The Official Rules of Baseball Illustrated
Page 28
9.00: The Official Scorer
9.01 Official Scorer (General Rules)
(a) The Office of the Commissioner, with respect to Major League games, and the Minor League President, with respect to Minor League games, shall appoint an official scorer for each league championship, post-season or all-star game. The official scorer shall observe the game from a position in the press box. The official scorer shall have sole authority to make all decisions concerning application of Rule 9 that involve judgment, such as whether a batter’s advance to first base is the result of a hit or an error. The official scorer shall communicate such decisions to the press box and broadcasting booths by hand signals or over the press box loudspeaker system and shall advise the public address announcer of such decisions, if requested. Club officials and players are prohibited from communicating with the official scorer regarding any such decisions . . .
League presidents were first required by rule to appoint official scorers in 1957. Now the job is in the hands of the commissioner’s office since there are no more league presidents, even though the rule book continues to make frequent reference to them. Not until 1950 was it even stated in the rule book that an official scorer was an accredited representative of the league, although by then he had been long recognized as such. The pay for MLB official scorers in 1950 is unknown, but nowadays the position pays $180 per game. Even though the job on a daily basis can be so time consuming that it sometimes pays less than the minimum wage per hour spent, some official scorers love their work so much they would do it for free.
For many years, teams customarily awarded official scorers’ jobs to favored sportswriters who could use the extra money the assignment paid. In the nineteenth century, a club was not required to divulge the identity of its official scorer. It was felt that shrouding the position in secrecy would protect the scorer from players and fans who might otherwise attack or subvert his decisions. From 1882 to 1891, the Chicago White Stockings kept the name of their official scorer a complete mystery. Later it emerged that Elisa Green Williams (the mother of the club’s future treasurer C. G. Green), who signed her scoresheets as E. G. Williams, had been awarding hits and errors in all the team’s home games. Williams would sit primly between two players’ wives, seemingly no more than a spectator, although secretly she was keeping careful score of every play. After each game her son would mail her scoresheets to the National League office, unaware of what the envelope contained.
9.01 (b) (1)
In all cases, the official scorer shall not make a scoring decision that is in conflict with Rule 9 or any other Official Baseball Rule. The official scorer shall conform strictly to the rules of scoring set forth in this Rule 9. The official scorer shall not make any decision that conflicts with an umpire’s decision. The official scorer shall have authority to rule on any point not specifically covered in these rules. The Office of the Commissioner, with respect to Major League scorers, and the League President, with respect to Minor League scorers shall order changed any decision of an official scorer that contradicts the rules of scoring set forth in this Rule 9 and shall take whatever remedial actions as may be necessary to correct any statistics that need correction as a result of such mistaken scoring decision.
Given the fact that their job was a sinecure and subject to the whims of the club that paid them, official scores—particularly in the nineteenth century—were frequently accused of favoring home team players in their rulings. Here is what one reporter had to say about Baltimore Orioles outfielder Willie Keeler’s march to the National League batting crown in 1897:
John Heydler, who is one of the best known baseball scribes in the business, says exception should be taken to this over generous scoring and that Keeler’s figure of .432 will not agree with any private accounts. [Second baseman] Frank Houseman of St. Louis also has objections to Baltimore scoring methods. He says: “Down in Baltimore, one day, Keeler sent two flies to Lally [left fielder Dan Lally of St. Louis], who muffed both of them. Then he hit to Hartman [St. Louis third baseman Fred Hartman] and the latter fumbled and then threw wild. Then Keeler made a good single. The next morning four hits appeared to Keeler’s credit in the Baltimore papers. Talk about Cleveland stuffing Burkett’s average, why, they are not in it with the oyster scribes of Baltimore.”
Jimmy Ryan, considered by this author to be the true 1888 National League batting leader. Had he received his due award he would have been its first winner to bat right and throw left.
Keeler’s batting average was later reduced to .424 when discrepancies were discovered in his hit and at bat totals. Yet to be revised are the suspect final averages of several other purported batting title winners of Keeler’s time. A particularly murky season is 1888, when Chicago first baseman Cap Anson was crowned the National League’s leading hitter with a .344 average, even though this author’s calculations indicate that he hit only .317 and the bat title properly belonged to Anson’s teammate, outfielder Jimmy Ryan, with a .328 mark. Ryan appears never to have called for an investigation, but a good deal of enmity built up between him and his player-manager in the years following 1888, until Anson finally left Chicago after the 1897 season.
The most famous person born in Marshalltown, Iowa, Cap Anson, was still playing major league baseball at age 45. Actress Jean Seberg, arguably the second most famous person born in Marshalltown, was dead at age 40.
9.01 (3)
If the game is protested or suspended, the official scorer shall make a note of the exact situation at the time of the protest or suspension, including the score, the number of outs, the position of any runners, the ball-and-strike count on the batter, the lineups of both teams and the players who have been removed from the game for each team.
