Seamheads.com Boasts Most Comprehensive Ballparks Database on the Internet

We at Seamheads.com are proud to announce the launch of the new Seamheads.com Ballparks Database, created by Seamheads.com co-founder Kevin Johnson and designed for the Internet by Dan Hirsch, fellow Seamhead and founder of TheBaseballGauge.com. This database has been a long time coming and something Kevin and I have wanted to implement since the earliest days of Seamheads.com, and we’re excited to be able to bring it to you for your enjoyment and, hopefully, benefit.

The database includes the following:

• Batting data for every ballpark ever used in the major leagues.
• Lefthanded/Righthanded batting splits from 1950-2010.
• Descriptive data that includes location, date of first and last game (if applicable), number of seasons and games played, seating capacity, field dimensions, wall heights, playing surfaces, area of fair and foul ground, distance from the plate to the backstop, latitude, longitude, altitude, comments about structural or rules changes and current and historic aerial views.
• Runs ballpark factors for every year since 1871.
• Home run splits for every year since 1876.
• Partial ballpark factors for 1911, 1914 and 1915.
• Full ballpark factors and partial HR splits for every year from 1919-1949.
• Full ballpark factors and splits for home runs, hits, singles, doubles, triples, walks and strikeouts for every year since 1950.

Thanks to Dan the database section of the site is very easy to use and includes the following:

• Sort by Ballparks, Years, Teams or Cities.
• Filter by Active, Inactive or Both.
• Filter by Modern Era, 1800s or Both.
• Filter by State.
• Averages of seating capacity, field dimensions, wall heights, area of fair ground and backstop distances for each season dating back to 1871.
• Number of teams and venues for each season dating back to 1871.
• Percentages of grass vs. artificial turf and open air vs. domed vs. retractable roof for each season dating back to 1965 (all stadiums were open air with grass prior to 1965).
• One-year and three-year park factors for each individual season and/or individual ballpark, filtered by league where applicable.
• Sortable headers in ascending or descending order .

Let’s take a look at my beloved Fenway Park for an example of what you can glean from this database. By clicking on the Ballparks link, you’ll find Fenway listed first because it’s hosted the most games in big league history (7,770). It’s located, of course, in Boston, Massachusetts; the first official game was played there on April 20, 1912; it’s been in use for 99 seasons through 2010; its latitude is 42.35, longitude is -71.10 and its only 16 feet above sea level. Clicking on the Fenway Park link takes you to the Fenway page where you’ll find its location (again), configuration including seating capacity, distances to up to 11 different outfield points, wall heights for five different sections, area of fair and foul territory, distance to the backstop and comments such as one next to 1976 that explains the park’s electronic scoreboard was installed that year. You’ll also find that the Red Sox have called Fenway home for 99 years and 7,683 games, while the old Boston Braves played at Fenway Park 87 times from 1913-1946.

Click on the “Park Factors (1 yr)” link and you’ll find all of Fenway’s single-year park factors in games in which the Red Sox played (you can also filter it to see games in which only the Braves played). Click on the Runs header and you’ll see that run scoring increased the most at Fenway in 1955 (145) and were suppressed the most in 1916 (80). You can also sort by home runs, hits, singles doubles, triples, walks and strikeouts and by lefty/righty splits for all but runs. In 1917 Fenway had a righthanded HR factor of only 8; only once in its storied history has The Fens produced a doubles factor less than 100, in 1922 when it was 97; although Fenway is known for +100 doubles factors its highest 2B factor of 153 in 2008 pales in comparison to its highest triples factor of 171 in 1976.

Anyway, you get the idea. We hope you enjoy the new database whether as a fun way to spend your free time or as a serious researcher. And if there’s anything you’d like to see included in future versions, please feel free to e-mail me at seamhead@hotmail.com and I’ll pass your suggestions along to Kevin and Dan.

Thanks!

Primary Sources:

www.Retrosheet.org

Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks by Philip J. Lowry