Topic: scoring markers/tally ... bizzaro world?

[gpeters]

Does anyone know why the goalie player tallies the goals their team scored at the back end of the table, instead of the forward part of the table?  Was this rule/convention designed on purpose?  Or is it simply an early habit (in the United States?) that became too old to later change? 

I've occasionally encountered new players that mark their scores on the tally beads sitting above where the ball entered the goal.  I advise them by saying to tally it on the other marker ... on the opposite far end of the table.  Yet, I can't offer them a reasonable answer as to why score tallying is done this way.  It seems to add a small bit of silly/unnecessary complication to the game of foosball.  It is much more straightforward to simply tally the points on the same side of the table where the ball actually entered the goal.
 
Any thoughts, even some wisecracks, on this great and ancient mystery would be appreciated.

[bbtuna]

on all the tables I have ever played on the numbers ran low to high at the goalies left arm and Tornado used to have 4 discs one color and the 5 disc another color and the 4 were again nearest the goalie

so, I am guessing, people add up scores at the goalie position because that is the order they are offered in ... otherwise you would have to lean over the table to "push" your score over instead of pull

why not the other way?  because the goals would be counted backward or you would be bumping the opposing goalies rods

[MrBasso]

Here's one that has perplexed me...

When a score bar has, for example 7 red beads and 3 blue beads - assuming a game goes to 7, what do you do with the blue beads.  If they are there to count games won, what way do you push them?

Same with the combination of colours that you mentioned bb - how are they utilized?

Confused in Canada

[bbtuna]

who knows what these people were thinking, most of these tables have their roots in the 60's and I am guessing a lot of design ideas came from the use of hippy lettuce and hallucinogens…game was to 10 for a lot of people and they probably thought the little green men told them to change colors at 7 to ensure proper balance of the universe

[papafoos]

If you happen to play with someone like Rico, Billy, or Spree,  it gives a goalie that feeling of contributing and keeps the goalie from going to sleep.

[foozkillah]

Here's one that has perplexed me...
When a score bar has, for example 7 red beads and 3 blue beads - assuming a game goes to 7, what do you do with the blue beads.  If they are there to count games won, what way do you push them?  Same with the combination of colours that you mentioned bb - how are they utilized? Confused in Canada 

I believe those games went to 7, and you had three beads to count games in a set best of 5.  And the first Deustch-Meisters and greentop TS's (1978: Warren & Columbus, OH, Flint, MI, Philadelphia, PA, Ames, IA, and Chicago, IL) I saw had the pips going to 11, one for each ball, and foos games in my area at the time went to 6.

The most unique was in Iowa, where I was an Engineering Student, and they played "Corners", serving on either ramp in the goalkeeper area.

[foozkillah]

In Europe late 70's and early 80's, there was no confusion.
The pips bars were located with their edges starting at the wall by the goal ends.  Players naturally kept score on the closest set of pips.

Back stateside, those places with the three different-colored pips kept the game count available without asking the players, which really helped when your quarters challenged for the next set.   You could sit at the bar, drinking, just within eyeshot, and keep tabs on the matches.

[MrBasso]

But if all of the pips are on the same bar - how do you mark games?

[foozkillah]

But if all of the pips are on the same bar - how do you mark games?

You've never played race to 7 or used the overhead beads in pocket pool? (Real Pocket Pool/Billiards, not the other one!  ) As long as you agree on the convention, there's no problem.

You just start with the beads all in the center...  the bar was much longer, and the wire resisted vibration, just like overhead beads cables in pool .... click the point beads toward you, the game beads away.  Or vice versa, if the beads were reversed.