Number 4

At-Bats, Runs, Hits...Nope!

Don't get me wrong...I've read plenty of baseball box scores in my day. I know they put the columns in this order: At-Bats, Runs, Hits. Usually they'll also add RBI, or the shorter version, BI. If it's from the Sporting News, you'll probably see more headings...P.O., A., E. Hey- you got the time to type that stuff, it's okay with me. By the way, do they even print out the Sporting News any more? Haven't seen it in a while. Oh well. Anyway, I was saying that apparently there is a certain order that the headings on a box score are supposed to be listed. This is something I don't get. Never have. Long ago, running a PBM league using EI, a certain Mr. Lazlo from Patterson, New Jersey wrote:

"Dear Mr. Vasquez

Why do you send out batting stats with the headings 'AB H R' instead of the traditional 'AB R H?' Are you trying to confuse us? Could this have been a typo on your part? It doesn't make sense to me. Why would you do this?"

Well, Mr. Lazlo, you sure ask a lot of questions for someone from New Jersey, let me tell you...

I never really kept any kind of baseball stats until I began playing EI. I did have a crude, lewd and rude method when I was a kid playing a card baseball game that came in a box of cereal or Pop-Tarts (mmmm...Pop-Tarts), but not knowing the formulae for batting average and ERA, I just sort of made stuff up. I don't remember writing out anything that came close to stats, apart from the player's name, "batting average," and maybe at-bats and hits. Well, ya gotta start somewhere!

The truth to all this madness regarding the order of my headings comes from my incredulity at why "official" baseball batting stats use the 'AB R H' format. Whenever I would read the newspaper, or Street and Smith's, or The Sporting News, I would get crossed up with seeing the runs in the first column to the right of the AB column. "What is this?" I would ask over and over. "The guy's got x amount of at-bats and x amount of hits, therefore making his average .xxx. The hell do runs have to do with it?" Yep...I was furious, and decided on the spot that I would not allow myself to be confused by so much chin music. In my world, a player's batting average is determined by his at-bats and hits (hey- just like it is in the real world!). Only, unlike the format of batting stats you see in the real world, I would set things up so it would make more sense to me. Besides, if it's important to me, then it must be important to everyone! Let's go look at an EI scoresheet...

This is from the 5Y League, season V. Man, don't you love the old EI scoresheet? See? Even this one has the headings in the traditional style, 'AB R H.' Let's see...Kendall's got the only hit for Sabaku. Never did like that guy, but boy, could he hit and could he run! Aw, he's probably a nice guy...So, he is 1 for 4. When this ends up in the sheet where I compile the game stats, it goes down as:

AB  H  R
4   1  0

Actually, it looks a little messier, as it's in my "writing," and consists of hash-marks under each column. I hope you get the picture 'cause this time I'm not providing one...After thirty five games, all these hash marks get added up and tossed into a spreadsheet, and before you can read a novel, I'm done with the stats, and they are in the format I like. "Henrich is 85 for 282, and he's hitting .301"...This I understand. I can now move to the next column to see how many runs he's scored this season. "56? Very interesting. Must have Dimaggio batting behind him." Yep...We love it!

Not really in the same realm of thought, but way up there because it comes from my brain, is the format I use for the headings when I do the pitching stats. For the method I use, you all have EI to thank, 'cause I ripped it straight off of their scoresheet:

Admittedly, my format starts off like this: G GS CG ShO, then it flies like a sharply hit line drive double to the gap in right to the headings you see above: W L Sv IP ER HA K BB. Thanks EI!