One of the oldest traditions for major league baseball fans is keeping score with a baseball scorecard. Although the new baseball stadiums come with the hi-tech plasma and LCD big screens, there is nothing that can replace that old tradition of keeping score in a baseball game.
I learned early in life how to keep score in baseball. I always wanted to do it with my dad but we were poor and he worked all the time. When I was 13 years old I got a chance to see my first major league baseball game - it was the Yankees versus the Orioles. I had just enough money for a bag of peanuts and a baseball program. I sat the entire game keeping score in the baseball scorecard that came inside the Program. Everytime I smell fresh roasted peanuts it brings me back to that day!
Over the years I've become kind of an expert on baseball scoring and baseball statistics. I have even taught some of my friends how to score baseball. Then just last year I took my 11 year old son to a Yankee game. I bought a bag of peanuts, a box of cracker jacks and a baseball program for the baseball scorecard inside. While my son munched on the snacks I entered the lineup and reminisced about that day 35 years ago.
Needless to say my son was very curious about how to score baseball. He grew frustrated that he didn't understand how to do it. That's when it hit me!
I decided right there, I would write a tutorial on how to keep score in baseball. A step-by-step baseball scoring guide that my son could learn on his own, at his own pace. So I began my mission.
I guess it took me about two weeks to complete my baseball scoring tutorial. I handed it to Bobby and said "here you go, now you cna learn all about how to score baseball?". He ran into his room and read it cover to cover in one day. In less than one week of using the baseball tutorial and keeping score of the Yankees game, he had it down pat.
Needless to say, keeping score at baseball has become his passion. He keeps score of the Yankee games, he keeps the score for his youth baseball team and he is training to become an official scorer for the younger baseball league. He freaked out when he learned he would get paid for doing it.
I never realized that by taking time to write a
baseball scoring tutorial and sharing it with my son, that it would make us closer than ever. Keeping score in baseball is a passion that my son and I will share for a long, long time.
I'm starting a tradition that will create many treasured memories. And when he gets older, maybe he'll want to pass on the passion to his kids. Great stuff!!