# Manipulating the search function at \*sport\*-reference.com

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manipulating-the-search-function-at-sport-reference-com/655057>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [April 7, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manipulating-the-search-function-at-sport-reference-com/655057 "2013-04-07T05:02:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manipulating-the-search-function-at-sport-reference-com/655057/1 "2013-04-07T05:02:18Z")

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The major sports have a domain (sport)-reference.com. How do you manipulate the parameters of the search?

At MLB’s I want to see the stat leaders as of 1899.

At NBA’s, I’m looking for anyone with a better FG% than FT%.

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**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manipulating-the-search-function-at-sport-reference-com/655057/2 "2013-04-07T13:37:15Z")

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Those are very different requests. I’d suggest looking around a bit more at what the various options are for displaying data at each of those sites, because there’s a lot going on to get your head around, and you can’t do basically anything from the general site search.

To answer your specific questions, what you’re looking for at baseball-ref are the leaderboards called “Progressive.” They’ll have the career leader for each statistical category year-by-year.

For the NBA question, and probably for the best answer to your question generally, you need to use the “Play Index / Season Finder,” which is a pretty sophisticated tool, considering that it’s free. [Like so.](http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=combined&type=totals&per_minute_base=36&lg_id=NBA&is_playoffs=N&year_min=&year_max=&franch_id=&season_start=1&season_end=-1&age_min=0&age_max=99&height_min=0&height_max=99&birth_country_is=Y&birth_country=&is_active=&is_hof=&is_as=&as_comp=gt&as_val=&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_gf=Y&pos_is_f=Y&pos_is_fg=Y&pos_is_fc=Y&pos_is_c=Y&pos_is_cf=Y&qual=&c1stat=&c1comp=gt&c1val=&c2stat=&c2comp=gt&c2val=&c3stat=&c3comp=gt&c3val=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&c5stat=fg_pct&c5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=ft_pct&order_by=ws)

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**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manipulating-the-search-function-at-sport-reference-com/655057/3 "2013-04-07T18:35:06Z")

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TY for the NBA answer! The top 2 were exactly who I suspected they’d be. 😃

For the MLB one, I meant career leaders. (is it possible to find that? ESPN wasn’t helpful)

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**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manipulating-the-search-function-at-sport-reference-com/655057/4 "2013-04-07T18:44:13Z")

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The progressive leaderboards I referred to are career leaderboards.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manipulating-the-search-function-at-sport-reference-com/655057/5 "2013-04-07T19:08:56Z")

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**Jimmy** -Thanks! I was better at explaining what I was looking for than I thought. 😃 BTW, Cy Young has been the winningest pitcher since 1903! :eek: