Category: Graphics

Match Day Scoring

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  • Mari Lewis
  • Mari Lewis
  • Mari Lewis
  • Mari Lewis
  • Bert Bacchus
  • Bert Bacchus
  • Bert Bacchus
  • Bert Bacchus
  • Nick Barnes
  • Nick Barnes
  • Nick Barnes

The baseball box score is almost as old as the game itself, so old in fact that they originally whittled notches out of a stick to keep score. I’m not that old but I did grow up keeping score while watching baseball games. When I first discovered this piece from 8 by 8 magazine I was smitten with the idea that world football also had a similar method of tracking statistics.

The article focuses on, among others, Sunderland’s announcer Nick Barnes who has a ‘Football Bible’ he’s been adding to for eleven years and although it’s intention isn’t necessarily to record every aspect of a game a la baseball’s scoring methods, it is crucial to Mr. Barnes’ work as matchday commentator for the Black Cats.

Football moves much faster than baseball so trying to maintain a rigid scoring system while actually enjoying the game is pretty much impossible. Baseball gives you dozens of breaks in the action to shore up any sloppy work you’ve scribbled on the page or to check in with the scoreboard or anyone within earshot who’s also watching.

There are numerous styles and methods announcers use to have a wealth of information about the match at their disposal, but Barnes’s is definitely the most meticulous and the most beautiful. A well thought out matchday spread like his can be the difference between saying, “What a goal by the 21-year old Scottish international who only last month was written off by his former club Chelsea,” or simply stating something like, “Arsenal score a goal!”

They aren’t all as comely as Mr. Barnes’ full color displays as evidenced Arlo White’s method but they are all extremely useful skeleton keys that aid in the accuracy and enjoyment of a match.

I began messing around with doing my own of course and shared with a couple of my football buddies and one of them sent me a link a few weeks ago to Liverpool fan Mari Lewis and her matchday graphics. Her’s are without a doubt the most artistic of the bunch I’ve highlighted here.

So that’s how the match day timeline/graphic/box score/team overview at the end of each match report here on the blog came to be.

Do you have any creative matchday traditions?