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Ranking every state in the U.S. based on its baseball background
By Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writers
It has been an unusual offseason, to say the least, as the lockout has completely muted the hot stove activity we normally see from December to February. With no transactions to speak of, we took on a labor of love/impossible task: ranking all 50 states according to ... baseball.
Before you dive into the rankings and get angry about how low we put your state, please consider our methodology. Obviously, there’s no perfect or objective way to produce a list such as this, but we did our best to consider a huge range of baseball-related factors when comparing states. We didn’t want this to be a ranking of the states that have produced the most WAR or won the most World Series titles; instead, we tried to incorporate as many elements as possible.
What makes a state a baseball state? Here are the things we looked at:
* MLB production: How many MLB players has a state produced? Who are the best players born in the state? How many Hall of Famers hail from the state? How many players born in the state appeared in MLB in 2021?
* Cultural impact: How have happenings in a state or figures associated with a state influenced baseball history? What notable baseball-related sites, ballparks, leagues or annual baseball events exist in the state? How big of a deal is baseball to the state’s residents?
* Pro teams: How many MLB teams does a state have? How many affiliated MiLB teams does the state have? How many independent league teams does the state have?
* Collegiate teams: How many collegiate baseball programs are in a state, including four-year universities and junior colleges (Division I, Div. II, Div. III, NAIA, NJCAA Div. I, NJCAA Div. II, NJCAA Div. III), as well as summer collegiate leagues such as the Northwoods and Cape Cod Leagues?
There’s naturally a bit of a bias toward more populous states. States with more people have more baseball teams, more baseball players, more baseball stadiums, etc. We did take per capita numbers into account from time to time, but it shouldn’t shock you that the states at the top of our list tend to have a ton of people. (No, Delaware is not No. 1).
One more note before we begin: When crediting states with producing MLB players, we tried to focus on those who were born and raised in a state. That said, it’s important to know that the raw numbers listed in each graphic are based on birthplace according to baseball-reference.
In turn, there are some high-profile players who are officially counted for one state despite really growing up in another. For example, Derek Jeter, who was born in New Jersey but raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is counted as one of New Jersey’s four Hall of Famers, not Michigan’s. Determining at what age a player moved to a state and where each player is truly "from" would have been an impossible and fruitless exercise.
One final, final note: As you’ll notice, neither the District of Columbia nor Puerto Rico is on the list. They were on versions of this list at one time or another, but in the end, we decided to leave them off because, well, this is a list of states, and they aren’t states (even if they probably should be). D.C. might have fallen somewhere in the high teens or low 20s, while Puerto Rico would have pushed for a spot in the back half of the top 10.
Now let’s rank the states according to baseball!
50. Wyoming
Incredibly, the least populous state in the country is not one of the four states (Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont) lacking a single player born within its borders who appeared in the major leagues in 2021. That’s because Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo hails from the capital city of Cheyenne.
Although there is no official high school baseball in Wyoming, Nimmo grew up competing in a strong American Legion program, one that also produced former big leaguers Mike Devereaux and Mike Lansing. Nimmo’s play in Legion ball was outstanding enough to earn invites to the high-profile amateur showcases during his senior year and impressed the Mets enough for them to select him 13th overall in the 2011 draft.
Nimmo’s remarkable success story is arguably worthy of saving his home state from being last, but the state’s lack of organized baseball forced us to put Wyoming at No. 50. There is no college or junior college baseball in the spring. The University of Wyoming hasn’t sponsored baseball since 1996. There are no professional teams.
From 2001 to 2011, the Rockies had a minor-league affiliate in Casper before it was relocated to Grand Junction, Colorado. Since 2018, the Casper Horseheads, a summer collegiate team, have competed where the Ghosts used to play (at Mike Lansing Field, of course), so that’s at least one formally organized ballclub. But other than that, there just ain’t much.
49. South Dakota
South Dakota barely edges Wyoming on the basis of having a Division I baseball program with an elite mascot (South Dakota State Jackrabbits) and an independent league team (Sioux Falls Canaries of the American Association) that has been around for nearly 30 years.
The state also produced 12-year MLB super-utilityman Mark Ellis, one of the more underrated members of the 2002 Moneyball A’s.
48. Vermont
Bernie Sanders tried his best. In 2019, when MLB announced its intention to downsize Minor League Baseball, Vermont’s most famous political figure pushed back. The Vermont Lake Monsters, a team Sanders himself helped recruit when he was mayor of Burlington in the 1980s, were on the chopping block. Unfortunately, the senator’s pleas went unheard, and the Lake Monsters (and 41 other teams across the nation) were booted from affiliated baseball.
Today, the Lake Monsters live on as a college summer team, but they’re one of just eight teams in the entire state. Catching a ballgame on a cool Vermont night in early August with a soft breeze coming off Lake Champlain sounds heavenly, but the dearth of high-level ball and the lack of notable big-league Vermonters pushed the state all the way down here.
