Most of the rules should be straightforward. For a team that represents a city, such as the St. Louis Cardinals, we're looking for the player born in St. Louis who played the most games as a Cardinal. For a team that represents, a state, such the Minnesota Twins, the player only has to have been born in Minnesota, not necessarily the city the Twins play in.
For franchises that have changed polity names, we only count games played under the current polity name. The Los Angeles Angels, for example, were inaugurated under that name, before changing to the California Angels, then to the Anaheim Angels, then back to Los Angeles again. We're looking for an Angeleno player who played with the franchise during the years 1961-65 and 2005-present. Any games played for the Angels under the California or Anaheim names don't count.
For New York, I only went by New York City, since I don't believe either the Yankees or Mets franchise is supposed to represent the state as a whole. I counted the various boroughs, although the leaders for both franchises have their birthplaces listed as "New York, NY" in the records.
The only one that was tricky was the Rays, since Tampa Bay is a geographical feature, not a political entity. I decided to count anyone born in the Tampa Bay metro area, mainly the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, plus whatever smaller towns in the area I could find.
So with that said, let's take a look at the list:
| Franchise | Player | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds | Pete Rose | 2722 |
| New York Yankees | Lou Gehrig | 2164 |
| Chicago Cubs | Phil Cavarretta | 1953 |
| Minnesota Twins | Joe Mauer | 1858 |
| New York Mets | Ed Kranepool | 1853 |
| Detroit Tigers | Bill Freehan | 1774 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | Del Ennis | 1630 |
| Cleveland Indians | Bill Bradley | 1231 |
| Houston Astros | Craig Reynolds | 1170 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Willie Crawford | 989 |
| Chicago White Sox | Johnny Mostil | 972 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | Frank Thomas | 925 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Mike Shannon | 882 |
| Texas Rangers | David Murphy | 826 |
| San Diego Padres | Adrian Gonzalez | 799 |
| Atlanta Braves | Jeff Francoeur | 730 |
| Seattle Mariners | John Olerud | 702 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | Matthew Joyce | 633 |
| Los Angeles Angels | Garret Anderson | 536 |
| Oakland Athletics | Dennis Eckersley | 525 |
| San Francisco Giants | Willie McGee | 444 |
| Boston Red Sox | Manny Delcarmen | 289 |
| Kansas City Royals | Steve Mingori | 264 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Shea Hillenbrand | 233 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | Rob Ducey | 188 |
| Baltimore Orioles | Tom Phoebus | 134 |
| Colorado Rockies | Kyle Freeland | 68 |
| Miami Marlins | Gaby Sanchez | 55 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | Paul Wagner | 15 |
| Washington Nationals | Emmanuel Burriss | 5 |
Some of these records are very impressive. For the guys at the top of the list, it's easy to see why they're so beloved by the hometown fans.
The bottom of the list is much more curious. I'm surprised that San Francisco, Boston, Baltimore, and Milwaukee have all been around for so long without more impressive representatives than the ones they have. Perhaps the city proper doesn't have a lot of little league activity in their cases.
For Rockie fans, they're blessed that after only two seasons in the bigs, Kyle Freeland is already their all-time leader in games among players born in the Centennial State. May he have many more, and not fall prey to Coors Field.
A shame that Emmanuel Burriss is the best National born in the capital city. If we were doing this by franchise, Maury Wills, Clay Kirby, and Curtis Pride are all guys who'd have him beat.
