Support

Help

How to install it, how grading works, and what to do when a play looks wrong. New to the app? Start here. Still stuck? Send us a message.

Season status

Getting started

1. Open app.toughcall.app on your phone.
2. Tap Start. You can play without an account.
3. Sign in with your email when you want your results kept or want to use Live. We email you a link and a code; use either. No password.

The Start here page walks through a first session, call by call.

Add it to your home screen

Tough Call isn’t in an app store. It installs from your browser in a few seconds, then opens full screen from its own icon.

iPhone and iPad (Safari)

1. Open app.toughcall.app in Safari.
2. Tap Share, the square with the arrow pointing up.
3. Scroll down, tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

Android (Chrome)

1. Open app.toughcall.app in Chrome.
2. Tap Install if a banner appears. Otherwise open the three-dot menu and tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
3. Confirm with Install.

Practice and Drills

Practice is ten real MLB plays, mixed. Most are the plays that make a scorer stop and think; a few are routine, because games have routine plays too. Tap Start on the home screen.

Drills narrow a session to one kind of call, ten in a row. Some ask one question per play (hit or error, wild pitch or passed ball, who gets the error, fielding or throwing error, fielder’s choice or hit, sac fly or flyout). Others ask for the full call (sacrifice bunts, dropped third strike, double plays, infield fly, steals and pickoffs, interference, balks, rundowns, and weird plays).

Clips start muted, because broadcasters often say the ruling before the clip ends. Turn sound on if you want it; the app asks once per session.

Live

Live lets you score a real game as you watch it, on TV, a stream, a recording, or from the stands. Pick a game, tap the batter on your screen, tap the pitches, and make the call when the at-bat ends. Each call is graded when the official scorer rules. Live needs a free account.

The Live guide covers picking a game, the pitch buttons, waiting for the scorer, the Wrong batter button, recorded games, and what RHB and LHP mean.

How grading works

Your call is compared with the official scorer’s ruling, one field at a time.

Result

What happened: single, groundout, fielder’s choice, reached on error, sacrifice fly, strikeout, wild pitch, stolen base, and so on. This is always graded.

Batted ball

The kind of ball the batter hit: ground ball, fly ball, line drive, pop fly, or bunt. It’s checked against the batted-ball type in the official play record. A hard ground ball counts as a ground ball. Plays with no recorded type, and walks, strikeouts and runner events, don’t grade this field.

Fielder sequence

The position numbers in the order the ball was touched. 6-3 means the shortstop threw to the first baseman for the out. Order matters: 6-3 is not 3-6. F8 is a fly ball caught by the center fielder. When the scorer credited no fielders, as on most clean hits, this field isn’t graded.

Error

When the scorer charged an error, you need both the fielder and the kind: fielding (a bobble, a dropped ball) or throwing (a bad throw). E6 throwing and E6 fielding are different calls.

The verdict

• Correct. Every graded field matches the official scorer.
• Partial. The result is right, but the batted-ball type, the sequence, or the error isn’t. Half credit toward your accuracy, and it ends your streak.
• Missed. The result is wrong.
• Judgment call. See below.

Runner advancement, RBIs, and earned versus unearned runs are shown after each play but not graded yet.

Position numbers

• 1Pitcher
• 2Catcher
• 3First base
• 4Second base
• 5Third base
• 6Shortstop
• 7Left field
• 8Center field
• 9Right field

For the rules behind the hardest calls, see the scoring guides. More notation (K, K, FC, SF, WP, PB, E6) is in the notation table.

What Judgment call means

Some rulings are the official scorer’s judgment, and good scorers can differ. The common ones are hit or error, and fielder’s choice or single.

When a play is tagged as a judgment call and your call differs from the scorer’s only on that question, you see Judgment call instead of Missed, along with the ruling the scorer made. It doesn’t count against your streak. The official ruling is still the answer; the tag is there so you know it was a close one, not a clear miss.

How the timer works

In Practice and Drills, the clock starts when the clip ends, not when it starts, and stops when you tap Submit. Watching the play is free. Deciding is what’s timed. Live has no timer.

Some clips keep rolling after the play is over. For those, the timer starts closer to the end of the action. If a timer ever seems off, flag the play and pick Timer.

When a clip won’t load

Clips stream from MLB while you play, so a clip needs a connection and a video that MLB still has online.

• Your connection. On weak ballpark signal, try again on Wi-Fi.
• Try once more. If you see “Couldn’t load the video. Try again,” tap it. If it still fails, flag the play as a bad clip and move on. Flagged clips get checked, and broken ones are retired.
• Lots of clips failing at once? Check the season status. If MLB has changed what video it offers, it will say so there.

Flag a play

After you see the ruling, tap Flag this play and pick a reason:

• Bad clip. The video didn’t load, cut off, or shows the wrong play.
• Wrong answer. You think the answer key doesn’t match what happened.
• Unclear situation. The inning, outs, count, or runners shown don’t match the clip.
• Timer. The clock started too early or too late.
• Other. Anything else. Add a note.

Flagging needs you signed in. Every flag gets read, and plays with real problems are fixed or retired.

Your account

• Sign-in email didn’t arrive. Give it a minute and check your spam folder for mail from hello@toughcall.app, then request a new one.
• Delete your account. Send us a message from the email on your account and we’ll delete it and your history.
• Is this an official MLB app? No. Video and data are provided by MLB Advanced Media, L.P. Tough Call is not affiliated with MLB or GameChanger.

More questions are answered in the FAQ. Anything else: contact us.