My junior twelvemonth of high school was the last class I would meet competitory baseball game . As the season came to a close , I sat in the last rowing of the team bus on a return trip from a secret plan that was play three hours away . I had the scorebook on one knee , and a slice of newspaper and penitentiary on another . Thomas Nelson Page by varlet , diamond - occupy second power by infield - fill lame , I went through the book and tally my batten average , runs batted in , errors , and a muckle of other baseball stats .
The tedious process took the entire drive back , yet it matte up like metre well spent . I knew where I did and did n’t conduce to the team throughout the time of year , and was able-bodied to confirm I was in the thick of the honest season I ’d ever had . But I was the only one that have it off any of this , as I was the only one that actually take the clip to go through the Word of God .
That bus ride is the first thing that came to mind as I get off the phone withGameChangerCEO Ted Sullivan . GameChanger is a destitute appfor iPhone and iPad that offers a digital alternative to the paper scorebook long used for sporting event .
On the surface , GameChanger is likely nothing more than a digital scorebook . The app replace the sloppy quite a little of bound newspaper baby-sit on the scorer ’s mesa at a hoops , softball , baseball , and ( soon ) lacrosse biz . strike here for a base hit . feeling there for a baseless pitch shot . Press here and here to log a foul and enumerate the basket .
Stats are automatically calculated in real - time and provided to anyone who follows a team or player . “ If only this technology existed when I play summercater , ” I think , while going over the app for the first time .
Besides baseball , you could give chase basketball and softball games , too , with lacrosse come presently .
But there ’s much , much more to the app than just roll up statistics .
Sullivan estimates that marking at 95 percentage of inexpert games is done using pencil and composition . And what ’s more , most of the score holding is go forth up to volunteers . From my experience , many volunteers often do n’t amply understand how to decently tally a plot , lead to wrong statistic — a fact that can have an impact on the dreams of vernal thespian who desire to play in college and beyond .
GameChanger aims to be “ collector of all in - secret plan amateur fun data point , ” according to Sullivan . By eliminating the eruditeness curve of how to properly score a game through prompts , the data Sullivan wants to take in is easier to record and more likely to be accurate .
Statistics and scouting reports aside , perhaps the most hefty aspect of GameChanger is that it allows for a parent to follow a child ’s game — in real - prison term — should he or she be stuck at work , overseas , or anywhere with an internet connection .
Take the game alert you ’ve long associated with your favorite athletics app , and lend oneself that to your shaver ’s little league or mellow school game . you could have a text alert when Katie gets a base bang , then congratulate her using FaceTime after the game without waiting to hear how the game become ; you already know . Or if the game did n’t quite go Johnny ’s way , you could offer encouragement without impel him to detail how bad of a secret plan it really was .
I talked with Dwight Schmidt , a baseball autobus , Marine , and air hose pilot who has used GameChanger for the last six years . He was able to cover the experience as both a motorbus , and a parent of untried jock .
Schmidt severalise me as a passenger vehicle he ’s able to “ keep tabs on pitch counts to combatTommy John injuries , ” along with ensure he is playing all kids fairly . He also utilize GameChanger stats to pinpoint areas for each musician to work on improving . good of all , the information is available as soon as it ’s go into . He no longer has to spend hours combing through a “ paper scorebook with [ a ] stubby pencil and eraser ” to compile the stats on his own .
As a parent , he ’s power up his iPhone in South Korea or Afghanistan and received alert from both of his sons ’ games — something that intend a lot to him , and clearly so .
My kids are n’t old enough to follow within GameChanger , but I did keep abreast some teams who expend the app . I watched a live game in Georgia , and was mesmerize by the secret plan updates forever updating within the app . At times there was a bit of a wait , which was followed up by a speedy stream of what had occurred . But overall , you get the cosmopolitan idea of what ’s going on in the game beyond what the score is .
After the game is over , GameChanger process the stats from a biz and creates a newspaper worthy review , that is then emailed to pay following of a squad .
GameChanger is free for coaches , who can then tot two extra admins to the account . The three accounts conflate can keep score and have full accession to a team . Parents can signal up and become a “ buff ” of a team for free , with entree to live scores . If you want to receive hot update and in - astuteness stats , you’re able to signalize up for a monthly plan of $ 40 per year , or $ 8 a month .
I often blab about my jealousy towards the current generation growing up with approach to engineering science I could have only dreamed of when I was young . GameChanger is a prime illustration of my jealousy . Instead of sifting through pageboy after varlet of barely legible handwriting in a scorebook manage by a freshman volunteer on the bus drive home , I could have only dream of set up an app on a contraption holler an iPhone and viewing my stats . Who knows , perchance a pathfinder would have direct notice of the season I was having and encouraged me to keep playing .
