Most scorekeepers find GameChanger's app easy to use and intuitive. This page provides some BMBL guidelines, to help maintain consistency across BMBL teams. Consistency across our league makes things easier for fans and scorekeepers, for example as they search for teams. This page also contains tips for using some helpful features that may not be obvious to inexperienced users. Please let us know at [email protected] if you come across any other helpful tips that you think could make this page better.

Important: Make sure you are using the 'new' version of GameChanger (green logo), not the Classic version.

You have to be a GameChanger team admin to do any of the activities described on this page, including scorekeeping. See Team maintenance for how to assign team admins.

Quick links to guides on this page

• Creating a team
• Team maintenance
• Preparing for the game
• Scorekeeping

To create a team, you'll need an account first, if you don't already have one. GC sends team-related emails to this account (you can disable these emails).

Once you have an account, you can create a team using the app or using the GC staff portal web page on a PC. Here are some tips for creating a team:

• Team type - choose Local League for rec teams and Select/Travel for tryout-based teams
• Age group - choose the closest age category
• Team location - use Boyertown, PA so fans can easily find your team
• Team details - local league


• Team Name - BMBL examples:


• Jr Division - use BMBL followed by age group and team name (e.g. BMBL Minors Angels)
• Connie Mack - use Boyertown followed by the Connie Mack age group and team name (e.g. Boyertown Jr Connie Mack Red)
• Season - use Fall for the Fall season or Spring for Jr Division and Summer for Sr Division
• Team details - select/travel


• Team Name - BMBL examples:


• 8U travel
• Black Bears
• Grizzlies
• Season - use Fall or Summer as appropriate (not Spring)

After you've created the team

By default, the stats for your team can be viewed by anyone. However, for some teams, such as T-Ball teams, stats are not appropriate. After you've created the team, you can change the stat visibility using these steps:

1. Select the team in the GC app
2. Tap the gear in the upper-right corner
3. Tap Stat Settings
4. You will see three choices (Anyone, Confirmed Member - Full Team, Confirmed Member - Player Only). BMBL recommends the following settings, based on the team's age group:


• For all Junior Division Rec teams - choose "Confirmed Member - Player Only"
• For all other teams, the setting should be set according to the head coach preference

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Admins

A team admin has special privileges for that team. Admins can:

• Score a game
• Add and change players to the team roster
• Add and change games and practices to the schedule
• See all statistics for all players without needing a GameChanger subscription
• Approve player and family member account linkages
• Designate other accounts as admin accounts for the team

Each team can have up to four admins. The accounts that are designated as admin accounts can be changed at any time.

BMBL recommendations:

• Every team should have at least two admins, in case one of them is unable to make it to a game.
• At least one team coach should be an admin, preferably the coach who creates the lineup.

Rosters

BMBL recommendations:

• Be sure to include the player's name AND jersey number, as the other team's scorekeeper may only know the player by number.
• It is not critical to complete the player's position, batting hand, and throwing hand.

Schedules

BMBL recommendations:

• Include both games and practices in the team schedule. Players can RSVP to both.
• For games, GC will attempt to find the team you are playing so it can import their roster. This feature is extremely handy and is one of the reasons for the team name recommendations above. For external teams, it is worth hunting around to find them in GC, to save time manually entering their roster at the field. If you can't find it, you can find out if they have GC when you get to the field and then edit the team name to import their roster as long as you have not started scoring the game.

Inviting family members and fans

You can send invites to parents, grandparents, and friends to follow your team. If you don't send an invite, they can still follow the team by searching for it and choosing "Follow Team". When you invite followers, you will be asked to choose the relationship for each follower. Remember that family members may have access to player and/or team stats, if they have a GC subscription.

Approving family members

Here again it is a good idea to remember that family members may have access to individual or team statistics. Admins may want to confirm unknown family members with someone else in the family before approving them to follow the team as a family member.

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Prior to the start of the game, your team's lineup and your opponent's roster and lineup need to be setup. It's least stressful to do as many of these items as you can before you get to the field, but sometimes at-field setup is necessary. This section describes multiple options to complete pre-game setup.

Pre-creating your team's lineup

Prior to the game, a team admin can create a default lineup for the team. This lineup can be created or edited using the GC website or through the app. The website also includes a Print option to print paper copies of the lineup to give to your opponent and the umpire.

Importing your opponent's roster

GameChanger allows you to import the team roster from other GC teams. This feature is extremely helpful and highly recommended.

When you first add the game to the schedule, you can enter the opponent's GC team name and GC will automatically import the roster. Note:The roster import feature is only available in the app, not the website. If you don't know your opponent's GC team name or if you are using the website to create your team's initial schedule, don't worry, you'll be able to change the team name later and still import the roster.

For cases where you learn the GC team name after you've already added the game to the schedule, follow these steps to change the opponent's name and import their roster:

1. Before you choose "Score Game", find out your opponent's GameChanger team name
2. In the GameChanger app (does not work on the web), select the game from the schedule, then select "Edit Info"
3. Delete the previous opponent name and enter the actual GameChanger team name. GameChanger should find it (you will need an internet connection for this step)
4. Selecting the suggested team name will bring their roster into the game but not their lineup

Manually entering a lineup

As described at the top of this section, you can pre-create a lineup for your team. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this for your opponent's lineup. Follow these steps to enter your opponent's lineup or your lineup, if it was not pre-created:

1. Select the game from the schedule and choose "Score Game"
2. Choose "Add from Bench" if you have already entered or imported the roster or "Create Player" if you have not yet entered the roster
3. You'll want to select/create players in the order that they are in the lineup. You can also optionally identify a fielding position for each player.
4. When you are finished entering the lineup, choose "Done"
5. If you got the player order wrong, don't worry - you can drag players up or down in the lineup (either on the main scorekeeping screen on a tablet or on the "My Team" or "Opponent" tabs on a phone

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GameChanger scorekeeping can only be done using the app on a smartphone or tablet. It cannot be done on the GC website.

Prior to your first game scorekeeping for GameChanger, you may want to try the Practice Scorekeeping feature of the app.

Here are some useful tips:

• Every scorekeeping action starts with pressing the "Pitch" baseball icon on the pitcher's mound. Follow the intuitive prompts to score the action. If the ball was in play, you will have the opportunity to identify the fielder who played the ball and where they played it by dragging the applicable fielder glove to the place on the field where they first touched the ball. If the batter was out and multiple players touched the ball, tap each fielder in sequence. When finished, tap the Done baseball icon on the pitcher's mound.
• GameChanger will automatically advance runners on a ball in play, after the play is scored. It is very important to select "Back" if GC tries to score a player who did not actually score.
• If you need to advance runners or reverse auto-advances, drag the blue box with the applicable player's name to the base where they ended up, then choose the appropriate reason code.
• Undo is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it. This is the best way to fix an error.
• To end the game, open the main menu and select End Game.
• Exit Game can be used to pause scorekeeping so you can switch to another device or do some administrative task, such as approve a family member.

BMBL recommendations

• These are kids, be kind. No one is awarded a scholarship from their GameChanger statistics
• For the youngest age groups, T-Ball and Knee Hi, it's best to score everything a hit and avoid using errors
• For older kids, errors should only be used when the play was a routine play for that team's age group and league. When in doubt, it's a hit.
• It's best to skip the winning and losing pitcher assignments for Junior Division teams, since pitchers are changed so frequently.
• Do your best. Grandma and Grandpa, who are watching on the app but can't make it to the game, really appreciate what you're doing, even if you make a mistake or two.

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