Template talk:Infobox baseball biography

Changes to template
FYI, changes to the baseball infoboxes need discussion at WT:BASEBALL. Particularly regarding width and display issues. The width put through looked horrible and without discussion does not enable feedback. Borgarde (talk) 16:06, 2 September 2009 (UTC)


 * "Feedback" does not require initial discussion. If you've got specific concerns with the new layout then I'd be happy to hear them. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 14:09, 3 September 2009 (UTC)


 * MOS states 25em as standard, which from feedback shown on the other baseball biography template looks a lot better than 22em and smaller font. Also you the layout fixes you have do not look good, putting the debutleagues on different lines does not look right, look at Ichiro Suzuki, it looks even worse for players who have played in three of the big leagues like KBO, NPB and MLB. So basically the majority of change to the template which you implemented is (a) not needed and (b) not going to any "standard" stated in the MOS. Borgarde (talk) 14:38, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Player Contract
Is there a way we can include another attribute for the contract of the player? including a date signed through would help a lot of people out. 72.10.215.230 (talk) 21:11, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

New version
I updated the template to better match Infobox MLB player and to use Infobox. there should be no substantial visible difference in the output. if you see a problem, please add it to the testcases. the old version is stored in the sandbox for now so we can see if the problem is due to my changes, or was pre-existing. thank you. Frietjes (talk) 19:29, 1 November 2013 (UTC)


 * User:Frietjes, compare with Infobox MLB player.


 * How come teams are displaying centered? – Muboshgu (talk) 13:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I fixed that. – Muboshgu (talk) 15:12, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Player number
What's the protocol for players who played on multiple teams and therefore have multiple numbers? FriarTuck1981 (talk) 00:36, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi, FriarTuck1981 – sorry for the late response, but I don't watch this page. To answer your question, check out some of the usages at Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Infobox baseball biography, for example the article on Michael Jordan, where we find three numbers in his Ibox plus a note to explain one of them. Pleasant pathways, Painius  00:35, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

Edit request
Please change all instances of for the to, for the per WP:MOSCOMMA bullet #2 ("debuted [month], [year], with [team]"). — ATinySliver / ATalkPage &#128406; 20:48, 28 October 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅. Pleasant pathways, Paine 00:00, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * TYVM. — ATinySliver / ATalkPage  &#128406; 00:43, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Pleasure! Paine

This was discussed before and was reverted.--Yankees10 22:00, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, I see that – that discussion began in April, 2013, and ended with no consensus to add the comma in May, 2013. Evidently that template was merged into this one.  Since there is a specific style guideline cited in this request, the comma should remain in the ibox, keeping in mind that the guideline does not expressly exclude phrases/sentence fragments, and uses full sentences only as examples of the correct style.  There should be some form of punctuation that follows the year and precedes "for the Team Name".  If not a comma, then maybe an endash as in:
 * June 1, 1983 – for the Team Name
 * At present, with the comma, this ibox is in compliance with the style guideline, and the comma following the year should only be changed by using a different form of punctuation, or if no punctuation is still wanted, then a new consensus would be needed that would override the community consensus that formed the style guideline. Pleasant pathways, Paine 19:23, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

Proposed change to heading
A discussion has taken place here, I would like to know whether it is possible to change the "Last MLB appearance" heading to something similar to "Last MLB season appearance" to avoid confusion. Any thoughts? Garchy (talk) 13:50, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 26 October 2016
Per the discussion and consensus at WP:BASEBALL here I suggest a title change:

"Last MLB Appearance" to become "Last MLB reg. season appearance"

Thanks! Garchy (talk)

Garchy (talk) 20:50, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe "Last MLB appearance" appears on the infobox only when MLB. There appears to be no other use for finalleague. On which article are you seeing "Last MLB Appearance"? — Andy W. ( talk ) 21:17, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * One example that comes to mind is David Ortiz. If you notice, in the infobox, there is a line that says MLB. Try changing it to MLB reg. season? — Andy W. ( talk ) 21:20, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Funny, I was just replying with Ortiz as an example and got the edit conflict notice! Your idea worked, thank you very much for the help - also thank you for your thoughtful reply and information on the template editor rights request page. Garchy (talk) 21:25, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Sure :) Toggling, appears there's no need for template change — Andy W. ( talk ) 21:29, 26 October 2016 (UTC)