47. Delaware
Because of how we define where players are from, there are some notable big leaguers who were born in one state but moved elsewhere at a young age. One of the more prominent examples is Paul Goldschmidt, who was born in Wilmington, Delaware, but whose family moved to Texas when Goldy was a toddler.
This is particularly notable because Goldschmidt is far and away the most accomplished Delawarean in MLB history (shout out to Delino DeShields, though), accounting for six of the 13 All-Star Game trips and roughly 20% of the all-time WAR accumulated by Delaware-born players. It’s not like Texas needs the help in its stats, so we’ll let Delaware have this one.
46. New Hampshire
Thank Vlad Jr. for pushing this state up a couple of spots. The New Hampshire FisherCats have an eternal place in niche baseball lore because, back in 2018, the Blue Jays’ Double-A squad had Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio on its roster. Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester catapulted to the forefront of the minor-league universe as The Vlad and Bo Show made headlines all summer.
Former Cardinals hurler Chris Carpenter is the most successful modern big leaguer from the Granite State and was the first New Hampshirite drafted in the first round. Beyond him, though, it’s slim pickings, which is why the ninth state in the nation ends up at No. 46 on our list.
45. Rhode Island
This one is kind of a bummer. For more than 45 years, Rhode Island was home to one of the more beloved minor-league teams, the Pawtucket Red Sox, until a combination of greed and bureaucratic finagling led to the team’s relocation to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2021. The PawSox were a Rhode Island cornerstone, the only professional ballclub in the nation’s smallest state.
Providence’s rich 19th-century baseball history (1884 champs!), the handful of beloved local big leaguers (current Twins skipper Rocco Baldelli, aka the Woonsocket Rocket) and the state’s plethora of small college programs keep it from the absolute bottom of our list, but the lack of a pro team pushes it into the mid 40s.
44. Maine
The Portland Sea Dogs carry the load here, as Boston’s Double-A affiliate is an immensely popular destination for baseball fans in the northernmost part of New England. Over the years, Portland has seen countless Red Sox stars pass through on their minor-league journeys. The Sea Dogs are just about the only show in town, though. That, combined with a staggeringly low number of big leaguers produced this century, especially, puts Maine near the bottom of the list.
Utility star and current Padres quality control coach Ryan Flaherty is the most recent native Mainer to reach MLB. Ryan’s dad, Ed, has won more than 1,000 games in 36 years as head coach at the University of Southern Maine, a perennial Division III powerhouse. Other than that, though, there isn't much Maine baseball to brag about.
43. Utah
Only 42 Utah-born players have ever reached the big leagues, and those 42 have accounted for just one All-Star Game appearance, which came courtesy of Red Sox left-hander Bruce Hurst in 1987. That’s the fewest of any state in the country, trailing even North Dakota (two), Maine (two), Montana (three) and Wyoming (three).
There are, however, three things keeping Utah from being pushed any further down the rankings: 1) a Triple-A team in Salt Lake City for which Mike Trout played; 2) four Division I programs, which is more than states such as Arizona and Oklahoma can claim; and 3) absolutely spectacular backdrops at the ball fields.
42. North Dakota
By our numbers, North Dakota has more teams per capita than any other state in the nation, with 16 teams above the high school level for a population of fewer than 800,000 people. Longtime big-league slugger and Cleveland fan favorite Travis Hafner, aka Pronk, grew up on a farm outside of Sykeston, North Dakota (population: 105).
In a 2018 SABR article, Hafner reminisced about his early days: "I was hitting rocks all the time, even in the winter," he recalled. "I’d get in trouble because they were rolling over them with the lawnmower. … It was fun just to go out and hit rocks and pretend you were in World Series games."
41. Montana
One of the great tragedies of the recent shrinking of MiLB was the discontinuation of the historic Pioneer League as an affiliate. It still exists as an independent MLB partner league, but gone are the days when some of the game’s best prospects would head to Missoula for a couple of months and slug .700 in some of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in America.
Montana’s biggest MLB star to date is Billings-born-and-raised Dave McNally, a three-time All-Star left-hander who was part of the historic 1971 Baltimore Orioles starting rotation that featured not one, not two, not three but four 20-game winners.
40. West Virginia
Three years ago, the state had four affiliated minor-league teams: the West Virginia Black Bears, the Charleston Power, the Bluefield Blue Jays and the Princeton Rays. All four were bounced from MiLB before the 2021 season. Thankfully, there’s still a lot of baseball to watch, as Charleston joined the independent Atlantic League while the other three joined college summer leagues. There’s also a whopping 13 Division II baseball programs in this state.
