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Is anyone maintaining these "lists of MLB players"?

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I stumbled upon these lists of MLB players, e.g. List of Major League Baseball players (A), List of Major League Baseball players (Ha), List of Major League Baseball players (La–Lh), but I don't think they are being updated regularly. Many retired players on the lists still do not have their "final game" listed, and players whose careers began after 2011 are not listed. Overall, are these lists even useful if they are not kept up to date? Natg 19 (talk) 07:52, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, another thing is that a few of the lists, e.g. List of Major League Baseball players (B), List of Major League Baseball players (D) just are a list of names with no other information. But the lack of updates is still an issue, as the B and D articles seem to be untouched (barring minor link fixes) since 2011. Natg 19 (talk) 07:54, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Overall, are these lists even useful if they are not kept up to date? No; even if maintained they run afoul of WP:NOTDIRECTORY but they're even worse when neglected. These walled gardens of specialized data pages are typically made by fanatical editors with little regard for encyclopedic merit or core policies. A bundled AfD may be in order. Left guide (talk) 08:29, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I might have at best added sone entries to a team's all-time roster, but not often. Still your interpretation of WP:NOTDIRECTORY might be a bit too strict. It reads:

Wikipedia functions as an index or directory of its own content. However, Wikipedia is not a directory of everything in the universe that exists or has existed.

FWIW, (given WP:OTHERSTUFFGENERAL and the like), there's lots of broad list/indexes like List of British actors, List of NFL players, etc. And there's lots of WP pages that are not up to date. —Bagumba (talk) 10:57, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
There are all-time roster lists for every team as well that usually aren't up to date.... I do update the Dodgers list on a regular basis and keep it up to date but I don't think that the other teams have dedicated updaters. If we had enough editors, i'd suggest a project wide effort to update these but not sure we have the manpower. Spanneraol (talk) 13:27, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I've been updating the Brewers' list after each season's end. NatureBoyMD (talk) 14:07, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The Tigers' list is kept rigorously up-to-date. LEPRICAVARK (talk) 16:25, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The policy quote you furnished demonstrates precisely why this group of pages is in WP:NOTDIRECTORY territory, because they collectively attempt to function as a directory of every MLB player in the universe that exists or has existed. The category system is sufficient for this purpose. Left guide (talk) 17:33, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Categories don't necessarily preclude related lists (WP:NOTDUP). —Bagumba (talk) 02:31, 27 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
TBH, all sports lists of players should be deleted. They're IMHO too trivial. GoodDay (talk) 14:56, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think the team lists have value.. the league lists on the other hand are a pain... I tried to see what it would take to update these and just looking at "A" it doesn't seem to have had any substantial update in about a decade. Considering that new players debut almost every day of the season keeping these updated is tough.. plus the baseball reference list that I would use to update these also has added the negro league players that are not in our lists. Even the team lists are problematic to update considering how different they are.. some are updated some are not and they are radically different format.. I remember the effort that User:Killervogel5 spent on bringing the Phillies articles up to featured lists.. but when he retired the lists quickly went out of sync and he made them kinda hard to update. Spanneraol (talk) 15:54, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • I wonder how hard would it be to have a bot update these pages by culling info from the categories? I developed the Negro league team rosters by culling the WP categories. Every new addition or removal to a cat would prompt a bot action. Rgrds. --BX (talk) 16:31, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm not really familiar with how bots work.. but would the fact that the pages have wildly different formats make it hard to do that? Spanneraol (talk) 16:41, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Probably would need to standardize the page formats, yes. Rgrds. --BX (talk) 16:45, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • So what should the path moving forward for this be? Should I (or someone) open an AfD for the overall player lists? It sounds like the team roster lists are more up to date and useful. I agree with the WP:NOTDIRECTORY argument, as someone could just go to Baseball Reference for a list of players (A) (which is where these lists are sourced from anyways). Natg 19 (talk) 21:07, 26 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I'd like to keep the team roster pages but I don't see the MLB player pages ever being updated nor do I have any use for them. Spanneraol (talk) 22:57, 26 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed with the above, there's definitely merit to the team pages but the master lists... yeah it ain't happening it's too in the weeds and impossible to maintain. Wizardman 02:02, 27 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps first convert List of Major League Baseball players to list of players by team, like at List of NFL players#By team. If that sticks, then group nominate all the sub-lists of players by letter for AfD. —Bagumba (talk) 02:12, 27 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
No, these lists could be updated easily using BX's category culling method above since every MLB player ever already has an article (except John Fogarty (baseball) and the List of 19th-century Major League Baseball players with unidentified given names) We don't need to necessarily worry about the Negro leaguers since they have their own lists (List of Negro league baseball players (A–D), etc.) ~WikiOriginal-9~ (talk) 02:18, 27 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not up to speed on what the community allows bots to do. Are there similar Db crawls that result in automated article space edits? —Bagumba (talk) 02:23, 27 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That seems fine with me. Ideally, these would be kept up to date, but if they are not kept up to date, then I would agree with deleting them. Natg 19 (talk) 19:37, 28 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm copying the response from the Bot Request page:

Perhaps the trickier part would be removing items inserted in error. It would certainly be possible, and if there was consensus to do it, then it would be permitted. In principle it could be a clean operation, but there are a lot of detailed decisions to be made. For example Boston Red Sox all-time roster has bolding for Hall of Famers and flags (possibly against guidelines) for non-US players. Anything like this would either need to be supported, not interfered with, or overwritten. There would have to be acceptance that the article name for the player would be the name used in the list, or some other way of determining that. There might be no entries for people who did not have an article. Nothing impossible to deal with, but it would need to be worked out. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 21:56, 30 July 2025 (UTC).

