How to keep a baseball scorebook: position numbers, symbols, a worked inning and the check that proves it

The nine position numbers

Every fielder in a scorebook is a number from 1 to 9, fixed by position, not by the shirt: 1 pitcher, 2 catcher, 3 first base, 4 second base, 5 third base, 6 shortstop, 7 left field, 8 centre field and 9 right field. A play is written as the numbers of the fielders who handled the ball, in order. A ground ball to the shortstop thrown to first is 6-3; a fly ball caught by the centre fielder is F8, or just 8 in some books.

The numbers are a scorers' convention, not a rule. The Official Baseball Rules (2026 edition) never number the positions; Rule 9.03(a) only requires the scorer to list each player's name and fielding position in batting order. The same 1-to-9 code still appears in Little League's Scorekeeping 101 and in Australia's Victorian Learners Guide (Version 2026), so a play written 6-4-3 reads the same in either book.

The number that catches out new scorers is 6. The shortstop plays between third base and second, so reading the infield from third to first gives 5, 6, 4, 3, not 5, 4, 6, 3. Write the fielding number beside each name on the lineup card before the first pitch, so a mid-game switch is a crossing-out, not a guess.

The symbols, and why they differ between books

There is no official set of scorebook symbols: Rule 9 says what must be recorded, not how to write it, so symbols vary between books and countries. The only symbols the Official Baseball Rules suggest are for substitutes: the comment to Rule 9.03(b) recommends lower-case letters for pinch hitters and numerals for pinch runners, as in "a-Singled for Abel in third inning". Little League's guide lists the symbols US youth scorers learn, and Australian scorers follow the Victorian Learners Guide, which also gives each kind of play a colour.

Little League's guide adds a few more. A line drive caught by the centre fielder is L8 and a pop-up P8. Its divisions up to the Majors call an illegal pitch, written IP, where older divisions (Intermediate 50/70 and above) call a balk, BK. An x beside a name marks the batter due to lead off the next inning. And pitch-by-pitch tracking is optional: B for a ball, S for a strike, F or a hash mark for a foul, in the small boxes at the side of each batter's square.

The Australian colours carry meaning. The Victorian guide uses blue for strikeouts, walks, hit batters, wild pitches, balks and pitching changes, green for safe hits, earned runs and batting changes, and red for errors and passed balls. A passed ball is not an error, but it is red because passed balls, like errors, are left out when the inning is rebuilt to decide which runs were earned (Rule 9.16).

Reading one box: the diamond, the out and the run

Each square is one batter's turn in one inning, with a small diamond whose corners are the bases: draw along a base path for each base reached, circle the out number for an out, and fill the diamond for a run. In a US book the bottom corner is home and first base is the right-hand corner, so the lines run anticlockwise as the runner goes round. The Victorian guide does the same with four quarters, bottom right for first base, and puts the out number or the run in a circle in the middle.

Three habits keep a box readable:

1. Write how the batter reached first in the bottom-right corner: 1B, BB, E6, FC.
2. Write how a runner moved on beside the base reached, using the batting-order number of the batter at the plate. Little League's example puts a 6 at home plate for a runner who scored on the sixth batter's hit. That number is what lets you work out runs batted in later.
3. Number the outs 1, 2 and 3 in the order they happened, circled, in the box of the player who was out, and after the third out mark the next inning's leadoff batter so the new column starts on the right name.

A worked half-inning, box by box

Here is one half-inning in full: seven batters, one run, one hit, one error and three runners left on base. The visiting team bats in the top of the first. Walks are written BB, as in the Victorian guide, and the sacrifice SAC with the fielders who handled the bunt.

Then the records the rules ask for. Batter 3 gets the run batted in under Rule 9.04(a)(1), because the run scored on his safe hit. The fielding side's putouts are the pitcher-to-first out credited to the first baseman (with an assist to the pitcher), the strikeout credited to the catcher (Rule 9.09(b)(1)), and the catch credited to the centre fielder: three putouts for three outs. The shortstop is charged with the error.

