If there’s one thing I learned about baseball from my pitcher grandpa, it’s that you’re not really watching unless you’re keeping a scorecard. The only cards I’ve ever used have been flimsy things, printed on news stock and quickly tossed in the circular file. But graphic designer Bethany Heck is attempting to inject a little style into the genre with the Halfliner Scorebook, a luxurious-looking scorecard that hit Kickstarter a few days ago.
The Halfliner is based on feedback from customers who bought Heck’s first scorecard, which was funded on Kickstarter back in 2011. Users asked for things like a rigid chipboard case that serves as a support for writing and space for more games (this one has room for 81). The super minimal graphic design allows more space for notation, too, plus an intro to the sport for n00bs and extra innings, sub slots, and stats columns. According to Heck, everyone has their own weird habits and notations, and the Halfliner is attempt to give devotees enough room to do their own thing. “Scorekeeping is a personal expression,” she says in her pitch. “I wanna give fans the cleanest scorebook experience possible.”
Heck is the founder of the Eephus League, a project that began as her senior thesis at Auburn in 2010. The company — which is named for the awkwardly high, slow pitch — began as a way to articulate “baseball’s beauty, oddities and wonderful fans”. It’s since blossomed into a beautifully designed online magazine and shop devoted to the minutiae of the sport — of which there is an almost unlimited supply.
