Baseball Almanac is a website of facts and figures about Major League Baseball that includes traditional statistics but is focused on preserving the game’s history with the site’s motto being “Where what happened yesterday is being preserved today”. It is unaffiliated with the annual Baseball America Almanac and differs from this publication and an array of other baseball websites offering statistics by highlighting oddities, trivia and narratives about baseball. This historical focus sets it apart from sites such as Baseball-Reference.com (RR 2016/199) or ESPN.com but also makes its utility as a reference tool a little unpredictable. But when you are looking for obscure baseball knowledge, Baseball-Almanac.com is a tremendous resource.
The strength of the site is its historical eclecticism, but Baseball Almanac also has a robust set of statistical information. You can easily find individual major league player stats, team box scores, schedules and category leaders. If it is not obvious where to find something in the menus, there are section links and a customized Google search box at the bottom of every page. Each list or category also has a short narrative description and quote at the top that is either entertaining or places the content in better context.
Like any almanac or trivia book, it is easy to get lost and browse, and as a baseball fan, I found the site an enjoyable and informative time sink. Some featured content is baseball quotes and attendance by US Presidents, grave sites of MLB players and baseball media such as poems, movies and music. There are a number of statistical record lists like which team had the most doubles in a season or most strikeouts in a game between both teams in nine innings. There is a section of Legendary Lists with ranked lists from various sports media outlets and authors, like the list of amnestied spitball pitchers from a rule change in 1920.
Baseball almanac is somewhat the inverse of Baseball-Reference.com. They both have statistics and historical trivia, but Baseball Almanac focuses on the historical content better, whereas Baseball-Reference.com, as our reviewer Danial Thacker noted in his earlier review in these columns, does a better job with statistics in terms of navigation and breadth and has its baseball history in an associated wiki. I did find a few areas in Baseball Almanac where the 2016 links had not been completely refreshed even though the data existed on the site, and this was somewhat disappointing but infrequent. Another more significant gap in Baseball Almanac is the lack of minor league statistics, which would be nice but is admittedly not the focus of the site.
In terms of a reference, Baseball Almanac might answer obscure or historical baseball questions not answered elsewhere. Comparing again to Baseball-Reference.com, I found it easier to find out who managed a team in 1950 at Baseball Almanac although both sites had the information. Overall, I recommend the site for questions on baseball history but would use other sites for looking up most statistics. Baseball Almanac is also an entertaining way to learn more about the game of baseball, with helpful sections on the official rules and how to score a game. The depth of information and the baseball passion which clearly infuses the site is impressive, and I would encourage baseball fans and information seekers to see what Baseball Almanac has to offer.
