Wherever actor Tom Hanks has gone in life, baseball has followed.
As a child in Northern California, he cheered on the Oakland Athletics. An internship with the Great Lakes Theater Festival introduced him to the Cleveland Guardians. And of course, he played one of the great baseball film roles as Jimmy Dugan in
It should come as no surprise that Hanks is the kind of diehard fan who would fill out a scorecard while attending a game. That's precisely what he did Thursday as he took in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 5–4 win over the Detroit Tigers.
Hanks requested that MLB declare the scorecard "OFFICIAL & APPROVED," and baseball lightheartedly obliged.
The level of detail on the official scorecard is familiar to all amateur scorekeepers. Look at the backward K's, borderline unintelligible handwriting in spots, and smudges denoting devotion to accuracy.
There may be no crying in baseball, but the art of keeping score lives on.