# Retrosheet

> Volunteer-run archive of major league baseball history offering downloadable CSV play-by-play, game logs, schedules and biographical files back to the 19th century.

Canonical page: https://sportdex.net/providers/retrosheet/  
Last checked: 2026-11-03  
SportDex Score: 55/100 (rank 31; popularity 36, community 69, transparency 75, developer experience 51)

## Facts
- Type: Free / open data
- Website: https://www.retrosheet.org
- Documentation: https://www.retrosheet.org
- Pricing page: unknown
- Country: United States
- Sports: Baseball
- Data types: Fixtures, Historical data, Play-by-play, Results, Team stats
- Protocols: CSV download
- Delivery: CSV download
- Live / in-play: no
- Free tier: yes
- Cheapest public paid plan: not public
- Key competitions: MLB
- Authentication: none

## Plans
| Plan | Price | Requests | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free download | Free | — | Free data downloads; copyright retained, attribution notice on site |

## Who it is for

Best for: Baseball researchers and hobbyists who want free bulk MLB play-by-play, game logs and schedules as downloadable CSV files.

Not ideal for: Apps that need a live API or current-day data; Retrosheet offers bulk file downloads only, with a copyright notice on the data.

Use cases: Historical baseball research; Sabermetric models from play-by-play; Game log analysis

Limitations:
- No API, files only
- Not live; historical archive
- Copyright notice applies; check terms before reuse
- Volunteer-run and donation-funded

## Quick answers

**What is Retrosheet best for?** Baseball researchers and hobbyists who want free bulk MLB play-by-play, game logs and schedules as downloadable CSV files. Not ideal for: Apps that need a live API or current-day data; Retrosheet offers bulk file downloads only, with a copyright notice on the data.

**How much does Retrosheet cost?** Retrosheet does not publish prices on the pages we checked.

**Does Retrosheet have a free tier?** Yes. Retrosheet lists a free plan called "Free download".

**What does Retrosheet cover?** Retrosheet is a free / open data. Its sports: Baseball; data: Fixtures, Historical data, Play-by-play, Results, Team stats.

**Does Retrosheet have a WebSocket or streaming API?** No streaming is listed. Retrosheet delivers data by CSV download, so you poll for updates.

**What do developers say about Retrosheet?** Volunteer-run archive of MLB play-by-play, game logs and schedules as downloadable files, not a hosted API. Recommended on HN and betting forums for model building and ETL practice, and widely used by tools such as Chadwick and boxball Docker images. Free and deep history back to 1914; you must parse and host it yourself.

**What are the alternatives to Retrosheet?** Close alternatives in the SportDex catalog: CollegeFootballData.com, nflverse, Sportradar, PandaScore, Football Charts.

## What developers say

Volunteer-run archive of MLB play-by-play, game logs and schedules as downloadable files, not a hosted API. Recommended on HN and betting forums for model building and ETL practice, and widely used by tools such as Chadwick and boxball Docker images. Free and deep history back to 1914; you must parse and host it yourself.

Praised for: Free play-by-play back to the early 1900s; Strong ecosystem of parsers and database images

Complaints: Files only, no live API; needs parsing

## Method
Facts were read from the provider's own pages on 2026-11-03. Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that a feature is missing. Method: https://sportdex.net/methodology/