I've spent the last 5+ years trying to map every professional ballpark in the world. I've failed but that's OK.
James Fee - October 14, 2020GeoJSON BallparksWhen a simple twitter question sparks a passion for mapping
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Baseball?
Baseball?A soccer football fan’s introduction to America’s pastime• Possibly derived from Rounders or Cricket• First recorded games occurred by 1845 in NYC• Professional baseball started in 1876 and eventually became the MLB whichgoverns baseball today• San Francisco Giants have won 11,194 games since founding in 1883.
Playing Baseball• Two teams• 9 innings• 3 outs/team each inning• Pitcher/Batter• Fielders• Hit/Out• Rounding bases
Baseball Data
StatisticsBaseball is a fountain of data for analysis• Sabermetrics - empirical analysis of baseball statistics• Retrosheet - computerizing the box score of every major league baseballgame ever played• Chadwick Baseball Bureau - Clean baseball data • Moneyball -
Ballparks as GeoJSON
Map Every Professional Baseball Ballpark
Right?• License (ODC-By)• Github• These aren’t POIsWhy Not OSM?
Innocent QuestionTwitter as a Idea Factory
Mapping Every Professional BallparkIf only it was easy• Requirements to map ballpark• Professional baseball team• Find the stadium• Map lat/long of home plate
Hardest Problem?Google is no help• Finding a stadium• Teams don’t always play in the same stadium year after year• Address for team is usually an office building• Stadium names are vague • Imagery is usually poor outside of NA/EU/AUS/JPN/Korea• Wikipedia - but….
SherlockSearching for a stadium with no info• Google Images• Social Media• Exif • Old fashioned panning Google Earth and feeling lucky
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Getting Involved
GeoJSON Ballparks - https://github.com/cageyjames/GeoJSON-BallparksChadwick - https://github.com/chadwickbureauR baseball - https://baseballwithr.wordpress.comRetrosheet - https://www.retrosheet.org
[email protected]James FeeTwitter - @jamesmfeehttps://www.spatiallyadjusted.comGithub - @cageyjames