BC Scorebooks... What’s The Difference?

The Scorebook comes in 3 styles: Radio, TV and Fan. The Radio and TV books are designed for broadcasters who cover baseball professionally, while the Fan book is designed to be more compact for fans taking it to the game or using it at home. Each style of books has distinctive and exclusive features:

Radio/TV
The books are identical in layout and the only difference is in the number of games ... Radio 200 (20 games added in ’05, designed for a full season + spring training and/or playoffs) … TV 100 (designed for a partial season). These books have features that are crucial to broadcasters: sections for Defense, Bench Players, Bullpen Pitchers and a blank area for notes. Each of these sections comes with extra space for entering statistics relevant to that area. Umpires are also positioned as they are on the field for quick ID during a bang-bang play. Team Records across the top of the page help broadcasters track a team’s win-loss record, plus records for home, away and versus teams in their divisions. Revisions planned for ’06 will add inter-league play and other features that are still in the planning stages. The Lineup section features large boxes for player names and stats, plus a large #9 hole for National League games and the ability to create a pitcher’s "#10 hole" for American League games. The grid has a maximum of 15 innings. The Radio/TV versions are 8 ½" x 11" opened to one page, and double that when the book is completely laid open. This book is being used by dozens of major league, minor league and college announcers across the nation. It was first designed in 1984 and has undergone several revisions since.

Fan
This book, with a capacity of 100 games, was designed in 1998 and is more compact for taking to the game, but it also has its own unique features. The Lineup grid is the same as the bigger books but, due to size limitations, only has room for 13 innings. Not available in the Fan version are the Bench and Bullpen boxes, plus the Defense section. The Fan book has an exclusive inning-by-inning scoreboard across the top of the page in lieu of the specialized team records; this is something a number of fans requested in their version. This book is 8 ½” x 7” opened to one page, and 8 ½” x 14” completely laid open. The St. Louis Cardinals version of the Fan book is identical to the regular Fan book, with the exception of several Cardinals references on the Scorebook Key page and the National League grid page, plus a red cover featuring the Cardinals official logo.

New For 2005
For the first time since 1998, there will be a price increase, due mainly to the increased cost of printing and shipping the books. There will also be a new look to the Fan Scorebooks, as I’ve obtained permission from legendary baseball historian and photographer Jack Zehrt of St. Louis to use his beautiful color photograph from a 1960 Cardinals-Milwaukee Braves game for the front cover. It will bring a taste of classic ballpark nostalgia to the scorebooks.