Baseball Notes

From time to time I recommend some sites on here or places to visit in your free time or anything I find interesting having to do with baseball and statistics. Lately, I was made aware of something that is not only interesting and informative, but unequivocally helpful if you are ever looking to do research or do any kind of writing or blogging about baseball stats like on this dumb site.

In something that Rob Neyer wrote a couple of weeks back, he mentioned www.baseball1.com and The Lahman Database. This free database, created by Sean Lahman, is available to any average baseball fan who is interested in the stats and records they have compiled. The database lists every batting and pitching stat you could ever want for every player from 1871-2006. The best thing about it is that it is free to download and use as long as you have Microsoft Access on your computer.

Once downloaded, you are given 21 separate databases, all with a specific area of interest. Some of my favorites are the Hall of Fame database which relates how many votes every eligible player received in every eligible year they had on the HOF ballot, whether they were inducted, and whom it was that inducted them; the Franchise database which lists every team that has ever existed in any of the professional baseball leagues; the salaries database, which reveals the salary of every player for every year since 1985; and the postseason databases, which show all batting and pitching statistics from every postseason series since 1884.

On the baseball1.com site, there is quite a wealth of information as well, so I suggest you take some time to troll around those pages as well (ever wanted to know about the Mexican League Franchise Histories? It’s there). On his site, you will see that there is an option to donate some money to his research and ongoing projects (including this database). Please give a little bit if you can, and help keep this valuable research tool free for any baseball fan who wants it.

Lahman also has a number of football projects as well that you can access through links on his site. Take a look at all of it when you get a chance. And download the database - it will keep you busy for hours.