The Lahman Baseball Database 2019 Release Date: February 18, 2020 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- README CONTENTS 0.1 Copyright Notice 0.2 Contact Information 1.0 Release Contents 1.1 Introduction 1.2 What's New 1.3 Acknowledgements 1.4 Using this Database 1.5 Revision History 2.0 Data Tables ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.1 Copyright Notice & Limited Use License This database is copyright 1996-2020 by Sean Lahman. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For details see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ For licensing information or further information, contact Sean Lahman at: seanlahman@gmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.2 Contact Information Web site: http://www.baseball1.com E-Mail : seanlahman@gmail.com If you're interested in contributing to the maintenance of this database or making suggestions for improvement, please consider joining our mailinglist at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baseball-databank/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Release Contents This release of the database can be downloaded in several formats. The contents of each version are listed below. MS Access Versions: lahman.mdb readme.txt SQL version lahman.sql readme.txt Comma Delimited Version: readme.txt AllStarFull.csv Appearances.csv AwardsManagers.csv AwardsPlayers.csv AwardsShareManagers.csv AwardsSharePlayers.csv Batting.csv BattingPost.csv CollegePlaying.csv Fielding.csv FieldingOF.csv FieldingPost.csv FieldingOFsplit HallOfFame.csv HomeGames.csv Managers.csv ManagersHalf.csv Parks.csv People.csv Pitching.csv PitchingPost.csv README.txt Salaries.csv Schools.csv SeriesPost.csv Teams.csv TeamsFranchises.csv TeamsHalf.csv ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.1 Introduction This database contains pitching, hitting, and fielding statistics for Major League Baseball from 1871 through 2019. It includes data from the two current leagues (American and National), the four other "major" leagues (American Association, Union Association, Players League, and Federal League), and the National Association of 1871-1875. This database was created by Sean Lahman, who pioneered the effort to make baseball statistics freely available to the general public. What started as a one man effort in 1994 has grown tremendously, and now a team of researchers have collected their efforts to make this the largest and most accurate source for baseball statistics available anywhere. (See Acknowledgements below for a list of the key contributors to this project.) None of what we have done would have been possible without the pioneering work of Hy Turkin, S.C. Thompson, David Neft, and Pete Palmer (among others). All baseball fans owe a debt of gratitude to the people who have worked so hard to build the tremendous set of data that we have today. Our thanks also to the many members of the Society for American Baseball Research who have helped us over the years. We strongly urge you to support and join their efforts. Please vist their website (www.sabr.org). If you have any problems or find any errors, please let us know. Any feedback is appreciated ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.2 What's New Player stats have been updated through the latest season, and many of the other tables have been updated based on new research into the historical record. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.3 Acknowledgements Much of the raw data contained in this database comes from the work of Pete Palmer, the legendary statistician, who has had a hand in most of the baseball encylopedias published since 1974. He is largely responsible for bringing the batting, pitching, and fielding data out of the dark ages and into the computer era. Without him, none of this would be possible. For more on Pete's work, please read his own account at: http://sabr.org/cmsfiles/PalmerDatabaseHistory.pdf Three people have been key contributors to the work that followed, first by taking the raw data and creating a relational database, and later by extending the database to make it more accesible to researchers. Sean Lahman launched the Baseball Archive's website back before most people had heard of the world wide web. Frustrated by the lack of sports data available, he led the effort to build a baseball database that everyone could use. He created the first version of the database and began to make it available for free download from his website in 1995. The work of Sean Forman to create and maintain an online encyclopedia at Baseball-Reference.com was a quantum leap for both fans and researchers. The website launched in 2000, provding a user-friendly