Seamheads Ballparks Database Updated, Includes 2022 Stats!

We are proud to announce another new update of our Seamheads.com MLB Ballparks Database , created by Seamheads.com co-founder Kevin Johnson.

The database includes data through the 2022 season; three-year park factor LH/RH splits dating back to 1905; and every no-hitter from 1875-present. The following is what you’ll find:

• Descriptive data that includes location, date of first and last game (where 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.
• Ballpark factors for runs for every year since 1871.
• Home run splits for every year since 1876.
• Full ballpark factors and splits for home runs, hits, singles, doubles, and triples, dating back to 1905; walks dating back to 1909, and strikeouts dating back to 1913.
• Park events for all 30 current parks and 45 defunct ballparks, including First and Last games, starting pitchers, batters and their results, hits, runs, RBIs, home runs, strikeouts, winning and losing pitchers, grand slams, inside-the-park home runs, no-hitters, and trivia. (Note: not all venues are 100% complete, some information is missing until further review and future updates).
• NEW FOR 2022 : Park events at eight stadiums– Angel Stadium , Globe Life Field , Globe Life Park , Rangers Ballpark , Truist Park , Turner Field , Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium , and Nationals Park –now include umpires, managers, first pitches thrown, attendance, times of game, directions of hits, doubles, triples, players on base for first and last grand slams, steals, sacrifice hits, sacrifice flies, all pitchers who contributed to first and last shutouts, hits by pitch, wild pitches, and balks.
• Every no-hitter from 1875-2022, including Joe Borden’s 1875 no-no, which is not considered official by MLB. Each no-hitter page includes the pitcher, catcher, teams, score, opposing starter, home plate umpire, pitching lines, attendance, time of game, and notes and trivia. Pitching lines include the usual like walks, strikeouts, hit batters, etc., but more current no-hitters also include pitch counts, strikes looking, swinging strikes, grounders, flies, line drives, and popups.
• NEW FOR 2022 : No-hitters now include win-loss records, holds, and saves at the time the no-hitters were thrown.

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 Year.
• Filter by State or Country.
• 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.

ON DECK

• Extended park events for the remaining 67 parks and possibly more.

IN THE HOLE

• Cycles. Our goal has always been to include every cycle ever achieved in MLB history and that’s in the works.
• Milestones. Both player and park milestones, including 3,000th hits, 500th home runs, 300th wins, and player/park/MLB record-setters.

HOPEFULLY SOONER THAN LATER

• Negro League parks, no-hitters, park events, and milestones.

DID YOU KNOW?

• 

  Ewell Blackwell

  In June 1947, Cincinnati Reds hurler Ewell Blackwell almost replicated teammate Johnny Vander Meer’s consecutive no-hitters thrown 10 years earlier. Blackwell held the Boston Braves hitless on June 18, 1947 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, then went 8 1/3 innings without allowing a hit to the Brooklyn Dodgers on June 22 at Crosley. Eddie Stanky broke Blackwell’s streak with a single to center and Jackie Robinson soon followed with a two-out hit, but Blackwell retired Carl Furillo to secure his second straight shutout.

• On August 11, 1950, Boston Braves pitcher Vern Bickford was one inning shy of throwing a no-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Braves Field in Boston when he stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Hometown fans implored Bickford to strike out and save his strength, and when he did he received a rousing ovation. Bickford then completed his no-hitter, ending it by getting Duke Snider to ground into a double play.

NOTE ABOUT PARK FACTORS

As a reminder, we provide two sets of Park Factor calculations: 1-year factors and 3-year factors.

The 1-year factors are observed factors, based on only the season in question. While we do use an “other parks corrector” as described in the detail documentation (http://www.seamheads.com/ballparks/about.php) , these are essentially the factors observed for that particular year. Therefore, a 120 doubles factor for LH batters in Fenway Park means that left-handed batters hit 20% more doubles at Fenway than LH batters for those same teams’ batters hit in games away from Fenway.

The 3-year factors are attempts at calculating “truer” factors. There are many ways we could have constructed our formula, and it is difficult to determine what the “best” way is, but we believe our way is at least good and defensible. Our basic formula is to use the 1-year factors for the season in question, the season immediately preceding, the season immediately following, and then the park’s long-term historical factor, all weighted equally.

As some parks have rather long histories, while other may have life for only a few seasons, this is not a perfect method, but we believe it retains a basic simplicity while providing for a high degree of accuracy in estimating a park’s impact on offensive events.

Many thanks to Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com without whom most of the above might not have been possible.