| WHO'S GOT GAME: STATE
AND COUNTY LEADERS IN PER CAPITA PRODUCTION OF PROFESSIONAL MAJOR LEAGUE
ATHLETES
Introduction:
Professional sports is a passion for many Americans and has reached into
numerous academic disciplines, including geography. One of the first serious
geographers of sport is Dr. John F. Rooney, Jr., currently a regents professor
emeritus at Oklahoma State University. Rooney, with Dr. Richard Pillsbury,
studied the per capita production of athletes of various levels of competence
and of various sports in his 1992 work, Atlas of American Sport, from
which the idea for this study originated.
Objectives:
To determine the relative productivity of production of major league professional
athletes at the state and county levels.
Methods:
A database of the hometowns of every American-born major league professional
athlete to play in one of the four recognized “major” leagues
(Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football
League, National Hockey League) during the leagues’ last completed
season was compiled. Appropriate counties and states were assigned to
each hometown. A ratio was then taken, for each sport individually and
for all sports combined, of the number of players “produced”
by each county/state to the 2000 population of males aged 20-44 from that
respective geographic area to determine per capita production. These populations
were based on the 2000 United States Census. The ratios were then normalized
by dividing the national average for that ratio into each county/state’s
individual ratio. State and county level choropleth maps were then produced,
with classification in five equal quantities, plus a classification for
areas that produced no athletes for the seasons being studied. This methodology
is based on that used by Dr. John F. Rooney, Jr. and Dr. Richard Pillsbury
in their 1992 Atlas of American Sport.
Results:
1. TOTAL ATHLETES (4,255 American-born Players): The most productive
areas of production of major league athletes as a whole are the Southeast
(Texas to South Carolina), the Northern Plains (Utah to the Dakotas and
Iowa), California, and Ohio. The least productive region of the United
States is New England to New York. Productivity seems to be highest in
areas that experience warmer weather. There also seems to be a band of
productivity from north-central Florida to eastern Texas.
2. BASEBALL (906 American-born Players): There really does not
seem to be any rhyme nor reason to the distribution of baseball player
production. The most productive baseball regions are the Pacific Coast
and the Southeast, in addition to Ohio and, interestingly, the Dakotas
and Alaska. The most productive baseball counties are generally more rural.
The most productive sub-state region in the United States seems to be
Southern California.
3. BASKETBALL (373 American-born Players): The most productive
basketball regions are the Great Lakes States, the Pacific Coast, and
the Southeast. There is very little activity in the Rocky Mountain Region,
with the exception of Utah. Basketball player production tends to be concentrated
in more urban counties.
4. FOOTBALL (2,819 American-born Players): There are more football
players included in this study (2,819) than all other players combined
(1,436) This is due to the fact that the National Football League has
more teams (32) than any other league and the general large size of NFL
rosters, which can exceed 70 players over the course of a season. The
large number of NFL players is definitely reflected in the pattern of
productivity in the map of overall player production. The most productive
football region is clearly the Southeast. The least productive football
region is clearly New York and New England. The most productive counties
tend to be Southern and Western rural counties. The most productive sub-state
region in the United States seems to be the Delta Region of Mississippi,
Arkansas, and Louisiana.
5. HOCKEY (157 American-born Players): While professional hockey,
major and minor league, has expanded to and thrived in the Sun Belt, it
will be a while before these states produce NHL-caliber players with any
regularity. The most productive hockey regions in the United States are,
understandibly, the upper Midwest and the Northeast in addition to Colorado
and Utah. However, hockey does seem to be inching ever southward, as the
states of Florida, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, and California were represented
at least one player last season.
Sources:
• Rooney, John F. and Richard Pillsbury. 1992. Atlas of American
Sport. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company.
• 2000 Decennial Census. United States Census Bureau
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