the sports reference series of websites are some of the last good ones on the internet. they’ve never once changed their design to ruin it, have never hid critical functions behind a paywall, the stathead stuff they do put behind a paywall is incredible/worth charging for. i hope we never lose them - ThreadSky

dirtbagqueer.rocks • 73 days ago

the sports reference series of websites are some of the last good ones on the internet. they’ve never once changed their design to ruin it, have never hid critical functions behind a paywall, the stathead stuff they do put behind a paywall is incredible/worth charging for. i hope we never lose them

Comments

bkbbear219.bsky.social•73 days ago

Here’s a special word for Kenpom, the easiest to use website on the World Wide Web.

djljr26.bsky.social•73 days ago

Am i remember correctly that you used to be able to sponsor player pages for a small fee?

leask.bsky.social•72 days ago

Even though I don’t use the stathead stuff I use baseball and basketball reference enough I feel like I gotta buy some shirts just to give a bit back, yknow?

andrewjoepotter.bsky.social•73 days ago

Beyond the utility, my favorite thing about the Ref sites are the sneaky jokes/east eggs hidden here and there.

A utilities bill, a fictional athlete, etc.

feb31st.bsky.social•73 days ago

Did you ever fuck w Football Outsiders? Not quite a reference site but they had their own proprietary metrics and I can't find them anymore :/

tanho.ca•73 days ago

Aaron Schatz @aschatz.bsky.social is now at FTN Fantasy https://ftnfantasy.com/dvoa/nfl

feb31st.bsky.social•73 days ago

Thank you!

scottbehson.bsky.social•73 days ago

FO was acquired and stripped down for parts. Aaron brought the DVOA system to FTN, but most of it is paywalled now.

absentnova.bsky.social•73 days ago

It's a shame football outsiders did the paywall stuff that ultimately led to their downfall

edubble111.bsky.social•73 days ago

If they started charging today I would be disappointed but instantly begrudgingly pay it. What am I gonna do not look at stat ref? The fact they likely know this makes me respect them even more

mrquindazzi.bsky.social•73 days ago

Me to, but the entirety of our moment in time is tech bros flogging the enshittification of everything

bfskinnerstan.bsky.social•73 days ago

Also gives us Beer, who threw 19 games for the Lancaster Lanks in 1910

rustyshackleford44.bsky.social•72 days ago

Bats: Unknown
Throws: Unknown
Drinks: A lot

coneslayer.org•73 days ago

Untappd 🤝 Baseball-Reference

tigerb8s.bsky.social•73 days ago

Beer, the pitcher.

mburchett.bsky.social•73 days ago

There's a bar on the Oregon coast called The Relief Pitcher and it's probably the best bar name ever.

mburchett.bsky.social•73 days ago

And yes. It absolutely rules.

tigerb8s.bsky.social•73 days ago

There's a gay sports bar in DC that's just called "Pitcher's".

mburchett.bsky.social•73 days ago

Oh hell yeah

tuba1060.bsky.social•73 days ago

I basically live off Baseball Reference during fantasy season. Having an easy to use, comprehensive tool to look up random minor leaguers is invaluable.

jeffegnaczyk.bsky.social•72 days ago

The one thing they got rid of that I wish they kept was the ability to sponsor a player's page. I paid for Joel Skinner's page for a few years because he was my brother's favorite player as a kid.

j0k0sb1txh.bsky.social•73 days ago

fbref is a golden light in a mess of bullshitting soccer pundits (neville, lineker)

espnbillc.bsky.social•73 days ago

I get annoyed by the autoplay videos, but then I get annoyed that I'm annoyed because it's still an amazing tool to have for free.

justlikek.bsky.social•73 days ago

My computer is so old that it struggles with them

tomasaw.bsky.social•73 days ago

McMaster-Carr has a blazing fast website. It’s so nice i occasionally browse the site looking for nothing in particular.

regularnormalchick.bsky.social•72 days ago

I’ve had to bookmark Baseball Reference because literally three times a day minimum in the baseball season and at least once a week in the off season I find some stat I just have to look up

coffeeindiana.bsky.social•73 days ago

Two other much more minor sports sites I like that have never changed:

http://www.whowins.com/

https://www.playoffstatus.com/nfl/nfl.html

celebrityhottub.bsky.social•73 days ago

I may know of a company that kicked around internally attempting to buy them and maybe some people there prayed they would never try

hatinassbrian.bsky.social•73 days ago

I gasped

thegax.bsky.social•73 days ago

hawkeyestate.substack.com•73 days ago

Go Iowa Awesome could never work out the financing.