Rule 9.01 (b) (3) Comment: It is important that a suspended game resume with exactly the same situation as existed at the time of suspension. If a protested game is ordered replayed from the point of protest, the game must be resumed with exactly the situation that existed just before the protested play
Protested games have been part of major-league baseball since its inception, but the plethora of suspended games are a relatively recent development and require an official scorer to practice undue diligence since the rosters for many teams change almost daily. It is not uncommon for a player on one team in a suspended game to be in the uniform of the opposition when the game is resumed, and in some instances the official scorer may not be the same. This makes it extremely important that the notes of the original official scorer be thoroughly digested before a suspended game is resumed. Otherwise it is entirely possible that a player on Team A that left the game prior to its suspension might illegally participate in its resumption for Team B. But if that player on Team A is still in the game at the time it is suspended, he is available to play for Team B if he has joined it in the interim.
9.02 Official Scorer Report
The official score report prepared by the official scorer shall be in a form prescribed by the league and shall include:
The following records for each batter and runner:
There are 18 different batters’ and runners’ statistics that need to be in the report, ranging from (1) number of times batted, except for the four instances when no time at bat is charged—sacrifice hits, walks, hit by pitches, awarded first base via interference or obstruction—to (18) number of times caught stealing. In addition, at various junctures in history, the official scorer has also been saddled with the following duties:
During the 1980s, an official scorer was also required to furnish his league’s office with the name of the player who collected the game-winning RBI in each contest. The experimental category lasted just nine seasons before it was given a quiet burial in 1989. At that, it endured much longer and was much better received by the baseball public than several other experimental categories over the years. The most interesting one may have been an official scorer’s nightmare that was labeled “Total Bases Run.” This invention survived all of one season: 1880. That yea
r, National League official scorers were ordered to input the number of bases each player touched safely in their game reports. The totals were then computed to determine the Total Bases run champion for the season. Since the category had only a one-year life span, there was only one champion. The winner with 501 bases safely touched was Abner Dalrymple of the Chicago White Stockings, the owner of many other obscure records.
During the National League’s inaugural season of 1876, a batter was socked with a turn at bat every time he walked. Punished most by the rule was free pass leader and batting champion Ross Barnes, who collected 20 walks and thus 20 extra times at bat. The rule was rescinded in 1877, but then resurrected ten years later. The upside in 1887, however, was that each walk was also scored as a hit. This bonus swelled batting averages to astronomical proportions. Tip O’Neill topped the American Association with a .492 mark and Cap Anson’s .421 figure paced the National League.
In 1968, the Special Baseball Records Committee voted to treat a base on balls as neither a hit nor a time at bat, and made their judgment retroactive to 1876. This ruling meant statisticians had to recalculate batting averages for both the 1876 and 1887 seasons after bases on balls were deducted from the at-bat totals for each player. Averages jumped in the former year, though not a lot because there were very few walks issued in the 1870s; Barnes, who stood to gain the most, went from .404 to .429. But in the 1887 season, averages were shaved in some cases as much as 60 or 70 points. Tip O’Neill’s .492 mark (actually .485 when correctly calculated), for one, dropped to .435.
Many baseball historians are still upset by the committee’s 1968 ruling, believing that it affects the historical integrity of the game to act as if today’s rules are better than those of the past. Dennis Bingham convincingly argues that what we want from the past, above all, is an accurate account of what happened, and that by allowing a “special committee” to change a scoring rule of the past, we have in a very real sense changed what occurred. A reasonable counter to Bingham’s argument is that walks should not be accepted as hits (as per 1887) and as times at bat without being hits (as per 1876) because the rules in each case were in existence for only a single aberrant season and consequently were not a significant part of the evolutionary process of the game. A second counter is that the purist argument also can mislead as to what actually occurred because if statistical achievements were awarded in many cases where they would now not be, using pre-1898 stats vis-à-vis astronomical stolen base totals, for example, induces modern-day fans to believe something extraordinary happened that really did not. In 1887, for one, six players stole more than 100 bases—an extraordinary number. But if today’s stolen base rule had governed that year, it is doubtful that most of them would have swiped even half as many.
A further point of interest: Had the 1887 walks rule been in effect in 2004, Barry Bonds would have batted a record .607.
9.02 (b)
The following records for each fielder:
There are five: putouts, assists, errors, double plays and triple plays participated in.