Parameter for medals
Hi, I really think this template should have a parameter to include medals won by players in international tournaments such as World Baseball Classic in the infobox. Seriesphile (talk · ctb) 05:45, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
 * User:Seriesphile, added, let me know if there are any problems. Frietjes (talk) 16:04, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * looks like it's working for Carlos Delgado. Frietjes (talk) 19:35, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Draft number
there are a large number of NPB player articles using draftnumber which does not exist in the template. I have started tracking the uses in Category:Pages using infobox baseball biography with draftnumber, which will take some time to fill up. should we add this parameter? Frietjes (talk) 16:28, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Agent Section
Requesting "Sports Agent" section. Info such as "represents 170+ players" on agent page is insufficient. Twillisjr (talk) 00:10, 5 November 2017 (UTC)

DMY date format
I'm trying to update all dates on Peter Moylan's page to use DMY date format, as he is Australian. However, the "debutdate" parameter automatically adds a comma, so instead of "12 April 2006", it shows "12 April, 2006", which is incorrect. Any solutions? Thanks. - BilCat (talk) 02:06, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Umpire pages
I recently merged Infobox MLB umpire into this template per this tfd. I'm curious if there should be some additional styling applied to infoboxes about umpires? Perhaps something like a header saying "Umpire". Basically just something to distinguish that the page is about an umpire as opposed to a player? -- Zack mann  (Talk to me/What I been doing) 18:48, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Looking at Bill Klem as an example, I guess specifying the position as umpire should be good enough. It would be helpful to update the documentation to cover umpires and provide an example. isaacl (talk) 19:02, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
 * works for me! And will do. -- Zack mann  (Talk to me/What I been doing) 19:07, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much! isaacl (talk) 20:27, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

Which stat should be listed under stat1label?
I noticed that the parameter descriptions for this infobox indicate that stat1label should be "the most important statistic for evaluating this player. Will vary according to what the player is best known for." I don't think this is normally how we order the statistics in the infobox. For position players, I usually see batting average first, then home runs or maybe hits. I'm not suggesting that we start doing it differently; rather, I'm thinking that we should change the wording of the parameter descriptions to match our usual practice on thousands of articles.

A good example is Babe Ruth. While his .342 batting average is incredible, his home run total seems far more important to me. It was a major league career record for a long time and even a fairly casual baseball fan can likely tell you about Ruth's 714 home runs. Another example: Rickey Henderson is most known for his stolen base total, not his .279 batting average, but the SB total is listed fifth in Henderson's infobox.

I don't think it would flow well to start any infobox with HR or SB (they probably all should start with BA for position players and win-loss record for pitchers - and in practice they almost all do). We just need to change the wording under the parameter descriptions for this infobox so that it is consistent with this practice. Larry Hockett (Talk) 05:20, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
 * The guidance at WP:BASESTYLEPL is more in line with actual practice.—Bagumba (talk) 11:03, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Note no explicit guidance is given in WikiProject Baseball/Player style advice, though the sample biography provides an example for non-pitchers. To ensure a broader audience, it might be better to hold this discussion at the project's discussion page, under the thread already started there. If there is a consensus, the documentation for this infobox can be updated accordingly or a pointer to the style advice page can be added. isaacl (talk) 11:49, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
 * There's specific triple crown stats listed at WikiProject_Baseball/Player_style_advice%23Infobox.—Bagumba (talk) 16:10, 31 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Sorry, missed the description for the statXX fields. isaacl (talk) 18:28, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

Height and weight
Why doesn't this template have height and weight parameters? Both are readily available at the most cited website (baseball-reference.com).

Baseball biographies used to have them, before this template. Player size is fundamental to a player's story and performance. And absolutely necessary for putting them in context with one-another, and the sport's history. It is absolutely germane, for example, that Aaron Judge on the New York Yankees, a giant slugger, home run champion, and holder of his league's rookie home run record, is 6'8" and 282 lbs., and Jose Altuve, a six-time All-Star and MVP, is just 5'6" and 165 lbs. Yet his diminutive size did not prevent him from being the best player in his league, or out-homering Judge this season 31 to 27.