If we decide to move forward with this, it seems very possible to do, but a few details need to be agreed upon. The lists would need to be standardized (I would suggest basic tables). I figure a bot might be able to uniformly format the pages for us if we decide on such format. Minor details such as bolding would be done manually (any player that needs bolding would probably be added by a human anyway). Player names and article names are identical so we would only need to worry about (disambiguation) in the title. Very few major leaguers would be without an article but those would probably be added by a human with either no link or a redirect. If this is a desirable task, I believe step 1 is how the list should look. It could be something as basic as a list of names (with is what a category does) or more detailed tables with Name, Years on team, Position and ref; the info can be pulled from the infobox by the bot. Rgrds. --BX (talk) 23:07, 7 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Bumping (Is anyone maintaining these "lists of MLB players"?)

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If there is support for this, I'd be willing to work with a bot operator to set it up. I believe this is a very long-term solution to list-rot not just with MLB rosters, but possibly with any active list. I would lean towards updating the team lists and then, when completed, deleting the MLB list. First, the team rosters should probably be standardized. Since a bot will be involved, it seems we could use one to do the actual standardizing as well.

The 30 teams use about 4 different styles: 14 have names only (ex. San Francisco Giants all-time roster), 8 have names with position and years played (ex. St. Louis Cardinals all-time roster), 4 have names with position and years played plus national flags (ex. Seattle Mariners all-time roster), 3 have tables (Baltimore Orioles all-time roster, New York Mets all-time roster, Milwaukee Brewers all-time roster) and then there is the Philadelphia Phillies all-time roster (boy howdy). Also going to throw in the Negro league roster example (Homestead Grays all-time roster). Is there any one layout that is preferred? Rgrds. --BX (talk) 01:29, 16 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I prefer the Cardinals style which is also what I have been using for the Dodgers as it is fairly easy to maintain and more informative than just names... the flags should really be removed as it is against policy, the tables become more complicated if the team has been around longer than those three teams... the Phillies one... I remember when User:Killervogel5 made all those and got them up to featured list status.. but maintaining that kind of list is really difficult and requires a lot of work.. which is why they stopped being updated when he retired. Spanneraol (talk) 01:38, 16 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It's ironic that the better the list is the less it is maintained. I suppose the notes in the Phillie list(s) can be preserved but any new additions by a bot would probably be left blank. I also suspect having separate pages for letters actually decreases a casual reader's experience due to having to click multiple pages. The name-only SFGiants style seems redundant to a category page and does not benefit one as a reader (IMO). I, too, lean towards the Cards/Dodgers style, but even more so I prefer tables. I would even go so far as to suggest breaking down the lists by decade so the list would not be so cumbersome. This would allow for sorting out players on Brooklyn or LA. Rgrds. --BX (talk) 19:28, 16 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The issue i have with the tables ones is that it's harder to find someone if you have to run down a long list of connected names rather than sorting it by letter like the other ones are... also harder to maintain cause you need the table coding stuff. Spanneraol (talk) 01:56, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The tables can (and IMO should) be split by letter. The Homestead Grays all-time roster is split into 4 letter groupings. The MLB teams could/should be split into 25/6 tables for each letter. Table coding wouldn't hamper a bot, but I get that not every editor is table-savvy. Rgrds. --BX (talk) 02:13, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Olympic competitors (Aa–Ak)

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This AfD may be of interest to us. It may be that we should nominate the overall list of MLB players for deletion and just stick with the team lists. FYI. Rgrds. --BX (talk) 01:09, 16 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is now Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 205 § RFC: Alphabetical listing of all Olympians —Bagumba (talk) 18:41, 17 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That RFC has been closed: There was a clear consensus here that an alphabetical listing of all Olympic competitors does not meet the criteria for inclusion for a list and was contrary to the idea that Wikipedia isn't a directory. Natg 19 (talk) 21:18, 20 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Individual articles for playoff series

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This has likely already been discussed before, so I apologize, but I wanted to note an inconsistency with the individualization of pages for MLB playoff series. The Division Series and League Championship Series both have their own general page, then have pages for each league (ALDS, NLDS, ALCS, NLCS). However, the Wild Card Series only has the one article, no article for the NL Wild Card or the AL Wild Card. Now of course, the Wild Card is much younger than the LDS or the LCS, so it is understandable that there is probably not enough history to warrant an individual article for the two leagues.

What I question is, do we really need the Division Series and League Championship Series articles? They really do not have much content, and even then, most of that content is already in the ALDS, NLDS, ALCS, and NLCS articles, which I feel provide sufficient enough descriptions for these two playoff series. Red0ctober22 (talk) 22:44, 25 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Of relevance at WP:N, even if a topic is deemed notable: This is not a guarantee that a topic will necessarily be handled as a separate, stand-alone page. Editors may use their discretion to merge or group two or more related topics into a single article. At the same time, this currently is an attempt at a broad-concept article. If not a dedicated page, these are valid subjects that should at least redirect somewhere.—Bagumba (talk) 05:17, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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I have nominated Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award for featured list removal. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured list criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks; editors may declare to "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PK-WIKI (talk • contribs) 17:24, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Madison Bumgarner

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I'd appreciate more eyes on MadBum's article. Some IPs are adding wayyyy too much detail. – Muboshgu (talk) 00:44, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes that article needs a thorough cleaning. That person who's using numerous different IPs has practically ruined it.-- Yankees10 18:02, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award in infobox

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Of the 13 players who have earned this exclusive award, eight are first-ballot Hall of Famers, four are would-be first-ballot PED exclusions, and one is Shohei Ohtani.

