Why Do They Keep Messing With Box Scores? (1 Viewer)

[Nipsey]

Remember when box scores in every sports were perfect? Remember when you could look at the box score and quickly scan to see what happened in the entire game? Why do they keep messing with it? I know this sounds like a get off my lawn but remember how easy it was to look at a box score in the newspaper? It used to be easy to look at the box score on the internet. I guess they just changed it again for this year? here is what it is now:

Bills 41-40 Ravens (Sep 7, 2025) Final Score - ESPN

Game summary of the Buffalo Bills vs. Baltimore Ravens NFL game, final score 41-40, from September 7, 2025 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

Yes, when you hit box score there it will show you player stats but it will not show you scoring plays. Remember how easy it used to be? Why make it harder? Who asked for this?

Sorry for the rant. I pulled the main league out late thanks to Josh Allen and had a great weekend in Vegas so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I don't mind that they have all those stats. I mind that there isn't one simple box score available.

Rant on, broheim.

 

[Nipsey]

I don't mind that they have all those stats. I mind that there isn't one simple box score available.

Rant on, broheim.

That's what I'm saying.

 

[zamboni]

I find that Yahoo sports (surprisingly) has a more user friendly way to see all the individual stats. But all of the various apps have their pros and cons.

 

[kupcho1]

The link you posted wasn't to the boxscore. This is it

Bills 41-40 Ravens (Sep 7, 2025) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Buffalo Bills vs. Baltimore Ravens NFL game from September 7, 2025 on ESPN. Includes all passing, rushing and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

This boxscore is absolutely fine.
(FTR, the link you had is riddled with extraneous information including, but not limited to, ESPN Bet "data". I can see why you'd hate it as a boxscore.)

 

[Nipsey]

The link you posted wasn't to the boxscore. This is it

Bills 41-40 Ravens (Sep 7, 2025) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Buffalo Bills vs. Baltimore Ravens NFL game from September 7, 2025 on ESPN. Includes all passing, rushing and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

This boxscore is absolutely fine.
(FTR, the link you had is riddled with extraneous information including, but not limited to, ESPN Bet "data". I can see why you'd hate it as a boxscore.)

How'd they score?!?!

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

The link you posted wasn't to the boxscore. This is it

Bills 41-40 Ravens (Sep 7, 2025) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Buffalo Bills vs. Baltimore Ravens NFL game from September 7, 2025 on ESPN. Includes all passing, rushing and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

This boxscore is absolutely fine.
(FTR, the link you had is riddled with extraneous information including, but not limited to, ESPN Bet "data". I can see why you'd hate it as a boxscore.)

How'd they score?!?!

What Nipsey said. There's no summary of what the scoring plays were, just the scores by quarter. At least, I can't see any.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Doesn’t everyone just use The Score app?

 

[kupcho1]

How'd they score?!?!

What Nipsey said. There's no summary of what the scoring plays were, just the scores by quarter. At least, I can't see any.

Boxscore: a printed score of a game (such as baseball) giving the names and positions of the players and a record of the play arranged in tabular form

Here's one from 1876

Note that neither the definition or the example show a summary of scoring plays. I know newspapers are dead and gone, but if you cast your memory back, you'll remember that there was a finite amount of space for information. Historical figures such as Grantland Rice and Damon Runyon would use the written word to describe what you are asking for in their articles.

The boxscore was/is only intended to convey the statistical information (e.g., hits, errors, WAR). Newspapers did not have the luxury of infinite space (ok, maybe not infinite, but pretty damn close).

The boxscore I linked is an actual boxscore. No play-by-play, no photography, no video highlights. Just a boxscore.

 

[kupcho1]

FYI, I voted "Same as it ever was" because that's the way it is (notwithstanding the misleading example link you included).

 

[Juxtatarot]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

 

[kupcho1]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

They were using Wheaties boxes for gloves back then.

 

[trogg78]

Really rooting for Chicago. I just hope their defense doesn't score 30 pts.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

Were they drunk?

 

[kupcho1]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

Were they drunk?

Stinking drunk.

 

[Juxtatarot]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

Were they drunk?

Boston was so drunk that they had two guys at second base and nobody at third.

 

[Dr_Zaius]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

Were they drunk?

Stinking drunk.

In addition to this, I think gloves were relatively uncommon back in that era, and also the balls were pretty much never replaced so they could become somewhat oblong, resulting in weird flights and bounces.

 

[urbanhack]

SKOL

 

[Don Quixote]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

Were they drunk?

Stinking drunk.

Baseball Reference page on yearly error leaders is interesting. In 1876, Nat Hicks led the league with 94 errors in 45 games.

Yearly League Leaders &amp Records for Errors Committed | Baseball-Reference.com

Yearly League E Leaders:1.Herman Long/122/1889/, Billy Shindle/122/1890/, 3.Frank Fennelly/117/1886/, 4.Phil Tomney/114/1889/, 5.Jim Canavan/113/1891/, 6.Bill Joyce/107/1890/, 7.Frank Fennelly/106/1888/, 8.Bill McClellan/105/1887/, Ed McKean/105/1887/, John Ward+/105/1890/,

www.baseball-reference.com

 

[dgreen]

The link you posted wasn't to the boxscore. This is it

Bills 41-40 Ravens (Sep 7, 2025) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Buffalo Bills vs. Baltimore Ravens NFL game from September 7, 2025 on ESPN. Includes all passing, rushing and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

This boxscore is absolutely fine.
(FTR, the link you had is riddled with extraneous information including, but not limited to, ESPN Bet "data". I can see why you'd hate it as a boxscore.)

How'd they score?!?!

What Nipsey said. There's no summary of what the scoring plays were, just the scores by quarter. At least, I can't see any.

That's under Gamecast.

 

[Juxtatarot]

Here's one from 1876

28 errors?

Were they drunk?

Stinking drunk.

In addition to this, I think gloves were relatively uncommon back in that era, and also the balls were pretty much never replaced so they could become somewhat oblong, resulting in weird flights and bounces.

That kind of explains why defense stats were so prevalent in the box score (errors, put outs, assists) yet there are no pitching stats. I guess the pitcher's job was largely just to throw it over the plate and hope the defense can get the guy out. If I read this box score right, there was only one double and one home run between the two teams. The rest singles and reaching on errors.

 

[Sparky Polastri]

Switch to a diff source? CBS seems to give you all the things you're after. I was on espn several months ago and never again. Their pages are terrible.

 

[Ilov80s]

Doesn’t everyone just use The Score app?

By far my favorite sports app. Relatively simple and uncluttered. Even had short, quickly loading play by play highlights with no commercials.

 

[zamboni]

Here's one from 1876

I had Athletics LF Hall on my fantasy team back then. :winning:

 

[Riffraff]

If you use MFL, just click on the game score blue link and now you have the most basic of box score looking screens with a dropdown to change to a different game.

Just missing the latest scores scroll but does show the score change in the parenthesis.