One great thing about baseball in West Virginia is that they have a "guy." Former big leaguer Jedd Gyorko, who had a respectable yet unremarkable eight-year MLB career, is the West Virginia baseball dude. Born and raised in Morgantown, Gyorko was a star for his hometown West Virginia Mountaineers. In 2021, he managed the town’s MLB Draft League team, the West Virginia Blackbears. The club’s ballpark, Monongalia County Stadium, is located on Gyorko Drive. I’m sure one day he’ll manage the Mountaineers, too.
39. Idaho
As you’ll see throughout these rankings, we reward states that host any level of "World Series" at the amateur level, from the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to the Division I College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Somewhere in between those two events is the NAIA World Series, held annually in Lewiston, Idaho, to crown a champion in the premier four-year collegiate level outside the NCAA.
With no more affiliated minor-league ball and limited other college baseball, though, we can’t push Idaho higher than No. 39. And had it not given us the magnificent Harmon Killebrew and his 573 big-league big flies, the state might be even lower.
38. Alaska
It’s quite possible that you assumed Alaska would be No. 50 or at least close to it. But despite having produced the fewest big leaguers of any state (12) and obviously having zero professional teams, this state ranks here because of one thing: the Alaska Baseball League. This isn’t just any old summer league; there are dozens of collegiate summer leagues across the country, some of which, such as the Cape Cod League in Massachusetts, influenced the rankings.
But none of those leagues is quite as unique as the ABL. First, the list of players who have played in this league is legitimately staggering: Tom Seaver! Barry Bonds! Randy Johnson! Mark McGwire! Ever heard of those guys? Plus, the most prominent recent participant: some large gent named Aaron Judge in 2011.
Second, Alaska is also known for its iconic Midnight Sun Game, a special event each summer that begins at 10 p.m. local time with no lights because the sun doesn’t set for most of the summer in Fairbanks.
37. New Mexico
Albuquerque has the only team in the world half-named after a Simpsons episode. Sure, the Isotopes moniker has a little to do with the nuclear research and technology located in and around the city, but it’s really just a Simpsons joke, which you've got to respect.
The state has fascinating hardball history as well: Many of the mining towns that sprang up across New Mexico in the early 20th century established their own ballclubs and began playing one another. Oscar Huber Ballpark in the abandoned mining town of Madrid, New Mexico, was actually the first stadium west of the Mississippi to install lights. You can still visit it today.
36. Connecticut
Connecticut has produced some high-level players the past few decades — including Mo Vaughn, Jeff Bagwell and George Springer — but the state is best known as the battleground for MLB’s fiercest rivalry. As one drives north up the state on I-95, the car flags, bumper stickers and decals gradually shift from Yankees to Red Sox.
The center of the state, around Hartford (shoutout to the YardGoats), is where allegiances divide classrooms, offices, families and friend groups. People much smarter than us have attempted to draw the actual fandom border so a visitor will know where to bring up the 2003 ALCS and where to talk about the 2004 ALCS.
35. Kansas
Let’s talk about the National Baseball Congress World Series, which takes place every August in Wichita, Kansas. The NBCWS brings together 16 of the top semi-pro and collegiate summer teams from across the country to face off in one of the sport’s more unique settings.
In recent years, a team organized by Kansan Adam LaRoche and featuring a rotating group of former MLBers such as Chipper Jones, Jonny Gomes and David Ross has shown up to compete. It’s an event high on our personal bucket lists that draws big crowds for 10 days of high-energy baseballing delight.
34. Oregon
Oregon is the state that has produced the most major-leaguers (137) without a Hall of Famer, though two-time MVP Dale Murphy and World Series MVP Mickey Lolich are some pretty good players to sit atop any state’s all-time WAR leaderboard.
The state’s next best hope for Cooperstown hasn’t debuted yet, but it’s certainly an intriguing one: Sherwood-raised Adley Rutschman, who starred at Oregon State and is now arguably the top prospect in all of baseball for the Orioles.
Oregon’s ranking would also be boosted significantly if it one day lands an expansion team in Portland, which some are working hard to make happen.
33. Indiana
The state might always be known more for its hoops history, but don’t sleep on Indiana’s hardball reputation. From a historical standpoint, the Hoosier State has a pretty strong résumé. The first major-league game between Cleveland and Fort Wayne took place in Indiana on May 4, 1871. Nearly 50 years later, the first official Negro League game took place in the capital city between Indianapolis and Chicago.
Also, Indiana’s 10 Hall of Famers are ninth-most of any state, and that doesn’t include Scott Rolen, Kenny Lofton, Tommy John or Don Mattingly, all of whom have reasonable arguments for Cooperstown.
32. Kentucky
On the whole, Kentucky’s résumé as a baseball state looks pretty average. But it boasts one of the more obvious points in its favor in the cultural impact category: Kentucky is the birthplace of the iconic Louisville Slugger baseball bat, originally crafted by Hillerich & Bradsby Company for Louisville Eclipse star Pete Browning way back in 1884.