In many cases the trophy is a physical representation of the highest-tier MLB records set since 1998, including the single-season home run records, consecutive games streak, single-season hits record, 116-win season, and first two-way All-Star.

In other cases the trophy is awarded by the Commissioner of Baseball to a player in recognition of an exceptional career.

The Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award is major career highlight and deserves listing in all relevant inboxes. Consensus for this was seemingly attained in 2021 at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 47#Consensus on infobox awards, but this and the other supported awards from that discussion (such as Hank Aaron Award) do not seem to have ever made their way to Wikipedia:WikiProject Baseball/Player style advice. PK-WIKI (talk) 04:30, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's what happens if nobody gets around to doing it. Since it seems there was consensus at your link, just update the style advice and link to that discussion. Someone else can establish a new consensus, if they choose. —Bagumba (talk) 05:08, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Agree with Bagumba. It's a volunteer project, and anyone (including PK-WIKI) is allowed to interpret consensus and publish changes to relevant style guides accordingly. Left guide (talk) 07:24, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I've added All-MLB Team First Team, Hank Aaron Award, and Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award to the infobox style guide. PK-WIKI (talk) 16:25, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Standardizing team abbreviations with other sources?

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Baseball/Team abbreviations uses a number of team abbreviations that (I believe) are completely unique to Wikipedia, such as PHP for Philadelphia Phillies, BKN for Brooklyn Dodgers, BSA for Boston Americans, etc. Is there any reason these couldn't be standardized with either Chadwick or BaseballReference's team abbreviations? SirParzifal (talk) 13:28, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and WP:BOLDLY standardized the abbreviations with BaseballReference and Fangraphs - this should make reading historical leaderboards where the abbreviations are used much, much clearer. SirParzifal (talk) 08:28, 5 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I'd personally prefer MLB's abbreviations (which can be seen at www.mlb.com/stats and on player pages), as that is the primary source for these teams' abbreviations (and also because these are abbreviations used most often on broadcasts... I'm not sure the last time I saw "SDP" or "SFG" on an actual broadcast). There's a reason why each team's abbreviations on Baseball-Reference unique for that single iteration of a team (mainly for the sake of the URL), but teams should also be quickly identifiable. "SEP" for the Seattle Pilots when there isn't another Seattle team in 1969 (as opposed to simply using MLB's "SEA") feels unnecessary for Wikipedia. We don't need to worry about unique URL abbreviations. This is how I'd do it, again, per MLB (and this is all major leagues):

For AL/NL teams that existed post-1901:

Abbreviation Franchise
ANA Anaheim Angels
AZ Arizona Diamondbacks
ATH Athletics
ATL Atlanta Braves
BAL Baltimore Orioles (1901–1902)
BAL Baltimore Orioles (current)
BOS Boston Red Sox
BSN Boston Braves/Bees/Rustlers/Doves/Beaneaters
BRO Brooklyn Dodgers/Robins/Trolley Dodgers/Superbas/Bridegrooms
CAL California Angels
CHC Chicago Cubs/Orphans
CWS Chicago White Sox
CIN Cincinnati Reds/Redlegs
CLE Cleveland Guardians/Indians/Naps/Broncos/Bluebirds
COL Colorado Rockies
DET Detroit Tigers
FLA Florida Marlins
HOU Houston Astros/Colt .45s
KCA Kansas City Athletics
KC Kansas City Royals
LAA Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim)
LAD Los Angeles Dodgers (1961–1964, 2005–present)
LA Los Angeles Dodgers (1958–1960, 1965–2004)
MIA Miami Marlins
MIL Milwaukee Brewers (current)
MIL Milwaukee Brewers (1901)
MIL Milwaukee Braves
MIN Minnesota Twins
MON Montreal Expos
NYG New York Giants
NYM New York Mets
NYY New York Yankees/Highlanders
OAK Oakland Athletics
PHA Philadelphia Athletics
PHI Philadelphia Phillies/Phils
PIT Pittsburgh Pirates
SD San Diego Padres
SEA Seattle Mariners
SEA Seattle Pilots
SF San Francisco Giants
SLB St. Louis Browns
STL St. Louis Cardinals
TB Tampa Bay Rays/Devil Rays
TEX Texas Rangers
TOR Toronto Blue Jays
WAS Washington Senators (1961–1971)
WAS Washington Senators (1901–1960)
WSH Washington Nationals

NL teams that existed pre-1901:

