EA

Scorekeeping is certainly an objective art, since it’s each individual scorekeeper’s decision whether a play is ruled a hit or error. I’ve poured over the rules for scorekeeping on MLB.com, though I know I am far from perfect.

At games this spring scorekeeping was a lively topic of discussion. Sometimes we had as many as five men keeping score, along with several other seasoned baseball authorities weighing in with their opinions.

The guy who scored the games on line sometimes made rulings contrary to mine, though our hit/error decisions probably evened out over the course of the season. When he missed a game, a coach would update the on-line statistics off the scorebook he kept.

I’ve discovered a batter’s “Error Average” to be an interesting statistic. That’s the times a player reached base on a fielder’s error, divided by the number of at-bats. Had these errors been ruled hits, the player’s batting average would’ve risen by this amount.

PL….EA…ROE

PD….000…0

AN….035…2

TS….048…4

MM…068…4

NJ….083…3

BL….104…8

NS…116…5

JB….119…8

WM…145...8

EA…error average
ROE…times reaching base on an opposing fielder’s error.

Of course the more times a player bats, puts the ball in play, and hits the ball hard, the more opportunity the other team has to make an error.

I suppose it’s obvious how I stumbled across this discovery!