User:Mattingly23/Guide to Writing Baseball Player Articles

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In an effort to bring about a discussion for standards for baseball player articles for Wikipedia:WikiProject Baseball players, this guide will present my opinions on how a good baseball article is written.

Please leave any comments or suggestions on the guide's talk page.

Contents

[edit] Finding players

If you just want to work on baseball player articles in general and don't have a specific focus in mind, the first step is to determine what player you want to write an article on. Here are some places you can find red links pointing to articles that need to be created:

If you want to work on improving existing baseball player articles, look here:

[edit] Infobox

Greg Maddux
Free Agent — No. 36
Starting Pitcher
Bats: Right Throws: Right 
Major League Baseball debut
September 3, 1986 for the Chicago Cubs
Selected MLB statistics
(through 2006)
Wins-losses     333-203
ERA     3.07
Strikeouts     3169
Former teams

After knowing what article you're going to create, the next step is to fill out the player's infobox.

The standard templates now in use are Template:Infobox MLB player for current players and Template:Mlbretired for retired players.

Note the Greg Maddux infobox on the right hand side of this page (click on 'Edit this page' to view its source). The colors are set based on what the player's current team is, using the table on Template:Infobox MLB player as a guide. Statistical terms, position, and date are all linked. Years link to their corresponding 'baseball year', such as linking to 1986 in baseball instead of 1986.

For retired players, use the info box on Gavvy Cravath's page as an example. Use team colors listed at Template:Infobox MLB player as a guide only if the player spent a significant amount of his career with one team; otherwise, do not use colors at all. As with the other template, any team names, dates, position, and baseball terms should be linked. The Career Highlights and Awards section currently does not have any standards associated with it, as this section's contents will vary greatly with each player.

The easiest way to find all the information you need to fill out a player's infobox is to search for the player's name on Baseball-Reference.com.

[edit] Images

Daubert on a 1911 American Tobacco Company baseball card
Daubert on a 1911 American Tobacco Company baseball card

A great place to find images for late 19th and early 20th century baseball players is searching the Library of Congress because of their collection of tobacco cards.

For other players, be sure to find images that are compatible with the GFDL. Do not upload copyrighted photos. For more information on what images are acceptable on Wikipedia, see the Image use policy. For tips on finding images, see the Finding images tutorial.

For an image in an infobox, it is best to place an image that is a headshot or close up of a player. Other images may be added to the page using the following syntax:

[[Image:Image_Name.jpg|left|thumb|This is the caption.]]

For example:

[[Image:Jake Daubert Baseball Card.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Daubert on a [[1911 in baseball|1911]] [[American Tobacco Company]] [[baseball card]]]]

generates the photo seen on the left.

For more information on the syntax used for inserting images, see Wikipedia:Image markup and Wikipedia:Picture tutorial

For more information on using images in Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Images.

[edit] Beginning of article

Style and formatting
Manual of Style and its subpages
Related policies and guidelines
Related help, tutorials and proposals
Related to specific cultures

[edit] Using references

[edit] Adding external links

The external links section should include links to relevant web sites that have not been included as references.

It has become standard to include a link to Baseball-Reference.com in the External links section. For example, to include a link to Jake Daubert's Baseball-Reference.com page (link http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/daubeja01.shtml), use the baseball-reference template like this:

*{{baseball-reference|id=d/daubeja01}}

which results in:

Note that an asterisk (*) is placed in front of each external link.

Remember, don't include links in the External links section if you have included them in the references section.

For more information on External links sections, see Wikipedia:External links.

[edit] Adding categories

These categories should go on every major leaguer's page (if applicable):

[[Category:*Year* births|*Last Name*, *First Name*]]
[[Category:*Year* deaths|*Last Name*, *First Name*]]
[[Category:*Team Name* players|*Last Name*, *First Name*]]
[[Category:Major league *Position*|*Last Name*, *First Name*]]
[[Category:*Nationality* players|*Last Name*, *First Name*]]
[[Category:Major league players from *State*|*Last Name*, *First Name*]]

Here are more categories may be included if necessary:

  • List categories here*

For example, here are the categories Jake Daubert is in:
[[Category:Major league first basemen|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Robins players|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Dodgers players|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Superbas players|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:Cincinnati Reds players|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:Major league players from Pennsylvania|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:1919 Cincinnati Reds World Series Championship Team|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:National League batting champions|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:1884 births|Daubert, Jake]]
[[Category:1924 deaths|Daubert, Jake]]

For more information on using categories in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Categories.

[edit] Adding stub messages

Below is a partial listing of stub messages that can be included in a baseball player's article. For all of them see Category:Baseball biography stubs.

{{baseball-catcher-stub}}
{{baseball-first-baseman-stub}}
{{baseball-second-baseman-stub}}
{{baseball-shortstop-stub}}
{{baseball-third-baseman-stub}}
{{baseball-center-fielder-stub}}
{{baseball-left-fielder-stub}}
{{baseball-right-fielder-stub}}
{{baseball-pitcher-stub}}
{{baseball-manager-stub}}

For more information on what constitutes a stub, see Wikipedia:Stubs.