Abbreviation Franchise
BAL Baltimore Orioles
BSN Boston Beaneaters/Red Caps/Red Stockings
BRO Brooklyn Superbas/Bridegrooms/Grooms
BUF Buffalo Bisons
CHI Chicago Orphans/Colts/White Stockings
CIN Cincinnati Reds (1876–1879)
CIN Cincinnati Stars
CIN Cincinnati Reds (1890–present)
CLE Cleveland Blues
CLE Cleveland Spiders
DET Detroit Wolverines
HAR Hartford Dark Blues/Brooklyn Hartfords
IND Indianapolis Blues
IND Indianapolis Hoosiers
KC Kansas City Cowboys
LOU Louisville Grays
LOU Louisville Colonels
MIL Milwaukee Grays
NYG New York Giants/Gothams
NYM New York Mutuals
PHN Philadelphia Athletics
PHI Philadelphia Phillies/Quakers
PIT Pittsburgh Pirates/Alleghenys
PRO Providence Grays
STL St. Louis Brown Stockings
STL St. Louis Maroons
STL St. Louis Cardinals/Perfectos/Browns
SYR Syracuse Stars
TRO Troy Trojans
WAS Washington Nationals
WAS Washington Senators
WOR Worcester Worcesters/Brown Stockings/Ruby Legs

American Association (1882–1891)

Abbreviation Franchise
BAL Baltimore Orioles
BSR Boston Reds
BRO Brooklyn Bridegrooms/Grays/Atlantics
BKG Brooklyn Gladiators
CIN Cincinnati Red Stockings
CKE Cincinnati Kelly's Killers
CLE Cleveland Blues
COL Columbus Buckeyes
COL Columbus Solons
IND Indianapolis Hoosiers
KC Kansas City Cowboys
LOU Louisville Colonels
MIL Milwaukee Brewers (1891)
NYM New York Metropolitans
PHA Philadelphia Athletics (1882–1890)
PHA Philadelphia Athletics/Quakers (1891)
PIT Pittsburgh Alleghenys
RIC Richmond Virginians
RCH Rochester Broncos/Hop Bitters
STL St. Louis Browns/Brown Stockings
SYR Syracuse Stars
TOL Toledo Blue Stockings
TOL Toledo Maumees
WSN Washington Nationals
WAS Washington Statesmen

Federal League

Abbreviation Franchise
BAL Baltimore Terrapins
BKF Brooklyn Tip-Tops/Feds
BUF Buffalo Blues/Buffeds
CWH Chicago Whales/Federals
IND Indianapolis Hooisers
KC Kansas City Packers
NWK Newark Peppers
PRB Pittsburgh Rebels
SLT St. Louis Terriers

Players' League

Abbreviation Franchise
BSR Boston Reds
BKW Brooklyn Ward's Wonders
BUF Buffalo Bisons
CPI Chicago Pirates
CLI Cleveland Infants
NYK New York Giants
PHQ Philadelphia Athletics
PBU Pittsburgh Burghers

Union Association

Abbreviation Franchise
ALT Altoona Mountain Citys
BLU Baltimore Monumentals
BSU Boston Reds
CUN Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies
COR Cincinnati Outlaw Reds
KC Kansas City Cowboys
MIL Milwaukee Brewers
PHK Philadelphia Keystones
SLM St. Louis Maroons
SPS St. Paul Saints
WST Washington Nationals
WIL Wilmington Quicksteps

Negro National League I

Abbreviation Franchise
BBB Birmingham Black Barons
CAG Chicago American Giants
CHG Chicago Giants
CLB Cleveland Browns
CCU Cleveland Cubs
CEL Cleveland Elites
CLH Cleveland Hornets
CTS Cleveland Tate Stars
CTG Cleveland Tigers
COL Columbus Buckeyes
CUB Cuban Stars West/Cincinnati Cuban Stars
DAY Dayton Marcos
DTS Detroit Stars
ABC Indianapolis ABCs
KCM Kansas City Monarchs
LBC Louisville Black Caps
LWS Louisville White Sox
MEM Memphis Red Sox
MIL Milwaukee Bears
NEG Nashville Elite Giants
PTK Pittsburgh Keystones
SLG St. Louis Giants
SLS St. Louis Stars
TOL Toledo Tigers

Eastern Colored League

Abbreviation Franchise
BG Atlantic City Bacharach Giants
BBS Baltimore Black Sox
BRG Brooklyn Royal Giants
CSE Cuban Stars East
HBG Harrisburg Giants
HIL Hilldale Club/Daisies
NYL New York Lincoln Giants
NS Newark Stars
PTG Philadelphia Tigers
WP Washington/Wilmington Potomacs

American Negro League

Abbreviation Franchise
BG Atlantic City Bacharach Giants
BBS Baltimore Black Sox
BRG Brooklyn Royal Giants
CSE Cuban Stars East
HIL Hilldale Club/Daisies
HOM Homestead Grays
NYL New York Lincoln Giants

East–West League

Abbreviation Franchise
BBS Baltimore Black Sox
CLS Cleveland Stars
DTW Detroit Wolves
HIL Hilldale Club/Daisies
HOM Homestead Grays
NEW Newark Browns
CUP Pollock's Cuban Stars
WPI Washington Pilots

Negro Southern League

Abbreviation Franchise
ATL Atlanta Black Crackers
BBB Birmingham Black Barons
CAG Cole's/Chicago American Giants
IND Indianapolis ABCs
LRG Little Rock Grays
LBC Louisville Black Caps/Columbus Turf Club
MEM Memphis Red Sox
MON Monroe Monarchs
MNT Montgomery Grey Sox
NEG Nashville Elite Giants

