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

by Paul Dickson

Book Overview

Baseball has no other book like this. In The Joy of Keeping Score , Paul Dickson celebrates one of the most unusual traditions in all of sports--the baseball scorecard. To Dickson and to fans... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802715702
• ISBN13: 9780802715708
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Walker & Company
• Length: 117 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.7" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

I really like it. It's more historical and nostalgic than a practical guide. It's also a lot shorter than I thought. A real quick read. But I'm also using it as a scoring guide, the abbreviations anyways.

Comprehensive and Fun

Author Paul Dickson's love of baseball flows from every page of this delightful little book. It's not a how-to book, but rather an appreciation of the art form of scoring a baseball game. It includes a comprehesive list of abbreviations used in scoring, many anecdotes, and photos of scorecards from famous games.

Wonderful little gem.

I rarely take the time to write reviews here but when I read something this enjoyable, I have to make time. Baseball, as the author points out, is the only sport(oxymoronicly)in which the spectator can participate -- by scoring. While the title sounds trite, it couldn't be more apt. In short this is not a "how to", it is a "why to". And the answer is that it is such inscrutable fun. Loved it.

This book is one of a kind.

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.

Excellent read for every baseball/sports fan!

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.