Brewers official scorer Tim O'Driscoll marks 40th season in role

MILWAUKEE - A final score in baseball includes runs, hits and errors. Players are responsible for the runs, but they are not alone when it comes to hits and errors.

That is where Tim O’Driscoll comes in.

O’Driscoll has worn many hats in baseball. He was a player, a college pitcher, a high school coach and now an official scorer.

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He is in his 40th season doing that job for the Milwaukee Brewers.

"I’m not being arrogant about it, I’m not playing God. I never, ever have," O’Driscoll said. "I have an opinion like you have an opinion, or like fans do, the difference is, my opinion becomes fact."

For O’Driscoll, the role is about more than one play in one game.

"To me, it’s the responsibility to the history of baseball," O’Driscoll said.

More than 100 years ago, local newspaper writers did most of the scoring in Major League Baseball. Independent observers were brought in during the early 1980s to avoid conflicts of interest.

The goal is to determine whether a batter earned his way on base or whether the defense let the pitcher down. Often, that means deciding whether a play should be ruled a hit or an error.

"There are certain standards that you use and actually when the ball is hit, I watch what the fielder is doing," he said. "If the fielder has to take more than four steps in either direction, it’s going to be tough for him to throw the runner out at first."

When O’Driscoll started, many games were not on television, and he had to make calls in real time.

That has changed, but the speed of the job has not.

"Now we have a lot of cameras, a lot of stuff, but they would like us to have the call made in seven seconds or before the next batter steps in," O’Driscoll said.

No matter how much technology evolves, O’Driscoll said the standard should stay consistent. What was a hit in 1986 should still be a hit in 2026.

"I have been very lucky," he said. "I’ve never missed a play, in other words, I have never looked away. I guess it’s fear that I would look away and not see what was happening."

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O’Driscoll has no plans to stop soon. He has scored more than 2,000 major league games and has worked an All-Star Game, international games and World Baseball Classic games.

He also helps train other scorers and monitors other games around the league by computer.

"What does the phrase agree to disagree mean to you? That’s an interesting thing," O’Driscoll said. "Somebody has to make that decision, and I think stats in baseball are really important."

For O’Driscoll, it is another role in a lifetime of baseball — and one he has no intention of leaving.

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