These pages are keepsakes

In the May 30 issue of Sports Illustrated, Steve Rushin wrote a column in which he lamented the decline of scorekeeping at baseball games. ''Hardly anybody keeps score at baseball games anymore," he declared.

Gee. Steve, I do.

Going to a baseball game -- any baseball game -- without keeping score is incomprehensible to me. I'm always ready. When baseball season comes, I do not leave town without my cherished BBWAA scorebook. Hey, you never know when a baseball game will break out. That's why when I found myself in Phoenix covering the NBA's Western Conference finals in 1984, I was ready when the University of North Carolina rolled into nearby Tempe to play Arizona State on a convenient off day in the Suns-Lakers series. The Sun Devils beat the Tar Heels, 6-4, before 2,402, but that's not the half of it. I mean, do you have Barry Bonds in any of your scorebooks, batting third and playing left field for Arizona State? Well, I do (He was 2 for 3 with a run, a walk and -- what a shock -- an intentional walk).

Bonds, in fact, was one of eight players in that game who made it to the bigs. Ready for this? Leading off for North Carolina and catching (that's correct) was a kid named B.J. Surhoff (1 for 4). Batting second for the Tar Heels was Walter Weiss (0 for 5). The leadoff man for Arizona State wasn't bad, either. Remember Oddibe McDowell? He was 2 for 4, including his 22d homer of the season.

I always liked to score, but there was a time I didn't score every game.

The scoresheet from Oct. 1, 1967, hangs in my home office, for example, but during the '60s and '70s I didn't always have a book handy. That changed in 1977, when I went on the Red Sox beat. I covered 132 regular-season games, plus 10 more in the postseason, and I have them all in my book.

I was so fired up I even scored every one of the 24 exhibition games I covered. I don't do exhibition games anymore.

But I do everything else, and I mean everything. Rushin's ode to scoring got me thinking: Just what do I have in the seven scorebooks (including the current one) in that office?

Here's a breakdown: There are 520 Red Sox regular-season Fenway Park games, 169 Red Sox road games, 122 postseason games, and 234 ''other" games (games in other major league parks, minor league games, three 1996 Olympic softball games, including the gold medal game, one Cuba-Netherlands Olympic baseball game, and that Arizona State-North Carolina game).

Yeah, I know. Most of you probably think I need to construct somewhat more of a life. Hey, I've been to the Louvre, OK? I know names and birth dates of my wife, kids, and grandkids, even. So there.

In case anyone asks, I have games from 36 major league baseball parks and 33 minor league parks. Sure, there are a lot of mundane games in there, and, of course, there's a lot of obvious historical givens (e.g. the Bucky Dent game, 2004 Yankee Game 7, and all the good stuff from last year), but there's also a lot of oddball material; you know, the things that make baseball the greatest of all sports conversational topics:

For example:

Rick Burleson, Fred Lynn, Carlton Fisk, and George Scott all homering off Catfish Hunter in the first inning (6/17/77), the first four of 16 homers in a three-game weekend sweep of Yanks.

Bill Lee's 78-pitch complete-game 5-2 victory over the Twins (6/4/77) in which he has no three-ball counts.

My favorite Red Sox pitching performance of them all: Reggie Cleveland's last Sox W, a never-to-be-repeated 18-hit complete game against the Tigers on 9/15/77 (18 hits, yes, but no walks).

Reggie! Reggie! Reggie! on 10/18/77.

Cleveland's Andre Thornton hitting for the cycle in Fenway off four different pitchers (Allen Ripley, single; Bob Stanley, triple; Jim Wright, homer; Tom Burgmeier, double) on 4/22/78.

Bobby Sprowl pitching for Bristol on 6/26/78 and Bobby Sprowl pitching the infamous game against the Yankees 76 days later.

Pawtucket second baseman Bucky Denton (swear to God, that was his name) switch-hitting homers against Toledo, but the ninth-inning game-winner is righthanded off a righthanded pitcher and I never find out why (6/26/79).

Three Ronnie Perry Jr. box scores playing for Glens Falls against Buffalo (a combined 3 for 10; July 29-30, 1980).

Yaz's final game (10/2/83).

Jim Rice laying down a bunt for a base hit in a 3-2 triumph over the White Sox -- a blooper falling between the mound and first in a two-run eighth inning (4/19/86).

California's Todd Fischer balking home the winning run in the 12th before throwing a pitch (7/10/86, one of his nine career appearances).

The Rangers' Geno Petralli and Darrell Porter with back-to-back, two-out pinch-hit homers in the ninth inning of a 6-4 loss at Fenway (9/1/86).

The unsightly no-hitter (7 walks, 1 run) by Chicago's Joe Cowley against the Angels (9/19/86), which turns out to be his last major league victory.

