Retrosheet announces June 2015 updates

By David W. Smith

I am happy to announce a semiannual update of the Retrosheet website (Retrosheet.org). Here is an update of what is new:

  • 1933 (both leagues), a total of 992 of the 1,226 games played (81%).
  • 1932 (both leagues), a total of 928 of the 1,233 games played (75%)
  • 1930 (both leagues), a total of 922 of the 1,234 games played (75%)
  • Deduced games to complete the 1947 and 1946 seasons
  • Many new games have been added to previously released seasons

All related player pages have been updated as well, including transactions, ejections, and replays.

I completed the proofing of the 1933, 1932 and 1930 event files and their additions means that we now have a contiguous block of 85 seasons (1930-2014) with play-by-play data. Hopefully by this fall I can complete 1929 and 1928 so that gap will be filled.

The ongoing project to deduce plausible play by play accounts from newspaper stories for games lacking true play by play coverage continues in a robust fashion. Several people have contributed this year: Tom Thress, Richard Weston, John Gabcik, Mark Pankin, Stew Thornley, Jim Wohlenhaus, and Christopher Phillips. Tom Thress began in earnest this year and has created excellent accounts for over 650 games, usually completing one a day! This is extraordinary given the amount of work and special care that must be taken in the deduction process. The 1947 and 1946 seasons have now been completed, giving us complete play-by-play coverage of the past 69 consecutive seasons.

Many people have worked to enter game accounts from scorebooks and newspapers for our previously released seasons. The two biggest acquisitions for this year were the scorebooks of James Isaminger (Philadelphia 1907-1940) and Tom Swope (Cincinnati 1914-1962). David Vincent, Dick Cramer, Gary Frownfelter, Cliff Blau and Howard Johnson have entered nearly 2,000 games from these sources and it is great to have them on our site. In addition, Jim Herdman, Mark Pankin, Pete Cottrell, Howard Johnson, Doug Burks, Bob Kapla, and Sheldon Miller have done a large amount of other game entry. We continue to improve our already released seasons.

Tom Ruane continues to do an immense amount of work in preparing our wonderfully cross-referenced box score files along with the detailed transaction data and the gamelog files. Our website simply would not exist without Tom’s work. Webmaster Mark Pankin continues to maintain the site and process the many queries that users send in.

I apologize if I left anyone out and I refer interested to parties to my annual report for other information.

SABR member DAVID W. SMITH is the founder and president of Retrosheet. He is a 2012 recipient of the Henry Chadwick Award and a 2005 recipient of the Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest honor. Learn more at Retrosheet.org.



Originally published: June 26, 2015. Last Updated: June 26, 2015.