Template talk:Infobox MLB player/Archive 1

Color table
Use these colors:

I removed the link brackets from around the field. The hardcoded link was causing problems because Texas Rangers leads to a disambiguation page (that was appearing on WP:DPL). There is no way to pipelink or "nowiki" the link, so the only alternatives are to remove the hardcoded link or create a separate template for players who started out with the Rangers. I chose the first (and easier) of the two. Caknuck 00:12, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Fields
Why are there so many unused fields? Like birthplace, date, height, weight, etc. etc. Cacophony 02:57, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah we should add those things--Bucs10 00:37, 18 April 2007 (UTC)Bucs10
 * But for what point in their career for height and (esp.) weight? Active players, it's easy.  Retired--I don't know if putting the retirement weight of Puckett or Gwynn tells the whole story.  -- Myke Cuthbert (talk) 19:18, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Career Highlights
I'm not sure where to ask this, perhaps somebody here can help me. MLB player and have a "Career Highlights" section, which I think is very useful/informative. (See, e.g., highlights in the Willie Mays article. Can this be added to ? -- Sholom 14:19, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm against it, but mainly because I like to use infoboxes only for statistical information that is hard to render in prose and not for summaries. Part of the issue is that if you put a "Career Highlights" section in a template then (1) there's a tendency to make all players have the same number of them, they look the same in importance (Wiki Gonzalez and Ted Williams don't have the same number or caliber of career highlights) and (2) some of these things can be controversial and require  or other reference tags which seem much harder in infoboxes. -- Myke Cuthbert (talk) 19:18, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Angels colors
Why is the Angels secondary color gray (999999). Shouldn't it be some shade of blue? --Sanfranman59 22:44, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Adding Teams
After the discussion in WikiProject Baseball/Players, I'm adding "teams" as an option instead of "former teams" -- we can keep both for now, but then get rid of former teams in a bit. -- Myke Cuthbert (talk) 19:18, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

IMPORTANT CHANGE COMING
I'm going to automate the team color filling - it will save a lot of time for those adding new teams and kbs. After I insert the change, give me a few minutes to make the adjustments to the team articles. Juan Miguel Fangio| ►Chat 10:12, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I've been doing a lot of edits recently to articles for players who have played in the majors, but now play in Japan ... is there a way to either override the automatic default coloring to put in the coloring for the Japanese teams, or add the Japanese teams to your automated color scheme? Hardnfast (talk) 20:50, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Height and weight fields
What's the deal with a lack of these fields? Active players should have height and weight stats, included fields in other sports infoboxes, so I was curious as to why this template no longer has those fields. Regards, LARA  ♥LOVE  04:39, 3 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I was just going to ask about this myself... Ω (talk) 02:32, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

MLB to MILB
Question, is there a way i can use this same template and still make it minor league stats instead of major league stats? Hatmatbbat10 00:27, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

"Birthplace" needs to be added to preview code/wiki markup
Could an admin please add the new "Birthplace" field to the preview code? -NatureBoyMD (talk) 02:27, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Hall of Fame
Why are there fields for Hall of Fame election and such when we only use this template for current MLB players? -- Rab bethan  07:32, 20 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Good question. Probably when someone made both templates, they basically copied it over not realizing what they did. --Street20 (talk) 07:48, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Pre-MLB Experience
Why is a player's collegiate and minor league affiliations not included? Someone want to attempt this? Tee Owe (talk) 18:03, 11 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I would agree that this is stuff that definitely need to be addressed. The college is definitely relevant for those that attended, and I always hated how the infobox teams just displayed the MLB teams, as if a guy just popped out of nowhere.► Chris Nelson Holla! 04:07, 12 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Well there are people who don't like the idea so there is no use in trying to bring it up again. --Street20 (talk) 04:12, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
 * There are? where? If there is existing discussion about this then it would be a good idea to link it. Ω (talk) 02:35, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
 * err... nevermind. For anyone else that comes along, see: Template_talk:Infobox_MLB_player, below Ω (talk) 02:54, 19 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Well I can see the argument against MiLB teams (potentially lots of info that could get messy fast), though I'd like to see perhaps MLB teams listed even if they didn't play in the Majors for them, and possibly an asterisk and notation saying something to the effect of "minors only" sort of how we do it with the NFL players. Isn't it kind of stupid to have an INFObox for a player, let's say one that spends ten years in the Majors before reaching the show, and not be able to get any info on his career before now from his infobox?