The run is earned. Rule 9.16 rebuilds the inning without errors and passed balls, and the run had already scored before the shortstop's fumble, on a walk, a sacrifice and a hit. The pitcher's line for the inning is 1 inning pitched, 7 batters faced, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 1 hit batter and 1 strikeout.

Proving the inning: the Rule 9.03(c) check

Official Baseball Rule 9.03(c) gives a sum that must balance: times at bat + walks + hit batters + sacrifice bunts + sacrifice flies + batters awarded first base for interference or obstruction = runs + runners left on base + the opponents' putouts. The left side counts every batter who came to the plate, by how the plate appearance was scored; the right side counts what became of each of them: scored, stranded or put out. A missing or double-counted batter shows up as a difference.

Batter 5 is the one people get wrong. Reaching on an error is a time at bat and not a hit, because Rule 9.02(a)(1) excuses only sacrifices, walks, hit batters and interference or obstruction awards. A scorer who leaves him out of the at-bats gets 6 = 7 and goes looking for a run that does not exist.

The check works for a whole game too, with the opponents' putouts usually equal to three times the innings they fielded. It does not catch a hit scored as an error or a wrong fielder's number; it only proves that every plate appearance is in the book once. The Victorian guide's advice is to prove the box score with the opposition scorer after the game, hits, walks, strikeouts, putouts, assists and errors, before either book is handed in.

Rule 9 calls that change the numbers

Most scorebook mistakes are not wrong symbols but wrong statistics: an at-bat that is not one, a strikeout that looks like something else, an RBI that is not earned. These are the calls that most often decide a batting line, each from the 2026 Official Baseball Rules.

The sacrifice line has a judgment inside it. Rule 9.08(a) scores a sacrifice bunt only if the batter was giving himself up to move a runner; a batter bunting for a hit who is thrown out is charged with a time at bat. The comment to the rule gives the batter the benefit of the doubt.

Pitch counts, substitutes and the official scorer

The scorebook and the pitch count are separate records, and in youth baseball they are often kept by different people. Little League's scorekeeping guide treats pitch-by-pitch tracking as optional for the scorekeeper, while the official pitch count is a job of its own, covered in the guide to keeping an official pitch count. If one person does both, a pitch counter with one counter per pitcher keeps the arithmetic out of the book, and the pitch count rest calculator turns the totals into rest days. High school baseball has no national number: each state association sets its own daily maximum and rest days, compared in the high school pitch count rules by state.

Substitutes need a mark in two places: in the batting order, where the new player's name goes under the one replaced with the inning, and in the box where the change happened. The Victorian guide marks the first batter to face a new pitcher with a blue symbol, so hits and runs are charged to the pitcher who allowed them.

Who decides the judgment calls depends on the level. In Major League games an Official Scorer appointed by the Office of the Commissioner has sole authority over hits, errors and other judgments, and may revise a call for up to 24 hours after the game (Rule 9.01). In Little League the league president appoints the official scorer, whose book is the official record if a pitcher's eligibility is disputed. Everywhere else, the scorer's judgment stands, and the Victorian guide's rule is a good one: score what you saw, and do not change the book because a player or coach asks.

What this guide does not cover

This guide covers paper scorekeeping for baseball under the Official Baseball Rules, with the US and Australian conventions. It does not teach every Rule 9 judgment, such as how far a ball has to be from a fielder to be a hit, the full earned-run reconstruction, or the winning pitcher and save rules. Leagues and tournaments may add their own scoring rules, and softball has its own rulebooks; check the competition's rules when the book is official.

The count of balls and strikes, the outs and the line score are the parts of a game easiest to lose track of while writing. Simple Online Counter is a free, browser-based set of counters, and its baseball score counter applies the count rules, including the foul bunt and the dropped third strike, and ends the game the way the rules say it ends. It is a check on the book, not a substitute for the official scorebook.