1B, E9, +++: The Legend

Got a good-natured email from a parent this week of one of our student-athletes discussing scorekeeping of the baseball/softball variety. Our email correspondence was constructive and cordial, and believe me after eight years of doing this I appreciate those kinds of conversations.

The general subject of scorekeeping, however, takes me back a few years. Sometimes the most unpopular person in the ballpark isn't the umpire or the opposing coach for that matter.

It's the guy upstairs having to make the call on whether a play should be scored a hit, an error, a passed ball, a wild pitch, a sacrifice, etc. I request armored glass in the press box sometimes.

In the major leagues scorekeepers can ultimately determine whether or not a guy hits .300 or .290. Think about it -- a call here or there on a play, and it could cost a player millions. I don't think there are many professional scorekeepers pulling down six-figures, so I don't think there's much sympathy involved in the everyday business of calling it a 4-3, a 1b-4 or an E-4.

But at the college level -- and more specifically, here at ETBU -- it's not that easy. The student-athletes have a lot on their plate already without having to worry about whether or not the scorekeeper is having a bad day and wants to be hard-nosed. Through the years here as S.ID. I've had my moments of indecision, and have incurred the wrath of home folks and visitors alike.

Softball scoring actually gives me a bit of break in that no one really knows what I score on a certain play until seeing it in the box score online. At Woods Field, for baseball, things get a little dicier because the scoreboard keeps track of hits and errors, so everyone in the ballpark knows what's been called. I've developed the technique there of waiting a few seconds, throwing it up on the board then ducking my head so no one can look into my eyes and see the indecision. And there are plenty of looks my way in most of those situations.

Ironically, however, my most infamous moment of scorekeeping peril at ETBU did occur down at Taylor Field. It was 2004, and our softball team was ranked No. 1 late in the year and cruising toward a fifth straight ASC title. As a bit of commentary on that particular team, this conference will be hard-pressed to come up with a better team. I haven't seen one in the ASC before, or since, that 2004 ETBU bunch that won 41 games.

Anyway, the Lady Tigers that season were chasing the national D-III home run mark of 48. Allison Ratcliff, now coaching at Waskom and who is still the ASC's career home run leader, was on her way to 15 bombs that season and we had a handful of others who finished with career highs in homers. With all that thunder in the lineup, ETBU was still blessed with the type of hitters everyone needs to be successful -- a great leadoff hitter in Tonya Minor, and a very solid and pesky bottom of the order.

That group included senior second baseman Jenny Doyal. Jenny has to be regarded as perhaps the best second baseman in Lady Tiger history overall, especially defensively. She also had 150 hits in her four years and had 37 stolen bases to currently rank fifth on the Lady Tiger all-time list. A good, solid, dependable infielder who could be a pest to opposing pitchers.

But Jenny had never hit a home run in her career. Nothing wrong with that, due to her role and the type of hitter she was. But everyone knew the home run record was fast approaching late in the year, and Jenny stepped to the plate in a blowout doubleheader one night at Taylor Field.

Now, most scoring mistakes, I have to admit, come from the fact of me simply not seeing the play. When you are doing public address, scorekeeping, working the scoreboard, and also finding the appropriate music to play in the next half-inning -- your eyes will sometimes play tricks on you. But I was fully alert and watching this particular play unfold -- I would take the oath on that.

Jenny ripped a patented line drive to right field that landed a few feet in front of the right fielder. And then -- with my own two eyes -- I saw the ball scoot under the glove and between the legs of the defender and roll to the fence.

No doubt Jenny was going to score. I don't even remember if there was a need to slide at the plate. And without any hesitation, I typed in the following as the offical scoring on the play:

1b 9 E9 +++

In layman's terms, here's how you read that scoring: Single to right, error on the right fielder, runner advances three bases. A single and a three-base error. The ball went right at the girl and skipped under her glove to the rightfield wall for crying out loud...!

I have to admit that most calls and scoring are purely opinion. The NCAA scorekeeper's manual only states that a play should be scored a hit or an error based on whether or not the play was routine. That's about as vague as you can get. What is routine for one player isn't so routine for another, so what do you call "routine?" I take it to mean if the defender has to make a more-than-average effort to make a play, you should always give the hitter the benefit of the doubt as well as the fielder. Don't punish a defender simply because his or her range isn't as great as the next guy or gal.

But a ball hit directly to an outfielder, takes a couple of hops and scoots underneath the glove, that's a no-brainer in my opinion. It was that night -- and it still is today.

I took all kinds of grief over that one play, and I still am reminded of it to this day. Guess what? The '04 team ended up one home run short of tying the national record. I was accused of sabotaging the record because of that one call.

The ribbing and the accusations have become more of a joke and all done in fairly good-natured fashion as the years have gone by, but I am still reminded of that one play whenever I see anyone from that special 2004 group. Coach Janae Schlabs-Shirley, in her first year as head coach of the Lady Tigers this season, was the starting left-fielder on that '04 team and will swear to me that the outfielder that night never got anywhere near the ball, that it "sliced" away from her and into the corner. In that case, due to a bad bounce away from the fielder, I could easily have scored that an inside-the-park...

No. Not in a million years, no matter how much I enjoyed and liked that team and wanted them to get that record.

I admit I will always try to defer to the home team on scoring decisions that are too close to call, but that was about as cut-and-dried a call as I've ever had to make in eight years. And that was one of my favorite groups of student-athletes to be around as any in my time here at ETBU. That was a special group of young ladies and they gave our fans and students a lot to be proud of and a lot of excitement that year, not to mention putting ETBU on the national stage as the top-ranked team in the nation.

But sorry, ladies. I call 'em like I see 'em. The bad thing now is that I don't see as well as I used to, so... I guess I'll just request more bulletproof glass every year.