The Mets' epic 16-inning Game 6 clincher in the 1986 NLCS (10/18/96), a game featuring Billy Hatcher's gargantuan 14th-inning homer, the greatest forgotten wallop in baseball history.

An umpire (last name Catone, first name I cannot tell you) calling interference on himself in a minor league game in Batavia, N.Y. (7/15/87).

Sam Horn hits a grand slam (8/10/87), but even more impressive is a laser double off the Toronto bullpen. (Ask yourself how many liners actually hit the fence in right.)

Sox beat Baltimore, 10-8, despite 19 LOB (8/12/89).

Jose Canseco's mammoth fifth-deck playoff homer in Toronto (10/7/89).

Wade Boggs is intentionally walked three times by Sparky Anderson but Sox win anyway, 4-2 (4/10/90).

Dwight Evans hits eighth-inning, two-out homer off Gregg Olson (then a monster closer) to tie Orioles in eighth, then hits two-run game-winner off Olson in 10th (6/23/90).

Carlos Quintana homers off the right-field foul pole in second inning at Milwaukee County Stadium to give Roger Clemens a 2-0 win (7/25/90).

Three straight Sox shutouts of chief rival Blue Jays in SkyDome, Aug. 24-26, 1990. (Dana Kiecker/Jeff Gray, Roger, Greg Harris/Gray.)

Nashville's Gino Minutelli blanking Indianapolis on five hits in 1:55 (5/21/91).

Sox bat around twice in 17-6 win over Seattle on 9/8/91.

Montreal's Archi Cianfrocco drives in three runs against the Mets with a single (runners on move) for first career hit (4/11/92).

Deion Sanders gets second career four-hit game (5/30/92), also against Mets.

Phil Plantier opposite-field HR beats Yankees for John Dopson, 1-0 (6/15/92).

Bob Zupcic hoists self on Sox bullpen railing (same one that just did in Johnny Damon) to rob Mickey Tettleton of HR -- as good a CF grab as I've seen in 41 years of Fenway watching (9/13/92).

Sox hit nine doubles vs. Indians (4/14/93).

Toronto 15, Philadelphia 14 in highest-scoring World Series game (10/20/93).

Tim Wakefield and Seattle's Tim Belcher each go nine before Sox win it on Troy O'Leary HR in 10th off Bobby Ayala (6/4/95).

Randy Johnson vs. Jack McDowell, in relief, to conclude great Mariners-Yanks ALDS game (10/8/95).

Chisox skipper Terry Bevington sends up four straight pinch hitters in seventh inning (5/28/97).

Roger fans 16 in Fenway return and then salutes The Duke (7/12/97).

Mike Mussina fans 15 Indians in Jacobs Field twilight but gets no-decision in O's playoff loss (10/11/97).

Wakefield balks in only run (Brian McRae) in 1-0 loss to Mets (6/6/98).

Try topping this one: Switch-hitting Montreal utilityman F.P. Santangelo getting hit by a pitch from both sides of the plate (6/30/98).

Pedro K's 15 in back-to-back Fenway starts against Angels and Mariners (5/7 and 5/12, 1999).

Phillies' Doug Glanville and Boston's Jose Offerman each hit leadoff homers in 6-4 Sox win (7/15/99).

Sox get 44 hits and score 53 runs in four-game sweep of Twins in Metrodome (Morgan Burkhart has seven RBIs, a double, and a HR) (7/3-6/00).

The entire Sean Berry Era: K, 4, 6-3, backward K (7/24/00).

One of my particular favorites: Tampa Bay's Travis Phelps and the Sox' Rolando Arrojo each giving up grand slams to the first man faced (Trot Nixon and Greg Vaughn) as Sox win, 7-6 (6/26/01).

Mike Mussina comes within one Carl Everett two-out hit of perfect game, outdueling David Cone (9/2/01).

Columbus Clippers' Drew Henson -- yup, that Drew Henson -- beating Indianapolis Indians with 12th-inning homer (5/17/02).

And there's plenty more where they came from.

I have some signatures in these books. There's Yaz on his final day, Sparky Anderson on both the occasion of his first game managing the Tigers and final day at Fenway, both Jeff Suppan and Nomar Garciaparra at Trenton (I suspected future greatness), Cowley the night of his ugly no-no, Mickey Morandini and John Valentin in first meeting of unassisted triple play guys since 1930, and the best of all, Reggie Jackson on the page of his legendary three World Series homers against the Dodgers in 1977.

There have been moments of panic, such as the day I thought I'd lost my book in Oakland during the 1992 ALCS.

But when I went back to the interview room, there it was, waiting for me on the chair I had vacated. Whew.

Why do I do this? If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand. Anyway, it's a good way to meet people. People will see me with my book in a minor league park and say, ''Are you a scout, or somethin'?" And I say, ''No, I'm just a baseball fan who likes to keep score."

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.