Where do the Hall of Fame members come from?

I spent some time researching the subject from a different angle.  Of those 23 “drafted” players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, it’s interesting to look at the home town/State they came from.

9 came from California
2 came from Minnesota
2 came from Pennsylvania
1 each came from Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Washington, Oklahoma, Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, and New Hampshire.

The low number of Hall of Famer’s from the state of Florida once again got me to thinking. So I checked the number of Hall of Fame members from a few various states.  Here is the number of Hall of Fame members from those states. I think some will find this very interesting and maybe surprising! Especially as this represents what is suppose to be the top baseball people in history. Why would Florida be so low? That one surprised me!

NY – 27
PA – 23
CA – 20
IL – 19
OH – 18
TX - 16
MO – 10
IA – 7
OK - 6
GA – 5
MI – 5
FL – 4
WI – 4
MN – 3
AZ – 0

Someone mentioned that Florida’s low numbers could be due to the fact that the state was not heavily populated before the 50’s.

Where do Major League All Stars come from?

That made sense, so I thought I would check something a bit more recent. We are very aware of the large amount of talent in the state of Florida, so we thought we would look at last year’s (2008) MLB All Star rosters to see where the current top players came from. We know that Florida only trails California in overall number of professional players, so one would expect it would relate to things like the number of Hall of Famers or the MLB All Star rosters.

Once again, that list just showed the big difference between California and the rest of the country. It also showed that the top players are likely to come from any part of the country. Of course, the list revealed the impact that Latin America players have in the Major Leagues, especially the Dominicans. I really expected Florida to have a large number of players on this list, but it really didn’t end up quite the way I thought.

There were some other interesting numbers that popped up.

2008 Major League All Stars…
Signed out of high school – 23
Signed out of College DI – 22
Did not play College – 40
Signed as Free Agents - 17
Signed out of JC – 2
Signed out of DII – 1
Signed out of DIII – 2

And how about this…
Players born in warm weather states (not counting FA’s) – 20
Players born in cold weather states (not counting FA’s) – 25
Players from mid climate states - 4
Players who went to warm weather High Schools – 22
Players who went to cold weather High Schools - 23

12 all stars were born in a different state than the state they graduated from High School
56 were born in the same state where they graduated from High School.

Most all stars by state or foreign country they were born in
11 - Dominican Republic 16.4%
10 - California 14.9%
4 - Kentucky 6% (How about that!)
4 - Texas 6%
4 - Venezuela 6%
3 - Canada 4.5%
3 - Virginia 4.5%
2 - Florida 3%
2 - Georgia 3%
2 - Japan 3%
2 - Louisiana 3%
2 - Michigan 3%
2 - Washington 3%
1 - Arkansas 1.5%
1 - Arizona 1.5%
1 - Colorado 1.5%
1 - Massachusetts 1.5%
1 - Mexico 1.5%
1 - Minnesota 1.5%
1 - Missouri 1.5%
1 - North Carolina 1.5%
1 - New Jersey 1.5%
1 - New York 1.5%
1 - Ohio 1.5%
1 - Oklahoma 1.5%
1 - Panama 1.5%
1 - Puerto Rico 1.5%
1 - South Dakota 1.5%
1 - Tennessee 1.5%

Most all stars by state/country where they played high school
9 – California
9 – Dominican Republic
4 - Venezuela
4 – Texas
3 – Canada
3 – Florida
3 - Virginia
2 – Colorado
2 – Georgia
2 – Japan
2 – Kentucky
2 – Louisiana
2 – Michigan
2 – Missouri
2 - Washington
2 – New York
2 – Ohio
2 - Tennessee
1 - Arkansas
1 - Arizona
1 – Mexico
1 – Minnesota
1 - Nevada
1 – New Hampshire
1 – North Carolina
1 – Oklahoma
1 – Panama
1 – Puerto Rico

MLB all star rosters last year…

2008 American League All Stars
Last Name – State/country born and HS if different than ST born (where they signed out of)

Mauer – MN (HS)
Youkilis – OH (College DI)
Pedroia – CA (College DI)
Jeter – born NJ, HS MI (HS)
Rodriguez – born NY, HS FL (HS)
Hamilton – NC (HS)
Ramirez – born Dom Rep, HS NY (HS)
Suzuki – Japan (FA)
Ortiz – Dom Rep (FA)
Navarro – Venezuela (FA)
Varitek – born MI, HS FL (College DI)
Morneau – BC Canada (HS)
Kinsler – AZ (College DI)
Young – CA (College DII)
Crede – MO (HS)
Guillen – Venezuela (FA)
Longoria – CA (College DI)
Drew – GA (College DI)
Quentin – CA (College DI)
Sizemore – WA (HS)
Bradley – CA (HS)
Duchscherer - born SD, HS TX (HS)
Halladay – CO (HS)
Kazmir – TX (HS)
Lee – AR (College DI)
Nathan – born TX, HS NY (College DIII)
Papelbon – LA (College DI)
Rivera – Panama (FA)
Rodriguez – Venezuela (FA)
Santana – Dom Rep (FA)
Saunders – VA (College DI
Sherrill – TN (College DI)
Soria – Mexico (FA)

2008 National League All Stars
Last Name – State/country born and HS if different than ST born (signed out of)

Soto – Puerto Rico (HS)
Berkman – TX (College DI)
Utley – CA (College DI)
Ramirez – Dom Rep (FA)
Jones – FL (HS)
Braun – CA (College DI)
Fukudome – Japan (FA)
Holliday – OK (HS)
Soriano – Dom Rep (FA)
Martin – Ont Canada (JC)
McCann – GA (HS)
Gonzalez – CA (HS)
Pujols – born Dom Rep, HS MO (JC)
Uggla – born KY, HS TN (College DI)
Ramirez – Dom Rep (FA)
Wright – VA (HS)
Guzman – Dom Rep (FA)
Tejada – Dom Rep (FA)
Hart – KY (HS)
Ludwick – born FL, HS NV (College DI)
McLouth – MI (HS)
Cook – born KY, HS OH (HS)
Dempster – BC Canada (HS)
Haren – CA (College DI)
Lidge – born CA, HS CO (College DI)
Lincecum – WA (College DI)
Marmol – Dom Rep (FA)
Sheets – LA (College DI)
Volquez – Dom Rep (FA)
Wagner – VA (College DIII)
Webb – KY (College DI)
Wilson – born MA, HS NH (College DI)
Wood – TX (HS)
Zambrano – Venezuela (FA)

I have no idea what any of this actually means, if anything at all, but it is fun to look at this stuff and think.  One thing for sure… It shows that the best talent is likely to come from any part of the country and any climate, but there is no dispute about which state is #1, California as always ends up at the top of these type lists.