itstygrey.bsky.social•73 days ago

Please leave good things alone people. It’s perfect just like it is.

mattberry05.bsky.social•73 days ago

[rolls up newspaper]

andrew.mcguiregis.com•73 days ago

Ryan this is the most chilling thingb you've ever said

And I enjoyed Wait, Wait Don't Hell Me

dirtbagqueer.rocks•73 days ago

oh my godddd

danny.page•73 days ago

sounds like something a mouse would buy

peterberkes.bsky.social•73 days ago

Jesus Christ

dspeaker.bsky.social•73 days ago

All facts!

normcorerockwell.bsky.social•72 days ago

https://Transfermarkt.com does a nice job of threading the needle between “useful stuff that’s easy to find and navigate through” and “flashy clickbait-y stuff that helps the site survive”

shawnfoss.bsky.social•73 days ago

I love the reference websites and pay for Stathead, but even these sites have started to become a bit inundated with ads and auto-play videos that try to cover right where you're trying to click.

tyschalter.com•73 days ago

100000000%

jaydpauley.bsky.social•73 days ago

Pro Football Reference is my Bible, and @stathead.com is the easiest $80 per year I’ll ever spend.

kleshreen.bsky.social•72 days ago

I've applied to work there like 4 times because it seems amazing. But I'm not good enough lol. @sean-forman.bsky.social plz.

sean-forman.bsky.social•72 days ago

I'm grateful for your interest, but please don't feel bad, we get a LOT of applicants.

chrpngbrd.bsky.social•72 days ago

a lot of people said when deadspin died there was no website left that we all check regularly. but now that you mention it that is not true. I am on baseball reference almost daily.

djbennyc.bsky.social•73 days ago

One of the only websites I pay for happily, without question, and I would pay more for. Stathead absolutely rules.

mandersonmn.bsky.social•73 days ago

I respect Craig Newmark so much for deciding that 1995 was the pinnacle of web design and refusing to update Craigslist since

craignewmark.bsky.social•72 days ago

Mitchell, thanks, but I can't take credit for that, I stepped down as CEO in 2000, went into full time customer service.

Maybe the biggest contribution is to show tens of millions of people that the Internet is useful, and can be reasonably simple and easy to use.

Thanks for sharing the message!

sean-forman.bsky.social•72 days ago

Craigslist was definitely an influence for the sports reference sites. We describe our design ethos as aggressively functional. :)

mrcongeniality.bsky.social•73 days ago

Baseball Reference has a page for my grandpa, who grew up on the East Side and played minor league ball for 11 years but never in the majors, with enough detail that it mentions he’s buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Cheektowaga. Sincerely, bless them.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=heller001fra

djljr26.bsky.social•73 days ago

Never underestimate the determination and thoroughness of baseball history nerds haha. Really cool stuff.

dirtbagqueer.rocks•73 days ago

this rules!

mplb0001.bsky.social•73 days ago

sole exception is racing reference imo. nascar bought it and its slowly falling apart

justlikek.bsky.social•73 days ago

Oh I didn't realize that. That's too bad.

sean-forman.bsky.social•73 days ago

Not our site. 😀

mplb0001.bsky.social•73 days ago

see because this wouldn't happen under your watch

freshticles.gobirds.online•73 days ago

I never feel suffocated with ads or like my phone refuses to actually load it. Always comes through for me.

snowdayfan1.bsky.social•73 days ago

When FanGraphs changed everything over the summer it was atrocious and the entire user base was so mad in the comments they had to add a settings option to change back to the old way lol. I really hope Sports Reference guys learned something from that

joestradamus.bsky.social•73 days ago

I will fight and die for the safety of the sports reference websites

jevvymedia.bsky.social•73 days ago

Bballref absolutely hides things that once made the site more appealing. Very frustrating.

kaizendad.bsky.social•73 days ago

RIP Football Outsiders

sean-forman.bsky.social•73 days ago

Also thank you. It’s always nice to hear

sean-forman.bsky.social•73 days ago

😉

It has between awhile.

