How a Madison County judge's background led to him scoring over 3 decades of MiLB games

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — For 30 seasons, his biggest tools were not a bat or a glove, but a scorebook, pencil, and a keen eye for the fine print of America's pastime.

From 1991 to 2015, Don Rizzardi served as one of the official scorers for the Huntsville Stars.

"It's a job that does not feel like work," Rizzardi says.

Rizzardi's journey into the press box did not begin in baseball; it started in law. In 1991, while serving as an assistant district attorney, Rizzardi talked baseball over lunch with Larry Smith, a chief investigator who moonlighted as a scorekeeper for the Stars. Smith and his longtime scoring partner, James Anderson, had been splitting duties since 1985, but Anderson was ready to pass the baton.

For Rizzardi, baseball had always been a steady presence in his life. Gro