The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory opened in 1996, and you’ll certainly never miss it when driving past, thanks to the world's largest baseball bat outside the entrance.
31. South Carolina
The University of South Carolina Gamecocks are one of only six Division I teams that have won back-to-back national championships. They are also the most recent team to achieve the feat, having done so in 2010 and '11, thanks in large part to future MLB stars Jackie Bradley Jr. and Whit Merrifield.
South Carolina also has five minor-league teams, which ties it with Ohio and Virginia for sixth-most in the country. South Carolina’s best-known team is the iconic Charleston RiverDogs, co-owned by Bill Murray.
30. Nevada
In 1912, a right-handed pitcher named Wheezer Dell debuted for the St. Louis Cardinals, becoming the first Nevada-born player to reach the majors. A full century later, Bryce Harper became only the 28th Nevada-born player to reach MLB, but it seems to have sparked a new era.
Harper's Little League teammates, Joey Gallo and Kris Bryant, soon followed, and the 2021 season saw more Nevada-born players play in MLB (13) than had appeared between Dell’s final game in 1917 and the debut of Las Vegas’ own Barry Zito in 2000 (10).
Nevada also has Oakland’s Triple-A team, the Las Vegas Aviators, who play in the single most offense-friendly environment in all of affiliated baseball. The thin, high-desert air makes the ball carry like you wouldn't believe, something for MLB to think about if it ever wants to put an expansion club in Sin City.
29. Hawaii
The cons: 1) There has been no pro baseball in this state since 1987, when the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders closed up shop. 2) It’s difficult for youth teams to play top competition beyond the islands because travel to the mainland is so expensive. 3) Elite high school draft prospects have a tough time getting seen by pro scouts.
The pros: 1) The University of Hawaii has a strong following and essentially operates as a de facto minor-league baseball experience. 2) The insular environment at the youth level creates a remarkably close-knit baseball community in which everyone knows one another. 3) It’s always nice outside — duh, it’s Hawaii — so people can play year round. 4) Hawaii is a force in the Little League World Series because all the best athletes play Little League instead of non-affiliated travel ball.
In fact, the state has won three Little League titles since 2005 (most in that span) and sits eighth all-time in appearances (15) behind states with significantly larger populations.
28. Arkansas
Back in the early days of 19th-century baseball, before the Grapefruit League existed and before Arizona was a state, Hot Springs, Arkansas, was the epicenter of spring training. The Cubs first showed up in 1886 to prepare for their upcoming campaign, and soon, that became the norm across the game.
Many of the old-timey greats, from both MLB and the Negro Leagues, spent their preseasons getting into shape in Hot Springs. In fact, Babe Ruth’s infamous transition from the mound to the plate happened in Hot Springs spring training 1918 after he allegedly walloped a homer more than 570 feet. The Red Sox were like, "Uh, yeah you’re a hitter now," and baseball was forever changed.
Nowadays, though, it’s all about Razorbacks baseball. One of the best programs to never win a title (Florida State, Clemson, UNC are the others), the University of Arkansas boasts one of the best environments in collegiate athletics. Their trademark "Woo Pig Sooie" chant gets irritating very quickly, considering the fans do it about 100 times a game, but it’s a pretty awesome display of grassroots baseball fandom.
27. Iowa
Let’s talk about "Field of Dreams'' first: It’s an average movie, cheesy and overwrought. But the location itself, with the field tucked in among acres of endless corn, is pretty rad. And now that MLB is committed to playing a regular-season game there annually — reminder to rewatch highlights of that White Sox-Yanks game — it’s only going to grow as a baseball pilgrimage site.
Beyond the cornfield, though, this state has had a tough go baseball-wise the past decade or so. Iowa is the poster child of MLB’s outdated broadcast blackout rules, as Iowans are unable to watch games involving any of six teams (Cardinals, White Sox, Cubs, Twins, Brewers and Royals) on MLB.tv. Worse, the minor-league contraction axed two Iowa clubs, the Burlington Bees and the Clinton LumberKings, from affiliated baseball. But the state still ranks fifth in teams per capita, with more than 13 for every million residents.
26. Oklahoma
As far as historically great big leaguers go, Mickey Mantle-Johnny Bench is a pretty badass one-two punch for the 28th-most populous state in the country. And the Sooner State has continued to produce superstars in the modern era, including Matt Kemp and JT Realmuto. Having two upper-level minor-league teams — strangely both being Dodgers affiliates — is nice, but that’s still not a ton of pro ball.
Oklahoma does, however, have a relatively strong amateur scene at both the high school and collegiate levels. It boasts an especially strong Division I baseball history, with Oklahoma State and Oklahoma combining for 30 trips to the College World Series and three national championships. Enid, Oklahoma, is also the home of the Division II Juco World Series.