interface to the Lahman Baseball Database. Forman and Lahman launched the Baseball Databank in 2001, a group of researchers whose goal was to update and maintain the database as an open source collection available to all. Ted Turocy has done the lion's share of the work to updating the main data tables since 2012, automating the work of annual updates and linking historical data to play-by-play accounts compiled by Retrosheet. A handful of researchers have made substantial contributions to maintain this database over years. Listed alphabetically, they are: Derek Adair, Mike Crain, Kevin Johnson, Rod Nelson, Tom Tango, and Paul Wendt. These folks did much of the heavy lifting, and are largely responsible for the improvements made since 2000. Others who made important contributions include: Dvd Avins, Clifford Blau, Bill Burgess, Clem Comly, Jeff Burk, Randy Cox, Mitch Dickerman, Paul DuBois, Mike Emeigh, F.X. Flinn, Bill Hickman, Jerry Hoffman, Dan Holmes, Micke Hovmoller, Peter Kreutzer, Danile Levine, Bruce Macleod, Ken Matinale, Michael Mavrogiannis, Cliff Otto, Alberto Perdomo, Dave Quinn, John Rickert, Tom Ruane, Theron Skyles, Hans Van Slooten, Michael Westbay, and Rob Wood. Many other people have made significant contributions to the database over the years. The contribution of Tom Ruane's effort to the overall quality of the underlying data has been tremendous. His work at retrosheet.org integrates the yearly data with the day-by-day data, creating a reference source of startling depth. Sean Holtz helped with a major overhaul and redesign before the 2000 season. Keith Woolner was instrumental in helping turn a huge collection of stats into a relational database in the mid-1990s. Clifford Otto & Ted Nye also helped provide guidance to the early versions. Lee Sinnis, John Northey & Erik Greenwood helped supply key pieces of data. Many others have written in with corrections and suggestions that made each subsequent version even better than what preceded it. The work of the SABR Baseball Records Committee, led by Lyle Spatz has been invaluable. So has the work of Bill Carle and the SABR Biographical Committee. David Vincent, keeper of the Home Run Log and other bits of hard to find info, has always been helpful. The recent addition of colleges to player bios is the result of much research by members of SABR's Collegiate Baseball committee. Salary data was first supplied by Doug Pappas, who passed away during the summer of 2004. He was the leading authority on many subjects, most significantly the financial history of Major League Baseball. We are grateful that he allowed us to include some of the data he compiled. His work has been continued by the SABR Business of Baseball committee. Thanks is also due to the staff at the National Baseball Library in Cooperstown who have been so helpful over the years, including Tim Wiles, Jim Gates, Bruce Markusen, and the rest of the staff. A special debt of gratitude is owed to Dave Smith and the folks at Retrosheet. There is no other group working so hard to compile and share baseball data. Their website (www.retrosheet.org) will give you a taste of the wealth of information Dave and the gang have collected. Thanks to all contributors great and small. What you have created is a wonderful thing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.4 Using this Database This version of the database is available in Microsoft Access format, SQL files or in a generic, comma delimited format. Because this is a relational database, you will not be able to use the data in a flat-database application. Please note that this is not a stand alone application. It requires a database application or some other application designed specifically to interact with the database. If you are unable to import the data directly, you should download the database in the delimted text format. Then use the documentation in section 2.0 of this document to import the data into your database application. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.5 Revision History Version Date Comments 1.0 December 1992 Database ported from dBase 1.1 May 1993 Becomes fully relational 1.2 July 1993 Corrections made to full database 1.21 December 1993 1993 statistics added 1.3 July 1994 Pre-1900 data added 1.31 February 1995 1994 Statistics added 1.32 August 1995 Statistics added for other leagues 1.4 September 1995 Fielding Data added 1.41 November 1995 1995 statistics added 1.42 March 1996 HOF/All-Star tables added 1.5-MS October 1996 1st public release - MS Access format 1.5-GV October 1996 Released generic comma-delimted files 1.6-MS December 1996 Updated with 1996 stats, some corrections 1.61-MS December 1996 Corrected error in MASTER table 1.62 February 1997 Corrected 1914-1915 batters data and updated 2.0 February 1998 Major Revisions-added teams & managers 2.1 October 1998 Interim release w/1998 stats 2.2 January 1999 New release w/post-season stats & awards added 3.0 November 1999 Major release - fixed errors and 1999 statistics added 4.0 May 2001 Major release - proofed & redesigned tables 4.5 March 2002 Updated with 2001 stats and added new biographical data 5.0 December 2002 Major revision - new tables and data 5.1 January 2004 Updated with 2003 data, and new pitching categories 5.2 November 2004 Updated with 2004 season statistics. 