The Protoball Project

The Protoball Project (also listed as Project Protoball) is a research project run by SABR that began in the early 2000s. Protoball began as the result of researchers John Thorn and Tom Heitz attempting to assemble a large chronological history of early baseball-like games and was created to help keep things tidy and to collect and document the early origins of the game of baseball as well as ancient games that may have been an inspiration for the game of baseball we know today. In 2012 protoball.org was launched by Dave Anderson and run by Larry McCray until his death in 2023. The site is currently run by Bruce Allardice and is primarily maintained by him as well as Richard Hershberger, David Block, and a few others.

The Protoball database contains information on thousands of pre-MLB teams, players, games, ballparks, and more. They also have a sub-section on their website dedicated to thousands of pre and post 1871 newspaper clippings, a project started by Hershberger, and maintained by him and Cody Bellés.