Sports Reference Blog

Perhaps you noticed the recent addition of a "starters" tab on all team pages since 2010-11. Clicking on this tab will take you to a team game log where you can see the 5 starters used in each game. Additionally, at the bottom of the page, you will find a list of every starting lineup combo used, as well as the team's record in games started by that lineup.  So you can see, for instance, that all four Michigan State losses have come with rarely used lineups, with Denzel Valentine and Tum Tum Nairn, most notably, missing some action. While this data is interesting for Michigan State, it's a little more boring for top-ranked Oklahoma, which has used the same starting lineup in every game this season.

Earlier this month, we added the ability to search for safeties to the Team Game Finder in the Play Index.

We've now added the ability to search for opponent's safeties, as well as opponent FG & PAT statistics.

So we can now say things, such as:

• The 2015 Dolphins were nearly the 2nd team since 1940 to have 5 safeties scored against them.
• Opponents of the 2015 Eagles were 27-for-27 on field goals. That's the best kicking performance by opponents of a single team on record.

On the eve of Brady-Manning XVII, perhaps the last matchup ever in this historic rivalry, we wanted to take a moment to collect some of the notable facts and stats from one of the defining matchups of the last 15 years of football. Read the rest of this entry

Did you write or read an excellent story, research paper, or book about baseball in 2015? If so, the window is open to submit that piece for consideration for this year's Greg Spira Baseball Research Award! Click this link to submit a piece for consideration.

The nomination period opened today, January 21, and will run through March 6. Any piece containing original analysis or research that was published between January 16, 2015 and January 15, 2016 is eligible to be nominated. Articles, papers, and books eligible for consideration include those published in print or in e-books, those published or posted on the Web, academic papers or dissertations, and papers presented at professional or public conferences. Winning entries must display innovative analysis or reasoning by an author who was 30 years old or younger at the time of the entry’s publication.

Anyone is free to nominate a qualifying piece for the Spira, and authors may self-nominate, but note that only one entry per author will be considered. The winner of the Spira Award will receive a cash prize of $1,000, with additional awards of $200 for second place and $100 for third place.

For more information on the Greg Spira Baseball Research Award, go to SpiraAward.org.

UPDATE: Thanks so much for all your help! We have matched up every pick six that we were missing to a QB with 2 exceptions. The two missing games are:

Willie Buchanon's vs the Chargers on Sept. 24, 1978

Joe Beauchamp's vs the Broncos on Sept. 24, 1972

If you know who threw either of those pick-sixes, leave a comment here or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or email!

The original post is below, but do not worry about the Google Sheet anymore. Thanks to everyone who submitted responses so far!

Like Matt Schaub and Jake Delhomme before us, Pro-Football-Reference wants to build a substantial library of pick-sixes. However, since we're not football players, we have to settle for the next best thing: creating a list of who threw every pick-six in the NFL since 1970. We have complete play-by-play starting 1994, so the last 21 years are all filled in. We also have box scores going back to 1960, so we have a list of every pick-six and who scored, but there's one problem: the box scores don't say who threw them.

In most cases, we can use the info that we do have to figure this out. For example, in this game from 1987, the Chargers had a pick-six. Since John Elway was the only QB to throw an INT in that game, we know that he was the culprit. However, not every game is that simple. More specifically, there are 159 games that aren't that simple.

For example, in this Lions-Vikings game from 1993, the Vikes had a 63-yard INT for a TD. But the Lions had 2 players who threw an INT in that game. Since we don't have information about who was playing QB at what point in that game, we can't know for sure whether the INT TD should be "credited" to Andre Ware or Rodney Peete.

This is where you come in. We've created a Google Form with all 159 where we're missing the data we need. Do you have a gamebook or old newspaper story that mentions who threw the INT that went for a TD? Were you at that game or watching it on TV? Just happen to have all of Kelly Stouffer's pick-sixes committed to memory? Whatever it is, any help that you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

You don't need to know or fill out all 159 on the form; even filling in one or two would be tremendously helpful! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to hit us up on e-mail, social media, or here in the comments. Thanks!

Again, here is the form! Let's go get some pick-sixes (said no coach, ever)

If you're among the NHL fans lamenting the upcoming shuttering of War on Ice, we just wanted to remind you of the variety of advanced hockey stats we offer on Hockey Reference. While we're perhaps best known as a repository for historical statistics, we have beefed up our analytics in the last few years. In fact, if you click here, you can conveniently see a menu of our analytics offerings. These include:

• The Team Advanced Stats Finder. You can use this tool to search for Play-By-Played based team stats since 2007-08 (like best single-season PDO since 2007-08).
• The Player Advanced Stats Finder. This one is much like the Team Advanced Stats Finder, but focuses on individuals. It also goes back to 2007-08 and allows for search like best Corsi For % in a season.
• Team Advanced Stats Tables. See how every player on a team stacks up in various advanced statistics.
• Team Skater Time on Ice Tables. See how every skater on a team fares (and how much ice time they see) in even strength, power player and short-handed situations.
• Advanced Player Stats Pages. These are available on all player pages since 2007-08 via the "advanced stats" tab on any player's main stats table. Here is Alex Ovechkin's page, for instance. The three tables of information, drawn from analysis of play-by-play, can be viewed for six different situations. It defaults to all situations, but you can also check out even strength, power play, short-handed, 5-on-5, 5-on-5 close and 5-on-5 tied. If you see any numbers that stand out, you can always query them in the Player Advanced Stats Finder to see how they compare to other players.
• Advanced Box Scores. Our boxes have complete advanced stats information going back to 2007-08, including visual shot location charts.
• Utilizing PBP data and shot location data, we have also introduced the metric Expected +/-
• League-wide Player Advanced Stats Table (available back to 2007-08).
• League-wide Player Time-on-Ice Details Table (available back to 2007-08).
• Glossary

The Divisional Playoffs is typically the best football weekend of the year and this time is no exception. Every QB playing this weekend is either a #1 pick, a Super Bowl champion, or (hi, Peyton) both. Who will win? I know the answer, and I'd tell you, but I don't want to spoil it. So, instead, here's some storylines, stats, and general things to watch out for this weekend: Read the rest of this entry

LeBron James has moved his career VORP total to 104.46 and now narrowly leads Michael Jordan's 104.44 for most in NBA history. It should be noted that VORP can only be calculated since 1973-74, so Wilt Chamberlain's career is not included (nor are the first four seasons of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career). VORP was created by Daniel Myers, in conjunction with Box Plus/Minus. Descriptions of the statistics and how they are calculated can be found here.

A comparison of some of their career regular-season advanced statistics can be seen below:

We have added Game-Winning Goals to the Player Season Finder search in the Hockey Reference Play Index. GWG data is available back the 1963-64 regular season and the 1968 Stanley Cup Playoffs. With this new search capability, you can now quickly and easily see that Phil Esposito (twice) and Michel Goulet share the single-season record over this span with 16 game-winning goals. You can also discover that the career leader over this span is Jaromir Jagr, with 132. The playoff leaders, with 24 each, are Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull. The record for a single Stanley Cup Playoffs is 7 by Brad Richards in 2003-04.

We're proud to announce the newest addition to the Pro-Football-Reference Play Index: The Field Goal Finder. While previously, you've been able to use the Play Finder or the Game Finder to look up some FG data, the Field Goal Finder allows you easily search every field goal kicked by an NFL or AFL kicker since 1960. With this addition to the Play Index, you can answer questions like: Read the rest of this entry