View the history of baseball through these graphs. Use the dropdown menus below to select any year from 1901 onwards and any league to see how teams compared within that season. The first graph shows how runs scored and allowed lead to wins (and losses). The second graph shows how runs scored are related to getting on base and slugging. The third shows how runs allowed are related to pitching and fielding.
As you travel through time, you'll see what made the great teams great, the bad teams bad and just how lucky some teams can be. Pro tips: Once you've selected a year and league, scroll down to the graphs and then just hit the Up and Down arrows to watch the graphs change from year to year. And hover over each data point for more info.
There are only two years of Federal League graphs, of course--1914 and 1915. The underlying data is courtesy of the Lahman database and the code was written by Claude.
Better teams (upper right) score more and allow fewer runs
Win% lines of .400, .500 and .600 are based on the Pythagorean Formula
Hover over a data point to see the number of games won by each team
Dotted lines represent league averages for the selected year
Hover over a data point to see the number of runs scored by each team
Better pitching teams are on the right; better fielding teams are near the top
Dotted lines represent league averages for the selected year
Hover over a data point to see the number of runs allowed by each team