sorry, i'm new

Teams that are playing! This is from a New York Mets vs Miami Marlins game.

Current score. Marlins have one run, Mets have zero. (Also let's get this out of the way now, yes, they can be called runs or points. Both get used. The one thing they aren't are goals!)

Runner positions on base. There's one guy on first, so there's no one in scoring position.

Current outs. There are no outs! There's only two dots because as soon as they get the third out, the inning is over and the dots disappear entirely. (Some broadcasts use 3 dots, I just don't like it. 2 dots; nice, simple, concise.)

Inning information. This is the bottom of the 7th inning, meaning it's getting near the end of the game, and the home team (Mets) are batting. When the Marlins get that third out, as mentioned above, this will change to read END 7th instead.

Count! That's the word used to quickly refer to the batters balls and strikes. ("What's the count?") This batter has 3 balls and 2 strikes, which is also known as a full count.

Pitcher. Miami's pitcher Sandy Alcantara is pitching.

Pitch clock. Again, pitch clock rules and violations can get a little complex, but essentially, this is how long the pitcher gets to throw their pitch. Here, the full time would be 18 seconds.

Number of pitches. How many pitches this pitcher has thrown. I believe Alcantara was also the Marlins' starting pitcher this game, so he's been pitching for a while here.

At Bat. Mets 1st baseman (for today) Jared Young is batting, and the number 6 represents that he is 6th in the batting order (out of 9).

Batter's record. (Honestly there's probably a real name for this but I'm not sure what it is.) This one shows that Young has been up to bat twice, and was put out both times. (If you're curious, it was a strikeout and a groundout.)

See what I mean? That's so much good info in a tiny graphic!!!

Let's also talk about another graphic that I hope comes to WPBL soon. These types will pop up when a player comes up for an at bat. (Also some of these lines I don't know the official name for! I just know what they mean, sowwy)

Player and Position. This is Francisco Lindor, and he's a shortstop on the Mets.

Record for this game. Here he's recorded 2 at bats (walks don't count as a recorded at bat), and he hit the ball once.

On base record for this game. Even though walks don't get recorded as an at bat, he did make it on base. With his other hit, he made it on base twice.

His plate appearances in the diamond scorekeeping form. First inning, he struck out looking (backwards k). Fourth inning, he was walked. 5th inning, he hit the ball and made it to first base. These stats on the bottom line are all season stats.

Batting average. Batter's stat from dividing the total of base hits by the number of times at bat (with some exceptions). At .229, he's like... literally fine. Nothing special, lol.

Home runs. Number of home runs Lindor hit this season. (Home run - hitting the ball far enough that the player goes around all the bases in one go. Usually this is by hitting the ball out of the park, but if the defensive team fucks up enough, you can also get what's called a "little league home run". I don't think that's like... an official stat keeping term? But you will hear it thrown around.)

Run(s) Batted In. How many runs were able to be scored because Lindor was at bat.

OPS (On Base plus Slugging). Check out my original definitions post for a fuller definition for OPS, but essentially this is a metric of how productive he is for at bats. With .729, Wikipedia grades him as "average".

There's also a lot more things they can pop up on screen, but those get more specific, like about a pitcher's stats, someones salary, how long they've been out injured, etc. etc. The most important thing to know about baseball is that it is ALL ABOUT STATS. Everything is a statistic! Keeping your own scorecard during the game is a common activity!! So this should all get you started if you've never watched before.

Ok, now with all this info, let's do an easy graphic (but not from TV). Take a look at this one (also I swear to god I tried to pull this from the WPBL website but it's just not at all thorough. And I wanted one where the bottom of the 9th wasn't played):

Try your best before reading the next section!

Ok, going left to right, top to bottom.

This was a Marlins vs Mets game at the Mets home stadium. the Marlins have a record of 55 wins and 55 losses, while the Mets stand at 47 wins and 63 losses (You may be looking at this record and thinking, "hey man, it seems like your team loses a lot." Yeah. They do. A lot. They're kind of the bane of my existence. And my mother's existence. And my grandmother's existence. It's a generational wound, you know?)

Marlins are ranked 3rd in their shared division (National League East), while Mets are ranked 5th (aka last). The final score was 4-2, with the Mets taking the win.

The Marlins scored once in the fourth and seventh innings. Mets scored two in the sixth inning and two in the eighth. The X indicates that the bottom of the ninth was not played, since the home team was already leading.

The Marlins ended the game with 2 runs, 7 hits, and 1 error. The Mets ended the game with 4 runs, 6 hits, and 1 error.

Mets pitcher Raley was recorded as the winning pitcher, making his record for this season 5 wins and 5 losses. He has a 2.01 average of earned runs in those appearances. Marlins pitcher Peterson was recorded as the losing pitcher, making his record 1 win and 2 losses. He has an average of 3.20 earned runs. Mets pitcher Williams is credited with a save, for pitching the last inning. This is his 16th save of the season.

(Earned Run - any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team.)

I think that the WPBL is also running with four umps, but I have to admit I'm not entirely sure. They might be using only three umps, and in that case I've seen (in MiLB Triple A games) one ump moving to stand behind the pitcher to essentially cover both first and second base.

Now let's talk about their signals!

The most common signals you'll see from umps are strike, safe, and out. There's also ball, but that's not technically a signal - when a pitch is deemed a ball, umps just move out of their squat to reset before the next pitch.

Strikes have the ump turning to their right, most of the time I've seen them pointing. UmpireBible.com also says they can use a fist. It looks like this:

Umps are supposed to signal strike three a little differently - just kind of put more pizzazz into it. It's my understanding that it can vary a bit from ump to ump, but it usually looks like this:

"strike three, yerrrrrr OUT!"

These next two, you'll see at bases. First one is out, which will have the ump bringing up their closed fist:

There's also safe, where the ump will bring out both arms from the center of their chest:

The last thing we'll (probably) commonly see from them is calling for time. If the batter isn't set when the pitcher is ready, or in other similar scenarios, they can ask the umpire for time, which resets the pitch clock. The pitch clock will get its own post, don't worry!