Negro National League II

Abbreviation Franchise
AKR Akron Grays/Cleveland Giants
BBS Baltimore Black Sox
SOX Baltimore Sox
BEG Baltimore Elite Giants
BG Brooklyn Eagles
CAG Cole's/Chicago American Giants
CRS Cleveland Red Sox
CBB Columbus Blue Birds
CEG Columbus Elite Giants
HSL Harrisburg–St. Louis Stars
HOM Homestead Grays
IND Indianapolis ABCs/Detroit Stars
NEG Nashville Elite Giants
NBY New York Black Yankees
NYC New York Cubans
ND Newark Dodgers
NE Newark Eagles
PBG Philadelphia Bacharach Giants
PHS Philadelphia Stars
PC Pittsburgh Crawfords
TC Toledo Crawfords
WBS Washington Black Senators
WEG Washington Elite Giants

Negro American League

Abbreviation Franchise
ATL Atlanta Black Crackers
BBB Birmingham Black Barons
CAG Chicago American Giants
CC Cincinnati Clowns
CIC Cincinnati–Indianapolis Clowns
CIB Cincinnati/Cincinnati–Cleveland Buckeyes
CLB Cleveland Buckeyes
CT Cincinnati Tigers
CBR Cleveland Bears
DTS Detroit Stars
ABC Indianapolis ABCs
ATH Indianapolis Athletics
IC Indianapolis Clowns
JRC Jacksonville Red Caps
KCM Kansas City Athletics
MEM Memphis Red Sox
SLS St. Louis Stars
SNS St. Louis–New Orleans Stars
TC Toledo Crawfords
TIC Toledo–Indianapolis Crawfords
Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 15:56, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think for cases of historical leaderboards, the abbreviations should be unique, and for simplicity, the abbreviations should be the same across all articles. Perhaps the broader style question is when should abbreviations be used at all? Space isn't typically a limitation in historical leaderboards. The first two places that came to mind were playoff brackets and game logs, but team names are currently used in those situations. Where would abbreviations provide sufficient net benefit to warrant their use? isaacl (talk) 16:26, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
One place I saw abbreviations is in record vs opp tables, e.g. "BR" for Brooklyn at Template:1957 NL Record vs. opponents. —Bagumba (talk) 16:47, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
This is an interesting case: a sighted user will be able to identify that the order of the columns is the same as the rows, and match up the teams without having to read the abbreviations too closely. For readers using screen readers, the column headings could provide alternate text with the full city name. Arguably the row headings could also serve as a legend, listing the abbreviations in parentheses, but given the symmetry of the table it's probably not necessary. In this case, the abbreviations are within the context of a specific season and less likely to be examined closely due to symmetry, so there's less of a need for unique abbreviations across all history. isaacl (talk) 17:11, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I was recently confused about the "ARI" abbreviation used in some article about Randy Johnson. For example 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks season#World series. PK-WIKI (talk) 17:04, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That's a case where Wikipedia doesn't have the space limitations of newspaper box scores, and abbreviations don't provide any benefit to the reader. I'm guessing, though, since there were only two possibilities, that you were able to quickly infer the appropriate option by context? (It's what those reading box scores in the old days had to do.) isaacl (talk) 17:16, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What comes to mind immediately regarding abbreviated teams is on the seasonal pages (such as 2024), and specifically, in the sections of League Leaders, Milestones, and Awards and honors. I haven't really seen abbreviations used that shows one team from say 2024 and a team from say 1913 at all. The pages I've seen that compare multiple teams across multiple seasons usually just have the team name spelled out... hence why I feel the need for unique abbreviations for every major league team that's ever existed seems excessive. For example, there are 14 different recognized major league Cleveland teams that have existed.
MLB Abbr. B-R Abbr. Franchise Year range
CLE CBL Cleveland Blues 1879–1884
CLB CBN Cleveland Browns 1924
CLB CBE Cleveland Buckeyes 1942–1948
CCU CCU Cleveland Cubs 1931
CEL CEL Cleveland Elites 1926
AKR CG Akron Giants/Cleveland Giants 1933
CLE CLE Cleveland Guardians 1901–present
CLH CHT Cleveland Hornets 1927
CLI CLI Cleveland Infants 1890
CRS CRS Cleveland Red Sox 1934
CLE CLV Cleveland Spiders 1887–1899
CLS CL2 Cleveland Stars 1932
CTS CTS Cleveland Tate Stars 1922–1923
CTG CTG Cleveland Tigers 1928
It's a lot of different abbreviations, and even MLB has most of these unique, but at the very least, if I'm looking at say 1893 and I need to quickly identify the Cleveland Spiders, seeing "(CLE)" as MLB has it, will achieve this the quickest. Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 18:08, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Also, I think there's a much easier/quicker discussion regarding existing teams and their various abbreviations depending on the source, though there seems to be two camps, split into MLB.com / Baseball Almanac, and Baseball-Reference / FanGraphs.
  • Arizona Diamondbacks – AZ / ARI
  • Chicago White Sox – CWS / CHW
  • Kansas City Royals – KC / KCR
  • San Diego Padres – SD / SDP
  • San Francisco Giants – SF / SFG
  • Tampa Bay Rays – TB / TBR
  • Washington Nationals – WSH / WSN
Regarding the Royals, Padres, Giants, Rays, until the WP:BOLD edit from last week, I've never seen "KCR", "SDP", "SFG", or "TBR" used on Wikipedia, while I've seen pretty equal usage of "AZ" or "ARI", "CWS" and "CHW". I've seen pretty equal usage of "WSH" and "WAS" (which... maybe there's another reliable baseball source that uses it but I cannot think of at the moment), but I've never seen "WSN". Personally, again, I'd rather defer to MLB as the official source of what the abbreviations should be, and use AZ, CWS, and WSH. Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 18:18, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
For the leaderboards on the individual MLB season pages, personally I don't think an abbreviation is necessary. I'd support adding a column to the table with the team name. isaacl (talk) 03:10, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Most of the big sports, at least in North America, do this same thing. NFL does the abbreviation in its stats section, while NBA, NHL, and MLS each have a dedicated team column, so perhaps that is the move. Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 23:58, 15 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I'd be fine using these tables exactly as you've written them, with the one exception of the Dodgers swapping between LA and LAD depending on the year - I see no reason for them to not always be LAD while in Los Angeles. Using LA some years seems like it could only serve to confuse people.
I would prefer that the two modern Senators clubs have unique abbreviations since they're not separated timewise, and weakly prefer that the modern Baltimore clubs and the modern Milwaukee clubs have unique abbreviations - but I also see the value in keeping to a single source for abbreviations as much as possible. SirParzifal (talk) 20:33, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
If I had to guess? I think the only reason why the Dodgers had the "LA" abbreviation when you look up the stats in those 60s-00s years (whereas the Yankees do not have the "NY" designation from 1958–1961 when they were the lone New York team, but "NYY" on MLB's site) is because the website was running prior to the Angels changing their name from Anaheim to "Los Angeles" in 2005.
I'm curious to see what others may say about the different Washington, Baltimore, and Milwaukee abbreviations, because I'd personally prefer to stick to a single source, but I'm also just one opinion. Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 00:08, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
And apparently nobody else has an opinion on which brand of abbreviations to use 😅. So let's use LAD for the Dodgers, even including 1965–2004 where they were the sole "Los Angeles" team. I feel as if the 1961–1971 Senators can use "WAS" while the 1901–1960 Senators share "WSH" with the Nationals? And perhaps that's the only exceptions we make with using the MLB list of abbreviations? I think the various modern Milwaukee and Baltimore teams are separate enough chronologically enough I think we should just stick with the source. I also support isaacl's idea to add a column for team names for the stats, taking lead from how the season pages for NHL and NBA handle players that were on multiple teams in a season (while keeping the small text to more obviously show a former team. Here is what the 2025 season would look like. Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 13:21, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That sounds just fine to me. SirParzifal (talk) 14:04, 23 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I've implemented the abbreviation changes from 1998 to 2025 seasons... lots of work to do with the stats table and adding a column going back to 1876 but I'll get to it when I can if nobody beats me to it! Abbreviations should be a lot quicker to update, but I don't have time to do more at the moment. Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 17:47, 23 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Pewtey, since you reverted the update to the stat table and abbreviations on the 2025 season page, what is your input into this discussion regarding abbreviations and the stat table? The more voices in the discussion the better. Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 16:16, 24 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Adding the full name of the team instead of an abbreviation does not bode well when viewing on phones. There have been times on other wiki pages that I have had to scroll to the right to see the rest of the table entry(ies). It might just come down to the setup of the table that is being created that is causing this issue, but it doesn't make a pleasant experience. Plus, I honestly don't see what is advantageous of posting "New York Yankees" instead of "NYY". I know this is probably not going to be a valid reason, I just aesthetically it looks cleaner with the smaller two or three character abbreviation.Pewtey (talk) 18:35, 24 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Data tables with one piece of data in a cell rather than multiple pieces can be sorted on each category of data separately, and are generally easier to manually browse down columns to search for values. If tables aren't given a fixed width, then they will adapt to the available space. Based on the length of the longest word in each column, it's possible that in some cases the table width will be unusually wide, beyond the device width. This can be addressed using soft hyphenation. isaacl (talk) 00:32, 29 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

