Baseball-Reference Turns Five
As sports fans, we celebrate the members of our favorite teams’ birthdays, and as the senior editor of this site, I feel I would not be doing any justice to the reputation of this site without celebrating the birthday of a valuable member of our own team. Whether they know it or not, the people over at Baseball-Reference.com have helped the guy writing this article throughout the years analyze players, teams, season, and everything else baseball related in almost every post or comment I’ve ever made. As this site gains it’s legs and moves forward reporting on the landscape of Atlanta sports, it is not an understatement to say they will play a major role in researching future posts for myself, as well as my writers.
Dec 2, 2012; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers fans hold up a sign celebrating the birthday of quarterback Aaron Rodgers (not pictured) during the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Whether it is researching a player’s stats from a single year, season splits, minor league career, or finding out how a player would perform in another era entirely, Baseball-Reference has been there to lend a helping hand. They have been a consistent source of information, holding the answers to any question about any player from any time period, all done with with the class and accuracy we have come to expect from one of the premier baseball statistical sites in the world.
It’s not just their stat keeping that makes them special. Say you have a question about how two players are connected. Well, all you have to do is consult the Baseball Oracle, found right there on the site. Wonder who a player is similar to at a certain point in his career, or at a certain age? Just type the player’s name in the search bar, click enter, and there will be a complete list of similar players at the bottom of the page, broken down just perfectly to let you compare similar players from the past and present, over-all or at different points in their career. Still not enough? Well what about the numbers the players have worn in their career, contracts signed, relatives that have played in the past, and a baseball encyclopedia to cover anything you cannot find on the player’s page.
What they do is poetry, and they are every bit as much of an artist in the baseball community as Mozart or Beethoven were in writing music. Any writer that is worth his salt knows the importance of good research. Any baseball writer that is serious about what he does knows the name Baseball-Reference. And, anyone who simply loves the game of baseball should check them out regularly and soak up the history of baseball that is still alive right there intertwined in their pages.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “If a man is called to be a street sweeper… he should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well'” While I may not be a host from heaven, but I will pause today to say, “Here is a great website who does it’s job well.”
From our staff at AtlAllDay.com to yours, we wish you the very happiest of birthdays, and the best of luck over the next five.