The Definitive Online Sports Stylebook

The Ben Watanabe Sports Stylebook

numbers

In copy, spell out numbers from zero to nine; use digits for all numbers 10 and above.

The same rule applies to ordinal numbers: first, second, 11th, 101st

An exception is when the number begins a sentence; then, always spell it out (or reword the sentence): Twenty-five years after their first meeting, the two rivals face off again Saturday.

For numbers above 999,999, spell out million, billion, etc., preceded by the number following the above rules. Use decimals if not a round number: four million; 1.12 million; 49.6 billion

In headlines, digits are acceptable in all cases: Larry Doby, 1st Black AL Player, Dies at 79.

Special rules regarding specific use cases can be found at the links below.

height and length

weight

scoring

money

percentages

fractions and decimals

position or rank

speed and rate

betting odds

age

time