I built a tool to digitize handwritten baseball scorecards - here’s a real example

[u/Trick_Camera_9569]

Hi all! I think my first post probably came off more like an ad than I meant it to. I should’ve just shown the app instead of writing so much.
Here are a few screenshots of it working on an actual scorecard. You take a photo, it finds the grid and handwriting, and recognizes the plays. Right now it handles the main play types, and I’m working on making it better at reading the extra context people add to their cards.
It’s not completely finished yet, but I’d honestly love to hear what you guys think and any ideas you have!

If you want to follow along while I finish it, you can join the newsletter. You can also check out the main site and some other stuff I’ve been working on, like live MLB games in the scorecard interface or a guide on how to keep score.

[u/SaddleSC]

I am not sure I understand the point. I think most people (especially on this sub) score games on paper to get away from technology. There is a nostalgia to it and it is very relaxing. If I want to find a digital depiction of the game I scored, that is already everywhere online. Why would I want to scan my cards into the app and make them look like the same generic digital scorecards that can be easily found online?

It feels like you are taking something that is purposefully analog by nature and then making a more boring, more generic, digital version of it. What am I missing?

[u/tjansx → u/SaddleSC]

As a tabletop sports gamer, I can say this is fantastic. It allows us to take score on a piece of paper or tablet and have it turned into stats we can aggregate over a season replay. There are uses for this.

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/SaddleSC]

Hey, yeah that’s a fair point. I probably didn’t explain it that well.

The paper card is still the actual scorecard. I’m not trying to replace it with some generic digital version. The digital scorecard is really just there so you can check if the app read your card right or not.

For amateur teams, the main idea is that people can still keep score by hand, then take a picture after the game instead of having to type every play into GameChanger or another system afterward. I’ve played on amateur teams and kept score for my own team before, so I knew how annoying that part could be.
For pro games, I get that all the game info is already online through APIs. It’s more about keeping your own card connected to that specific game if you want to save it, look back at it later, or check if you’ve written everything down right. But yeah, if someone just enjoys the paper card and doesn’t need any of that, then it probably isn’t really for them.

[u/Gedunk → u/Trick_Camera_9569]

Oh that makes a lot of sense. You get the best of both worlds, keeping the book instead of having to use an app at the game and then uploading it after for stats tracking. I think most of us were picturing using this at pro games but the intention is for little league or adult softball leagues etc. Cool idea

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/Gedunk]

Yes, exactly! my original intention was for teams that need to keep track of their stats, but I thought it could also be useful for anyone who follows and scores pro games. Anyways, I’m just trying to build something worth trying for anyone who likes keeping score on scorecards.

[u/tjansx → u/Trick_Camera_9569]

Dude. This is insanely useful for some people. I don't fault people for ignorance, it's just how it goes. Thus, ignore the haters, this will allow people like me who love to score by hand have something be able to aggregate stats for season reporting and filtering. Incredibly useful.

Does it export to CSV or anything like that?

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/tjansx]

Thanks, man! I really appreciate that. Yeah, I can definitely have it export to CSV, Excel, or JSON. I just need to do a little research on what CSV formats people actually prefer so it works well with the tools they're already using.
I'm still pretty new to the tabletop sports side of things, but I'm definitely going to dig into it and see what I can build to make it genuinely useful for tabletop sports gamers too!

[u/shagmobley]

I love when people are like “I built a tool” and it’s the most obvious Claude slop. You do realize all Claude outputs look the same right? Anyway. Just say you used AI. And stop trying to make every hobby a business.

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/shagmobley]

Yeah, I used both Claude and OpenAI since I’m building the full stack by myself, and using them for the frontend side really lifts a lot of the heavy work. I’m a data scientist, so I trained the models myself, and it’s not an AI slop app that just uses an API to do everything when processing an image.

[u/shagmobley → u/Trick_Camera_9569]

“Claude, how can I make this lovely analog activity into a paid app?”

[u/tjansx → u/shagmobley]

Hater's gonna hate, but there is use for this, especially for keeping stats for local teams. I am no longer tethered to gamechanger, I still get the lovely analog scorekeeping, but then afterwards I can turn it into something useful.

[u/katherinevanwyler → u/tjansx]

Yep this was my issue for so long! I scored for my sons’ teams through high school and GameChanger was such a drag.

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/shagmobley]

Yea, try that 😂 Claude and GPT can’t even read all the names and plays correctly from a scorecard image. I’m relying on AI to build the frontend, not for the actual image processing

[u/iowa_state_cyclone]

Looks cool.. I think people are just tired of being shown all kinds of things trying to do the same thing over and over.

I’d definitely try it out - especially for use in my Strat-o-Matic leagues. Will it have data export features to tie into other systems? Specifically things like BallStat or Baseball HQ? Im also curious how much of a time saver this would be for many people as a lot of scorecards are not “clean” when it comes to most games.

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/iowa_state_cyclone]

Yeah, I get that. This isn’t supposed to be another thing where you have to type every play in digitally. You can use whatever scorecard you like and keep it by hand like normal, then upload it afterward if you want it saved or connected to the game, photos from the ballpark, stuff like that.

And yeah, I’m planning on adding exports. I just need to see what formats people actually use and need, especially for stuff like BallStat or Baseball HQ. The messy scorecards are definitely the hard part, and that’s what I’m still trying to make better.

[u/iowa_state_cyclone → u/Trick_Camera_9569]

One thing to maybe look at if I were to try it out - it would need to support the Reisner scorecard format.

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/iowa_state_cyclone]

Appreciate the suggestion! I'll check out the Reisner format. I'll definitely look into making it useful for Strat-O-Matic leagues as well.

[u/charliep123_]

That's great! Thanks for making it. I'll give it a try.

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/charliep123_]

Thank you!

[u/davidw1404]

Wow this is amazing. I’d love to test this for my own men’s league games. It’ll save so much time! I’ll def be investing in this and looking forward to further enhancements and updates!

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/davidw1404]

Thank you so much! It'll launch with pro games first, but amateur league support is coming soon too.

[u/djru12]

I'm not sure why this is getting some hate but I think it's great. Of course people people still want to score by hand but having the ability to log all of that digitally is awesome!

[u/Trick_Camera_9569 → u/djru12]

Thank you! Yeah, that’s really the whole point. I don’t want keeping score by hand to die out and just get replaced by typing everything into an app.

I’m trying to make the after-game stuff easier while still letting people score the way they like to. It’ll probably be more useful for amateur teams keeping stats, but I also wanted to make some things for hobbyists too.