Scorecard Cheating

Here is the little story that came to mind this week after viewing a short video by Tim Kurkjian, a nationally known baseball journalist and television analyst.  Kurkjian reveals how, for eleven years, he clipped and saved baseball box scores.  It was only after newspapers generally stopped printing box scores that Kurkjian had to discontinue his hobby.  For some reason, I have a related practice, hanging on to my scorecards from games I attended.  Occasionally I even keep score at home for World Series games of particular interest, e.g., Cubs vs. Indians in Game # 7 of the 2016 World Series.

My dad told me when I was about 10 or 11 that if you are lucky enough to attend an MLB game, you should never leave until the last out is made.  "If you leave early, you might miss the best play of the game."

I have followed his rule for almost 100% of the games I've attended over the years.  However, I did have to make an exception last year on July 17.  It was a Wednesday afternoon game, Twins vs. New York Mets, and Momma Cuandito accompanied me to the game.  As I've probably related before, she has become a true Twins fan, but her worst nightmare is having a game she's at go into extra innings.  In other words, she's down for about three hours of baseball, but then she is ready to move on.

As the Twins-Mets game evolved it looked like it was going to be a real barn burner.  After six innings, the Twins led 3-2.  Twins starting pitcher Martin Perez was on his game.  One of the Mets' two runs was unearned (E-5 by Miguel Sano), and Perez had 4 strike outs.  He had given up just 1 walk (plus a hit batsman).  Unfortunately, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli decided to let his esteemed bullpen get the last 9 outs.  Trevor May promptly surrendered the lead, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits in the top of the 7th.  Then Matt Magill came in to pitch the top of the 8th; what a disaster!  The Mets scored 6 more runs, all unearned thanks to an E-7 by Eddie Rosario.  Going into the bottom of the 8th it was 11-3 Mets.  We hung around to watch the Twins bat in the bottom of the 8th, and they did manage to come up with 1 run to make it 11-4.  Then we did what most of the other 35,124 fans did: we left.  Although she didn't say it, I knew Momma Cuan wanted to leave, and I did too.  Sure, it was breaking my dad's rule, but for all intents and purposes the game was over.

Not quite!

That evening I learned that the final score was 14-4.  Rocco, in an effort to save bullpen arms, allowed reserve infielder Ehire Adrianza to pitch the 9th.  The Mets shelled him for 5 hits and 3 runs.

As a saver of scorecards, it bothered me that my scorecard stopped after the 8th inning.  But, it didn't bother me to the point where I did anything about it, until this week!  I decided to look up the play-by-play for that game on baseball-reference.com, a terrific website on which a baseball enthusiast could literally waste an entire day.  It only took me about 4 or 5 minutes to find what I'd been looking for.  Then, I filled in the 9th inning on my scorecard which (of course) I had saved from that game.  That is what I call "Scorecard Cheating."  Hopefully neither the baseball gods, nor my father, will judge me too harshly.

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There is a an epilogue to my story, having to do with baseball's so-called unwritten rules.  Many of you, especially those who've read my October 31, 2019 post (World Series 2019: Highs And Lows), are familiar with those rules, almost all of which are precipitated by sportsmanship.  For example, don't bunt in the late innings to break up a pitcher's no hitter.  Don't steal a base in the late innings if your team is up by 7 (an arbitrary number).  Under similar circumstances, don't unnecessarily stretch a single into a double or go from first to third if your teammate singles after you.  Likewise, don't work a count, hoping to draw a walk, if the game is out of reach, etc.

As I wrote above, my dad never left a game early for fear of missing "the best play of the game."  Today we would call those defensive masterpieces "web gems."  To my knowledge, when Momma Cuan and I left the Twins-Mets blowout last July 17, we did not miss a web gem, but we did miss an extremely strange implementation of an unwritten rule.

According to the play-by-play provided on baseball-reference.com, here is what happened when the Mets, leading 11-4, batted in the top of the 9th inning facing the Twins' new "pitcher," Adrianza.

- The Mets' DH Robinson Cano, batting in the 5 hole, lined out to right. (1 out, nobody on)

- # 6 hitter Todd Frazier singled to right. (1 out, man on 1st)

- # 7 hitter Michael Conforto singled to right, moving Frazier to third. (1 out, runners at the corners)

- # 8 hitter Amed Rosario tripled to left, scoring Frazier and Conforto.  The score is now 13-4. (1 out, man on third)

- # 9 hitter Adeiny Hechavarria doubled to left, scoring Rosario.  The score is now 14-4. (1 out, man on second)

- # 1 hitter Juan Lagares (who had entered the game as a defensive replacement in the 8th inning) doubled to left, 

moving Hechavarria to third.  (1 out, runners on second and third)

- # 2 hitter Dominic Smith struck out swinging. (1 out, runners on second and third)

- # 3 hitter Pete Alonso grounded out to third to end the inning.  The score remains 14-4, which became the final score when the Twins failed to score in the bottom of the 9th.

So there you have it.  The Mets decided not to allow their runner (Hechavarria) to score from second on a double to left field.  I don't believe I have ever seen a play like that.  If I had followed my dad's rule, I would have.  The Mets took an unwritten rule to an extreme, would you agree?

I'm sure the Mets' intention was good sportsmanship, but you also have to wonder if, by not letting Hechavarria score, it was more of a humiliation for the Twins.