iammarcavery.bsky.social•73 days ago

Big facts!!

mayormccheese.bsky.social•73 days ago

also, just throwing out there that we love to talk to our users to see where/how we can improve. we read all our emails and we have opportunities to meet with us for user interviews! https://bsky.app/profile/hockey-reference.com/post/3ldjhguhgwf26

garrethohl.bsky.social•73 days ago

Hello

j15royals.bsky.social•73 days ago

PIVOT TO CURLING

sportwatcherpro.bsky.social•73 days ago

Football Reference, a Fanatics Experience

billdifilippo.bsky.social•73 days ago

my favorite thing they do is find just about every nickname that is used for an athlete, i have worked in basketball for like seven years at this point and i have never heard chuck referred to by 12 of his 15 nicknames

iamgoog.bsky.social•73 days ago

Some of the best bits over the years by @thirdtimesthecharm.bsky.social have been to read out the nicknames of players on sports ref

cforsberg.bsky.social•73 days ago

True, but some of those nicknames are silly and nonexistent.

bearmountainpicnic.bsky.social•72 days ago

Nice work but they missed Sir Cumference

mh-dc.bsky.social•73 days ago

yep. they are exactly what the web was meant to be

pikebishop1.bsky.social•73 days ago

This guys site hasn’t changed its format since maybe 1998 and it’s still the best way to find historical college football scores

https://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/ScoresIndex.htm

justlikek.bsky.social•73 days ago

There used to be a big collection of these types of sites under the rfsc or rsfc Usenet banner but unfortunately went away within the last few years. That's where I learned of this site.

pikebishop1.bsky.social•73 days ago

I think I found it in early 2000s linked on some fan site, and even then it seemed primitive. Glad it’s still kicking

justlikek.bsky.social•73 days ago

Here is another one that was linked on that site. https://stassen.com/football/records/compute-request.html

justlikek.bsky.social•73 days ago

And this https://stassen.com/football/records/

pikebishop1.bsky.social•73 days ago

Stassen was a game changer for message board arguments

justlikek.bsky.social•73 days ago

I'm glad I pulled myself away many years ago. Lol

elrocco337.bsky.social•73 days ago

Years ago I subscribed to stathead to win an argument and I've kept it because at least once a month I get curious about dumb stat splits and want the answer. It's amazing.

sports-reference.com•72 days ago

dirtbagqueer.rocks•73 days ago

replies and quote tweets having me feeling feelings. we used to have WEBSITES man

alexremington.bsky.social•42 days ago

goddamn no truer words have ever been spoken. there used to be some INTERNET.

hjbosch21.bsky.social•73 days ago

I miss the days have having my routine of going to my favorite websites to read . I’ve kind of gotten back to it with newsletters I enjoy but it’s not the same.

nagelhout.bsky.social•73 days ago

websites were good! we can bring them back!

chazadams.bsky.social•73 days ago

Websites over apps all day also

jacobsimpson.bsky.social•73 days ago

If you wanted to know team sports factoids in the aughts, you had to hope it was stuck on some Geocities-type site somewhere. The Reference people are invaluable.

tsellhorn.bsky.social•73 days ago

We can have them again

toner56.bsky.social•73 days ago

Wanted to make sure @sean-forman.bsky.social sees this well earned praise!

kickyflippy.bsky.social•73 days ago

I use them every day. I pray they never change.

curmudgely.bsky.social•72 days ago

i feel seen to a nigh-unfamiliar degree

zbacon2010.bsky.social•73 days ago

Bingo

shake1n1bake.bsky.social•73 days ago

"But if we buy it, burn it down, sell anything that didn't burn, piss on the ashes then have them declare bankruptcy the line will go up for 2, maybe 3 more quarters." -Private Equity

jakealbrecht.bsky.social•72 days ago

Strange to think how long they've been around. When I was in high school 20 years ago we would play a game on the baseball reference page where you would try to guess a player based on their "appearance on leaderboards, honors, and awards" box when we were bored.

dirtanium.bsky.social•72 days ago

When I used to teach statistics, I loved to use baseball reference.

keefsdadsashes.bsky.social•72 days ago

Totally agree!

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