Saturday, April 5, 2014

Greatest Baseball Players By State

From looking at my all-time "regional teams" for the 30 MLB teams, I asked myself, "All right, who's the greatest player from each State?"

One more time: It's not necessarily where they were born that matters, it's where they grew up and were trained to play baseball.

Alabama: Willie Mays. (Sorry, Hank.)
Alaska: Chad Bentz. (Curt Schilling qualifies for Arizona.)
Arizona: Jim Palmer (Better pitcher than Schilling.)
Arkansas: Brooks Robinson.
California: Joe DiMaggio. (Sorry, Jackie AND Frank Robinson.)
Colorado: Goose Gossage.
Connecticut: Jeff Bagwell.
Delaware: Judy Johnson.
District of Columbia: Maury Wills.
Florida: Steve Carlton. (Not sorry, A-Rod: You cheated.)
Georgia: Ty Cobb.
Hawaii: Shane Victorino.
Idaho: Harmon Killebrew.
Illinois: Robin Roberts. (Sorry, Lou Boudreau.)
Indiana: Gil Hodges.
Iowa: Bob Feller.
Kansas: Walter Johnson.
Kentucky: Jim Bunning.
Louisiana: Lou Brock.
Maine: George Gore.
Maryland: Babe Ruth.
Massachusetts: Mickey Cochrane.
Michigan: Charlie Gehringer. (Sorry, Derek.)
Minnesota: Dave Winfield. (Sorry, Paul Molitor.)
Mississippi: Frank White.
Missouri: Yogi Berra.
Montana: Dave McNally.
Nebraska: Grover Cleveland Alexander. (Sorry, Bob Gibson.)
Nevada: Greg Maddux.
New Hampshire: Carlton Fisk.
New Jersey: Joe Medwick. (Sorry, Larry Doby and Monte Irvin.)
New Mexico: Duane Ward.
New York: Lou Gehrig.
North Carolina: Hoyt Wilhelm.
North Dakota: Roger Maris.
Ohio: Cy Young.
Oklahoma: Mickey Mantle. (Yes, Johnny Bench, better than you.)
Oregon: Johnny Pesky.
Pennsylvania: Honus Wagner. (Sorry, Reggie.)
Rhode Island: Nap Lajoie. (Sorry, Gabby Hartnett -- also from Woonsocket.)
South Carolina: Shoeless Joe Jackson.
South Dakota: Dave Collins.
Tennessee: Todd Helton.
Texas: Tris Speaker.
Utah: Chris Shelton.
Vermont: Ray Fisher. (Carlton Fisk qualifies for New Hampshire.)
Virginia: Jim Lemon.
Washington: Ryne Sandberg.
West Virginia: Jesse Burkett.
Wisconsin: Al Simmons.
Wyoming: Tom Browning.

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