BASEBALL-REFERENCE.COM: THE INTERVIEW

Millions of baseball fans and baseball "insiders" from around the world use Baseball-Reference.com as their source for statistics and everything else baseball related.  I know I do, and every time I write a post for you to read, I link to them. Baseball-Reference.com allows BleedingYankeeBlue.com to appear on the player's pages that we link to.  It's a nice little give and take and the brains behind it is a guy named Sean Forman.

I chatted with Sean a few years ago and I was always fascinated with the empire he created and I decided to reach out and ask him for an interview.  He agreed and I'm thrilled about it.  So, while it's not Yankee related, it's baseball related and applaud this guy, because he's done something pretty impressive.

So here it is, our interview with Baseball-Reference.com guy, Sean Forman. Enjoy this... I did...


BYB: Sean, hundreds of Baseball writers everywhere use Baseball-Reference.com as their source for stats of all players current and past... how the hell did this all happen for you? Break it down.

Sean Forman: It was really just me scratching my own itch 13+ years ago.  I had a website for minor leaguers called the Iowa Farm Report and thought that the web would be a great format for an encyclopedic site, so I built it using a database put out by Sean Lahman based on Pete Palmer's MLB data.  It wasn't really my intent to make it a business at the time, but within a year or two we were making some money and six years in I was able to do it full time.

BYB: I know you have Basketball, Football, Baseball-Reference among others.  Which was the first?  Take the BYB readers into your world. How many people work for you and how many reference sites are there? How does it work?

Sean Forman: The order was Baseball (2000), Football (late 2000, started by Doug Drinen), and then Basketball (2004, started by Justin Kubatko). We formed a company together in 2007 and then Hockey and Olympics in 2008, CFB and CBB in 2010 and probably a Q&A site and maybe a soccer site this year or next.

We have 4 employees.  We license most of the data, so we don't do a lot of data entry.  It's really mostly about programming, so we have 3 full-time programmers (myself included) and a user affairs coordinator who if you've e-mailed the site has answered your questions.  It's all pretty automated.  For instance, over the weekend, I didn't do anything other than check for my update text each morning, and since everything worked fine I didn't have to do anything.  I had to do some work for the All-Star game, but usually we are able to work on adding new features rather than maintaining what we have.

(In Photo: Jim Rice)
BYB: What's your favorite baseball team and why?

Sean Forman: I'm a Red Sox fan who grew up in Iowa in the mid-70's.  Looking back on it I think I'm a fan of the Sox due to Fenway Park's batting park factor.  I'd check the Sunday paper for the stats every week and see Dwight Evans, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Wade Boggs, etc. near the top of the batting stats and latched onto them.  I couldn't figure out why they could never find any pitching.

BYB: Growing up, what player, in any sport did you idolize the most and why?

Sean Forman: I was a big Rickey Henderson and Wade Boggs fan.  I'm very slow, but would steal as many bases as possible and drew a ton of walks.  I was a very patient hitter all of the way through high school.

BYB: Random question now, but something I picture you doing, being a man of statistics...  Have you ever played Stat-0-matic or Micro League Baseball from the 1980's? And a follow up... what made you interested in what you do?

Sean Forman: No, and it's probably for the best as I would have never gotten through high school or college most likely.  I was a very active fantasy player and that is how I got into all of this as I was in a very competitive ultra league (think entrance interview and deep minors selections), so I started tracking minor leaguers and started my minor league site.

I've always loved sports stats.  My dad is a high school football coach and as long as I can remember I would ask to see the stat book when he got home after the game on Friday nights and kept the tackle chart in elementary school and junior high before I could play for him.

BYB: OK, there are 3 athletes that you can meet, past and present. Who are they and what is the first question you ask each of them?

Sean Forman: Tough question.  I've never placed a lot of importance on interacting with the players.  I enjoy watching the games, but don't go out of my way to meet them or get autographs, etc.  I'll assume that my questions can be indelicate, and that the players wouldn't worry about being embarrassed about answering.

 

(In Photo: Collegiate Wrestler Larry Owings)

I'd ask Larry Owings if he ever wishes he hadn't beaten Dan Gable and Gable how often he still thinks about that match.  Does it eat him up or has he moved past it? (Read about Owings, Gable HERE)

I'd ask Joe Morgan what he believes are the reasons he was such a valuable player and tell him how stat-heads think he was a magnificent player.

(In Photo: Glenn Burke) I'd be curious to talk to Glenn Burke about what it was like being a gay ballplayer and how many other players were gay.

BYB: Hypothetical... Jon Heyman of CBS Sports or Buster Olney of ESPN... who would you rather have save you from a house fire and why? You have to pick one...Let's have alittle fun.

Sean Forman: Olney just looks a little bigger and stronger to me.  I'd also worry that Heyman would ask me to admit Miguel Cabrera was better than Mike Trout in 2012 before taking me out.

BYB: Who is your favorite baseball broadcaster of all time and why?

Sean Forman: I think Jon Miller is phenomenal.  I loved his book.  He has a great anecdote about he and Cal Ripken playing strat-o-matic on the team plane, beating Ripken and Ripken going over the scorecard with his dad to improve.  

And having baseball-reference.com mentioned by Vin Scully is probably the apex of my career.

BYB: Free plug, what would you like to promote right now?

Sean Forman: Try the play index!  Search through nearly 100 years of MLB game logs and 60 years of mlb play by play.  It will make you more powerful than the Elias Sporting Bureau.  http://bbref.com/play-index/

BYB: Final question... Luckily for us, we are linked daily on Baseball-Reference.com because you are nice enough to allow blogs to be apart of your success.  Have you ever laid eyes on BleedingYankeeBlue.com?  If so, what do you think?

Sean Forman: I've been there.  The writers are writers par excellence and additionally, they are devastatingly handsome.

Thanks bro... and thank you for taking the time to talk to us.  I always wanted to know how it all started for Sean Forman and I admire him for creating such a terrific source for so many of us.

I hope you guys enjoyed this interview and if you liked it, let Sean know... comment or send him an email!

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