The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball

Rating:
Summary: An excellent gift
Review: If you enjoy keeping score at baseball games, this book has numerous ideas for variations that will add to your enjoyment, and help you explain to your friends why you work "so hard" at baseball games. It is not a technical book, though, and all who enjoy baseball will love having it to leaf through. I'm buying it as a gift for several baseball loving relatives.

Rating:
Summary: Baseball history as revealed in scorecards: but too short!
Review: If you enjoy keeping score when you go to a baseball game then you should read this book. The book follows the history of baseball scorecards from the 1800's through the present day by using photographs and reproductions of filled out scorecards from actual games including the longest minor league game in history, Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series, and Babe Ruth's famous "called shot" game in the 1932 (?) World series. Along the way you will learn various techniques for filling out your own scorecards and hear some interesting anecdotes about score keeping (such as the Yankees Phil Rizzuttos "WW" notation for wasn't watching!). All in all, the book is too short (~100 pages, mostly pictures) but nicely crafted and packaged. As a die hard scoring fan, I enjoyed the book and the vintage photos and reproductions, but I was expecting more for my money.

Rating:
Summary: Baseball history as revealed in scorecards: but too short!
Review: If you enjoy keeping score when you go to a baseball game then you should readthis book. The book follows the history of baseball scorecards from the 1800'sthrough the present day by using photographs and reproductions of filled out scorecards from actual games including the longest minor league game in history, Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series, and Babe Ruth's famous "called shot" game in the 1932 (?) World series. Along the way you will learn various techniques for filling out your own scorecards and hear some interesting anecdotes about score keeping (such as the Yankees Phil Rizzuttos "WW" notation for wasn't watching!). All in all, the book is too short (~100 pages, mostly pictures) but nicely crafted and packaged. As a die hard scoring fan, I enjoyed the book and the vintage photos and reproductions, but I was expecting more for my money.

Rating:
Summary: More nostalgia than instruction.
Review: The subject more difficult than it looks, mainly owing to the variety of scorecard layouts and symbols involved (all entirely subjective). But whatever the system, the scorecard should document the the game sufficiently to record the statistics of the players, and in this, the book fails. Not a word about fielding averages, e.g., but still fun.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read for every baseball/sports fan!
Review: There are so many things that make this book interesting and fun to read. Learn how the scoring of baseball evolved over the years, and how you can create your own scoring system. I now score every game I watch...pro, little league, tv, radio, at the park and on my sofa...keeps my head in the game and lets me experience the thought and strategies coaches go through sitting on the bench. The book helps make us part of the game, without stepping on the field.

Examples of the most historic games ever played are on these pages...snap shots of sports history. Books within a book...read each score card and experience the game as if it finished only moments ago.

Rating:
Summary: This book is one of a kind.
Review: This book is the only one I have found that describes in detail the technical aspects of baseball scorekeeping. It describes, as well as illustrates graphically, the main systems in use today in various parts of the U.S. It also gives tips on which systems work better in terms of accuracy while maintaining sufficient speed, which can be very important in a real game because things happen very quickly.

Rating:
Summary: This book is one of a kind.
Review: This book is the only one I have found that describes in detail the technical aspects of baseball scorekeeping. It describes, as well as illustrates graphically, the main systems in use today in various parts of the U.S. It also gives tips on which systems work better in terms of accuracy while maintaining sufficient speed, which can be very important in a real game because things happen very quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Chock full, but a little scattered
Review: This is probably the very best book out there about scoring, and aptly titled, because after I read this book I have become fascinated with scoring (maybe a little too much??). The author clearly loves the game and gives you lots of reasons to love it yourself.
The book's thoroughness is both its strength and weakness. There is only a small section that gives you a clear mandate on how to score. But the rest of the book is just plain chock full of suggestions and variations, from simple to being able to recreate the game pitch-by-pitch, but you have to read the whole book to get all of them. This also makes it hard to find something you remember from past readings. There is an index to help out, though.
Overall, a great book that truly embraces the joy of scoring, and has dozens of styles that you can choose to use when you score. He leaves it up to you to pick your own style.

Rating:
Summary: Chock full, but a little scattered
Review: This is probably the very best book out there about scoring, and aptly titled, because after I read this book I have become fascinated with scoring (maybe a little too much??). The author clearly loves the game and gives you lots of reasons to love it yourself.
The book's thoroughness is both its strength and weakness. There is only a small section that gives you a clear mandate on how to score. But the rest of the book is just plain chock full of suggestions and variations, from simple to being able to recreate the game pitch-by-pitch, but you have to read the whole book to get all of them. This also makes it hard to find something you remember from past readings. There is an index to help out, though.
Overall, a great book that truly embraces the joy of scoring, and has dozens of styles that you can choose to use when you score. He leaves it up to you to pick your own style.

Rating:
Summary: If you want to learn to keep score, don't buy this one.
Review: Unfortunately, I purchased this book looking for detailed instructions on how to keep score. While there is a section for this, it's very brief and did not suit my needs. 4 stars however, for the informative history of scorekeeping. Very interesting and entertaining to read.