Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball players

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[edit] Images

On Manny Ramirez's page, I was just putting up the infobox template. However, when trying to put in the image, MR1.JPG, it was much too large for the article. How can I resize it while not breaking the template? Thanks. - PoliticalJunkie 16:43, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Under where you put Image = MR1.JPG|, you add "width=200px|". You can see the addition here. --Nishkid64 12:47, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Retrosheet player pages

Baseball-Reference.com is friendlier for the typical visitor and it includes roughly the same information --except for careers covered by the core Retrosheet project, digitizing play-by-play records, whose published scope is now major league regular season 1957 to a recent date.

Retrosheet.org includes cemetery data, career end dates as well as begin dates, and some umpire service data, so it is the better resource for whoever writes a basic stub. (The basic stubs that I have expanded to ample ones did not include cemetery data or Retrosheet links. I put cemetery data in the last line of text and Retrosheet in the References where I relied upon it.)

A template or two for linking and citing Retrosheet may be useful. See below, linking and citing Baseball-Reference. --P64 03:26, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Baseball-Reference, linking and citing

John Hatfield now links to Baseball-Reference redundantly in illustration of several points bulleted here. --P64 04:58, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
The template is not great for use in a list of references, despite fortunate placement at or near the top of any alphabetical list.

  • See Harry Wright#References for example with template links to both player and manager records and not quite at the top of the list. See Doug Allison#References for example with the template link and somewhat standard citation for the same source one after the other.
  • Should it be used in every biography of a major league player or manager? On the other hand, is its purpose mainly to help people who expand stubs, normally to disappear from an article as it is completed?
  • One of these I found as the sole item in "External Links", just below the end of the text (above References, a bad place for External Links). Is the template intended easily and permanently to provide ready access to a major league record from any biography article whose subject is a major player or manager? --that is, not "normally to disappear ... as it is completed"
    • Personally, I applaud this approach in general, having zero interest in a print edition. But Wikipedia may deplore that, even ban it.
    • For the 'pedia, maybe it should expand to an italic blockquote as follows, where the model is "This section is a stub."
"See his Career playing record ^ at baseball-reference"

(Back to the adorable/deplorable approach in general.) Then (as for "External Links" in John Hatfield a I write) it should be above See also, Notes, References, series boxes, categories, and stub tags. But (contrary to this example) "External Links" sectioning is inappropriate and the template should expand to something along these lines.

Career playing record[^] at Baseball-Reference 
Player record[^] at Baseball-Reference 
Major league record[^] at Baseball-Reference (player)
Vital and Playing statistics[^] at baseball-reference

Those are four alternatives for external links to player pages, easy to multiply and easy to modify for manager(ial) records.

Career managing record[^] at Baseball-Reference 
 . . .

Of course the highlighted linkname should be the first part (marked [^]) of any version selected, not not "Baseball-Reference.com"

  • If a link to a manager or player page is included in the text of a major leaguer biography, Baseball-Reference should be one of the listed References too (presuming that the author used it). Perhaps there should be two templates, one catch-all for listing in References and one with variations --at least player and manager-- for inclusion in articles.
- See his Career playing record at baseball-reference.
- Baseball-Reference. "FirstName LastName". Retrieved 2006-??-??.

--P64 04:35, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kirby Puckett

Kirby Puckett is currently in the running for the Article Creation and Improvement Drive. I would appreciate any votes casted by WikiProject members. Thanks! --Nishkid64 00:23, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] template inclusion

I do not know how to edit templates/infoboxes. But i think the MLB Player Infobox needs to include a few more things. Height/Weight, Nickname for example. Any ideas about that? Also I think it would be cool to create a good free agents list, the latest one I saw was from 05-06. I'd be willing to help with that.

I looked through a few different teams players and there are still different templates being used. I think it would be nice if there was one catchall MLB player infobox to use, I think this group is advocating for one, but maybe it could be more complete. Definitely making constructive criticism here, just trying to do my part. So let me know how I can help. I searched around to see if this had been discussed, but it only seems to have been mentioned and maybe a while ago.

  • I agree. At least, we should include height/weight and years experience. Nicknames can be included in the name field (ie. David "Big Papi" Ortiz) to keep the box from getting too bloated. Things like salary (hardly encyclopedic) and college (doesn't apply to many international players & those signed out of high school) don't need to be included. I'm also against listing the draft round/pick where a player was selected, again because it doesn't apply to many players and because many players these days are drafted twice. Caknuck 19:58, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
  • The thing about nicknames is some people have multiple nicknames. Babe Ruth and Bob Feller for example. Thats why I suggested that it be included in the template. I think it would be cool to get one good template and go through and make the changes for all the mlb teams. So if anyone wants to get in on that let me know. User:seak17.

