{"slug": "retrosheet", "name": "Retrosheet", "type": "open_api", "description": "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.", "website": "https://www.retrosheet.org", "country": "United States", "sports": ["baseball"], "data_types": ["fixtures", "historical", "play-by-play", "results", "stats"], "protocols": ["csv-download"], "free_tier": true, "trial_days": null, "demo": null, "contact_sales_only": false, "min_price": null, "plans_count": 1, "commercial_use": null, "betting_use": null, "redistribution": null, "rights_basis": null, "customer_types": ["individual"], "live_in_play": false, "sentiment": "positive", "discussions": 6, "github_repos": 347, "priority": 1.0, "logo": "/logos/retrosheet.png", "logo_tone": "tile", "docs_url": "https://www.retrosheet.org", "pricing_url": null, "status_page_url": null, "founded_year": null, "product": {"name": "Retrosheet downloads", "formats": ["csv"], "auth_methods": ["none"], "sdk_languages": [], "openapi_url": null, "history_depth": "MLB history (play-by-play back to 1898 per batch hint)", "update_frequency": null, "claimed_latency_ms": null}, "plans": [{"name": "Free download", "price": 0.0, "currency": "USD", "period": "one_time", "request_limit": null, "request_period": null, "is_free": true, "is_enterprise": false, "summary": "Free data downloads; copyright retained, attribution notice on site", "source_url": "https://www.retrosheet.org", "verified_at": "2026-11-03"}], "access": {"restricted_countries": null, "available_only_in": null, "customer_types": ["individual"], "kyc_required": null, "odds_regions": null, "bookmakers_count": null, "notes": null, "source_url": "https://www.retrosheet.org"}, "usage_rights": {"commercial_use": null, "betting_use": null, "redistribution": null, "storage": null, "attribution_required": null, "media_included": null, "terms_url": null, "source_url": null, "basis": null}, "data_source": {"official_partners": [], "collection_methods": ["community"], "source_url": "https://www.retrosheet.org"}, "support": {"sla_uptime": null, "channels": null, "sandbox": null, "changelog_url": null, "certifications": [], "payment_methods": null, "min_contract": null, "source_url": null}, "coverage": {"competitions_count": null, "key_leagues": ["MLB"], "womens": null, "live_in_play": false, "markets": null, "languages": null, "id_mapping": null, "source_url": "https://www.retrosheet.org"}, "community": {"summary": "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.", "sentiment": "positive", "topics": ["coverage", "free_tier", "data_quality"], "pros": ["Free play-by-play back to the early 1900s", "Strong ecosystem of parsers and database images"], "cons": ["Files only, no live API; needs parsing"], "evidence": ["https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17784959", "https://www.reddit.com/r/sportsbook/comments/46dk32/", "https://github.com/chadwickbureau/retrosheet", "https://github.com/droher/boxball", "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15784519"]}, "discussions_list": [{"platform": "reddit", "title": "Anyone with experience building an mlb model?", "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/sportsbook/comments/46dk32/", "date": "2016-02-18", "score": 10.0, "where": "r/sportsbook"}, {"platform": "stackoverflow", "title": "Alternative to Nested If Else Statements", "url": "https://stackoverflow.com/q/45292568", "date": "2017-07-25", "score": 1.0, "where": null}, {"platform": "hn", "title": "Ask HN: Simple, beginner friendly ETL / Data Engineering project ideas?", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17784959", "date": "2018-08-17", "score": null, "where": null}, {"platform": "hn", "title": "Major League Baseball's outdated, misleading offset camera angle", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=677351", "date": "2009-06-28", "score": null, "where": null}, {"platform": "hn", "title": "Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15784519", "date": "2017-11-27", "score": null, "where": null}, {"platform": "hn", "title": "Ask HN: Would anyone use an API for sports data?", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11836920", "date": "2016-06-04", "score": null, "where": null}], "repos": [{"platform": "github", "title": "chadwickbureau/retrosheet", "url": "https://github.com/chadwickbureau/retrosheet", "date": "2026-08-13", "score": 144.0, "where": null}, {"platform": "github", "title": "droher/boxball", "url": "https://github.com/droher/boxball", "date": "2026-05-20", "score": 135.0, "where": null}, {"platform": "github", "title": "chadwickbureau/chadwick", "url": "https://github.com/chadwickbureau/chadwick", "date": "2026-10-27", "score": 111.0, "where": null}, {"platform": "github", "title": "mattspitz/sluggerml", "url": "https://github.com/mattspitz/sluggerml", "date": "2012-03-08", "score": 72.0, "where": null}, {"platform": "github", "title": "chadwickbureau/retrosplits", "url": "https://github.com/chadwickbureau/retrosplits", "date": "2026-08-13", "score": 47.0, "where": null}, {"platform": "github", "title": "rmscriven/retrosheet", "url": "https://github.com/rmscriven/retrosheet", "date": "2020-03-23", "score": 35.0, "where": null}], "videos": [{"title": "Rickey Henderson Stole 130 Bases. He Was Also Caught 42 Times", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQU2fsweLw", "channel": "Curious Thirty", "date": "2026-11-02"}, {"title": "The Greatest Team That Got Robbed: The 1994 Montreal Expos", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2QuN78g4vo", "channel": "Sim Sheet", "date": "2026-10-13"}], "notes": "No API, bulk files only. Copyright notice on the site; see its usage terms before reuse. 1898 start from batch hint, not verified on crawled home page.", "checked_at": "2026-11-03", "alternatives": ["collegefootballdata-com", "nflverse", "sportradar", "pandascore", "football-charts"], "fit": {"best_for": "Baseball researchers and hobbyists who want free bulk MLB play-by-play, game logs and schedules as downloadable CSV files.", "not_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"], "source_urls": ["https://www.retrosheet.org", "https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/NegroLeagues.html"]}, "score": {"overall": 55, "popularity": 36, "community": 69, "transparency": 75, "developer": 51, "confidence": "low", "reliability_flags": [], "rank": 31}}