5.3 December 2005 Updated with 2005 season statistics. 5.4 December 2006 Updated with 2006 season statistics. 5.5 December 2007 Updated with 2007 season statistics. 5.6 December 2008 Updated with 2008 season statistics. 5.7 December 2009 Updated for 2009 and added several tables. 5.8 December 2010 Updated with 2010 season statistics. 5.9 December 2011 Updated for 2011 and removed obsolete tables. 2012 December 2012 Updated with 2012 season statistics 2013 December 2013 Updated with 2013 season statistics 2014 December 2014 Updated with 2014 season statistics 2015 December 2015 Updated with 2015 season statistics 2016 February 2017 Updated for 2016 and added several tables 2017 March 2018 Updated for 2017 2018 February 2019 Updated for 2018 2019 February 2020 Updated for 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.0 Data Tables The design follows these general principles. Each player is assigned a unique number (playerID). All of the information relating to that player is tagged with his playerID. The playerIDs are linked to names and birthdates in the MASTER table. The database is comprised of the following main tables: People - Player names, DOB, and biographical info Batting - batting statistics Pitching - pitching statistics Fielding - fielding statistics It is supplemented by these tables: AllStarFull - All-Star appearances HallofFame - Hall of Fame voting data Managers - managerial statistics Teams - yearly stats and standings BattingPost - post-season batting statistics PitchingPost - post-season pitching statistics TeamFranchises - franchise information FieldingOF - outfield position data FieldingPost- post-season fielding data FieldingOFsplit - LF/CF/RF splits ManagersHalf - split season data for managers TeamsHalf - split season data for teams Salaries - player salary data SeriesPost - post-season series information AwardsManagers - awards won by managers AwardsPlayers - awards won by players AwardsShareManagers - award voting for manager awards AwardsSharePlayers - award voting for player awards Appearances - details on the positions a player appeared at Schools - list of colleges that players attended CollegePlaying - list of players and the colleges they attended Parks - list of major league ballparls HomeGames - Number of homegames played by each team in each ballpark ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 2.1 People table playerID A unique code asssigned to each player. The playerID links the data in this file with records in the other files. birthYear Year player was born birthMonth Month player was born birthDay Day player was born birthCountry Country where player was born birthState State where player was born birthCity City where player was born deathYear Year player died deathMonth Month player died deathDay Day player died deathCountry Country where player died deathState State where player died deathCity City where player died nameFirst Player's first name nameLast Player's last name nameGiven Player's given name (typically first and middle) weight Player's weight in pounds height Player's height in inches bats Player's batting hand (left, right, or both) throws Player's throwing hand (left or right) debut Date that player made first major league appearance finalGame Date that player made first major league appearance (blank if still active) retroID ID used by retrosheet bbrefID ID used by Baseball Reference website ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.2 Batting Table playerID Player ID code yearID Year stint player's stint (order of appearances within a season) teamID Team lgID League G Games AB At Bats R Runs H Hits 2B Doubles 3B Triples HR Homeruns RBI Runs Batted In SB Stolen Bases CS Caught Stealing BB Base on Balls SO Strikeouts IBB Intentional walks HBP Hit by pitch SH Sacrifice hits SF Sacrifice flies GIDP Grounded into double plays ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.3 Pitching table playerID Player ID code yearID Year stint player's stint (order of appearances within a season) teamID Team lgID League W Wins L Losses G Games GS Games