The Home Boys

Sometimes a player is simply a perfect fit for the team he plays for. Sometimes it's because he embodies the city's personality, sometimes his skill set fits the team's plan to a a T, and sometimes he was born in the very city where he now wears the uniform. As always, I started wondering. Of the current 30 MLB franchises, who is each one's all-time leader in games played having been born in the polity they represent?

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.