President's Report for June 27, 2026 Retrosheet Board Meeting

Full play-by-play data, including some deduced games, have been released for all seasons from 1910 – 2025. We have completed deductions for the 1909 season and expect to also complete the 1908 season prior to our summer 2026 release. Thanks to Rod Wood for heading up this work.

For the first time, Retrosheet’s reach now extends back to the 19th-century National League. Box-score files were released for the 1898, 1899, and 1900 seasons this year. Our summer 2026 release should include box scores for at least the 1897 season with more to come.

Work on the Negro Leagues also continues – albeit more slowly than I would like. Retrosheet has currently released initial results for the 1935 through 1949 seasons. The summer 2026 release should add the 1933 and 1934 seasons. Retrosheet’s efforts to deduce as many play-by-play accounts as possible for Negro League games is continuing. As of our upcoming summer 2026 release, Retrosheet will have “completed” deduction efforts for eleven seasons – 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1943, 1944, 1948, and 1949 – with partial work completed for four additional seasons – 1942, 1945, 1946, and 1947.I had the great honor to serve on MLB's Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee, along with Tom Shieber (among others), and was very pleased with the initial results which were announced several weeks ago. That work will continue. The Committee expressed a desire to add game logs as part of a potential "version 2.0" release. I think this will lead to a more prominent role for Retrosheet's data to be incorporated into the official record and more highly publicized.

One exciting development has occurred with respect to Retrosheet’s Negro Leagues work. I have shared source data for all our Negro League games with Kevin Johnson of Seamheads. In return, he has helpfully provided information to Retrosheet on games which Seamheads has which Retrosheet missed and/or for which Seamheads has more information than Retrosheet. Thanks to one of my stalwart Negro League volunteers, Alan Cohen, for facilitating this collaboration.

Work is also continuing on an ongoing project with a couple of ultimate goals. The first goal is to more easily allow users to download specific subsets of data. The second goal is to improve the construction of the website. This project is taking longer than I had hoped but I am cautiously optimistic that perhaps this will finally be the year in which we see some public results. Thanks to Tyler Ault, Joe Callahan, Brandon Thress, and Wendy Thress for their continuing help with this project.

One unexpected delight happened in May. I was approached by Robert Reynolds of the Organization for Space Medicine, Engineering, and Design (OSMED). OSMED is a volunteer organization which is taking over an existing database about astronauts and space flights. They wanted to talk to Retrosheet for advice on managing a volunteer data effort. Dave and I had the pleasure of talking to several Board members of OSMED on two occasions to discuss Retrosheet and answer their questions.

Also of note, this year saw the release of Jay Wigley’s book, How Retrosheet Saved Baseball History, a recounting of how Retrosheet came into existence.

Finally, I want to shout out a few people who have helped - and continue to help – make Retrosheet what it is.

Thank you to Luke Kraemer for his illustrious contributions to Retrosheet, including serving on the Retrosheet Board for more than 30 years.

Thank you to Joe Callahan for continuing to generate the vast majority of Retrosheet’s website implementing and building on Tom Ruane’s programs. And welcome to the Retrosheet Board of Directors.

And thank you to Rob Wood for his tremendous contributions, spearheading the 20th-century deduction efforts as well as significant efforts to improve the quality of previously released seasons. Thank you, also, for agreeing to take on the role of Vice President.

I look forward to another exciting year for Retrosheet. Thank you all for your trust in my leadership and in helping to continue to push Retrosheet forward.