Game note-taking

Lighten up, Francis. :

 

what?

 

How about when they write down the pitching lines? You must bust a gut.

 

Just joined, so this is my first post. Figured it was a good one to get my feet wet in...

For basketball, I have two homemade scoresheets stapled together. Each one is broken into a sort of grid, with spots for points, rebounds, assists, turnovers, steals, shots and free throws attempted and made, and fouls. As the game goes along, I use the old tick marks to keep track of stats. On the back of the second sheet is two columns (one for each team). At the top of each, I add up the totals for each team at the end of each quarter. Under that, I chart runs by jotting down the score every few minutes or during timeouts. Use the same space to note key plays, especially toward the end of the game. Toward the bottom is a spot to keep up with the score by quarters and the halftime stats.

For football, I just keep a play-by-play and add up the stats at haltime. Then when it's over, just add the second half and total them up. I've spent eight years covering preps, so there are no postgame notes in my world and little opportunity to write before the game is over.

 

I like to write a few details down on my hand and then remember the rest with my still-hungover noggin.