led-ticker-baseball

MLB scores, standings, promotions, Statcast, and attendance widgets, a rolling-baseball sprite transition, and a :baseball.ball: emoji for led-ticker. Live game data comes from MLB's free StatsAPI — no API key required.

Screenshots

The :baseball.ball: emoji (8×8 and the 32×32 hi-res upgrade on bigsign):

Prerequisites

• A working led-ticker install.
• Internet access on the Pi (the widgets call MLB's free StatsAPI; no API key needed).

Install

This plugin auto-registers via the led_ticker.plugins entry point — once the package is installed, no [plugins] config change is needed.

Into a containerized led-ticker (recommended): the plugin is already listed in config/requirements-plugins.example.txt. Copy that to the live file and rebuild:

# in your led-ticker checkout
cp config/requirements-plugins.example.txt config/requirements-plugins.txt
docker compose up -d --build

That example file lists every first-party plugin — trim the live copy to just the ones you want. The baseball line is:

led-ticker-baseball

Standalone (a venv that already has led-ticker):

pip install led-ticker-baseball

See the led-ticker Plugins docs for the constraint-based install the Docker image uses.

Once installed, the baseball.scores / baseball.standings / baseball.promotions / baseball.statcast / baseball.attendance widgets, the baseball.roll* transitions, and the :baseball.ball: emoji are available automatically.

Widgets

Each widget below is a [[playlist.section.widget]] block you add inside a playlist section of your config/config.toml. New to led-ticker configs? The first-config tutorial walks through the overall structure — the blocks here show just the baseball-specific keys.

baseball.scores

Fetches live game state for a tracked team and renders its current series. Three layouts:

• layout = "ticker" (default) — a scrolling line. Pre-game NYY @ BOS Today 7:05 PM; live NYY 3 BOS 5 ▲6 ◇◆◇ 1·2·1 (score + inning + bases + balls·strikes·outs in color); final NYY 4 BOS 5 (Final) (win green, loss red); postponed NYY @ BOS (PPD: Rain). Spring Training / All-Star games append (ST) / (ASG).
• layout = "scoreboard" — a two-column board for bigsign/longboi: away name+score left, home name+score right, center zone shows inning+outs (top) and B/S count + base diamonds (bottom). Names in brand colors; scores green/red on final; base diamonds yellow (occupied) / dim grey (empty). ABS-challenge dashes appear in the bottom corners when active.
• layout = "two_row" — a held top band (series title) over a scrolling bottom band (the per-game line). Use the top_* font options below to size the top band; sized for bigsign.

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.scores"
team = "NYY"
timezone = "America/New_York"  # set to your local timezone

team is the only required field — everything below is optional tuning.

top_* options apply only with layout = "two_row" — the widget rejects them at config-load under other layouts.

baseball.standings

Fetches overall MLB standings and scrolls them as rank. TeamName W-L GB, each name in its brand color. Shows the top-N plus any tracked teams not already in that list. Offseason-aware: before the season starts it shows Opens Mar 27; between the World Series and Spring Training it keeps the prior final standings.

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.standings"
teams = ["NYY", "BOS"]

teams is the only required field — everything below is optional.

baseball.promotions

Upcoming home-game promotions — giveaways and theme nights, e.g. the Blue Jays' Loonie Dogs Night — for a tracked team, from the schedule API's promotions feed. Shows today's promos when there's a home game today, otherwise the next home game's, one scrolling line per promo led by the team abbreviation in its brand color, with a grey date prefix: TOR Jun 22 · Retro Domer Hat Giveaway. Sponsor tails ("presented by …") are stripped, and near-duplicate feed entries are collapsed. Promos matching highlight render in amber and sort first.

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.promotions"
team = "TOR"
highlight = ["Loonie Dogs"]

team is the only required field — everything below is optional tuning.

With nothing to show, the widget falls back to a team-prefixed Next home game: Jun 22 (promo-free homestand), No home games soon (road trip), or Opens <date> / Opens soon (offseason).

baseball.statcast

League-wide daily Statcast superlatives — the longest home run, hardest-hit ball, and fastest/slowest pitch across all of MLB — or, with a team set, the same superlatives scoped to that team's own players. Re-derived through the day as games progress. One scrolling line per stat with the value in amber and the record holder's team abbreviation in its brand color: Today · Longest HR 463 ft — Butler OAK. Mornings fall back to yesterday's finals, labeled with the short date (6/12 · …). Data comes from Baseball Savant's day CSV (an undocumented endpoint — the widget refreshes at a polite default cadence and skips the pull entirely when no games are live or newly final).

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.statcast"

No required fields — everything below is optional tuning.

