My father always said that one of his proudest accomplishments is that all three of his daughters know how to score a baseball game. I don’t know where it actually ranks among the monumental moments in his life, but it’s true — my two sisters and I do know how to score a baseball game.
My dad taught us at our first baseball game — Boston Red Sox versus Tampa Bay Devil Rays on August 9, 2004. One of my sisters and I shared a book, and I’d keep score for the visiting team while she scored the home team.
But like it has for many, keeping score has lost its allure for her.
For sometime now, I have been the sole scorekeeper in the family and I have a perfect scorecard of all the games I have attended. I have kept score at World Series games and opening days among countless “meaningless” regular seasons games.
To be frank, it’s my favorite part of going to a baseball game. So naturally when I made my first trip to see the Nationals play on Sunday I toted along my handy dandy scorebook.
But apparently, I am a dying breed; what was once a common practice has become a rarity. A couple of kids asked me what I was doing. The group of men sitting in the row behind me asked if I was a reporter because “no fan keeps score anymore.”
And perhaps that is why for the first time in my life, I struggled to keep a perfect card.
The announcer sped through the Milwaukee Brewers’ lineup. Before I even had the opportunity to write down the players’ position, he was on to the next. (Thankfully, I have a smartphone so I was able to look up the starting lineup, and my scorecard was saved.)
The trouble, however, did not stop there.
Plays that could have been scored multiple ways by the league’s official scorer were not properly announced. Pinch hitters and relief pitchers were not consistently introduced on the scoreboard.
The Nationals, like many teams in baseball, has become so distracted with entertaining the majority of the fans that they forgot to inform them.
By nature, baseball is not supposed to be filled with constant excitement. It has always traditionally been a couple of hours at the ballpark. Hopefully it’s a nice summer day and you’re with a group of friends.
In recent years, however, baseball has tried to make this relaxing day “exciting.” In game promotions, trivia, games, prizes. The attempts have been limitless and this commercialization of the game is baseball’s attempt to remain relevant.
To a certain extent it works.
The Nationals’ presidential race was cute, and like the rest of the crowd, I was amused. The Brewers do a similar gig with racing meat. And as a Red Sox fan, Fenway’s singing of “Sweet Caroline” in the middle of the eighth inning is one of my favorite traditions.
I support and encourage baseball’s attempt to increase popularity. But I do not believe that this should come at the cost of a fan’s ability to actually watch the game. Promoting the next bobble head game should not come at the cost of announcing whether the previous play was a wild pitch or a passed ball.
Along the same lines, a replay of a great catch should be played instead of a highlight of Justin Bieber lookalike Austin Mahone’s — am I the only one who doesn’t know who this is? — performance the previous night.
Baseball will never have the physicality of football and hockey. It will not consistently have the game winning shots and field goals like basketball and football. And it will not have penalty shootouts like hockey and soccer.
Sorry, Anthony Rendon, but the absence of these things does not make baseball, the sport you make a living playing, boring. As Jayson Werth’s walk-off double Sunday showed, baseball has the drama like other, more exciting sports. You just need to be a little more patient.
Carolyn Maguire is a rising junior in the College. Sideline Summer appears every other Friday at thehoya.com