American League

Hitting leaders
Stat Player Team Total
AVG Aaron Judge New York Yankees .331
OPS Aaron Judge New York Yankees 1.145
HR Cal Raleigh Seattle Mariners 60
RBI Cal Raleigh Seattle Mariners 125
R Aaron Judge New York Yankees 137
H Bobby Witt Jr. Kansas City Royals 184
SB José Caballero NY Yankees/Tampa Bay 49
Pitching leaders
Stat Player Team Total
W Max Fried New York Yankees 19
L Jack Flaherty Detroit Tigers 15
ERA Tarik Skubal Detroit Tigers 2.21
K Garrett Crochet Boston Red Sox 255
IP Garrett Crochet Boston Red Sox 205.1
SV Carlos Estévez Kansas City Royals 42
WHIP Tarik Skubal Detroit Tigers 0.89

National League

Hitting leaders
Stat Player Team Total
AVG Trea Turner Philadelphia Phillies .304
OPS Shohei Ohtani Los Angeles Dodgers 1.014
HR Kyle Schwarber Philadelphia Phillies 56
RBI Kyle Schwarber Philadelphia Phillies 132
R Shohei Ohtani Los Angeles Dodgers 146
H Luis Arráez San Diego Padres 181
SB Oneil Cruz
Juan Soto 		Pittsburgh Pirates
New York Mets 		38
Pitching leaders
Stat Player Team Total
W Freddy Peralta Milwaukee Brewers 17
L Kyle Freeland Colorado Rockies 17
ERA Paul Skenes Pittsburgh Pirates 1.97
K Logan Webb San Francisco Giants 224
IP Logan Webb San Francisco Giants 207.0
SV Robert Suárez San Diego Padres 40
WHIP Paul Skenes Pittsburgh Pirates 0.95

