Stishan stays active in baseball as Scrappers scorekeeper
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NILES - When it comes to the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, nothing gets by Ethan Stishan.
Every strike, every out, every throw over to first base, Stishan takes note.
In fact, more than just taking notes, Stishan documents every moment of every home game, and he hasn't missed a single pitch since the start of the 2022 season.
Stishan is the official scorekeeper of the Scrappers. In essence, his duty is to record the outcome of every pitch and every play at games played at 7 17 Credit Union Field. He is also responsible for determining hits versus errors, wild pitches versus passed balls and other official game rulings.
A Leavittsburg native, Stishan is a 2018 graduate of LaBrae High School and a 2022 graduate of Thiel College. He played baseball and football at LaBrae through his junior season, then focused on track and field. He carried that over to college, where he threw the javelin at Thiel for four years. He also served as the sports director and then station manager for Thiel's college radio station.
Stishan works in the technology department at an area bank, and he lives just a long home run away from his perch in the Scrappers' press box.
Like many hardcore baseball fans, Stishan grew up keeping score from time to time as a hobby. When attending Cleveland games, he might purchase a pre-printed scorecard and lineup and keep track of the game from the stands. He occasionally served as an unofficial scorekeeper for his brother's baseball teams.
"It was always fun, it was a cool way of keeping you in the game," Stishan said. "It made things more interesting, being able to look back and see how the game has played out while it's still going on."
Stishan is much more serious and attentive regarding his role as a scorekeeper in the MLB Draft League, noting that "one lazy call" by an official scorer can completely change the look of a boxscore - and a player's stats.
"You want to be absolutely sure you get every call right," Stishan said. "It might not mean much to a typical fan. It's not going to change the outcome of a game, but it can mean a lot to the players.
"Making the ruling of whether a batter reached base by way of a hit or error changes the hitter's batting average. It can drastically change a pitcher's ERA. Depending on how the inning plays out, it can be the difference between zero earned runs or nine earned runs. You owe it to the players and to the game to get it right."
Stishan said that some rulings are easier to make than others. For him, the infield chopper is the toughest call to make.
"You might have a ball slowly bouncing through the infield, and it takes some awkward bounces to the second baseman and that causes him to mishandle the ball, throw late or to throw offline," Stishan said. "It's always tough to give an error in those situations.
"With our new turf, those plays are much fewer and far between."
Managers from both teams always have the option to dispute one of Stishan's calls, and his rulings can be changed after a game. Stishan said that such disputes "are pretty rare," and even when they do surface, they are almost always resolved in a timely and amicable manner.
"I'd say that nine out of ten times, the manager will hear my side, or he'll look at the replay and that's the end of it," Stishan said.
There are the exceptions.
Several years ago, a pitching coach from an opposing team left the dugout and came up to the press box during a game to dispute a ruling. A back-and-forth discussion lasted roughly 20 minutes - all while Stishan was charting the game.
"The league commissioner, who happened to be in the ball park that night, had to take the coach outside the press box to cool him down," Stishan said.
Another time, an opposing manager emailed the Scrappers requesting a scoring change. The request eventually landed with the league's stat crew, who determined Stishan made the right call.
Technology has helped Stishan. Because all Draft League games are streamed online, he can go back and review a play almost instantly to help in a ruling decision. When the Scrappers were part of the New York-Penn League, the official scorer used to work with a physical scorebook. At the end of each half inning the scorekeeper would have to phone into the league office with a play-by-play description of the inning. Today, game details are uploaded on the league website almost instantaneously, pitch-by-pitch.
In fact, when Stishan began with the Scrappers in 2022, he was handed a paper scorebook. Because of his extensive background in IT and coding, Stishan knew there must be a better way.
"I hated the generic scorebook, so the next year I bought my own," Stishan said. "I still wasn't a fan. Then I made my own score sheets, but I still hated the paper method and having the print copies and all that.
"I kept thinking there must be a better way. I bring my laptop to every game. My job is to write code and work with Excel. Why not put that all to use?"
Last year Stishan created a fully automated computerized version of scoring a baseball game, which makes his nights easier, and which has caught the attention of every MLB data coordinator who visits 7 17 Credit Union Field.
Since assuming his role with the Scrappers, Stishan said that he now follows the game as a fan differently than he did in years past.
"Anytime I'm at a game or watching a game online and there's a play that could go either way, I'll immediately look up at the scoreboard to see if it was ruled a hit or an error," Stishan said. "Sometimes I'll question the decision, but then I'll remind myself, 'That's why they are Major League scorekeepers.'
"Having a deeper statistical analysis of the rules of the game and such, I definitely look at the game a bit differently now."
So, with the MLB Draft League being a showcase league, is Stishan showcasing his talents in hopes of becoming a big league scorekeeper?
"I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it, but at the same time I love what I do here," Stishan said. "I'm comfortable here. I grew up coming to Scrappers games. I have met Scrappers players who made it to the big leagues, and who I'm still friends with to this day.
"I'm very happy where I'm at. I'm happy to be able to work for an organization like the Scrappers. It's been a lot of fun."