Started CG Complete Games SHO Shutouts SV Saves IPOuts Outs Pitched (innings pitched x 3) H Hits ER Earned Runs HR Homeruns BB Walks SO Strikeouts BAOpp Opponent's Batting Average ERA Earned Run Average IBB Intentional Walks WP Wild Pitches HBP Batters Hit By Pitch BK Balks BFP Batters faced by Pitcher GF Games Finished R Runs Allowed SH Sacrifices by opposing batters SF Sacrifice flies by opposing batters GIDP Grounded into double plays by opposing batter ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.4 Fielding Table playerID Player ID code yearID Year stint player's stint (order of appearances within a season) teamID Team lgID League Pos Position G Games GS Games Started InnOuts Time played in the field expressed as outs PO Putouts A Assists E Errors DP Double Plays PB Passed Balls (by catchers) WP Wild Pitches (by catchers) SB Opponent Stolen Bases (by catchers) CS Opponents Caught Stealing (by catchers) ZR Zone Rating ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.5 AllstarFull table playerID Player ID code YearID Year gameNum Game number (zero if only one All-Star game played that season) gameID Retrosheet ID for the game idea teamID Team lgID League GP 1 if Played in the game startingPos If player was game starter, the position played ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.6 HallOfFame table playerID Player ID code yearID Year of ballot votedBy Method by which player was voted upon ballots Total ballots cast in that year needed Number of votes needed for selection in that year votes Total votes received inducted Whether player was inducted by that vote or not (Y or N) category Category in which candidate was honored needed_note Explanation of qualifiers for special elections ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.7 Managers table playerID Player ID Number yearID Year teamID Team lgID League inseason Managerial order. Zero if the individual managed the team the entire year. Otherwise denotes where the manager appeared in the managerial order (1 for first manager, 2 for second, etc.) G Games managed W Wins L Losses rank Team's final position in standings that year plyrMgr Player Manager (denoted by 'Y') ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.8 Teams table yearID Year lgID League teamID Team franchID Franchise (links to TeamsFranchise table) divID Team's division Rank Position in final standings G Games played GHome Games played at home W Wins L Losses DivWin Division Winner (Y or N) WCWin Wild Card Winner (Y or N) LgWin League Champion(Y or N) WSWin World Series Winner (Y or N) R Runs scored AB At bats H Hits by batters 2B Doubles 3B Triples HR Homeruns by batters BB Walks by batters SO Strikeouts by batters SB Stolen bases CS Caught stealing HBP Batters hit by pitch SF Sacrifice flies RA Opponents runs scored ER Earned runs allowed ERA Earned run average CG Complete games SHO Shutouts SV Saves IPOuts Outs Pitched (innings pitched x 3) HA Hits allowed HRA Homeruns allowed BBA Walks allowed SOA Strikeouts by pitchers E Errors DP Double Plays FP Fielding percentage name Team's full name park Name of team's home ballpark attendance Home attendance total BPF Three-year park factor for batters PPF Three-year park factor for pitchers teamIDBR Team ID used by Baseball Reference website teamIDlahman45 Team ID used in Lahman database version 4.5 teamIDretro Team ID used by Retrosheet ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.9 BattingPost table yearID Year round Level of playoffs playerID Player ID code teamID Team lgID League G Games AB At Bats R Runs H Hits 2B Doubles 3B Triples HR Homeruns RBI Runs Batted In SB Stolen Bases CS Caught stealing BB Base on Balls SO Strikeouts IBB Intentional walks HBP Hit by pitch SH Sacrifices SF Sacrifice flies GIDP Grounded into double plays ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.10 PitchingPost table playerID Player ID code yearID Year round Level of playoffs teamID Team lgID League W Wins L Losses G Games GS Games Started CG Complete Games SHO Shutouts SV Saves IPOuts Outs Pitched (innings pitched x 3) H Hits ER Earned Runs HR Homeruns BB Walks SO Strikeouts BAOpp Opponents' batting average ERA Earned Run Average IBB Intentional Walks WP Wild Pitches HBP Batters Hit By Pitch BK Balks BFP Batters faced by Pitcher GF Games Finished R Runs Allowed SH Sacrifice Hits allowed SF Sacrifice Flies allowed GIDP Grounded into Double Plays ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.11 TeamFranchises table franchID Franchise ID franchName Franchise name active Whetehr team is currently active (Y or N) NAassoc ID of National Association team franchise played as ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.12 