We have started a series of “Baseball Tutorials” and the first one is how to keep score in baseball. Whether you just want to learn so you can keep score while watching a game (at home or in person) to stay engaged in the game or if you will be scoring your child (or grandchild’s) youth league games, it’s a fairly easy thing to do. Rob Rains explains in a brief video.

To learn to keep score, watch the video, and then look at the diagrams below if you need to do a refresh when keeping score.: CLICK HERE.

As a service to our readers, we are offering FREE downloadable score sheets. Download it, and make copies. To save on your ink, be sure to print them out in black and white.

Ever year Rob Rains takes score sheets to a printer and has them bound with a spiral binding to produce a scorebook. We have also made books and given the as gifts to friends or relatives who like to keep score.

But the easiest thing to do is just print them out and fold them in your pocket or purse for use at a game.  There is a “scoring key” which is important in keeping score in baseball and we include that key on our scoresheet.

Here is the link for the free scoresheet:  Baseball-Score-Sheet-PDF(1)

Below is the scoring key, which is basically a code, easy to memorize. When you keep score you will need to know this code for the positions:

The numbers have nothing to do with the players numbers or the base– as in first base is number three.

Here is an example of some of the abbreviations:

Here is a list of possible plays that could heppen in a baseball game:

If you still need help, here are more directions provided by Major League Baseball: