All we ask is perfection: The life of Major League Baseball's scorekeepers
Matthew Barrera
Published Apr 07, 2026
Kyle Traynor is a doctor of obstetrics who often delivers babies at the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He also is an official scorer at Minnesota Twins games.
Yes, delivering babies and scorekeeping. And, amazingly, he says the jobs are somewhat alike.
“Obstetrics can be hours of boredom sparked by moments of sheer terror. Baseball can be a little of the same,” Dr. Traynor says. “The routine, mundane play, the 6-3 or 5-3 or fly out to left field — that doesn’t take a lot of thought and a lot of brains and it’s not anxious. But when it gets anxious, it gets anxious in a hurry. So, it’s not terribly dissimilar at least from a stress and attitude that you’re faced with dealing on a regular basis.
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“And in obstetrics, everybody expects the outcome to be absolutely perfect and the way they want it no matter the difficulties you’re faced with. Baseball is the same thing. Both teams want it to be the way they want it no matter what.’’
While most official scorer decisions garner no attention, every once in a while there is one for which they will get heat.
For instance, when there is a play that is 50-50 whether it was a hit or an error, one of the two teams is not going to be pleased by the scorer’s decision. Score it a hit, and the pitcher might wind up with a higher ERA if a run scores. Score it an error, and the batter will see his average drop and maybe lose RBIs. As Traynor says, “You know whatever way you call it, the other team is going to take the other side of that.’’
Not that one team will necessarily be happy with the call. After all, score a play an error, and both the fielder and the batter get their stats nailed.
“You can make both teams mad,’’ Seattle-based scorekeeper Eric Radovich says. “I’ve done it. Where neither guy is happy with the call. It’s not always one-sided. . . . There have been a couple times where I’ve thought, ‘Whoa, this will make both of them angry.’’’
Chaz Scoggins knows that well. He has been an official scorer in Boston for 40 years – he’s done more than 1,700 games — and was the Red Sox beat writer and columnist for the Lowell Sun for decades until retiring from the paper in 2013. As a writer and scorer, he was confronted by players in the clubhouse over his calls.
Red Sox infielder Jerry Remy once was so upset after Scoggins scored his batted ball an error rather than a hit that, after the game, he threw a beer can in the clubhouse that just missed Scoggins and smashed against a wall.
“To me, the difference between a good official scorer and a poor official scorer is having the integrity to stick with the calls you make and not be bullied into changing the call,’’ Scoggins says. “You can’t let yourself be intimidated.’’
Long ago, it was part of an agreement between Major League Baseball and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America that a newspaper beat writer would score games. That changed in the early 1980s when newspapers said writers could not keep score because it could be a conflict of interest.
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“It is certainly better,’’ says John Thorn, MLB’s official historian. “It used to be that the scorer was hired by the home team and he was a member of the press covering the game, which put him in a uniquely conflicted position. Now, that has been impermissible for decades. That alone would make today’s scorers better. They’re not paid by the club and not paid by the newspaper. And they don’t have relationships they have to maintain with the players to get quotes.’’
Scoggins, however, was grandfathered into’ remaining a scorekeeper by his paper, but teams still had to find a lot of new ones.
Former University of Cincinnati assistant baseball coach Ron Roth says then-Reds general manager Dick Wagner visited the school at the time and told him and others that he needed to find some scorers. “He asked me, and I went down there,’’ Roth says, “and 39 years later, I’m still down there.’’
A few official scorers are retired writers like Scoggins, but many are now in other professions, such as Traynor and Roth, who is a realtor in addition to coaching at Cincinnati’s Moeller High School. Radovich, for instance, is the Washington state beer commissioner and P.A. announcer for the Washington Huskies.
“They come from all walks of life,’’ says Laurel Prieb, the MLB vice president for special projects and scorekeeping. “You’ve got teachers, you’ve got business people, you’ve got lawyers. You’re really all over the place in terms of professions that score games.’’
Scorekeepers receive under $200 per game from MLB, along with many teams providing free parking and pregame meals. The league also makes sure there are three scorers per team (with an occasional backup) because some aren’t always available due to their full-time jobs.
Both Roth and Prieb say sitting up in the press box and scoring on your own can make you feel like you’re on an island.
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“As you might expect, it’s not an easy job to fill,’’ Prieb says. “You need to, A, know the game and the rules. B, just have good judgment. And C, have thick skin. Because you are going to be told over and over again — because a lot of plays you can’t win on — what at an idiot you are!”
