Scoreboards

It’s understood that apple pie and American baseball are two of our iconic claims to fame as a culture. Baseball is played in every town, city, school and open field in our country and we have established a complete set of traditions that blend with the sport. With so many sports choices and excellent players and teams in the U.S., how did baseball take the top spot as the favorite?

I grew up sitting in the bleachers, watching my Mom play on a women’s team in Missouri. This was a team of working women, most of the moms, and were some of the hardest playing games I ever saw. With a semi-pro player like my mother, I couldn’t begin to compete, but she gave us the legacy of the love of baseball. Another of her legacies was that we should never take ourselves too seriously. We shared many a day watching ball on television and laughed until tears ran down our faces when we saw a blooper, something silly or a player performing out of character. Some of these have become quite popular, being played and replayed on the electronic scoreboards to the joy of the fans.

150 years offers a lot of leeway for the development of traditions in baseball. There is always an evolution of rules and guidelines when it comes to sports; and in most cases, these are established based on safety or fairness. Baseball, however, has some rather unusual or downright weird rules for the game. As you watch the game and view the electronic scoreboard with confusion, keep these in mind and the fact that they are completely legal.

American baseball continues to top the sports arena as most popular. Around the world, baseball is the all-time American sport and stands up there in status with apple pie and hot dogs. There are, however, some rather interesting facts about this favored game that only those true aficionados are aware of.

The 1971 World Series game stands out as a game-changer. It was the first official World Series game that was played at night. This also brought about changes for all electronic scoreboards needed and used for future World Series games.

Cumming, Georgia is the kind of smaller town that makes you catch your breathe. There is a grace and charm that can only be attributed to the south. This is an area where people smile, waive and look you in the eyes when they are talking. There is a sincere interest in folks you speak to and a genuineness that seems to be a rarity these days. There is a calm beauty as you stroll around the streets and the town itself is a fine blend of the love of life, country and nature.

Shibe Park opened in 1909 and was the perfect example of the kind of baseball parks that represented that era. Major League baseball in the early twentieth century had set precedence for the kind of parks that were being designed. The reinforced concrete, large bleacher areas and underground garage was accented with a domed tower. Shibe Park was not only a place to go, but over the years was an icon of Philadelphia. The fans, the summer, the park and the scoreboards reflected the times as they were at that moment.

Hannibal, Missouri is famous for being the hometown of Mark Twain. From the moment you step into Hannibal, you realize it is a piece of Americana that will remain embedded in your memory forever. Baseball is an important element for the residents and so it was a very big deal when their beloved Clemens Field got a new electronic scoreboard.

Clemens Field is named after Samuel Clemens, which was Mark Twain’s real name. For years it has had the old style manual scoreboard that supported the fans that attended the Hannibal Cavemen games. Someone actually had to sit there and manually change the numbers, in the hot sun. The new electronic scoreboard is twenty seven feet long and the attendees will now be able to see the actual names of the teams, instead of the old ‘home and visitor’ that was viewed on the old board. The new addition for the fans will also display the important aspects of the game, such as each team’s number of balls, strikes and the number of outs. Every baseball fan knows that this is the crucial info at every game. The old board was small and the information difficult to see with the light bulb lights. The team and fans will now have no trouble seeing everything on the scoreboard, thanks to the LED lighting and the large lettering and number sizes.

Raleigh is one of the few U.S. cities that were actually built with plans for it to be a state capital. What few people know is that the location was chosen because it was only eleven miles from the most popular tavern that was popular with the legislators of the state. The Raleigh of today represents the many years of planning and devotion to create a city that proudly displays its history along side with some of the top industries in the nation. Raleigh is also home to some of the hottest hockey games in any of the sourthern states. The PNC Arena hosts record attendance with the hockey scoreboards vibrating with the electricity of the games and the Center-Finley Stadium has some of the best baseball games that you will ever see.

The city name of Montgomery, Alabama denotes visions as the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches for equality. However, Montgomery is also home to some of the best baseball and football games and fans around. Sports fans make sure they attend in record crowds, with the Cranston Bowl stadium packed and the baseball scoreboards as the main focus for each point that's gained. The Montgomery area has its roots that extend back to the colonial days of settlement and is actually built upon the land of two Native American tribes.