Tim Kurkjian Baseball Fix - The magic of box scores and how an obsession was born

You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.

ON THIS DATE IN 1908, Henry Chadwick died.

Chadwick, a Hall of Famer, is known as the "Father of Baseball" for his early reporting on the game and for his contributions to the development of the game. He edited the first baseball guide that was sold to the public. And, he is credited with the creation of the box score.

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The box score, while read over a cup of coffee or a Diet Mountain Dew, is the perfect start to the morning for many baseball fans. It often tells the story of the game, but there is so much there, especially if you know what you're looking for. Thirty years ago, Angels manager Gene Mauch showed me how to tell who made the final out in a game just by examining a box score with all its elements: left on base, at-bats, sacrifices, etc. The new, expanded box scores of the past 20 years paint an even more vivid picture of every game.

For a 20-year period, 1990-2010, without missing a day, I cut out every box score from a newspaper and taped it in my box score book, a daily ritual that I've determined, at 15 minutes per day, has cost me 40 days of my pathetic life. But alas, I am not alone in that love.

Charles Krauthammer, the late, great essayist, once told me, "I read the front page for 90 seconds every day, then I go straight to the box scores." To which, George Will, equally brilliant a writer and as ardent a lover of the game, then said, "Why do you waste the 90 seconds?"

There are so many memorable box score lines. In 2011, the Royals made five errors and were no-hit by the Angels, but scored a run, so their runs-hits-errors line was a first in history: 1-0-5. That same year, Clayton Kershaw posted a 9-0-0-0-0-15, the only pitcher to throw a no-hitter with no walks and exactly 15 strikeouts.

In 2007, starting pitcher Manny Parra's 3-3-3-3-3-3 pitching line was the first of its kind since Sonny Siebert's in 1975. And every day, I check the box score to see if anyone has recorded what I call a reverse triple double: two strikeouts, two errors and two grounded-into-double plays in one game. Kurt Bevacqua (1978) is the only player to do that since GIDPs became an official statistic in the late 1930s.

In the famous 30-3 victory by the Rangers over the Orioles on Aug. 22, 2007, the eighth hitter (Jarrod Saltalamacchia) and the ninth hitter (Ramon Vazquez) had these batting lines, respectively: 6-5-4-7 and 6-4-4-7, marking the only time in major league history that the eighth and ninth hitters each had seven RBIs in a game. A friend, Christopher Black, sent me that box score as a surprise present. It is 3-x-3 and weighs 10 pounds. It sits in my office; I look it every day.

Thank you, Christopher. Mostly, thank you, Henry Chadwick.

Other baseball notes for April 20

• In 1988, the Orioles went to 0-14 -- the most losses ever to start a season. Before that game, Orioles pitcher Scott McGregor asked me when all the national media would finally go home. "As soon as you win one game," I told him, "they will all go home."

• In 2006, Julio Franco became the oldest player (47 years, 240 days) to hit a home run in the major leagues. Many times, I saw him take batting practice with a full-sized batting donut on his bat, and watched him hit line drives all over the fence. "I have no idea how he can do that," his manager with the Rangers, Bobby Valentine, said.

• In 1961, Don Mattingly was born. One day late in his career, he took batting practice alone at 9 a.m. on the field at Yankee Stadium in the rain. There was nothing to play for that day, but, he said, "I swung the bat so badly yesterday, I couldn't go home for the winter with that on my mind."

• In 1939, Ted Williams made his debut at Yankee Stadium. Sixty-four years later, comedian Billy Crystal told me this story about his first Red Sox-Yankees memory at Yankee Stadium: "I was sitting right up there [Crystal pointed to the upper deck on the first base side]. Ted Williams strikes out against Bobby Shantz in the second game of a doubleheader. Thirty years later, I meet Mr. Williams. I said, 'I have home movies of you striking out against Bobby Shantz in the second game of a doubleheader at the stadium.' He looked at me and I swear, Tim, he said, 'Curveball low and away.' He said, 'Ellie [Yankees catcher Elston Howard] dropped it and tagged me, right?' I said, 'Yes, that's it!'"