Spesh531(talk, contrib., ext.) 13:21, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Side bar, where do you find the Baseball-Reference abbreviations? I would love to see what they use for NPB teams. It would be nice to standardize those as well as I've only ever seen the abbreviations in Jaoanese. --TorsodogTalk 00:50, 16 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Baseball-reference's list of major league abbreviations are here, but they don't have abbreviations for teams that aren't major league AFAIK - minor league and foreign teams are spelled out in full on the player pages. SirParzifal (talk) 01:39, 16 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

ALDS matchups

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Why do the Blue Jays play the Yankees and the Mariners play the Tigers rather than the other way around? The lower seed should play the higher seed. Mk8mlyb (talk) 18:53, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It appears MLB does not "reseed" the teams for playoff matchups, and so the 3/6 winner was always going to play the #2 seed, the Mariners. But regardless, this is not a question for this talk page. Natg 19 (talk) 19:06, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
My first reaction was WP:NOTFORUM too, but a constructive modified comment could be "where is the general MLB playoff seeding explained?", e.g. 1 plays 4/5, 2 plays 3/6. —Bagumba (talk) 19:16, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
These types of general questions might be better suited for WP:RD/E, the reference desk page that covers sports. Left guide (talk) 19:08, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Original Buffalo Bisons

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Isnt this Buffalo Bisons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bisons_(IA)

this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bisons_(National_League)

and this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bisons_(1886%E2%80%931970) the same franchise?

From what I can piece together this is the timeline of that franchise.


Giantdevilfish (talk) Giantdevilfish (talk) 11:44, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the franchise is discontinuous in 1890 because of a relocation to Grand Rapids. SirParzifal (talk) 09:41, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

DMY date format

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At Ichiro Suzuki, a recent edit shows a problem with {{Infobox baseball biography}} and the debut dates' format. For DMY formats, the infobox is adding incorrect commas after the day and year (example), which is only needed for MDY formats (MOS:DATECOMMA). The infobox code needs enhancements for DMY.

On another note, Ichiro's entire page should arguably be in MDY format per MOS:DATETIES:

Articles on topics with strong ties to a particular English-speaking country (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Strong national ties to a topic) should generally use the date format most commonly used in that country.

Japan is not an English-speaking country, so its date format is irrelevant, while he spent the majority of his career in the States. —Bagumba (talk) 19:10, 16 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If we were starting from scratch, the best general solution would have been for the debutdate parameter (and the other similiar ones) to be a full date, and then the {{#time:}} parser function can be used to extract the year, thus eliminating the need for the debutyear parameter. Unfortunately, that would require changing all the player biographies. Short of replicating the procedure done by the citation templates to detect if {{Use dmy dates}} or {{Use mdy dates}} has been used in the article, I can only think of hacky approaches like checking if the various debutdate parameters starts with a number. isaacl (talk) 21:58, 16 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Ichiro's infobox has an inconsistent date format, which isn't acceptable. GoodDay (talk) 22:06, 16 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I've switched Ichiro's page to MDY per MOS:DATETIES. I'd imagine most MLBers should be MDY for the same reason. —Bagumba (talk) 16:33, 18 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What I find interesting is that the article's date format was changed from MDY (which it had during its very first edit to DMY around September 2019 when it looks like a user, most likely in assistance with a bot, changed it to the DMY format. This had no edit summary and was a part of some mass date format chaning scheme, but for some reason nobody had noticed it for over six years. My guess is that it's some bot editing mistake that no one noticed for years. MOS:DATERET leads for his article to use MDY due to the first revision.
However this still creates the question of if a non-American/Canadian player's article (or any article whose nationality isn't forced to use MDY by consensus) had its first substantial revision use the DMY format - according to MOS:DATERET, such article should always include DMY in its article without widespread consensus. It's shown that the Infobox for baseball biographies cannot support DMY. I'm not really an expert at this though so I'm waiting for a true consensus on this. Soccer Tees (talk) 20:47, 18 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
My personal opinion is that all MLB dates should be in the MDY format because it's an American league. Spanneraol (talk) 21:16, 18 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The National Hockey League could arguably considered as an American league but, like MLB, has a lot of foreign-born players, a lot of them in European countries. A lot of these articles of these European players would've spent the majority of their careers in North America; This is also similar to the NBA in a lesser extent, with players such as Dražen Petrović receiving DMY formats. (Although the argument could be made that both ice hockey and basketball are much more "international" sports than baseball is.) Soccer Tees (talk) 21:28, 18 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think MOS:DATETIES has often been misapplied, ignoring the "English-speaking country" condition. —Bagumba (talk) 21:02, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

MLB postseason pages' infoboxes

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Howdy. Do we 'really' need to have "..th appearance in the World Series", for the runners-up? We don't have it for the World Series winners. It just seems to be out of place. GoodDay (talk) 19:25, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Which page(s) and which info boxes are you referring to? Natg 19 (talk) 05:36, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Natg 19: Infoboxes of 1969 MLB postseason to 2024 MLB postseason. -- GoodDay (talk) 20:53, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Historically, winning the pennant has been an important achievement; I think it's worthwhile to recognize it in the infobox in some manner. Hatman31 (he/him · talk · contribs) 21:07, 25 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Mentioning the # of World titles, should be enough. GoodDay (talk) 21:16, 25 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've 'deleted' the info from the infoboxes. We only need to know how many WS titles the teams have won. GoodDay (talk) 14:12, 31 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Banana Ball team infobox template color question

