Whether you\u2019re a baseball fan or not, there\u2019s a lot to love about Ribbie<\/a>, a vibe-coded website that turns real-time Major League Baseball (MLB) data into 8-bit broadcasts with arcade-style, animated pixel art.<\/p>\n \u201cI love how much data is available to baseball fans [\u2026] but when I try to follow a game with ESPN Gamecast, I find it kind of boring,\u201d Ribbie creator Eric Brownrout<\/a> told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Still, the idea for Ribbie didn\u2019t materialize until Brownrout generated a pixel-art image of Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber to use as his fantasy baseball team\u2019s logo.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the aesthetic, and started thinking about ways I might be able to apply it to a data or visualization tool,\u201d Brownrout said. \u201cA quick Google search revealed the MLB public StatsAPI, and I realized I could theoretically recreate an entire baseball game in the same pixel format.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many other tech workers in San Francisco, Brownrout has now spent many nights experimenting with Claude Code<\/a>. He stands out, though, because his tinkering yielded something that\u2019s delightful.<\/p>\n \u201cI used Claude Code and Codex extensively to turn a project that would have easily taken months into something I could build and launch in a few weekends,\u201d he said. \u201cI used Codex to build the\u00a0image- and sprite-generation workflow, and Claude Code helped with the web app development. I\u2019ve never built a video game before, so this was a new one for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Visiting Ribbie \u2014 an onomatopoeia of the baseball stat RBI (runs batted in) \u2014 transports you to a pixel-art living room that shows which MLB games are being played, and you can select one to \u201cwatch\u201d with Ribbie. (You can choose to zoom in on the screen and cut out the living room graphics, if you want something more practical.)<\/p>\n On mainstream play-by-play apps like ESPN\u2019s Gamecast and MLB\u2019s own Gameday, the interface is pretty basic, clearly displaying information without frills. <\/p>\n Ribbie prioritizes aesthetics instead, with unique pixel-art representations of every stadium and player. But it\u2019s still simple enough to see the score of the game, as well as who\u2019s pitching, hitting, or on base. <\/p>\n Because the data for all of these visualizations comes from the MLB\u2019s API, you can find most of the information you\u2019d be used to seeing on other apps, but it makes for a more descriptive play-by-play. Brownrout recently added support for fantasy baseball, which allows people to add their rosters and track which players are currently active in their respective games.<\/p>\n \u201cI just really love the aesthetic of the miniature pixel-art stadiums,\u201d Brownrout said. \u201cThere\u2019s something so satisfying about it that\u2019s hard to put a finger on. I think it\u2019s one of the reasons people are obsessed with games like Stardew Valley. It\u2019s an entire pixel world in the palm of your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n Passion projects like Ribbie feel refreshing because they\u2019re not trying to extract anything from us, something rare at a time when we\u2019re so inured to being tracked everywhere online. But can projects like Ribbie last? Is it inevitable that the MLB\u2019s lawyers will come after Ribbie because the mammoth sports organization feels threatened by a pixelized sprite of Shohei Ohtani?<\/p>\n These are real risks, but Brownrout thinks he\u2019s got his bases covered (pun intended). He referenced a legal case<\/a> from 2007 in which the court ruled that baseball stats are facts, and therefore are not copyrightable. This allows fantasy baseball products to exist without the MLB\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n \u201cThe API is the same one that powers fantasy baseball websites, third-party stats sites, live game threads on Reddit [\u2026] So it\u2019s historically been used for all types of official and fan-created projects,\u201d he said. \u201cUltimately, the project is completely free and non-commercial, and I try to make it very clear on the website that Ribbie is an unaffiliated fan project. It\u2019s a \u2018love letter\u2019 to baseball, not something trying to compete with MLB.tv.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Brownout is pretty busy as the co-founder of AI SaaS platform Frigade, he\u2019s still finding time to build Ribbie for the love of the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m adding sound effects and fuller animations to make it a little easier to passively follow along with while it\u2019s on in the background,\u201d he said. \u201cMy neighbors must think I\u2019m crazy, because last night I was in my bedroom doing 100 takes of \u2018Ball! Strike! Out!\u2019 on my iPhone to record for the Ribbie audio track.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ribbie-gamecast-2026-06-22-at-9.16.08-PM.jpg?w=680\")