Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Box scores have evolved with the game

From fantasy to reality.

That sums up how box scores have evolved from a basic outline of each player's hits, assists and errors into today's detailed blueprint of diamond minutiae.

Allen Spear, director of sports operations at STATS, Inc., the provider of official box scores to the Associated Press, said the wide popularity of Rotisserie leagues has dictated the ever-increasing information that box scores highlight.

"From the early 1900s, say, into the '70s and early '80s, the AP had its box score and that's what showed up in the paper," Spear said. "With the popularity of fantasy sports, I believe that's driven the demand for more information in a box score."

Along with extra-base hits, stolen bases and winning and losing pitchers, a fan has much more microscopic ink at his disposal than ever before.

Inherited runners who scored, pitches thrown, runners moved up and left on base and mini-summaries of what pinch-hitters or runners accomplished make today's box score a study in detail.

According to a 1997 Sports Illustrated story, Chinese immigrants told New York Daily News brass that they found the box score to be the most mystifying aspect of American culture.

In the same feature, NBC's Bob Costas summed up the explosion of bold type, fractions and decimal points when he said, "How can you consume all the stuff that's out there before your eyes glaze over?"

Updated season batting averages end each hitter's line, and the interested observer will be aware that a pitcher had a particularly poor day when he's been credited with both a blown save and a loss in one game.

Houston's Nate Bland pulled off that dubious double at home against Philadelphia May 17, a day after Florida's Armando Almanza did it at Dodger Stadium.

USA Today offers even more insight, noting that the Giants played the White Sox in 55-degree and overcast conditions Wednesday in Chicago, with a 15-mph wind blowing from left to right.

The game data for the Rockies' game in Minnesota the same day read "Weather: Indoors." Info on where officials keep the Metrodome thermostat must not have been obtainable.

"People want to see additional information," Spear said. "About 1990, we involved guys who didn't start much more clearly. You can see who starts, and subs, and understand the flow to the game better. Now, those numbers have more meaning to people."

Today, box scores are mini movies.

"Literary miniatures," wrote Dave Kindred of The Sporting News two years ago.

In his miserable 14-pitch stint against the Phillies last month, Bland, who inherited a baserunner from starter Scott Linebrink, fell apart, plunking Pat Burrell with a pitch and then intentionally walking David Bell.

Todd Pratt hit a double, Bland was replaced by Peter Munro and Houston's 3-2 lead evaporated into a 4-3 deficit, courtesy of Burrell and Bell, which snowballed into a 9-4 defeat.

In a minute or two, and with a magnifying glass, the crossroads of that game could have been culled from its box

For the Phillies, reliever Terry Adams recorded his ninth hold -- the newest statistic the AP requested from STATS about a month ago -- of the season against the Astros.

STATS had been tracking those figures for about 10 years, but Spear said the AP did not officially request it until the fantasy monster, via a flurry of executives from the nation's finer sports pages, demanded to be fed.

Set-up men, rejoice.

"The whole thing came about in '91 or '92," Spear said. "Closers have a way they can be evaluated. Fifty saves, that's a great pitcher. Whether it's true or not, that's the standard. Middle relievers are just as important, but they had nothing to be evaluated.

"They'd come in and do their job, but there was no way to quantify that. STATS came up with the 'hold' to shed light on who was doing their job as a middle reliever. We've been keeping it ever since."

Like the save, which was introduced in 1969, the hold can be expected to become a bargaining barometer that could be worth millions of dollars to middle relievers at the negotiating table.

"Again, the key element is that you have guys who have a thankless role," Spear said. "They wouldn't get any credit, or (blame), either. You can get a blown save instead of a hold, too. So it goes both ways."

The game might be the American pastime, but the creation of its box score, around 1863, has been accredited to Henry Chadwick, a famed baseball writer who was born in Exeter, England, in 1824.

That first template -- at-bats, runs, hits, putouts, assists and errors for hitters; just basic figures for pitchers -- lasted for decades.

Twenty years ago, USA Today sports managing editor Henry Freeman took the baton from Chadwick and sprinted, adding a scoring summary and a bevy of incidental statistics to attract fantasy players to the publication then in its infancy.

The National, the short-lived, all-sports daily, further added to the box score in 1990.

"They deliver biography, adventure, history," Kindred wrote in TSN. "They are written in a language of their own, a code of sorts that, once mastered, certifies the reader as a Great American."

How would Chadwick react upon seeing the box from San Diego's 12-9 loss at Montreal on May 7, when one Expos pitcher blew a save opportunity, two recorded holds and then closer Rocky Biddle earned the victory after blowing a save chance of his own?

Four Baltimore relievers earned holds in a loss in Anaheim May 20, and it is not uncommon when five pitchers throw for one team in a game and each earns some type of statistical recognition.

"If you spend enough time, you can learn so much about the flavor of a game by scanning the box score," Spear said. "You can get a great, great picture of the game, and it's beautiful to behold when you can do that."

Spear joined the Morton Grove, Ill.-based STATS, Inc., in 1992. He earned his current position four years ago, after serving in the operations department and as a programmer.

He does not know what will be added next to the Great American Box Score.

"Hot Dogs Sold? Maybe. Maybe Foul Pole Home Runs," Spear said.

"That's a good question. There's a lot of stuff in there, a lot of information. What's next? I don't know. But I do know if people find a reason for it, it'll get in there."

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