Baseball scorekeeping is a time-honored tradition that allows fans to keep a permanent record of the game as it unfolds. While scorecards are available for purchase at ballparks, many scorekeepers prefer to make their own custom scorecards tailored to their personal preferences. Creating a printable custom baseball scorecard allows you to design exactly what you want on the page.
There are several different styles of baseball scorecards, but the most common is the standard 2-team format that provides space to track the details of each half-inning for both the home and away teams. This style lists the players’ names and positions down the left side of the card and numbers each half-inning across the top. Within each box, you can note pitching changes, hits, runs, errors, and more.
When designing a printable custom baseball scorecard, the first step is deciding what information you want to include. At minimum, you’ll need space for each team’s lineup and pitching mound visits. You may also want room for notes on substitutions, ejections, highlights of the game, final statistics, and more. Consider the flow of the game and how much space each element may require as the innings progress.
It’s also important to choose an easy-to-read font large enough to write notes quickly during the action. Sans serif fonts like Arial, Calibri or Verdana tend to work well. Use a font size between 10-12 points for player names and stats, and 8-10 points for inning headings. Leave generous margins around the edges so nothing gets cut off when printing.
When laying out the scorecard template in a program like Microsoft Word, Excel or Google Sheets, start with the basic 2-team format structure as a grid. Place the home team information on the left side and away team on the right. Add columns for each half-inning at the top. Within each box, include lines or a table for pitching and batting stats.
Some advanced customizations include adding a third column for notes that spans the full length of the card. You can also include extra rows above the lineups to list game details like the date, location, umpires and more. Getting creative with color coding for different stats or highlighting the current inning is another nice touch.
Once you have the template designed, it’s a good idea to test it out by scoring an actual game to see how everything flows and make any necessary adjustments before finalizing. Print a test copy on regular paper first to check formatting and sizing. When you’re satisfied, save the file as a PDF to make it easy to print copies for future games.
Distributing your custom baseball scorecard template is a great way to get other fans involved in the tradition of scorekeeping. Share it on baseball forums, subreddits and scorekeeping Facebook groups. Just be sure any files shared retain your name as the creator to avoid unauthorized use of your original design work. With some creativity, a printable custom baseball scorecard allows you to put your own unique spin on documenting the game.
Some advanced scorekeepers take customization even further by coding their own digital baseball scorekeeping apps. This allows for dynamic rosters, automatic calculations and stat tracking across multiple games. While an app removes the nostalgia of keeping score by hand, it still captures all the important details to reminisce over game logs and box scores later.
Whether keeping score on paper or via app, the detailed records created through scorekeeping are treasure troves for baseball historians, trivia buffs and stat geeks. Taking the time to fully document each pitch, out and run brings a new appreciation for the nuances and strategies that unfold over the course of a game. Designing customizable scorecards keeps the tradition alive while allowing for personalization to individual scoring styles and team preferences. With some creative template building, scorekeepers can have scorecards that are as unique as the games they memorialize.
