Does the home book rule?

So what happens if you have occasion to run the kids stats for the year? Do you mix in your own stats for the games you covered, or do you use the official one?

 

That's kind of tricky. It would probably depend on how many of their games I covered and whether they have someone who knows what they're doing on the book.

 

We've gone around on this before, of course, but I land strongly on Rick's side of this case.

You don't want to be considered the "official" book. At some point, it's going to lead into some sort of controversy that a) you shouldn't have put yourself in position to deal with; and b) you're going to piss off factions that you need to be able to work with.

In my first year as a full-time writer, I let myself be called the "official" book for a sandlot game I was covering. It took me a year to smooth the fences over a hit/error call in a no-hitter.

If the home book has an idiot doing the stat-keeping, hey, that's the home team's problem. It's not really yours.

 

Use the home book for official stats, but if you're covering the game, then cover it. Mention the ball hit behind the second base bag was a hit in any park except Podunkville.
I've done soccer games where a girlfriend of a player kept the book. On call-ins, the player seemed like a decent set-up guy. Cover a couple of games and notice a pattern where, after the game, he's got two assists on goals he had no part in. Even took an assist away from a deserving kid. Told the coach I was changing the assists for the paper. Poor girl lost her job. If only her boyfriend scored more.
At a basketball game, visiting team kid makes two free throws early in the third quarter. Play continues for 55 seconds until the visiting coach raises a ruckus. Officials, coaches and scorekeepers huddle to discuss the score on the scoreboard (I stay out of it, just sit and listen to the radio guys talking about it). Home team scorer (an adult) had already told the visiting team scorer (a kid) that only one FT was made (the kid was busy texting and didn't mark the book right away). Visitors lost by a point. Made a great sidebar. Home team scorer wouldn't talk to me again, or let me copy lineups from her book. Oh, well.

 

so, what, you sit and copy the home book after the game? I keep my own book, do my interviews and then write it up.

look, I was there, I know what happened. I don't need to ask the coach to read off how many hits his team had - I counted em. our job is to tell readers what happened. so tell em what happened - not what the jv player put down in the 'official' book. you're there = your stats for the game are the right stats for the game.

 

Well, actually, it IS, because you're using the home team's book as the final authority, so if it's wrong, then you're wrong. And if someone calls you about an error (or multiple errors) in your story based on someone else's stats, especially if you know that it's far from an impartial source providing them, then they're going to wonder why YOU couldn't get it right. They probably aren't going to be placated by "well, we HAVE to use the home team's book."

You go with the best information you have. If you're taking a call-in, you don't really have a lot of options, even if you know the scorer isn't any good or cooks the numbers to make his or her team or child look good. If you're there, in most cases you SHOULD be the best authority. At least for the purposes of providing stats for the newspaper.

I'm not going to call a three-error play a grand slam just because the home team scorekeeper thinks every time one of their players gets on base, it's a hit.

 

You go with the best information you have. That's probably the most rational advice I've seen on this thread.

I've seen home books that DIDN'T EVEN ADD UP TO THE RIGHT SCORE. And I'm supposed to use these, well, just because?

Sorry, no thank you.

 

If I'm there, I go with what's in my book. If I'm not sure about a play, I check with the home book.

 

8 or 9 years ago I covered a high school baseball game. Local home team's kid is throwing a no-hitter. Gets into the 6th. Batter from visiting team belts a weedwhacker just to the right of a left-handed 1st baseman in one hop and into right field. Scorched the shit out of the ball, and unless that high school 1st baseman was a Major League All Star, he wasn't getting to that grounder to make a play.

The home book called it an error. I marked it as a single. It was the only hit the visiting team had, so I wrote the gamer saying local kid tossed a 1-hitter. Local school calls the next day pissed off, of course, because they said their kid had a no-hitter. We went round and round over the disputed play and had to agree to disagree.

I was really close to the pitcher in question, and next time I saw him I explained my stance, and he said he understood and respected my decision and didn't really care even though he said the guy who keeps the home book was still pissed at me for not writing it as a no-hitter in the paper.

Bottom line is, some people can keep legitimate score of a game, and some people can't. When I covered games, be it baseball or football or basketball, I kept my stats and went by them because I hardly ever missed a thing when it came to stats.

 

Well, like I said, *if* I have access to the official book, I'll go with it. But I don't have to go looking for it if I don't want it.

But why on earth would anyone report an official no-hitter as a one-hitter? What's next, do you report a loss as a win because you think the refs got it wrong? Do you run a big headline "Local Team Wins Championship" because the refs counted a shot that actually went off after the buzzer and then have everyone in town wonder why they aren't bringing in a trophy?

You can't equate a judgment call, such as hit or error, with adding up the wrong score. No matter how big of a macho "I Know Baseball" guy you want to be, there is a lot of gray area there.

Fortunately, the only baseball team I cover regularly has a good scorekeeper (the A.D.) who will flash on the scoreboard if it's a hit or an error. He's actually a lot harsher with errors on both sides than I would be.

 

Rick, which example were you referring to with:

 

Your example of calling an official no-hitter a one-hitter. I'm sorry, but I don't see how that's not lying in the newspaper.