Baseball also now holds an annual January seminar that was started roughly a decade ago by former senior vice president of club relations Phyllis Merhige and the late Katy Feeney. At least one scorekeeper from each city attends, and they review plays and go over issues.
“I think it’s helping to bring some consistency to scoring around the league,’’ Radovich says. “We look at certain plays, talk about ones like that infield popup that dropped. ‘All right, everyone. It’s a hit. We’re going to say it’s a mental error.’ . . . It’s about rules we weren’t consistent with in every single ballpark.
“There is more a sense of brotherhood among the scorers because of these seminars. We’re looking after each other a little bit. We have a forum you can share a play, or share a thought and talk to each other a bit.’’
Of course, the seminars also show that scorekeeping decisions are not always clear to make. A replay will sometimes be shown, and half the scorers will say it was a hit and half will say it was an error.
Even so, scorers say their decisions have gotten better and less agonizing. For one thing, the scorekeepers can now quickly watch replays on a video monitor before making their final decision. Furthermore, an agreement with the players union now allows players to appeal for a scoring change. In the past, the team would call the media relations person, who then had to make a strong case in the press box to change it. Or the player would bitch about it to the scorer in the clubhouse or over the press box phone. There also were allegations that some scorers would be one-sided to the home team.
“You remember how it was; you would go to a certain city, and someone might say, ‘They’re homers there — they’ll never call an error, they’ll always call it a hit for their team,’” Prieb says. “That was a reputation in certain places, but I do believe the review system does help. If somebody doesn’t like a play or the way it was scored, you appeal it. Then it will work through the system. It goes beyond the scorer to really being judged at a major league level, and you see where it’s at.’’
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The appeal goes to the major league office, where it is looked over. If still in dispute, the appeal is sent to MLB executive Joe Torre, who makes the final decision. “He is the Supreme Court on it,’’ Traynor says.
Fellow Minnesota scorer Stew Thornley says no one likes getting a call overturned. “But you just have to accept it. Sometimes, I look at a play that’s been overturned, and I understand why. Joe Torre does it. He played the game at catcher and third base. So, he understands what a hot shot to the hot corner is like. I think that helps just to get that kind of feedback.’’
Prieb estimates scoring calls are changed 20 percent of the time or less, which Scoggins says is a much better percentage for scorers than for umpires.
“And for the most part, when they appeal it, Torre or Joe Garagiola Jr. will send an email asking why we ruled it so they get our input before they make their decision,’’ Scoggins adds, “so they don’t just ignore us before overturning a call.’’
The appeal system also makes it easier on the media relations staff, who in the past could be told by their team to make a strong argument to change calls. Plus, the scorers don’t have to hear the grief as often.
“Now with the appeals process, sometimes the (media relations person) will come over, but they don’t make it a big deal anymore,’’ Scoggins says. “They’re not going to get into an argument with you over it. The team will just file an appeal with the league.
“It’s less combative than it was.’’
Among the noted historic controversies is a hit being changed to an error in 1953 that wound up costing Al Rosen the American League batting title — and the Triple Crown — by one point. Ty Cobb also won the 1910 batting title because, as Thorn, the MLB historian, reports, a 2-for-3 game of his was erroneously added twice, giving him two extra hits. Some also suggest that Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941 was kept alive by a scorekeeper who was also a friend, Dan Daniel.
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But perhaps nothing has been more controversial than the way scorekeepers handle possible no-hitters.
As Thornley recounts in a story, there was a game in 1979 when then-Angels pitcher Nolan Ryan took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Yankees. Center fielder Rick Miller was unable to make a shoestring catch on a low liner, and scorer Dick Miller ruled it an error. Thornley writes that even Angels vice president Buzzy Bavasi was upset by scoring it an error and shouted at Miller: “You didn’t have to do that. You’ve embarrassed us!”
That no-hitter was broken up in the ninth inning by a single, anyway, but it is a good example of how controversial some calls can be. It’s not only an issue late in the game when a play could be scored a hit or error but also early in the game when a similar play has initially been scored a hit. If that remains the only hit into the final innings, the scorer is going to get grief over it.
