NEW RULES FOR SCORING A GAME: A MODEST PROPOSAL

Official scorers too often come to their task with the notion of giving the "poor hitter" a "break." The old bromide that "the most difficult task in sports is to hit a moving round ball with a cylindrical bat" is the start of an admission of prejudice toward the hitter and against the pitcher. The adoption of the few adjustments to our methods that I suggest here would go a long way toward simplifying official scoring and evening the favoritism toward the batter that now abounds.

Let us start the discussion by asking what we expect from the fielders? We expect an accurate anticipation of where a ball is going as it comes off the bat, a wholehearted attempt to catch the ball, and the skill to get to balls quickly and make accurate throws to bases. This is what you get from players such as Phil Ciccone at shortstop and Brian Hernandez in the outfield. For every fine fielder, there are a dozen inadequate ones, who I won't embarrass by naming (except to include myself among the bunglers), who are as likely to botch a play as to make one. If Ciccone and Hernandez can do this, why not everyone else? The answer is a lack of competence. Unfortunately, official scorers get so used to this special olympics standard of play that if any ball is not hit directly at a player no error is charged and a "hit" is gleefully awarded to the "poor hitter." And what of the pitcher? No one cares. Why? Because the "poor batters" and the truly poor fielders are the same actors in different roles, an effective conspiracy of the inadequate" is formed.

This conspiracy is aided by a lack of any real rules in official scoring. All sorts of wrong opinions and urban legends abound -"it can't be an error unless it hits a glove," "it can't be an error if the fielder doesn't see the ball," "it can't be an error if the fielder made a good play to get to the ball but threw it away," etc.

The wisest instruction for an official scorer is to clear your head of all this and adopt the following few sensible rules...

A ball hit in a largely upward trajectory ( a "pop-up" or lazy fly ball) should be caught. An adequate fielder should, given the "hang time" he has, get under virtually any ball on the field of play. in practice, there are several mistakes by fielders which prevent these balls from being caught. Bad jump, lack of effort and lack of skills are three that, quite obviously, are the responsibility of the fielder. In addition, sometimes balls will "fall in" due to miscommunication between fielders and the eager scorekeeper jots down "1B." To my mind, this is the most egregious type of error. Both fielders are able to get to the ball, but the two are unable to simply communicate with each other. If these guys were traffic controllers they would be charged with more than an error. Likewise, "weather conditions" are often used as an excuse to award a "hit." What a joke. We scold toddlers for not wearing their mittens but forgive grown men for not anticipating a gust of wind or a ray of sunshine. Again, the error is the worse for being a mental one.

Scoring Rule #1: All fly-balls (not line-drives) landing in the field of play shall be errors on the nearest fielder.

The groundball, like the fly ball,is, most often, a mistake by the batter. Almost all the time, the batter is attempting to hit a line drive, and failing. Most of these groundballs are fielded and, if not botched, become outs. Some, by chance, are hit between infielders. It is the custom to award the batter a "hit" for these "tweeners." It is my opinion that the infielders are responsible for fielding nearly all groundballs. Occasionally, a batter will try to hit a groundball through an opening in the infield or to the right side to advance a runner or bunt ball into a no-man's-land area of the field. An exception should be made for these "intentional" groundballs. In order to prove the groundball is intentional, the hitter should be required to privately inform the umpire of his intention to hit the ball on the ground. If the batter should succeed in hitting this "called" pitch on the ground, whatever the result, the batter would not be charged with a hit or an at-bat. Instead, he would be credited with a "called groundball" which is much like a "sacrifice" in that it does not effect his batting average. However, if the batter should on the "called" pitch hit a line-drive, a flyball or strike-out he would be charged an at-bat and no no hit, no matter what the result.

Scoring Rule #2: All groundballs resulting in a safety at first shall be charged as errors on the nearest infielder. Exception: If a batter informs the umpire that he is trying for a groundball and hits the ball on the ground a "called groundball" will be awarded the batter and no time at-bat charged or hit awarder. If the batter does not hit a groundball, he will be charged with an at-bat and no hit, no matter the result.

This leaves the line-drive. If a batter hits a line-drive and it hits the glove or any part of the fielder on the fly and the runner gets safely to first base an error should be charged.

Scoring Rule #3: If a line-drive gets through the infield, untouched, and lands untouched, a hit shall be granted. And congratulations to the hitter, for the hit is well-deserved.

I believe if these few modest changes are made in official scoring rules, we would see batting averages and earned run averages more in line with the major league numbers.

While my logic seems unassailable, are there any other opinions?