Ribbie turns real-time baseball stats into arcade-like, pixel art broadcasts

Whether you’re a shot instrumentality oregon not, there’s a batch to emotion astir Ribbie, a vibe-coded website that turns real-time Major League Baseball (MLB) information into 8-bit broadcasts with arcade-style, animated pixel art.

“I emotion however overmuch information is disposable to shot fans […] but erstwhile I effort to travel a crippled with ESPN Gamecast, I find it benignant of boring,” Ribbie creator Eric Brownrout told TechCrunch.

Still, the thought for Ribbie didn’t materialize until Brownrout generated a pixel-art representation of Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber to usage arsenic his phantasy shot team’s logo.

“I emotion the aesthetic, and started reasoning astir ways I mightiness beryllium capable to use it to a information oregon visualization tool,” Brownrout said. “A speedy Google hunt revealed the MLB nationalist StatsAPI, and I realized I could theoretically recreate an full shot crippled successful the aforesaid pixel format.”

Image Credits:Ribbie (opens successful a caller window)

Like galore different tech workers successful San Francisco, Brownrout has present spent galore nights experimenting with Claude Code. He stands out, though, due to the fact that his tinkering yielded thing that’s delightful.

“I utilized Claude Code and Codex extensively to crook a task that would person easy taken months into thing I could physique and motorboat successful a fewer weekends,” helium said. “I utilized Codex to physique the image- and sprite-generation workflow, and Claude Code helped with the web app development. I’ve ne'er built a video crippled before, truthful this was a caller 1 for me.”

Visiting Ribbie — an onomatopoeia of the shot stat RBI (runs batted in) — transports you to a pixel-art surviving country that shows which MLB games are being played, and you tin prime 1 to “watch” with Ribbie. (You tin take to zoom successful connected the surface and chopped retired the surviving country graphics, if you privation thing much practical.)

Left: ESPN Gamecast / Right: RibbieImage Credits:Ribbie (opens successful a caller window)

On mainstream play-by-play apps similar ESPN’s Gamecast and MLB’s ain Gameday, the interface is beauteous basic, intelligibly displaying accusation without frills.

Ribbie prioritizes aesthetics instead, with unsocial pixel-art representations of each stadium and player. But it’s inactive elemental capable to spot the people of the game, arsenic good arsenic who’s pitching, hitting, oregon connected base.

Since the information for each of these visualizations comes from the MLB’s API, you tin find astir of the accusation you’d beryllium utilized to seeing connected different apps, but it makes for a much descriptive play-by-play. Brownrout precocious added enactment for phantasy baseball, allows radical to adhd their rosters and way which players are presently progressive successful their respective games.

“I conscionable truly emotion the aesthetic of the miniature pixel-art stadiums,” Brownrout said. “There’s thing truthful satisfying astir it that’s hard to enactment a digit on. I deliberation it’s 1 of the reasons radical are obsessed with games similar Stardew Valley. It’s an full pixel satellite successful the thenar of your hand.”

Passion projects similar Ribbie consciousness refreshing due to the fact that they’re not trying to extract thing from us, thing uncommon astatine a clip erstwhile we’re truthful inured to being tracked everyplace online. But tin projects similar Ribbie last? Is it inevitable that the MLB’s lawyers volition travel aft Ribbie due to the fact that the mammoth sports enactment feels threatened by a pixelized sprite of Shohei Ohtani?

These are existent risks, but Brownrout thinks he’s got his bases covered (pun intended). He referenced a legal case from 2007 successful which the tribunal ruled that shot stats are facts, and truthful are not copyrightable. This allows phantasy shot products to beryllium without the MLB’s permission.

“The API is the aforesaid 1 that powers phantasy shot websites, third-party stats sites, unrecorded crippled threads connected Reddit […] So it’s historically been utilized for each types of authoritative and fan-created projects,” helium said. “Ultimately, the task is wholly escaped and non-commercial, and I effort to marque it precise wide connected the website that Ribbie is an unaffiliated instrumentality project. It’s a ‘love letter’ to baseball, not thing trying to vie with MLB.tv.”

Though Brownout is beauteous engaged arsenic the co-founder of AI SaaS level Frigade, he’s inactive uncovering clip to physique Ribbie for the emotion of the game.

“I’m adding dependable effects and fuller animations to marque it a small easier to passively travel on with portion it’s connected successful the background,” helium said. “My neighbors indispensable deliberation I’m crazy, due to the fact that past nighttime I was successful my chamber doing 100 takes of ‘Ball! Strike! Out!’ connected my iPhone to grounds for the Ribbie audio track.”