“It happened with Dave Goltz a couple times in the 1970s, and I was at one of the games,’’ Thornley recalls. “There was such a hit in the first inning, and it hung out there as the only hit in the game until two out in the ninth inning. Patrick Reusse was the official scorer on one of them, and the pressure one feels at that point — what do you do? Do you just go back and more or less say, ‘Yeah, it should be an error?’ It doesn’t look good if you just do it to put a no-hitter back on the board.’’
There have been games in which scorers have been criticized for scoring a play an error rather than a hit under the presumption they were trying to maintain the no-no. And games in which they have been criticized for ending a no-no by scoring a play a hit rather than an error.
“An official scorer doesn’t win in that situation,’’ says Roth, who has scored two no-hitters and one perfect game. “Give a guy a hit, and you broke up his no-hitter. And if you give him an error, (some will say) the only reason you gave him an error is because he had a no-hitter going. The writers will come in and get you anyway it works.’’
Which means that not just the players can be upset by a scoring decision.
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Regardless, Radovich says, “I think you have to stick with your call. If you saw it as a hit in the second inning, and the guy has a one-hitter in the eighth inning with 16 strikeouts, it was still a hit in the second inning. You have to take that same tact. ‘I’m scoring a baseball game. I would never overturn it because it gives the guy a no-hitter.’ I would just say, ‘That’s how I saw it in the second inning, so I don’t know what to tell you.’
“Could someone see it a different way? Of course, they could. It was a close call. But I scored it the way I scored it live, and I’m never going to let external factors change my calls.’’
Another worry is how a scoring decision might jeopardize a player’s career.
Thornley scored St. Paul Saints games in the independent league. He recalls one Saints game in which he called a close play a hit rather than an error, a decision he remained unsure about for several days. The team contacted him and asked whether it should be changed to an error. He agreed, and the change removed three earned runs from the pitcher, lowering his ERA.
“It just hit me there that this is real life,’’ Thornley says. “For this pitcher, that can make a difference whether he stays in the starting rotation or not. It can make a difference whether he stays on the roster or not. It’s a real-life thing. Just think of the responsibility you have.
“It’s often a little overwhelming, but that’s part of the challenge and part of what makes it a very intriguing and enjoyable job.’’
Not that pitchers always want scoring decisions to remain an error. Scoggins says Roger Clemens oddly once asked him to change an error on the shortstop to a hit after a game. “I said, ‘Roger, that will cost you two earned runs if I change it,’’’ Scoggins recalls. “He said, ‘I don’t care. It was a tough play. I think it should be a hit.’ I couldn’t argue with that, so I changed it.’’
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Scorers actually call many fewer errors than in the past. In 1917, the average number of errors per team was 234 in a season. A half-century later in 1967, it had dropped to 136 per team. Last year, it was a mere 94. Part of the early decline was probably due to improved gloves. Scoggins says the latter decline is due to players getting better coaching in the minors and majors.
Fields also are in better shape. Not that it’s always easy to see from high up in the press box. After one complaint about whether a scorer could see if a ground ball had topspin, Thornley went down to the field during batting practice the next day, took some grounders and had a good conversation with then-Twins bench coach Steve Liddle.
“I think the biggest benefit of that wasn’t anything that he really told me as much as that we connected and had a bit of a conversation and I was no longer a faceless idiot to him,’’ Thornley says. “I was somebody there who cares enough to come down, and I think they give you credit for that.’’
Then, there was the game in which Scoggins scored an error on third baseman Troy Glaus, who called the press box after the game and explained that because of the way the ball bounced it should have been a hit. Scoggins reviewed the play and changed it. Then, Glaus called up a few minutes later and said that he just realized the scoring change hurt the pitcher’s ERA and asked him to change it back.
Scoggins said he wouldn’t change it. “I told him, ‘You should have thought about that before you called me.’’’
In the end, Scoggins says players generally get over the scoring call and move on.
“They often come back and apologize for losing their tempers,’’ he says. “I’ve never reported anyone to the league (for complaints). No one has threatened me or assaulted me or threatened to murder my wife. Just accept it as part of the game.’’
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In fact, he says he became friends with Remy, who threw the beer can at the wall after getting upset at a scoring decision. He says the ex-player, who has worked Red Sox television for 30 years, will joke that Scoggins prevented him from getting to 3,000 hits. To which Scoggins will reply good-naturedly: “Jerry, you were 1,700 hits short of 3,000. I didn’t take 1,700 hits away from you.’’
As Thorn says, “You have to almost adopt the demeanor of a doctor, where you empathize with the patients but you have to do your job.’’
