Sportsinator is a site for people who don't follow sports but find themselves in conversations where others do. A few sentences of context per game, a handful of things to say, and you can hold up your end of a five-minute exchange at the office, the bar, or the family table without anyone noticing.

The reference

It's named after, and inspired by, the IT Crowd episode Are We Not Men? (Series 3, Episode 4, 2008), in which Moss discovers a website called bluffball.co.uk and uses it to talk convincingly about sports with the postman. The site reads out terms like "have you been listening to the matches" in a calm, instructive voice. We've built the calm, instructive voice.

What's here

Twice a day, a small program walks ESPN's public schedule for ten leagues — NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NCAA football and basketball (men's and women's), MLS, Premier League, and the WNBA — and produces a cheat sheet for every recent and upcoming game. Each one has a short summary, a few quotable lines, and a slightly longer recap or preview if you want to sound more committed. The archive keeps the bound back-issues going as far as the database has data.

What's not here

Live play-by-play. Standings tables. Power rankings. Fantasy advice. Betting lines. Anything that requires you to already care. If you want comprehensive sports coverage, ESPN is two clicks away and very good at it. This site competes only on the small patch of ground between not caring and needing to sound like you do.

Made by one person, on a Bun server in a closet, fronted by a Cloudflare Worker. Not affiliated with The IT Crowd, ESPN, or any league mentioned above. The cream paper, deep ink, and racing-red accent are deliberate — almanacs deserve to look like almanacs.