Wrigley Field scoreboard and outfield during Cubs-Diamondbacks doubleheader.

A couple of days ago, our department got the chance to go see a game at Wrigley Field -- so, off we went.

Although I've lived in Chicago long enough to lose whatever passes as a Colorado accent, I really haven't been to Wrigley Field all that much. In fact, the first time I was there, the Cubs were playing Pittsburgh the day my dad died in a hospice overlooking Denver's Mile High Stadium. I ate two hot dogs that day.

My next Wrigley Field visit was two years ago about this time of year, when I got to see a game from one of the skyboxes. I kind of wish I hadn't. Sitting in luxury like that is similar to flying first class -- because the next time you get stuffed back in coach, you can't help but reach the inescapable conclusion that you're traveling well beneath your station in life.

But our seats were pretty good last week, maybe about five or six rows back from the Diamondbacks' bullpen -- certainly close enough to yell insults or encouragement to the visiting team. In our podcast, my colleague Matt Maldre admits that sometimes he enjoys heckling the players. But as often as not, I think he hollers out helpful information. In fact, during the second game of last week's doubleheader, I'll bet he yelled out more encouragement to Cubs than the first-base coach did.

What really impressed me about Matt, though, was his attention to scorecard detail. He doesn't just record runs, hits, errors, foul balls and such. Instead, Matt's scorecards are a complete record of what happened -- including the names of folks from work attending the game, a notation of when the sun came out and comprehensive listings of all the junk food that everybody ate.

Matt also noted the time when some apparently overenthusiastic fan ran onto the field. Cubs security quickly snared the guy and led him off the field and right past out seats. Here's a photo of the man:



DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Scorekeeping
If you'd like a refresher course in the basics of keeping statistics during a baseball game, Patrick McGovern serves up some great guidelines at The Baseball Scorecard. The site provides downloadable scorecard templates and also has a gallery of scorecards from amateur league games as well as the majors -- and includes a number of Cubs scorecards.

An overview of baseball scorekeeping and its history is on tap at the Wikipedia.

Dan's Guide to Baseball Scorekeeping not only teaches the fundamentals of scorekeeping, but discusses standard abbreviations and shorthand -- plus has links to applications that can automate the process.

Those wacky fans
Fan Reform

Podcasts, Blogs, etc.
The Heckler
Cubscast
Bleed Cubbie Blue
Len & Bob's Baseball Blog
Chicago Cubs Blogs
Cubbiepalooza

Below is Matt Maldre's scorecard for the second game. (You can see more of Matt's creativity at Spudart Productions.)



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