(c) The following records for each pitcher:
There are 15 pitcher records, ranging from number of innings pitched to number of balks committed. In addition, the official scorer is responsible for entering the names of the winning and losing pitchers, the names of the pitchers on both teams starting and finishing the game, the name of the pitcher to be credited with a save (if any), the number of passed balls for all catchers in the game, and the names of players participating in each double and triple play. Time was—and not that long ago—when MLB came up with the splendid idea of rounding off innings pitched so that 200 innings became 200 and 200⅔ became 201. It soon went the way of GWH (game-winning hits), but at least GWH, though eventually regarded as a meaningless stat because the hit too often was something like a sacrifice fly in the first inning of a 12–0 game, did not demand retroactive record alterations since it was only in existence a short time. Rounding off innings pitched required changing the career stats for many pitchers in the game during the time it was in existence and, worse yet, created ersatz ERA leaders. A case in point is the 1981 strike season. To qualify for the ERA crown in 1981, a pitcher had to pitch one inning for each of his team’s games played. Normally this would mean 162 innings, but the strike in 1981 had reduced each team’s game totals to just over 100. The winner today would have been Sammy Stewart of Baltimore, with an ERA of 2.324 in 112⅓ innings pitched. Finishing second would have been Steve McCatty of the Oakland A’s, whose ERA was 2.327 in 185⅔ innings pitched. But the rounding of innings pitched rule then in effect declared McCatty the official leader. Stewart’s 112⅓ innings total was rounded down to 112, while McCatty’s 185⅔ total rounded up to 186. McCatty got credit for an extra third of an inning without allowing a run, and Stewart lost a third of a scoreless inning he had actually pitched. That made McCatty’s final ERA 2.32 and Stewart’s 2.33. The findings were appealed, but the rules committee of the day upheld the result because it conformed to the established practice. The rule was changed the next year, probably principally due to this injustice, and fractions of innings were no longer rounded up or down. Hence why McCatty is still considered the AL ERA champ in 1981, but at least once source, Baseball-Reference.com, awards the crown to yet a third pitcher: Dave Righetti of the Yankees, because Righetti’s 2.05 ERA was significantly lower than Stewart’s or McCatty’s, even though Righetti worked just 105⅓ innings, short of the number required by rule 9.22 (b) since the Yankees played 107 games. So go figure.
Even then, the official scorer’s task is not complete. He or she still has to account for the names of batters who hit home runs with the bases full, along with six other stats. The final two are the length of the game, “with delays deducted for weather, light failure, or technological failure not related to game action” but not for the time spent attending to an injured player, umpire, manager, or coach. And lastly, “Official attendance, as provided by the home club.” But his or her job is still not done, especially if there are extenuating circumstances like the game at hand being either forfeited or officially protested or suspended—or, in rare instances, he or she needs to exercise an official scorer’s authority to rule on any point not specifically covered in the scorer’s rules.
The time required to play a game has always been included in major- league box scores, but a century ago no one paid much attention to how long a game took to play, and official scorers were not compelled to be precise. Most rounded off the time of a game, usually to the nearest five minutes. A game that took an hour and eight minutes would thus be recorded as having lasted an hour and ten minutes. Games, in any event, that took longer than an hour and a half generally had frequent interruptions for arguments with umpires.
During the 1887 season, when bases on balls were counted as hits and many players went up to bat looking for walks, causing some games to drag on for over two hours, Sporting Life found the development so revolting that it predicted “the public will call a halt (to the new rule) by refusing to attend games.” When club owners also began noticing that fans were leaving their parks in the seventh or eighth inning, they quickly took heed. The new rule was scrapped after only a one-season trial, and the average time of a game again fell to well under two hours.
9.03 Official Score Report (Additional Rules)
And there is yet more to the report for each game—a draconian amount in all. One can only pity an official scorer new to the job who has signed up for it on the assumption it demands little more input than what appears in each game’s box score. About the only task of substance that is left for someone other than the official scorer to provide for a major league game is a play-by-play account of it. The reader is encouraged to compare the job description given for today’s official scorers as contrasted with what it must have been as late as the early 1900s when RBIs did not yet exist, strikeouts and sacrifice hits were often not kept track of, the rules for ERA and assigning pitchers’ wins and losses were still
ill defined, and no particular effort was devoted to Rule 9.03 (c) How to Prove a Box Score, which states: “A box score shall balance (or is proven) when the total of the team’s times at bat, bases on balls received, hit batters, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies and batters awarded first base because of interference or obstruction equals the total of that team’s runs, players left on base and the opposing team’s putouts.”
9.03 (a)
In compiling the official score report, the official scorer shall list each player’s name and fielding position, or positions, in the order in which the player batted, or would have batted if the game ended before the player came to bat
9.03 (a) Comment: When a player does not exchange positions with another fielder but is merely placed in a different spot for a particular batter (for example, if a second baseman goes to the outfield to form a four-man outfield, or if a third baseman moves to a position between the shortstop and second baseman), the official scorer should not list this as a new position.
These last examples to many modern fans may seem more like something that would occur in a softball game than a baseball game, but they were chosen for good reason. Against Ernie Lombardi, a catcher who was agonizingly slow and hit murderous top-spin shots that could fell an elephant, teams often played their middle infielders back on the outfield grass, technically creating four- and sometimes even five-man outfields. It was felt that even at that distance a ball Lombardi hit would get to a fielder so fast that there would still be time to retire the slow-footed slugger.
The shift, devised in 1946 by Cleveland player-manager Lou Boudreau to combat Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, packed three infielders on the right side of the diamond and left only third baseman Ken Keltner to the left of second base. However, Boudreau was not the inventor of the “Williams Shift.” A similar alignment had been used by managers as far back as 1922 against lefty pull hitters Cy Williams of the Philadelphia Phillies and Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns, both of whom thrived on the short right-field porches in their home parks.