Frequently asked questions

Yes. No paywall, no ads, no premium tier, and no selling data. It’s built for volunteers, and it stays free.

No. It runs in your phone’s browser at app.toughcall.app. You can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app. It isn’t in the App Store or Google Play.

Yes, in any modern browser. It’s designed for phones, because that’s where most scorekeepers keep the book.

Not for Practice or Drills. A free account, just an email address with no password, keeps your stats, lets you flag plays, and is required for Live.

Practice and Drills use real MLB regular-season plays. The video and the official scorer’s ruling both come from MLB Advanced Media’s public feeds. Nobody at Tough Call labels plays by hand; the official scorer is the answer key. Live uses the same play-by-play data for MLB and four minor-league levels.

Flag the play after the verdict and pick Wrong answer. Every flag gets read. Official scorers make judgment calls and sometimes change rulings after a game, and data can contain errors, so flags matter.

Yes. The plays are baseball, but the way you score them is nearly the same: position numbers, hits and errors, fielder’s choices, sacrifices, double plays, strikeouts. Where softball rules differ, like an illegal pitch instead of a balk, go by your league’s rulebook.

No. Tough Call is a trainer, not a scoring app. Keep scoring your games where you already do. The pickers follow the same order GameChanger asks in, so the reps carry over. Tough Call isn’t affiliated with GameChanger.

Yes, and you don’t need to ask. Send volunteers the link before opening day. A scorekeeper clinic can run Practice on a projector, pause before each verdict, and argue it out. Nobody needs an account to start. If you want something specific for your league, tell us.

Yes. Practice and Drills use recorded plays, so they work all winter. Live works on any recorded game back to March 2015 that you can watch. See the season status.

MLB’s labor agreement expires December 1, 2026. Tough Call plays clips straight from MLB, so if MLB changes what video it makes available, some practice clips could stop loading for a while. The season status note will say so if that happens. Live doesn’t use clips.

Because pro plays come with an official scorer’s ruling, so every one is a question that’s already been graded. The questions are the ones you face in the bleachers: did he earn it, whose error, did the runner go on the pitch or the catcher. The calls don’t change with the level.

No. Video and data are provided by MLB Advanced Media, L.P. Tough Call is an independent project and isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by MLB, any club, or GameChanger.

We keep your email and your practice history so the app works. No ads, no ad trackers, no third-party analytics, no selling or sharing. The privacy policy has the details.

An independent developer who keeps the book for his son’s games. The same person makes Boxscored, a free app for fans who follow players.