It's also worth noting that if these rankings incorporated softball, Oklahoma would be at least 10 spots higher, but we’re staying hardball-focused, so we feel good putting the Sooner State right here in the middle.
25. Colorado
Our lowest-ranked state with a major-league team, Colorado's landing spot might feel a bit harsh. The reality, though, is that there’s just not a whole lot of baseball beyond the Rockies, and the state hasn’t produced nearly as many big leaguers as some significantly smaller states.
Also, there are unfortunately no longer any affiliated minor-league teams in Colorado, and the state’s biggest university, UC-Boulder, doesn’t sponsor baseball. One big point in the Centennial State’s favor, however: It’s the longtime home of the Division I Junior College World Series, held every spring in Grand Junction.
24. Washington
Washington shares some similarities with Colorado as a state with an MLB team that is relatively secluded geographically, but it has a much better track record of producing impact big leaguers (Earl Averill, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Jon Lester, Tim Lincecum).
Washington also maintains a more diverse portfolio of non-big-league baseball today, with four minor-league teams and a whole bunch of college teams at nearly every level. Plus, the Mariners have 25 more years of history than the Rockies, albeit with the same number of World Series titles.
23. Minnesota
First off, shoutout to the old Twins logo that had "Minnie" and "Paul" shaking hands across the river to capture the essence of the Twin Cities. Even though the club doesn’t use that on its uniforms anymore, the emblem lives on as a 46-foot sign at Target Field.
But baseball in Minnesota is about much more than just the Twins. The college and high-school cultures are vibrant enough (and the weather is frigid enough) that the Vikings let schools from across the state play inside cavernous U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis. And it’s not just the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers who get to ball out in a football stadium (they’ll play 12 home games there this season). There are 24 college and high-school games scheduled at U.S. Bank Stadium in the month of March.
22. Mississippi
Home of the defending Division I national champion Mississippi State Bulldogs, this state earns high marks not just for how good teams such as the Bulldogs, Ole Miss Rebels and Southern Miss Eagles usually are, but also for the feverish nature with which the fan bases seem to love their teams.
Mississippi State’s Dudy Noble Field has played host to 18 of the 19 largest recorded on-campus crowds in NCAA baseball history and is lauded as arguably the best game-day atmosphere college baseball has to offer.
21. Virginia
About a decade before Las Vegas produced the slugging triumvirate of Gallo, Harper and Bryant, a similar phenomenon took place across the country in Virginia. B.J. and Justin Upton, David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman, who was born in North Carolina but grew up in Virginia Beach, all played travel ball together in the Norfolk area. On the pitching side, two Cooperstown-caliber flamethrowers named Justin Verlander and Billy Wagner also hail from Virginia.
20. Tennessee
Tennessee has given us a should-be Hall of Famer in Todd Helton, a future Hall of Famer in Mookie Betts and a couple of Cy Young Award winners in David Price and Robbie Ray, and it's home to one of the premier programs in college baseball, Vanderbilt.
But this ranking is also somewhat of a projection, as we are betting on Tennessee continuing to develop into a hotbed of amateur talent. Plus, Nashville seems like one of the strongest candidates for possible expansion (or relocation) for MLB in the relatively near future, so this might be a major-league state one day after all.
19. Louisiana
Although it recently lost its lone minor-league team, with the Triple-A affiliate in New Orleans relocating to Wichita, Louisiana still earns high marks for its tremendous affinity for college baseball. It features a remarkable 12 Division I baseball programs, headlined by LSU, which has won more national championships (six) than all of the Div. I programs in the state of Florida combined (five).
18. Nebraska
If the Division I College World Series weren’t in Omaha, Nebraska would be in the bottom 10 — maybe even the bottom five — even though the state was home to Bob Gibson, perhaps the greatest pitcher ever.
But those three syllables, O-MA-HA, are always on the hearts, minds and lips of every Div. I baseball player in America. The town has become synonymous with college baseball in general; more people say "team X is going to Omaha" than "team X is going to the College World Series."
And the event itself is a delight. The town buys in 100 percent, and for 10 days every June, Nebraska becomes the center of the baseball universe.
17. Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the smallest media market in the bigs, but the Brewers consistently draw in the top half of the league, a testament to the fan base’s passion and the club’s impact on the city, even though the franchise has never won it all. But Wisconsin’s baseball community stretches far beyond the confines of Miller Park — or whatever they call it now.
The Northwoods League is the second-most competitive summer collegiate circuit in the nation and has nine teams across Wisconsin, with one more set to start play in 2022. It’s a big draw for locals; before the pandemic, the Madison Mallards averaged more than 6,000 fans per game, more than most affiliated minor-league teams.
