Atlanta Braves players leading their home state in HRs

It’s the time of year for lists… and the Atlanta Braves are well represented in this one.

This is a fun exercise… and full credit up front to MLB.com’s Daren Willman (also the father of Baseball Savant) for this.  It’s even more fun since there are multiple connections to the Atlanta Braves in this.

The question put forth is this:  who are the leading home run hitters in the United States — by birth state.

Let’s start with the obvious:  Alabama native Hank Aaron is clearly the leader for homers among those born in Alabama.  But in many states, it doesn’t require nearly that many to be your state’s leader.

In fact, you can get away with numbers in the 60’s for both Maine (Del Bissonette, 66) and Alaska (Josh Phelps, 64).  Some, like Bryce Harper (Nevada, 232) are still increasing, though virtually every other state’s leader has a retired player holding the top spot.

One notable exception is former Brave Kurt Suzuki, whose 133 round-trippers leads the state of Hawaii.  31 of those came in a Braves uniform in 2017 and 2018.

Another state leader might come as a surprise:  the state of Florida is not lead by Chipper Jones and his 468 dingers.  In fact, his aren’t even the most by a former Atlanta Brave!

Instead, that honor goes to Tampa’s Gary Sheffield with 509 homers, 64 of those coming while in Atlanta (2002-03).

The Florida runner-up is… still not Chipper.  It’s Fred McGriff with 493 homers.  Oddly enough, he’s not tops in his own hometown, either since (like Sheffield) he’s also a Tampa native.

Other former Braves near the top for their states:

• Ted Simmons (ATL 1986-88, 10 homers) is third among those from Michigan, just 7 back of Kirk Gibson and John Mayberry.
• Dale Murphy‘s 398 ranks second among Oregonians (Dave Kingman, 442).  On the other hand, you might be able to win a bet from your friends if you can get them to guess which state Murph hails from.
• Eddie Mathews is tied with Ernie Banks at 512 for the runner-up spot in Texas (Frank Robinson, 586).
• Virginia has Justin Upton currently second in Virginia, though he’s only 18 behind Willie Horton (325 to 307).

Other fun facts:

• The biggest lead anyone has in their state looks like Harmon Killebrew.  His 573 homers are miles out in front of fellow Idahoan Vance Law (71).
• The easiest entry point might be if you can find another Alaskan slugger. Phelps had 64 to lead the state, but Randy Kutcher‘s 10 homers is a distant second.
• There are several states in which hitting 500 homers isn’t enough, but Willie Mays gets the biggest honorable mention trophy… his 660 homers in Alabama are the most for anyone not leading a state.

Across the South

We hit Florida and Alabama, but these are the leaders for the rest of the Deep South:

• GEORGIA:  Frank Thomas (521)
• N. CAROLINA:  Ryan Zimmerman (270)
• S. CAROLINA:  Jim Rice (382)
• TENNESSEE: Todd Helton (369)
• MISSISSIPPI:  Ellis Burks (352)
• ARKANSAS:  Torii Hunter (353)
• LOUISIANA:  Mel Ott (511)

So there’s a quick Atlanta Braves-centric rundown… for the full published work, see this rundown on the mlb.com site.

Sometimes it’s not just “who you are” but it’s “where you’re from”.