 * As for the colleges, I can't imagine anyone being against that so we should definitely at a field.► Chris Nelson Holla! 04:21, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
I notice that this infobox template seems to be having a problem with displaying the Golden Eagles information. I've not noticed such an issue with other NPB teams. Can someone fix this? -Dewelar (talk) 04:43, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

wikified dates
editprotected

When the values in the  field are wikified, it turns the resulting display into "Date Month, Year" (e.g., 14 September, 2008), which is wrong. The comma is only used when separating the date from the year (e.g., September 14, 2008). In addition, wikification of dates is generally deprecated now. Can someone update this template to either remove the comma or remove the wikification? Also, adding a note to the template page itself that it's protected might be useful. Cheers! Esrever (klaT) 20:02, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I've added a protection lock to the page. As regards the other changes, the template is complicated enough that I can't see exactly what to do — please use Template:Infobox MLB player/sandbox to make the edits you require, then re-add the editprotected tag with a request for an admin to copy the sandbox into the main template. Stifle (talk) 08:55, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Last update
On the German version of the box I put a "last update" row at the bottom of the box:

Then just add | update  = to the template, that's it. You might consider this here as well. --Goodgirl - talk to me 00:00, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Infobox updates
After discussion at WT:BASEBALL, we seem to now have consensus to merge Template:Infobox MLB player with Template:Infobox MLB retired. I am requesting that an admin do the following.

1. Replace the contents of this page with the contents of Template:Infobox MLB player/sandbox.

2. Redirect (and then protect from editting) Template:Infobox MLB retired to Template:Infobox MLB player.

This has been tested the new template supports all the syntax of the old one. Thanks in advance. —Borgardetalk 08:19, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Yes check.svg|20px]] Done. Cheers. --MZMcBride (talk) 02:24, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Small update
I've removed the line "player information" when the team field is not used as it is not needed (after discussion with User:Yankees10. Please update as appropriate. The code is in the Template:Infobox MLB player/sandbox. Thanks! —Borgardetalk 05:32, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ Ruslik (talk) 19:58, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Minor
Can this template please be updated with the contents of Template:Infobox MLB player/sandbox where there has been a linebreak inserted between the birthdate and death date columns.

Thanks, —Borgardetalk 08:29, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ Ruslik (talk) 10:35, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Bats/Throws
This is something I noticed while editing the Dock Ellis article: Would it be possible to somehow change "Bats" and "Throws" to "Batted" and "Threw" or something for retired/deceased players? --Bongwarrior (talk) 09:38, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Hall of Fame
It would be nice if someone could edit the template to say "Future Member of the..." for the Hall of Fame section. Perhaps a "future" parameter could be added for HoF. Obviously, this new paramter will apply to people who are announced (Rickey, Jim) but not yet inducted. I'd do this myself but the template is locked. Timneu22 (talk) 22:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Specifically, add:

in the following

}}{{#if:{{{hofdate | }}}| [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|{{#if:{{{hoffuture|}}}|Future }}Member


 * The change is now complete. This parameter, hoffuture, eliminates any user wars between users who think the banner SHOULD or SHOULD NOT display, between the dates of announcement and induction. Now the banner displays with the text "Future Member"; this should appease both sides. Timneu22 (talk) 14:17, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Again
Need to change the HAll of Fame section from "Inducted" to "Induction". The change is needed ASAP; editors are sparring over inclusion of this section, and "Induction" will resolve the problem. Timneu22 (talk) 16:49, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Past tense if needed
Please update the page with the Template:Infobox MLB player/sandbox which includes an option for "Batted" instead of "Bats" and "Threw" instead of "Throws" if the player is deceased or retired. —Borgarde 04:32, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ — TKD:: Talk  10:33, 4 February 2009 (UTC)


 * This is absolutely the wrong approach. We do we need "change-tense" as a parameter??? Now someone will have to update every instance of the template!! Who would do that? The correct approach is to REVERT this change, and make the logic easier:




 * Someone, PLEASE REVERT THE FIX!! If we change the template to use the finalyear parameter, all the changes will occur automatically. Timneu22 (talk) 11:06, 4 February 2009 (UTC)


 * As the person who originally proposed a change I support this, it's definitely a better way to go. —Borgarde 11:29, 4 February 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ — TKD:: Talk  11:33, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Categorization
This template should be in Category:Sportsperson infobox templates and Category:Sports infobox templates. Ω (talk) 04:42, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It's already in the former category, which is itself a subcategory of the latter. No change is needed. -Dewelar (talk) 16:43, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

huh, wierd... I somehow missed that. — Ω (talk) 00:23, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Add support for alt text
As per WP:ALT, for WP:ACCESSIBILITY by the visually impaired, images in this infobox should have alt text, or if they are purely decorative they should not be linked. I've implemented this in the sandbox with this change, which adds a new alt= parameter for the main image's alt text, and marks the hall-of-fame stars as being purely decorative. I have tested the sandbox version with the test cases, and have updated the documentation to describe the new version. Can you please install the change into the main version? Thanks. Eubulides (talk) 04:04, 14 July 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ Let me know if there are any problems. Plastikspork (talk) 05:55, 14 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Question - Would be a sensible default for alt? Plastikspork (talk) 05:59, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Not typically. The visually impaired reader of (say) Bryan Bullington who's hears "Bryan Bullington" won't get any useful info: they typically don't know what Bullington looks like, so saying that the lead image looks like Bryan Bullington conveys no useful info. Generally speaking it's better for a template to leave the alt text blank than to guess it; that way, a screen reader for Bryan Bullington's lead image will say "Bullington enters dot J P G", which at least will tell the visually impaired that Bullington is entering something. Eubulides (talk) 07:27, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds reasonable. Thanks! Plastikspork (talk) 14:48, 14 July 2009 (UTC)