The Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League is currently seeking
volunteers to keep score at games around Maryland and Northern Virginia for
its upcoming 2007 season. The Ripken, Sr. League consists of seven teams
located in Bethesda, College Park, Glen Burnie, Hanover, Rockville, and
Silver Spring, Maryland, and Herndon, Virginia . The League's players come
from some of the best NCAA and Junior College programs in the country to get
exposure to professional scouts. Like other top summer leagues in Cape Cod,
Alaska, and the Carolinas, the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League
uses wood bats to simulate the professional experience. The season runs from
June 8 to August 3, with games almost every night. The complete schedule of
games can be found at www.ripkensrcollegebaseball.org.

Scorekeeping is an important task-coaches, scouts and periodicals like
Baseball America rely upon player stats to track their progress over the
summer, and accuracy in scorekeeping is vital to maintaining our
relationships with college coaches and scouts. Currently, regular
scorekeepers are needed to cover the games of the College Park Bombers
(played at the University of Maryland's Shipley Field), the Rockville
Express (played at Montgomery College-Rockville's Knights Field), the
Maryland Redbirds (played at Bachman Park in Glen Burnie and Joe Cannon
Stadium in Hanover), and Youse's Maryland Orioles (played at Bachman Park).
Back-up scorekeepers are needed to fill in games for the Bethesda Big Train
(played at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda), Silver Spring-Takoma
Thunderbolts (played at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring), and
the Herndon Braves (played at Herndon High School in Herndon).

Scorekeepers must arrive 30 minutes before game-time to collect starting
lineups and umpire names. Games in the Ripken, Sr. League are either nine
innings or seven innings (when part of a doubleheader). They typically last
2.5 hours. Scorekeepers who volunteer to score games in a doubleheader are
expected to cover both seven-inning games. There is no minimum or maximum
number of games required for a commitment, but for purposes of utilizing the
scorekeeping software, a selection of at least 10 games is strongly
recommended.

Experience Required
Scorekeeping can be a simple and fun way of following a baseball game. It
can also be as nuanced and challenging as the game of baseball itself. For
purposes of scorekeeping in the Ripken, Sr. League, anyone with knowledge of
how to score a Major League Baseball game should-with some specialized
training-be able to keep score at the collegiate level. The Ripken, Sr.
League utilizes The Automated Scorebook for Baseball, a software program
that allows for live scorekeeping and creates postgame box scores that can
be immediately uploaded to the League's web site. This software may appear
daunting at first glance, but anyone with a basic understanding of Windows
and DOS functions and a few practice sessions will learn it quickly. There
will be several training sessions for the software program in May, before
the season begins, and David Vincent will conduct a preseason seminar on
advanced scorekeeping techniques and decision-making.

Signing Up
Please understand that this is a volunteer position. New scorekeepers are
welcome to sign up for as many or few games as they'd like. The quality of
play in the Ripken, Sr. League is first-rate, and the excitement is
contagious-rarely do our scorekeepers volunteer for just one game! If you
are interested in volunteering as a Ripken, Sr. League scorekeeper in 2007,
or have further questions, please contact Alex Thompson. Alex Thompson
Executive Director Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League
www.ripkensrcollegebaseball.org Cell: 410/588-9900 athompson@...

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