'd very much love to see him fulfill that "boyhood dream" and become a Raptor, but not at the cost of...everything.

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