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How do I set a color to a Banana Ball team template? I noticed that the Texas Tailgaters, Firefighters, and Party Animals have the default template color for the team information infobox template instead of their team colors. ReallyAmazingDude13 (talk) 19:24, 25 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The color is set at Module:Sports color/baseball. It's kinda complicated to use though. Spanneraol (talk) 20:34, 25 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Spanneraol:I agree with the "complicated to use" part as I tried testing it out in the sandbox and it really is complicated. ReallyAmazingDude13 (talk) 15:49, 26 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I recommend you contact one of the frequent editors on that page and ask for their help. Spanneraol (talk) 16:41, 26 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move at Talk:Estadio Quisqueya#Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal

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There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Estadio Quisqueya#Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 00:07, 29 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Clayton Kershaw is a 3-Time Champion" - MLB

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"Kershaw closes book on awesome career with 3rd championship"

https://www.mlb.com/news/clayton-kershaw-wins-third-world-series-dodgers

It's pedantic for using baseball reference as the end all be all. When the league says he's a 3 time champion and you still won't update his page, it's a bit weird. 2A02:2A40:573:C200:A5CE:4EA3:92A7:223F (talk) 12:49, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Tone down your rhertoic. GoodDay (talk) 13:51, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What rhetoric? Here's my complete sentence. Please show me what hurt your feelings.
"It's pedantic for using baseball reference as the end all be all. When the league says he's a 3 time champion and you still won't update his page, it's a bit weird."
Which part of it? 2A02:2A40:573:C200:A5CE:4EA3:92A7:223F (talk) 14:30, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You can be a champion if you weren't even an active member of the team when it won its 2nd championship. Y2Kcrazyjoker4 (talk • contributions) 16:34, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I agree, Wikipedia must follow reliable secondary sources.
This fact merits inclusion at Clayton Kershaw on WP:NPOV and WP:BLP grounds.
PK-WIKI (talk) 17:02, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Is Kershaw listed on the Dogders 2024 postseason roster? GoodDay (talk) 17:11, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Does a reliable source tell us that a player must be listed on a WS roster to be a WS champion? PK-WIKI (talk) 17:13, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Reliabe sources & Playoff roster, conflict. GoodDay (talk) 17:18, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Past discussion This was discussed earlier this year at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 52 § World Series Champion only if you played in the World Series—Bagumba (talk) 17:17, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • Our WP:VOICE policy section says (emphasis in original):

    Avoid stating seriously contested assertions as facts. If different reliable sources make conflicting assertions about a matter, treat these assertions as opinions rather than facts, and do not present them as direct statements.

    Given the seemingly perennial nature of this dispute, adding an {{efn}} note to the infobox explaining the situation may be worth considering. Left guide (talk) 19:11, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Where do you see evidence that his status as a 3-time World Series champion is "seriously contested"? Reliable secondary news sources such as the AP, CBS, and ESPN appear to be in agreement that it is a fact. WP:VOICE: Uncontested and uncontroversial factual assertions made by reliable sources should normally be directly stated in Wikipedia's voice PK-WIKI (talk) 19:23, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
MLB.com, Baseball Reference and us here at wikipedia all do not consider someone a WS champion if they are not on the world series roster.. We follow what the other sources do. Spanneraol (talk) 19:26, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
"Us here at Wikipedia" need to follow reliable secondary sources, not make WP:ORIGINALRESEARCH editorial decisions about who should be considered a World Series champion. If WP:NPOV and WP:BLP guidelines have not been followed in the past, they should be going forward. NPOV is non-negotiable, and the principles upon which it is based cannot be superseded by other policies or guidelines, nor by editor consensus.
MLB.com is not a reliable secondary source, but does agree he is a 3-time champion: Kershaw closes book on awesome career with 3rd championship
PK-WIKI (talk) 19:36, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not gonna editwar over this. I do recommend keeping the discussion 'here'. I'll accept whatever the consensus is. GoodDay (talk) 19:39, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Not the articles, the player page listings.. Everyone, even the janitor, gets a ring.. if the player doesn't play in the WS they dont get the distinction in the info box.. it is the same as how baseball stats sites treat them. Most of our stats info comes from baseball reference which lists him only as a 2x champion. [1] That's the only way to be really objective cause otherwise you get into subjective decisions about players and who deserves what... Spanneraol (talk) 00:01, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The intention of Wikipedia isn't to be "objective", it's to follow what reliable secondary sources say about the matter. In this case, they agree that Kershaw is a 3-time World Series champion.
If "most of our stats info comes from baseball reference" that's a problem, as Baseball Reference is a WP:SELFPUBLISHED WP:TERTIARY source. WP:NOR states: Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published secondary sources, and to a lesser extent, on tertiary sources and primary sources. PK-WIKI (talk) 21:10, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Individual "List of" award pages needed?

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Are these pages needed? I'm thinking about putting them up for AfD. All the information at these pages are found on Silver Slugger Award. Same thing for Gold Glove awards. Esb5415 (talk) (C) 14:00, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Why? These pages are featured and they include statistics the main page cannot contain. Isn't this a WP:FT? – Muboshgu (talk) 15:15, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Why? I see them as redundant. But I am not super involved in this project so that's why I'm asking here first. What statistics are included that the main page can't contain? Esb5415 (talk) (C) 16:30, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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