Retrosheet Event Files

Play-by-Play Data Files (Event Files)

See notices about use and limitations of data

Detailed Description of the event files, including scoring codes and many examples (many thanks to John Jarvis)
How to use Our Event Files (all three have the same information)
Step-by-Step Example
Player, Manager, Coach, Umpire IDs
Ballpark Codes (for "info,site" record type)
Hit Location Diagram
Software Tools

All event files have been updated as of June 25, 2008. For 1872 and 1874 there are no event files, only box score event files (see note 1 below).

                                1872NA                          1874NA

                        1911NL
                        1921NL          1922NL  

                                                        1953NL  1954AL  1954NL  
1955AL  1955NL  1956AL  1956NL  1957AL  1957NL  1958AL  1958NL  1959AL  1959NL
1960AL  1960NL  1961AL  1961NL  1962AL  1962NL  1963AL  1963NL  1964AL  1964NL
1965AL  1965NL  1966AL  1966NL  1967AL  1967NL  1968AL  1968NL  1969AL  1969NL
1970AL  1970NL  1971AL  1971NL  1972AL  1972NL  1973AL  1973NL  1974AL  1974NL
1975AL  1975NL  1976AL  1976NL  1977AL  1977NL  1978AL  1978NL  1979AL  1979NL
1980AL  1980NL  1981AL  1981NL  1982AL  1982NL  1983AL  1983NL  1984AL  1984NL
1985AL  1985NL  1986AL  1986NL  1987AL  1987NL  1988AL  1988NL  1989AL  1989NL
1990AL  1990NL  1991AL  1991NL  1992AL  1992NL  1993AL  1993NL  1994AL  1994NL
1995AL  1995NL  1996AL  1996NL  1997ML          1998ML          1999ML
2000ML          2001ML          2002ML          2003ML          2004ML
2005ML          2006ML          2007ML

Notes

Event files for most seasons prior to 1974 are each missing a few games. For a list of the games that are missing (although some of them are in the event files with some innings reconstructed based on a partial game account and box score) see the Most Wanted List. Games in these years that are not included the play-by-play event files are available in a separate file in the format of "box score event files" that include the data available in box scores. See Box Score Event Files for details.
The individual team archive files for each season 1996 and earlier contain a single event file with all the games for that team. The file name is of the form "ALLBAL71.EVX". This file also contains the team file for that season and all the necessary roster files. The archive files for an entire league contain separate zip archives for each team's home games, so each game will appear in exactly one file. The file extentions distinguish between files that contain all games for a single team (.EVX) and those that contain all the home games for a team (.EVA, .EVN depending on league).
For seasons starting in 1997, there are no separate league files. The advent of interleague play has changed the logic of how the games are presented here. Therefore, the downloading option is "All Major League Games" for these seasons. That archive has all .EVA and all .EVN files plus all rosters and team the team file. Individual teams may still be downloaded and the .EVX file for each team has all of its games in addition to all the rosters for all teams and the team file
Event files for post-season games are contained elsewhere on this site.

NOTICES

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Page Updated: 6/25/2008