And even though Wisconsin has only one Division I college program (shoutout to Hank Aaron Field at UW-Milwaukee), it basically has its very own Div. III league, the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), which features some of the more competitive and talented small-school baseball you’ll find.
16. Michigan
Michigan’s case is built on a whole bunch of hardball history, from Charlie Gehringer (Tigers Hall of Fame infielder and University of Michigan alum) to Derek Jeter (born in New Jersey, raised in Kalamazoo). On the collegiate side, Western Michigan University hosted the first two editions of the Div. I College World Series before it moved to Omaha.
Today’s collegiate landscape features a plethora of teams at every level, including the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association in Div. III, which is the oldest collegiate athletic conference in the entire country. Also, new Hall of Famer Jim Kaat pitched for Hope College in the MIAA back in 1957.
15. New Jersey
There's no big-league club in the Garden State, but the Yankees, Mets and Phillies all flex a significant presence in Jersey. Hinchliffe Stadium in Patterson is one of the few Negro League Stadiums still standing and is currently undergoing a $94 million renovation that will presumably allow it to host special-site big-league games in the future.
As a cold-weather talent pipeline, Jersey is definitely on the rise; take the fabled 2019 Delbarton School team that featured current top Yanks prospect Anthony Volpe and 2021 No. 2 draft pick Jack Leiter as an example. There’s also this guy named Mike Trout — from a small South Jersey town called Millville — with a big neck and a nice swing and a passion for weather. Trout just might be the single greatest baseball player of all time. No big deal.
14. Maryland
No matter how many consecutive 100-loss seasons the Orioles pile up, they’re still a storied franchise and perhaps the American League’s most dominant team from 1960 into the early 1980s. They also play in Camden Yards, the stadium that changed the sport forever by ushering in the modern era of ballpark design. And just three blocks from Camden is the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum, where you can learn about the larger-than-life Baltimoran who realized that hitting home runs was good.
And, of course, you can’t talk about Maryland baseball without Cal Ripken Jr. By our count, Cal is one of just six Hall of Famers who spent his entire MLB career with his hometown team. Born in Havre de Grace, about 45 minutes north of Baltimore, Ripken’s consecutive games streak brought a national spotlight to Maryland, and his legacy is still felt. The Orioles’ High-A Aberdeen Ironbirds are named after him, and the Ripken Experience baseball complex next door draws youth baseball teams from across the nation.
13. Alabama
No other state can match Alabama’s Hall of Fame track record, particularly when it comes to the sport’s legendary Black players. In the 1930s alone, there were four future Hall of Famers born in Alabama (Billy Williams, Willie McCovey, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays), and the city of Mobile has produced five Hall of Famers on its own (Williams, McCovey, Aaron, Satchel Paige and Ozzie Smith). What's more, Hank Aaron's childhood home has been converted into a stunning museum on the grounds of the old Mobile Baybears stadium.
But that long list doesn’t include Monte Irvin and Mule Suttles, two of the greatest Negro Leaguers ever, both of whom are enshrined in Cooperstown. And you can’t talk Bama baseball without mentioning Bessemer’s own Bo Jackson, the greatest athlete in American history. (Remember when he biked across the state?) Nowadays, the torch has been passed to Tuscaloosa native Tim Anderson, one of the game’s most electric players.
12. North Carolina
The highest-ranked state without a big-league club, North Carolina was in some ways the inspiration for this entire project. Even though baseball fans in the state can’t catch an MLB game, they’ve got a plethora of hardball options, including 17 Division I programs, most of which are perennial Power 5 conference and Omaha contenders such as UNC, NC State and Duke.
North Carolina is also the epicenter of minor-league baseball, even after the 2020 contraction, with 10 teams across the state. There’s a reason that Baseball America, one of the best and most historic publications focused on the sport beyond the MLB level, is headquartered in Durham and that USA Baseball calls the town of Cary, North Carolina, home. Combine all that with the state’s ranking ninth for active big leaguers, and North Carolina doesn’t need an MLB team to be a flourishing baseball state.
11. Massachusetts
The Red Sox and Fenway Park are an integral part of baseball’s past, present and future. That holds a lot of weight. Add the historic Cape Cod League, universally regarded as the premier summer league, plus all the future general managers playing in the NESCAC (and the literal dozens of other elite, small-college programs), and you’ve got a compelling case.
However, Massachusetts’ relative dearth of big leaguers keeps it out of the top 10, as it hasn’t produced a multi-time All-Star since Tom Glavine, and nearly all of its Hall of Famers besides Glavine played 100 years ago.
10. Ohio
Having two major-league teams is a pretty big deal, especially when one of them was the first professional baseball team. The Reds and now-Guardians have a ton of history stretching all the way back to the earliest days of MLB, from Cy Young to the Big Red Machine to the spectacular mid-'90s Cleveland lineups to Joey Votto to Rajai Davis homering off Aroldis Chapman.
