Keeping Score

This is one of our roses that I shot in honor of Macro May.

One of the things that influenced Doug and I when we decided to buy the iPad was our love of minor league baseball. The first app we purchased was ESPN iScore Baseball, though when I researched it before the 3G iPad was released it didn't have the ESPN moniker.

I'll admit right here and now that I find baseball to be a little slow and boring. I prefer to sit at the games and knit or do crosswords while I watch. I have a short attention span. So one of the things that I learned to do, with Doug's help, was to keep score. We bought scorebooks and I kept score. It forced me to learn about the game and, more importantly at the time, to pay attention to the game. I say "at the time" because we used to sit on the first base side in the bleachers where a foul ball could be life threatening. If I was reading or knitting or whatever and not paying attention, I could get smacked in the head with a foul ball before Doug could dive in front of me.

I liked keeping score but when we started sitting in the box seats behind home plate (and behind the netting) it became harder to see what was happening on the field. I didn't have to worry about foul balls anymore so gradually I went back to reading, knitting and crosswords.

The iPad and iScore has changed all that. Now we take turns scoring (I score the visitors and Doug scores the Suns) and I am having to learn all over again how to score a game. What's worse is that now it seems to go so fast that I can't always keep up.

We attracted some attention when we first showed up at the game with our iPad and started keeping score. The Suns assistant manager Joel wanted to know more about it and sat with us for a while to see how it worked. He later downloaded the iPhone version and messed with it enough to see the potential. He now sees to it that the starting lineups are emailed to me before game time so we don't have to waste time setting that up.

One of the scouts who are always there came over and asked about it also. I hoped he checked it out some more because I know it could make his life easier.

I sometimes sit at home and watch baseball on tv now so I can practice scoring. Before the iPad I considered that to be akin to watching paint dry but know I'm so busy trying to figure out what happened that I can't keep up. This has turned out to be so much fun that I really look forward to games. I'd like to be able to score every play exactly right but I think it will be a while before I reach that level, if ever.

So for now the knitting stays home and I'm getting things done a little more slowly but they are getting done. I finished Eva last weekend but I haven't worked in the ends or blocked it yet. I'm almost done with the India Stole, less than 100 rows left with each one being two stitches shorter than the last. When it's done I'm going back the Evenstar shawl. So despite the attraction of the iPad and the rush of baseball, I'm still getting some knitting done. Just a little more slowly.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad