Lesson Seven

LESSON SEVEN: HOW TO ENTER SCORES, HEADLINES AND SUMMARIES

Overview: We request that Team Reporters report the scores from their games as soon as possible after the game is played, ideally within an hour or two but certainly by early the next morning. Timely and accurate score information is one of the main purposes of the site so we need to be on top of this at all times. Accurate and timely scores allow for accurate and timely standings. If someone comes to site and sees that their team is reported as being 13-5 when in fact they are 17-6, they will not form a very favorable impression of the site. Plus, part of our goal is to push the major newspapers to do a better job of reporting on our sport by providing an alternative. Competition makes everyone better, right?

1. From the Admin Menu select "Game Results" under "Team Setup."
2. In the next screen, select "Game Results" again.
2. Select your Division from the drop-down menu. Most of the time, you will want to check the box beside "Hide Completed / Postponed / Cancelled / Suspended Games." Doing so causes all of those games not to appear on the list, leaving just those that have the status of "To Be Played." In other words, those games on your schedule that haven't been played yet. Every now and then you may need to edit information for a completed game that you have already reported. You would need to uncheck the box and then find and select that game from the full list.
Please review from time to time the list of "outstanding games," i.e., those that are still shown as "TBP" (To Be Played) on the system. If you see any of your games listed as "TBP" that you know have been played or have been cancelled or postponed, please edit the game and revise the status accordingly. Having an old game "hanging out there" in limbo is kind of like having an outstanding check. You need to account for it and take care of it.
3. Find and select your recently played game from the list of games to be played. The are listed in date order. When you have found your game, click on the blue "Edit" button to the far right.
4. When you click on the blue "Edit" button, it will take you to a "Game Results" edit screen. The name of your team and your opponent will be shown in the box score with the visiting team on top. Fill in the box score with the scoring by inning and the number of hits, runs and errors for each team. Please be sure that you are accurately reporting this information by either attending the game and taking notes or by obtaining this information from your team's scorekeeper. Please note that when you fill in the inning by inning scores, the total runs does not automatically increase. You will need to manually enter the total number of runs for each team.
5. Next, be sure to change the Game Status to "Completed." If you do not make this change, the scores will not show on the Website. If the game has been cancelled, postponed or suspended, please so indicate here. Please indicate the number of innings played and leave the "Exclude game from standings" box unchecked.
6. Next, try to come up with a brief headline that captures the main storyline of the game. You'll get better at this as you go along. And, then write a brief summary of the highlights of the game, including key plays, outstanding performances, extra base hits and winning and losing pitcher, if possible. As mentioned previously, avoid any mention of errors by named individuals and try to keep things positive. When finished, click on "Save Changes."
You can immediately go ahead and enter your statistics at this time if you desire, however, we are going to cover that topic in Lesson 10.
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