[edit] players Categories

For NA and charter NL clubs (thus 1871-1876), I assessed the "players by team" and "defunct team" categories thoroughly and the reported the current state of affairs completely. See

That state of affairs includes my own (re)categorization of some "players by team" categories and "team" articles for consistency. Namely, for the 19 NA clubs that were not NL members, the players by team category is now cat in both and Category:Major league baseball players by team, which was merely the most common of four possibilities. The team article is now cat in Category:Defunct baseball teams and not in Category:Defunct Major League Baseball teams, which was merely the most common of four possibilities. --P64 18:08, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox questions

I just added the MLBretired infobox to Doug Allison and I had some questions about infobox usage. I used his debut on the Washington Olympics instead of the Red Stockings because that was what was on baseball-reference.com. Should this be changed despite not knowing the date? Should the Red Stockings be added to his teams? It seems like his first time in a 'league' was with the Olympics so maybe that should remain.

The other question I had was regarding what information I could edit out of the article because of the inclusion of the infobox. For example, this paragraph:

Later, Doug Allison played in the major leagues with the Troy Haymakers (1872), Brooklyn Eckfords (1872), Elizabeth Resolutes (1873), New York Mutuals (1873-1874), Hartford Dark Blues (1875-1877), Providence Grays (1878-1879), and one game with the Baltimore Orioles in (1883).

seems redundant with the information given in the box. Any suggestions would be appreciated. -Mattingly23 21:25, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Headshots

Hey...there's a way to get better headshots of players than the usual MLB.com pics, just copy this link, and replaced the "123245" with the player's ID number on their bio/stats pages.

For example, this is Frank Thomas's image.

http://www.mlb.com/pressbox/photos/headshots_players_coaches/123245_raw.jpg

to get to Doug Mirabelli's image, just go to his MLB.com page copy the jumble of numbers, and delete the Frank Thomas "123245" ID.

You should get this

--CFIF ☎ ⋐ 17:09, 12 October 2006 (UTC)


[edit] A problem user

Hello, I just wanted to say that I think you guys are doing a good job with articles here and for the most part, you hit the notability right on the head. Although the user I am to name is not a member of your project, he has created lots of baseball player articles. User:BurmaShaver has created dozens of articles on players, which are listed on his page. A lot of them are pretty suspect for notability, many of the players that he has made articles for have only played one season, and some only played one or two games. And looking at the articles, a lot of them just have needless trivia points, these articles make someone who has played one major league game look like a hall of famer, and that just isn't good for WP or this project. I also notice that for the dead players, the articles end with "He passed away", which should be changed to "He died", otherwise, it violates non-npov, as it portrays the death too positively and there should not be a trace of opinion in this description. And this user keeps creating articles on players who have literally pitched an inning or have had one at bat. And help would be appreciated. WP is not a junkyard, and I don't want this poorly-written and unnotable articles to trash the reputation of everyone. Tony fanta 17:16, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

  • I agree with your assessment of User:BurmaShaver's articles, although I don't know what we can do to prevent these articles from existing except for putting them up for deletion. On my user page here you can see the lists I've made while going through the 19th century players - I separate them by notability and only work on those that are notable. Maybe at some point I'll put some of the non-notable players up for vote for deletion but I'm not wholly convinced that they would get through or even if its worth my time to do so. -Mattingly23 01:24, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
    • I went through the articles he has created on (based on his user page) and I cleaned up nn info and npov statements on the MLB players last named P-Z, if someone wants to work on the other ones, go for it, but I've spent and hour and I'm a bit tired. 68.79.132.216 05:33, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
  • According to WP:BIO, "Sportspeople/athletes/competitors who have played in a fully professional league" are notable, so it's likely that deletion would be contested without a consensus being reached. Do I think that Cliff Dapper deserves a WP entry because he played eight games at the start of the 1942 season after many major leaguers enlisted in the armed forces after Pearl Harbor? Certainly not as much as some of the present day big leaguers who are still languishing as redlinks. But at least the guy's thorough... Caknuck 08:53, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
Well, they have that guideline, but it was created rather haphazardly and there are a fair amount of those who disagree with it, so you never know what could happen. Most of the deletion discussions for those players have ended in no consensus, which means that the WP:BIO isn't airtight. This user should be discouraged from creating articles on those who have only played one game, and at the least, we should clean up the rest of the articles so that they sound more formal, notable and have a npov. 68.79.132.216 22:55, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Archive page