This case does not even need to be made. We are talking professional athletes. It makes no more sense to leave height and weight out of boxers' biographies. How do we get them back into baseball biographies? Yours, Wikiuser100 (talk) 15:18, 31 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Re: infoboxes, the most recent discussion was in Feb 2019 at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Baseball/Archive_44. It seems there has never been consensus.—Bagumba (talk) 15:57, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

Edit request for fourth final league
The template has the necessary fields to display debut information for players who have competed in up to four leagues, but not the necessary fields to show their final league, team, and date. For example, see Mike Johnson (1990s pitcher). Changes are needed in three places:

1. Add: "final4league", "final4year", "final4team", and "final4date" to "header13". That would look like this (view the source on this talk page to see proper spacing):

| rowstyle13 = | header13 =

2. Add the following after "data16" (view the source on this talk page to see proper spacing):

| data17 = {{#if:{{{final4league|}}} }}{{{final4year|}}}{{#if:{{{final4team|}}} }}{{{final4team}}}
 * {{{final4league}}}: {{#if:{{{final4date|}}}|{{{final4date}}},
 * {{#if:{{{final4year|}}}|, for the

3. Add the new parameters to the check at the bottom:

Thanks. NatureBoyMD (talk) 15:04, 7 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:48, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

Additional edit request for fourth final league stats
Related to the previous edit request, an additional edit is required to show player stats for their fourth league. (See Alfredo Fígaro.) The following should be added to the middle after "data27". The entries which follow (up to ) will need to be renumbered accordingly. (Again, view the source on this talk page to see proper text to add.)

| rowstyle30 = | header30= | label31 = | data31 = | label32 = | data32 = | label33 = | data33 = | label34 = | data34 = | label35 = | data35 = | label36 = | data36 = | label37 = | data37 =

Thanks NatureBoyMD (talk) 17:27, 7 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:29, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

Edit Request
Shouldn't the word "debut" be capitalized? Troutfarm27 (Talk) 23:20, 5 August 2020 (UTC)
 * No, headings are in sentence case. isaacl (talk) 23:33, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

Add custom class name to the Medals heading
Is it possible to add a specific class to the Medals heading so it will be possible to intercept this block in mobileapps? We need this to prevent issues with dark/black themes for iOS/Android. To reproduce the issue go to https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Francisco_Lindor?theme=dark and check Medals heading. Additional details - https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T284327 VadimKovalenkoSNF (talk) 07:47, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

Short description issue
Hi there! I noticed that Noah Syndergaard contains both Category:Short description matches Wikidata AND Category:Short description is different from Wikidata, which seems odd. Turns out the short description "American baseball player" at the top of the article matches Wikidata, while the embedded short description of "Baseball player" does not. Can the infobox be adjusted so it doesn't generate the short description (and doesn't generate the category) in cases like this where the embedded short description is overruled by the short description template? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 00:54, 2 June 2022 (UTC)


 * Doesn't seem to be an issue specific to Infobox baseball biography - seems more of an short description issue. Not sure how fixable this is either since it's hard to know if the short description is overridden. Galobtter (pingó mió) 00:59, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

DMY format
Request for the infobox to include dmy formatting for dates. &mdash;Jonny Nixon (talk) 21:37, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 7 August 2022
Add a parameter D. Benjamin Miller (talk) 19:54, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what parameter you want added or what benefit it would provide. Please add a complete and specific description of your request, and then change the yes parameter to no so your request can be reconsidered.  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 20:36, 7 August 2022 (UTC)


 * D'oh, I don't know how what I wrote didn't get posted. Must have accidentally pressed cut. I want to add a parameter "pasttense" which, when filled with anything, will force the bats/throws data to be past tense (appropriate for individuals who never played a major league game and who are not dead, e.g., coaches etc.) --- but which will not show its contents.


 * data6 =

D. Benjamin Miller (talk) 20:41, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ * Pppery * it has begun... 23:49, 14 August 2022 (UTC)

Listed Teams in Infobox
Do I add teams from the Dominican Professional Baseball League to the infoboxes of players? It is a winter league, but it is also the highest level of baseball in the Dominican Republic.

Could all the specific leagues of the teams that should be listed be mentioned in the template's page in order to avoid confusion. Batgirl-Awsomeness (talk) 11:56, 23 March 2023 (UTC)


 * WP:BASESTYLEPL lists some leagues. If you still have questions, you might get a wider audience at WT:BASEBALL.  Best.—Bagumba (talk) 12:05, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Just saw this now, thanks for the help @Bagumba Batgirl-Awsomeness (talk) 23:18, 13 May 2023 (UTC)