If you are looking for baseball stats and information about players, consulting a baseball encyclopedia online can provide you with vast amounts of data. As the early days of baseball moved on to the more modern day of technology, the types of data that got recorded have increased, giving baseball fans more and more opportunities to acquire knowledge. For example, in the 1930's and 1940's, the speed of a pitch couldn't be recorded accurately, but now, with radar, you can tabulate information like the fastest pitch, the most consistent speed pitcher and more.
Finding a Baseball Encyclopedia Online
- One of the largest baseball encyclopedia online is Baseball Almanac. With over 500,000 separate web pages of information, you can find biographies, player stats, historical facts, quotes, anecdotes and more. There are also sections on leaders and records and "Left Field," which takes a look at other non-direct aspects of baseball like autographs, books about baseball and players, baseball movies and more. This website is a great place to start, but if you are looking for autobiographies, you'll only find a short list of legendary players like Hank Aaron and those the owners of the website consider their favorites. If you are a college baseball fan, you'll find a special section for that as well.
- At Baseball Reference you can search and obtain information all the way back to 1871. For statistics, the core of the site is under the "Play Index." Here you can search player names in reference to batting and pitching and get more specific by searching Home Runs, Streaks, Pitching Counts (narrow down to 2-strike and 3-ball summaries), events and categories called Batter vs. Pitchers and Pitcher vs. Batters. Sections such as players, teams, managers and leagues are also available as well as finding out leaders in different award categories and any post-season information. The site is updated quite often, especially with news, so you can keep up-to-date with your favorite player or team.
- If you are just looking for comprehensive statistics, then visit The Baseball Cube. You'll find data from Major League Baseball all the way down to high school baseball and even international teams. Sift through rankings, stats by teams and leagues, World Series (both for the Major League and college), managers and coaches and peruse baseball cards. For those who like to crunch data or are looking for statistics on a player or team not found on other baseball encyclopedia online websites, then The Baseball Cube is for you.
- Baseball Guru takes a little time to navigate, but you will find vast amounts of information and a listing of sites you can visit if Baseball Guru doesn't have it. This site is a good source of news about baseball from around the world as well as historical information about the World Series, All-Star games, baseball stadiums, salaries and even uniforms. Mostly though, this site is an encyclopedia of web links, but it has covered everything from the women's league to foreign baseball to even the minor leagues. Use this site to seek out separate websites on local teams or favorite players.
Other Resources
- AAGPBL is a site about the All-American Girls Professional league in existence from 1943 to 1954.
- From the Library of Congress comes information about the Negro Leagues. Visit it at American Negro League.
- Historical Baseball brings you information about baseball dating back to 1871. You find biographies on the players, team histories, information about the various leagues that operated over the years and the printed obituaries of different players.
Printed Encyclopedias
Online baseball encyclopedias are great sources if you need to find a stat or piece of data quickly. However, if you have the time or just want to obtain general knowledge about players from other resources, do a search at your local bookstore (or even at online bookstores) and get immersed in the history of the game that way.