I think it would be nice to archive this page. I would suggest we start with anything prior to Sept. 1 2006. Any thoughts?Tecmobowl 22:09, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Diamondbacks color scheme

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a new color scheme. What is being called "Sonona red", "Sonoran sand" and black. I think it might be helpful to establish a set color scheme for the infoboxes and such. The red looks similar to the color being used on the Indians and Astros boxes. Black is the primary second color. Thoughs and opinions are requested. Wxthewx99 02:27, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Well usually I take the official team logo, go into MS Paint, find the code for RGB and then translate it into Hex and find the appropriate color. I'll try it right now. Nishkid64 02:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Here's the colors:

  • Black: #161712
  • Sonona red:#C23852
  • Sonoran sand: #ECDEBB

We should now decide which ones should be in the template. Nishkid64 02:59, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

bgcolor1: Sonora red; bgcolor2: sand; textcolor1: white; textcolor2: black Caknuck 21:36, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Changes to Infoboxes & Templates

Per a discussion i have already started (slightly edited because of new page) I was thinking that some adjustments could be made to the {{MLB HoF}}, {{Infobox Cooperstown}}, and the {{Infobox baseball player}} templates, but I don't know what the process for suggesting changes to templates is. I think the cooperstown box is somewhat unnecessary on pages where the baseball player box has been used. I think the MLB HoF box could be used a lot more, but think it lacks one piece of important information: induction year. Perhaps changing the display text to be: "ARTICLE NAME, inducted in [[YEAR in baseball|YEAR]], is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame."

What do you think?//Tecmobowl 14:10, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

I honestly hadn't looked too hard at those. I see {{Infobox baseball player}} already has an "inductiondate" parameter so I'm not sure why {{Infobox Cooperstown}} even exists. I've never been impressed with {{MLB HoF}}. As far as where to start a discussion, I'd think the best option would be Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball. Unfortunately, it's questionable how many people have that on their watchlists (it was dormant for so long that I took it off my watchlist for quite a while). The best way to ensure a lot of participation for baseball discussion is probably to leave a short note on individual users' talk pages directing them to where the actual discussion will be. You could also leave a note on the templates' talk pages. —Wknight94 (talk) 14:39, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't see the need for {{MLB HoF}}, {{Infobox Cooperstown}}, and the {{Infobox baseball player}} templates. I thought the standard player templates were Template:Infobox MLB player and Template:Mlbretired, and it would be better to incorporate Hall of Fame info into the retired infobox rather than having its own. - Mattingly23 14:55, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't see a problem with that logic at all. //Tecmobowl 01:36, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
FYI, I just stumbled across {{MLB player}}, which seems to be redundant with {{Infobox MLB player}}. Rolando 14:24, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Baseball players - Resources section

I've added a resources section to the project page so everything can share the web resources that they use when editing players' articles. I think it would be helpful to have these links in one centralized place for everyone to use. Please add more links if you want, or if I shouldn't have added the section please remove it. - Mattingly23 15:48, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stablepedia

Beginning cross-post.

See Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team#Stablepedia. If you wish to comment, please comment there. ★MESSEDROCKER★ 02:31, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

End cross-post. Please do not comment more in this section.

[edit] Did you know? column

Just a reminder to everyone to submit new baseball player articles that have an interesting fact to the Did you know? column that appears on the front page. A few days ago I submitted Heinie Reitz's article after I had made it, and it got on the front page today. You can submit articles here. For it to be accepted, the article has to be new, it has to cite its sources, and it cannot be a stub. - Mattingly23 13:32, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] All-Star categories per CFD consensus

Recently, there was a massive CFD that converged all yearly All-Star categories into two categories entitled Category:National League All-Stars and Category:American League All-Stars. As a result, there are many duplicates of these categories on baseball pages, so I'm looking for help from fellow project members in helping remove duplicate categories on individual baseball player articles. I suggest using AWB for this, as it detects multiple categories and fixes up those changes, as well as other formatting and grammar changes. Thanks guys, Nishkid64 18:30, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I was wondering how they were going to deal with that. I assumed there was a bot that could delete duplicate categories - does anyone know if there actually is? - Mattingly23 18:36, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
I'll try to look for someone to ask. RobotG was the one who changed all the categories in the first place. Nishkid64 21:33, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
I think I'll manually do it myself using AWB. I've done 200 so far in Category:American League All-Stars, and I have 550 more to go in that category. I will probably have only a few hundred to do from the National League All-Stars, and I expect to be done by the end of the week. Nishkid64 21:30, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
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