Sports Reference Blog

Archive for September, 2016

Digging into the MLB Award Races

29th September 2016

This week is one of those good news/bad news situations. On the one had, we're just a few days away from the start of the MLB Postseason! But, on the other hand, the regular season finishes up this Sunday. With another year in the books, we wanted to break down the main contenders for MLB's most important awards. Unfortunately, Tim Tebow will have to wait till next year to get his shot at a trophy, but there are a lot of worthy players who've had excellent years. Let's take a look: Read the rest of this entry

Posted in Announcement, Awards, Baseball-Reference.com | 9 Comments »

Embed Play Index Queries on Your Website

23rd September 2016

We're continuing to add features to our newly redesigned sites, and we have a very exciting one to share with you today, especially for those of you who have your own website.

Previously, we've had tools that give you the option to embed tables like standings and leaderboards on your website. That option is still around, but we've improved on it. If you hover over "Share & More", the second option you'll see is "Embed This Table." Read the rest of this entry

Posted in Announcement, Basketball-Reference.com, Play Index, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on Embed Play Index Queries on Your Website

Career Game Number Search Added to Pro Football Reference Play Index

21st September 2016

We wanted to briefly share an enhancement made to the Pro Football Reference Play Index. We have added a "Career Game Number" field to the search form for the Player Game Finder. This new search field allows users to customize their searches for certain periods of a player's career. Please note that this tool can be used back to the 1970 NFL-AFL Merger, but can't be used for 1960-69, even though those seasons are covered by other Player Game Finder tools. Here are a few examples of how this new feature can be used:

We hope you enjoy this addition. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

Posted in Announcement, Data, Features, History, Play Index, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on Career Game Number Search Added to Pro Football Reference Play Index

A Statistical Trip Thru Vin Scully’s Extraordinary Career

21st September 2016

In 1950, the Brooklyn Dodgers finished 2 games out of first place in the National League, behind a .400-OBP, 7-WAR season from Jackie Robinson, three players cracking 30 Home Runs (Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, and Duke Snider), and plenty of pitching from workhorses Don Newcombe and Preacher Roe. Looking on from the broadcast booth was a 22-year-old who had been hired by Red Barber to supplement the team's radio and television broadcast team. Read the rest of this entry

Posted in Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com | 13 Comments »

Player Comparison Finder Added to Hockey Reference

20th September 2016

If you're an avid user of Pro Football Reference or Basketball Reference, you might be familiar with the Player Comparison tool in the Play Index. We're happy to announce that this popular tool has now been added to the Hockey Reference Play Index, as well.

With the Player Comparison Finder, you can choose anywhere from 2-6 players and compare single seasons, a selection of seasons, or their entire careers.

For instance, you can easily compare the rookie seasons of Alex Ovechkin and Mario Lemieux. Or you can compare their age-20 seasons. You can also compare spans of seasons. For instance, here's Wayne Gretzky's 1st 5 NHL seasons vs Lemieux's 1st 5 seasons.

You can also choose to compare entire careers. And, remember, you can select up to 6 players at a time:

Regular Season Comparison Table
Scoring Goals Per Game Point Shares
Player GP G A PTS +/- PIM EV PP SH GW G A PTS OPS DPS PS
Mike Bossy* 752 573 553 1126 381 210 384 181 8 82 0.76 0.74 1.50 93.1 17.8 110.9
Wayne Gretzky* 1567 917 2042 2959 505 611 633 210 74 94 0.59 1.30 1.89 231.5 27.8 259.3
Gordie Howe* 1767 801 1049 1850 87 1685 172 78 11 27 0.45 0.59 1.05 186.6 30.5 217.1
Mario Lemieux* 915 690 1033 1723 115 834 405 236 49 74 0.75 1.13 1.88 152.4 15.5 167.9
Eric Lindros* 760 372 493 865 215 1398 254 111 7 46 0.49 0.65 1.14 81.7 20.0 101.6
Mark Messier* 1756 694 1193 1887 210 1910 452 179 63 92 0.40 0.68 1.07 135.6 24.8 160.5
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/20/2016.

Posted in Announcement, Features, Hockey-Reference.com, Play Index | Comments Off on Player Comparison Finder Added to Hockey Reference

Does a QB’s Debut Really Tell Us Anything?

15th September 2016

We've reached what's perhaps the most fun sports week of the year, at least from a narrative perspective. That's right, it's the week after the start of the NFL season! With a small amount of information to go by, in a sport that can see wide variance in game-to-game performances, football fans, writers, and even coaches across the nation have no choice but to jump to wild conclusions, many of which are doomed to look foolish just weeks later. Read the rest of this entry

Posted in Announcement, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on Does a QB’s Debut Really Tell Us Anything?

Why the Ads on Sports Reference Are Sometimes Terrible

13th September 2016

One of the things I pride myself on at Sports Reference is that our sites are fast and not annoying. We want to connect you with the data you want, as quickly as possible, every single time. We spend a lot of time trying to make this happen.

We have another important goal with our site, which is to make money. We have seven full-time employees maintaining our sites on a daily basis, so if we don't generate a significant amount of revenue, things will start to go south for us reasonably quickly. We spend a lot of time thinking about that as well, and for a small-to-medium-sized publisher like us, that means running advertisements on our site.

Unfortunately, sometimes the ads that come through our site cause serious problems for users. This is a constant source of frustration for us, so I wanted to take this moment to explain how this happens. I realize we are 100% responsible for what we put on our pages, and so any ad that is served on our page is ultimately our responsibility and the fault lies with us for any negative impacts from an ad.
Read the rest of this entry

Posted in Announcement, Bleg, History, Ridiculousness | 4 Comments »

Four Big Questions for the NFL Season

9th September 2016

It's going to be almost 90 degrees this weekend and the leaves haven't started changing color at all, so that can only mean one thing: football season is here! When we left off last season, an ascendant Carolina Panthers team struggled in Cam Newton's first Super Bowl against Von Miller and the Denver Broncos. And when we picked up this season, not too much had changed. With Game One in the books and an exciting slate of football ahead this Sunday, let's dig into some of this season's biggest questions.

Read the rest of this entry

Posted in Announcement, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on Four Big Questions for the NFL Season

Breaking Down the Heisman Trophy Candidates

2nd September 2016

There have been 33 grueling Saturdays since the Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Clemson Tigers in Glendale to claim the 2015 College Football Championship, each emptier than the last. Going to the movies? Hanging out with friends and family? Leaving the house? No thanks.

Fortunately, our nightmare has come to an end and the 2016 college football season finally kicks off this weekend! Technically, it already kicked off last weekend, if you are a fan of the California Golden Bears, Hawaii Warriors, or games played 5,000 miles away from either of those campuses. And while there are a number of juicy storylines to follow, from Nick Saban's quest for his 5th title to Jim Harbaugh's attempt to follow-up his excellent debut season with the Michigan Wolverines, one of the most interesting ones is the race for this year's Heisman Trophy. Read the rest of this entry

Posted in Announcement, CFB at Sports Reference | 1 Comment »