Accuracy and Legibility

In a lot of what we do in sports, we deal with rosters, and lineups. This is seen in all sports, but especially in a sport like baseball. I'm going to refer to rosters throughout this post, but that includes baseball lineup cards. 

It's so vital that rosters are both accurate and legible. 

Accuracy means having everyone listed and having all necessary information listed. This means all uniform numbers and positions are included and correct. If a player switched numbers from originally listed, that's okay, just made the change. 

Whether it's the PA announcer, broadcaster, writer, or anyone else, we want to be accurate with what is being reported. The only way we can is if we get accurate information given to us. Sure, we can search around, but we shouldn't need to, and we are taking chances at trying to piece through information. 

If people are missing on the rosters completely, then we have to go searching for that, and we don't want to show up teams and coaches either. 

In terms of legibility, not everyone has the best handwriting. I get that. I'm a prime example. That's totally okay. Then type and print out a roster. There are many templates, or you can make your own. There's also a way, if teams use Game Changer to keep score, to print out rosters that way. 

This way, everyone isn't guessing what the spelling is and therefore possibly saying a name wrong. Yes, those in PA or broadcasting still might need pronunciations on certain names, but it makes it much easier if the roster can be read.  

Even for writers and people doing social media posts, it's important to have the correct spellings so the names are correct in print. Whether that be online, or truly in a real newspaper. 

I'm sure some of you are reading this and saying, why should coaches be expected to provide rosters. Well, when it comes to a sport like baseball, or softball, we can print rosters, if they are available, but we still need the accurate lineup cards for each game. We can't just guess that. 

Also, even if only numbers are needed, in a basketball scorebook, for example, include names. It just looks better. More professional. Honestly, include as much information on a roster as you can. Obviously name (first and last) and number (where applicable for sport) is important, but position, and then sometimes height and weight any anything else that are sport specific are always helpful. 

I could ramble more on this, and I probably have other things I want to say that I am forgetting, but I won't bore you anymore.