Does the home book rule?

Had an issue tonight with a softball score. One coach called in, the home team, with her team having 0 runs, 4 hits, 13 errors and the road team with 8 runs 5 hits 1 error. Then the road coach emailed the box and his email gave the home team as having 0 runs, 4 hits, 5 errors and his team having 8 runs, 11 hits and 1 error. Which should I have used? I always thought the home book was the official, just double-checking to make sure I went with the proper one.

 

Wow, that's a huge disparity. I'm not sure I've ever seen it that bad before.

As far as I know, though, yes, the home book is the official one.

 

Good God, the home team gave themselves 13 errors? You couldn't/wouldn't make that up.

Yeah, unless there's a pattern of abuse, I would say the home book always rules.

 

Home book is official. Not always correct, but official.

 

No way. If I cover a game, I go by my book. There are way too many homer scorekeepers who will score anything put in play as a hit.

 

Have run into this far too often with parents keeping the score book and ruling things one way just so it doesn't appear their precious darling was the cause for the loss.

 

this is the way to do it at high school games. but on call-in games, yeah, home book.

 

The worst was when the visiting team had scored a no-hitter for its pitcher with a fielding error. And the home team scored the game with one hit for them. Who do you go with?

We had a staff conference and went with the home team, taking away some poor kid's no-hitter. These are things I hate about baseball/softball.

When I'm covering a game, I will usually consult with whomever is the home team's scorer on questionable hits/errors. I always hated being official scorer (even when I was a college SID). If it ever came to a huge issue such as a no-hitter, I would consult with both team's scorers to reach a consensus everyone could live with.

 

really? and you've covered high school? i'd say huge disparities at that level are the norm, not the exception.

 

Did you even read the original post? The part where he said this was a call-in? He didn't cover the game personally, meaning he doesn't have his own book.

Reading comprehension is your friend.

 

I don't care if it's a homer scorekeeper or not, if I have access to the official book, that's what I'm going with. Would you cover an NFL game and start changing the stats if you thought the officials were a little off? Would you report in a story that George Kisler has the modern-day hitting streak record, because DiMaggio got some friendly scoring in the middle and Pete Rose is Pete Rose?

 

When it comes to high school sports -- especially spring sports, it seems -- there are always discrepancies. I'm not sure if there is an "official" book at these games. Our rule of thumb is, keep your own book if you're covering live and go by that (you might want to ask coaches after the game about some plays). As for call-ins, if both teams' coaches/mangers call in, we often go with their respective team's stats and combine them. If one team says it had three hits, and the other team said its pitcher threw a no-hitter, well, you might have to make an extra phone call and solve the mystery.