The slowest-pitch line appends the pitch name when known (69.6 mph (Slow Curve)) — that's where the eephus and position-player pitching comedy lives. With no Statcast data for today or yesterday, the widget falls back to Next games: Mar 26 (offseason) or No games soon; a fetch failure shows No Data.

With a team set, lines lead with the team abbreviation in its brand color and drop the (now-redundant) trailing one: PHI Today · Longest HR 472 ft — Schwarber. The off-day fallback then names the team's next game (Next game: Jun 20) rather than the league slate.

baseball.attendance

Ballpark attendance and conditions. Two modes, chosen by whether you set a team:

• League-wide (no team): the day's attendance superlatives — Today · Biggest crowd 45,123 — Dodger Stadium, plus smallest crowd and fullest/emptiest park by capacity %. Venue name in the home team's brand color.
• Team (team set): that team's game — TOR · Rogers Centre 41,212 (90%) · 72° Clear, wind 5 mph, In From CF. Attendance and fill % appear once the game is final; venue and weather show before that.

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.attendance"
# team = "TOR"   # set for team mode; omit for league-wide

No required fields — everything is optional tuning.

Fill % is omitted when a venue lists no capacity (spring sites). With nothing final yet, the widget shows yesterday's data (short-date labeled, e.g. 6/12 · …); with no games at all it shows Next game: Jun 20 (team) / Next games: Jun 20 (league); a fetch failure shows No Data.

Common patterns

Recipes that combine the widgets above. Each block shows just the baseball-specific keys — drop the widgets into a playlist section of your config/config.toml (see the first-config tutorial for the surrounding structure).

My-team dashboard

One team across every widget, rotating with the rolling-baseball transition.

[[playlist.section]]
mode = "slideshow"
transition = "baseball.roll_alternating"
hold_time = 8

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.scores"
team = "TOR"

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.standings"
teams = ["TOR"]

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.promotions"
team = "TOR"

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.attendance"
team = "TOR"

Shows your team's current series, its place in the standings, its next home-game promotions, and the crowd and conditions at its game.

League roundup

League-wide daily superlatives — omit team and both widgets run in league mode.

[[playlist.section]]
mode = "slideshow"
hold_time = 8
scroll_step_ms = 35

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.statcast"

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.attendance"

Shows the day's longest home run, hardest-hit ball, and fastest and slowest pitch, then the biggest and smallest crowd and the fullest and emptiest park across all of MLB.

Gameday ticker

A minimal single-team scrolling line.

[[playlist.section]]
mode = "slideshow"
hold_time = 6

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "baseball.scores"
team = "NYY"

Shows just the tracked team's live, final, or upcoming game line.

Shared knobs

• Every widget accepts the standard title, font, font_color, bg_color, padding, and timezone options — see each widget's table above.
• Put :baseball.ball: in a [playlist.section.title] message for a themed header.
• Pacing is tuned with hold_time (dwell before and after a line) and scroll_step_ms (scroll cadence — lower is faster). These are led-ticker section settings, not plugin options; they control how an overflowing line (common in the statcast, attendance, and promotions widgets) reads on the panel.

Team codes

All 30 teams (used by the scores, standings, promotions, statcast, and attendance widgets):

ARI D-backs · ATL Braves · BAL Orioles · BOS Red Sox · CHC Cubs · CIN Reds · CLE Guardians · COL Rockies · CWS White Sox · DET Tigers · HOU Astros · KC Royals · LAA Angels · LAD Dodgers · MIA Marlins · MIL Brewers · MIN Twins · NYM Mets · NYY Yankees · OAK Athletics · PHI Phillies · PIT Pirates · SD Padres · SEA Mariners · SF Giants · STL Cardinals · TB Rays · TEX Rangers · TOR Blue Jays · WSH Nationals

Transition

A rolling-baseball sprite transition, registered in three directions:

transition = "baseball.roll"              # left-to-right
# transition = "baseball.roll_reverse"     # right-to-left
# transition = "baseball.roll_alternating" # alternates each use

On a bigsign panel (default_scale > 1) the transition automatically renders a hi-res procedurally-rotated ball; on a smallsign it uses the 8-frame lo-res sprite.

Emoji

:baseball.ball: — a white ball with red stitching. Use it inline in any text-bearing widget:

[[playlist.section.widget]]
type = "message"
text = ":baseball.ball: Play ball!"

It renders as an 8×8 sprite, auto-upgrading to a 32×32 hi-res sprite on bigsign.

Development

Install dev deps and run the checks:

uv sync --extra dev      # resolves led-ticker-core from PyPI
uv run pytest -q
uv run ruff check src tests

The plugin imports only the public led_ticker.plugin surface — tests/test_import_purity.py enforces it.

Links

• led-ticker — the core project
• Docs site · Plugin system