FieldingOF table playerID Player ID code yearID Year stint player's stint (order of appearances within a season) Glf Games played in left field Gcf Games played in center field Grf Games played in right field ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.13 ManagersHalf table playerID Manager ID code yearID Year teamID Team lgID League inseason Managerial order. One if the individual managed the team the entire year. Otherwise denotes where the manager appeared in the managerial order (1 for first manager, 2 for second, etc.) half First or second half of season G Games managed W Wins L Losses rank Team's position in standings for the half ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.14 TeamsHalf table yearID Year lgID League teamID Team half First or second half of season divID Division DivWin Won Division (Y or N) rank Team's position in standings for the half G Games played W Wins L Losses ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.15 Salaries table yearID Year teamID Team lgID League playerID Player ID code salary Salary ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.16 SeriesPost table yearID Year round Level of playoffs teamIDwinner Team ID of the team that won the series lgIDwinner League ID of the team that won the series teamIDloser Team ID of the team that lost the series lgIDloser League ID of the team that lost the series wins Wins by team that won the series losses Losses by team that won the series ties Tie games ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.17 AwardsManagers table playerID Manager ID code awardID Name of award won yearID Year lgID League tie Award was a tie (Y or N) notes Notes about the award ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.18 AwardsPlayers table playerID Player ID code awardID Name of award won yearID Year lgID League tie Award was a tie (Y or N) notes Notes about the award ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.19 AwardsShareManagers table awardID name of award votes were received for yearID Year lgID League playerID Manager ID code pointsWon Number of points received pointsMax Maximum numner of points possible votesFirst Number of first place votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.20 AwardsSharePlayers table awardID name of award votes were received for yearID Year lgID League playerID Player ID code pointsWon Number of points received pointsMax Maximum numner of points possible votesFirst Number of first place votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.21 FieldingPost table playerID Player ID code yearID Year teamID Team lgID League round Level of playoffs Pos Position G Games GS Games Started InnOuts Time played in the field expressed as outs PO Putouts A Assists E Errors DP Double Plays TP Triple Plays PB Passed Balls SB Stolen Bases allowed (by catcher) CS Caught Stealing (by catcher) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.22 Appearances table yearID Year teamID Team lgID League playerID Player ID code G_all Total games played GS Games started G_batting Games in which player batted G_defense Games in which player appeared on defense G_p Games as pitcher G_c Games as catcher G_1b Games as firstbaseman G_2b Games as secondbaseman G_3b Games as thirdbaseman G_ss Games as shortstop G_lf Games as leftfielder G_cf Games as centerfielder G_rf Games as right fielder G_of Games as outfielder G_dh Games as designated hitter G_ph Games as pinch hitter G_pr Games as pinch runner ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.23 Schools table schoolID school ID code schoolName school name schoolCity city where school is located schoolState state where school's city is located schoolNick nickname for school's baseball team ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.24 CollegePlaying table playerid Player ID code schoolID school ID code year year ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.25 FieldingOFsplit table playerID Player ID code yearID Year stint player's stint (order of appearances within a season) teamID Team lgID League Pos Position G Games GS Games Started InnOuts Time played in the field expressed as outs PO Putouts A Assists E Errors DP Double Plays ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.26 Parks table park.key ballpark ID code park.name name of ballpark park.alias alternate names of ballpark city city state state country country ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- 2.27 HomeGames table year.key year league.key league team.key team ID park.key ballpark ID span.first date of first game played span.last date of last game played games total number of games openings total number of dates played attendance total attendaance