Similarly, just as seven U.S. presidents were born in Ohio (more than any other state besides Virginia), more than 1,000 future major-leaguers were born in OH-IO, though, to be fair, a healthy chunk of those came in the first half of the 20th century.
9. Illinois
You know about the Cubs and White Sox already, so let’s expand your baseball brain for a moment. Fun fact: Illinois is the only state that features at least one team at every single level of baseball included in our criteria.
And to think, of the state's 86 collegiate programs across seven different levels, it was an NJCAA Div. I school — Illinois Central College — that produced Jim Thome, the state’s all-time home run king and one of the greatest sluggers in MLB history. Illinois was also where the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943, and it was home to the world-famous Rockford Peaches.
8. Missouri
Another state with two MLB teams, Missouri gets the nod over its neighbor even though Illinois has produced more big leaguers. That’s primarily because 1) Kansas City has the must-visit Negro Leagues Museum, and 2) the Cardinals and Royals have more rings than the Cubs and White Sox. Cards fans can get a little holier-than-thou from time to time, but St. Louis is a baseball town, as cliché as it sounds.
And Kansas City is, too. Before the Athletics or the Royals ever came to town, the Kansas City Monarchs were one of the Negro League’s greatest clubs and an enormous part of the city’s Black community. They won 12 league titles between 1923 and 1957, including Negro League World Series championships in 1924 and 1942. Thirteen Monarchs eventually received induction into the Hall of Fame, including Turkey Stearns, Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Ernie Banks and Cool Papa Bell.
7. Pennsylvania
Like Missouri, there is extremely rich Negro Leagues history in Pennsylvania, with two of the most dominant teams, the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, having made their home in the Steel City. Another state with multiple MLB teams, Pennsylvania edged its Midwestern competition (Illinois, Ohio and Missouri) for the top spot among that group thanks to one of our favorite places on earth: Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series and one of the most magical baseball spaces imaginable.
Also, if you’re wondering how in the world there are 91 college baseball programs in Pennsylvania, that’s due in large part to the — we’re not joking — 55 Division III programs within its borders, the most of any single level of NCAA baseball in any state.
6. Georgia
This ranking of the Peach State is rooted largely in its rapid ascension toward becoming America’s fourth premier baseball hotbed, alongside the traditional holy trinity of California, Texas and Florida. That’s not to say Georgia is completely new to this; it did give us some truly historic players such as Ty Cobb, Johnny Mize and Frank Thomas.
But recently, Georgia has become something of a hub for high school stars. It seemed like we were trending this way a decade ago, when Clint Frazier and Austin Meadows were squaring off in front of hundreds of scouts in 2013, but now we’re starting to see the fruits of this burgeoning region of talent. Entering this spring, the two best high school hitters — shortstop Termarr Johnson and outfielder Druw Jones — and the best high school pitcher — right-hander Dylan Lesko — in the 2022 MLB Draft are all from the Georgia prep ranks.
The state’s 58 big leaguers in 2021 rank behind only the tallies of the aforementioned Big 3, and it would not be surprising if Georgia continues to close the gap over the next decade. Had we done these rankings before the Braves won it all, their presence alone would've been worthy of pushing Georgia pretty high up this list, considering the team’s consistently relevant standing in MLB, particularly toward the end of the 20th century. That we just watched Atlanta celebrate a World Series title is simply an added bonus to Georgia’s case.
5. Arizona
While its MLB production pales in comparison to that of the other heavyweights atop these rankings, Arizona unquestionably belongs in the top five. The Cactus League is largely regarded as the superior spring training option for both players and fans alike, due to the relative proximity of all the complexes, compared to those in the Grapefruit League. Also, tons of big leaguers make Phoenix and the surrounding area their offseason home.
Now, the scorching summer climate makes it impossible to have any full-season minor-league teams — ever wonder why the Diamondbacks have a roof? — but Arizona makes up for it as the home of the prestigious Fall League, which takes place in October and November as a finishing school of sorts for the game’s best prospects. Rounding out the Grand Canyon State’s impressive résumé is its long track record of success from its flagship Division I programs, Arizona and Arizona State, which have combined to win nine national championships and produce more than 200 future major-leaguers.
4. Florida
Florida, man. It’s a weird one.
The two big-league teams, originally conceived as teal-tinted emblems of the '90s, have had varying levels of success over the years. The Rays are a ruthless machine of modern baseball, racking up 90-win seasons like it's nothing. The Marlins, despite the aimlessness of the past decade, have two World Series flags in their stadium, and those fly forever.
Neither club draws particularly well, but the Rays crush it with TV ratings. We still don’t know if MLB can succeed in South Florida because it really hasn’t been given a chance. The Rays’ stadium is so difficult to get to, and the Marlins haven’t had a true contender since 2003 and have a franchise history of fire sales to overcome in order to regain public trust.
Florida’s high ranking is much more about what happens outside the confines of Loan Depot Park and Tropicana Field. Even though the Grapefruit League is inferior to its desert counterpart, spring training baseball is still better than whatever is happening in most other states in late February.
Florida also hosts a smattering of elite high school showcases and tournaments each year, and many sports academies, such as IMG, and training centers, such as Cressey Performance, call Florida home. Also, Florida, Florida State and Miami are three of the premier programs in Division I, and schools such as UCF, South Florida and Florida Atlantic have been competitive recently.
Finally, when it comes to producing big leaguers in today’s day and age, only California does it better than Florida. The year-round warmth, the vast open areas perfect for field space and the heavy Cuban influence in and around Miami are just a few of the reasons 93 Florida-born players appeared in the bigs in 2021.
3. Texas
Only one World Series title — and a tarnished one at that — between the Astros and Rangers in more than 100 combined years of play is certainly a mark against the Lone Star State in its case for the top three. But Texas’ résumé extends far beyond its big-league clubs. The state compensates for its lack of World Series titles with incredible depth of baseball talent across its 268,000-plus square miles from Amarillo to Corpus Christi. Texas has produced several legends of the game, from Rogers Hornsby to Joe Morgan to Nolan Ryan to Clayton Kershaw.
The state also boasts 22 Division I teams, second only to California's total, including a University of Texas program that has made more trips to Omaha (37) than any other program in America by far (Miami is second, with 25) and has won six national titles. The atmospheres at all levels of Texas baseball — from high school to junior college to the big boys at UT or Texas A&M or Texas Tech or TCU to the raucous postseason crowds at Minute Maid Park — are not something you can easily find in all of the other states atop these rankings.
2. New York
We debated between New York and Texas at two and three, but in the end, the Empire State edged ahead, thanks mostly to NYC’s undeniably outsized influence on MLB history. While New York can’t come close to matching Texas in terms of warmth, field space, Div. I college ball or modern player development, it makes up for that by having the Mets, the Yankees, the third most MLBers all time and the Hall of Fame.
The Yankees, love ‘em or hate ‘em, are the single biggest thing in the sport — and they probably always will be. Twenty-seven rings is a ridiculous number, even if a bunch of them came pre-integration and pre-expansion. Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, Reggie and Jeter make for quite the squadron of upper-crust, inner-circle greats. And nothing has transcended baseball on a global scale more than the Yankees’ logo. No matter where you go in the world, from Stockholm to Phnom Penh, you’ll see folks on the street rocking NY caps, even if they don’t know the difference between Joe DiMaggio and Joe McEwing.
The Mets also make headlines — and they probably always will. With Steve Cohen and his endless bags of money at the wheel, they’ve already begun to assume their rightful place as one of the game’s true superpowers. And don’t forget that the Dodgers and Giants started in the Big Apple, too. Jackie Robinson, after all, broke the modern color barrier in Brooklyn, not Los Angeles.
And while Abner Doubleday probably didn’t invent baseball in upstate New York, enough people in the early 20th century thought he did for Cooperstown to become home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall’s flawed voting process has received much-deserved scrutiny over the past decade or so, but the museum itself remains a wonderfully special place. Induction weekend in Cooperstown every year is one of the more genuinely heartfelt experiences on the baseball calendar, and the Hall remains a must-visit for any baseball fan.
1. California
There was never really any debate.
California has produced almost 1,000 more big leaguers all time than the next state. It more than doubled any other state’s tally in 2021. The state has more MLB teams, more four-year college teams and more junior college teams than any other. If you’ve ever flown into California, you know the landscape is dotted with diamonds.
California is also home to the sport’s top superduper stars such as Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, the magicians who won 107 games for the Giants in 2021 and whomever the A’s decide to roll out there in 2022. Dodger Stadium has become kind of the default backdrop for October baseball over the past decade, while Petco Park in San Diego and Oracle Park in San Francisco are two of the league’s most idyllic ballyards. California even produced the sport’s most impactful player (Jackie Robinson, UCLA four-sport star) and its best (Barry Lamar Bonds and his 762 dingers).
Baseball, for better and, often, for worse, reflects America. Major League Baseball ventured west halfway through the 20th century — uprooting the Dodgers and Giants from New York and the Athletics from Kansas City and conjuring the Angels and Padres out of thin air — because that’s where the country was heading, too.
Almost 40 million human beings live in California (that would make it the 37th-most populous country in the world, ahead of Canada, Poland and Saudi Arabia), and while not all of them are baseball fans, enough of them are. Enough to sustain five big-league clubs and produce more than 2,300 big leaguers.
Maybe the Golden State is a lazy winner, but we’re pretty sure it's the right one.
Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman, creators of the Twitter account Céspedes Family BBQ, write about all things baseball for FOX Sports.
