Mobile, Ala. (Hank Aaron 755, Willie McCovey 521), 1,276 Baltimore (Babe Ruth 714, Al Kaline 399): 1,113 New York (Alex Rodriguez 613, Lou Gehrig 493), 1,106 Donora, Pa. (Ken Griffey Jr. 630, Stan Musial 475), 1,105 Riverside, Calif. (Barry Bonds 762, Bobby Bonds 332), 1,094 Tampa (Gary Sheffield 509, Fred McGriff 493), 1,002 Los Angeles (Eddie Murray 504, Duke Snider 407), 911 San Diego (Ted Williams 521, Graig Nettles 390), 911 Beaumont, Texas (Frank Robinson 586, Gus Zernial 237): 823 Oklahoma City (Joe Carter 396, Johnny Bench 389), 785 Portland, Ore. (Dale Murphy 398, Richie Sexson 306), 704 St. Paul, Minn. (Dave Winfield 465, Paul Molitor 234), 699 Shreveport, La. (Albert Belle 381, Reggie Smith 314), 695 St. Louis (Yogi Berra 358, Roy Sievers 318), 676 Sacramento (Greg Vaughn 355, Derrek Lee 312), 667 Columbus, Ohio (Frank Howard 382, Paul O'Neill 281), 663 Chicago (Greg Luzinski 307, Fred Lynn 306), 613 Seattle (Ron Santo 342, John Olerud 255), 597 Westminster, Calif. (Jeromy Burnitz 315, Ryan Klesko 278), 593 New Orleans (Rusty Staub 292, Will Clark 284), 576 Pittsburgh (Hank Sauer 288, Frank Thomas 286), 574 El Cajon, Calif. (Brian Giles 287, Bret Boone 252), 539 Long Beach, Calif. (Tim Salmon 299, Jeff Burroughs 240), 539 Philadelphia (Del Ennis 288, Roy Campanella 242), 530 Tallahassee (Dean Palmer 275, J.D. Drew 238), 513If we were to rank cities based on all American-born players in the top 200 results, we'd get these totals (players in parentheses below are in addition to the pairs above; the four towns in italics had no additional players in the top 200):
Los Angeles (Darryl Strawberry 335, Troy Glaus 320, Cecil Fielder 319, Garret Anderson 287, Eric Davis 282, Brian Downing 275, George Hendrick 267, Todd Zeile 253, Joe Gordon 253, Ray Lankford 238, Eric chavez 230), 3,970 New York (Rocky Colavito 374, Hank Greenberg 331, Edgar Martinez 309, Ken Singleton 246, Raul Ibanez 232), 2,598 Tampa (Luis Gonzalez 354, Tino Martinez 339, Steve Garvey 272), 1,967 San Diego (Deron Johnson 245, Kevin Mitchell 234), 1,390 Chicago (Rickey Henderson 297, Wally Berger 242, Cliff Floyd 233), 1,385 Riverside, Calif. (Dusty Baker 242), 1,336 Oklahoma City (Bobby Murcer 252, Mickey Tettleton 245), 1,282 Mobile, Ala. (Hank Aaron 755, Willie McCovey 521), 1,276 Baltimore (Babe Ruth 714, Al Kaline 399): 1,113 New York (Alex Rodriguez 613, Lou Gehrig 493), 1,106 Donora, Pa. (Ken Griffey Jr. 630, Stan Musial 475), 1,105 St. Louis (Ryan Howard 253), 929And, lastly, I was curious how the list might look when accounting for home runs per capita. Of course, we'd have to take into account all cities, because ... well, as you'll see, Jimmie Foxx hit a homer for every person in his tiny hometown.
Sudlersville, Md. (Foxx), 534 homers/396 population, 1.34 HR/person Spavinaw, Okla. (Mantle), 536 homers/582 population, 0.92 HR/person Earlsboro, Okla. (Stargell), 475 homers/667 population, 0.71 HR/person Westfield, Ala. (Mays), 660 homers/1,403 population, 0.47 HR/person Donora, Pa. (Griffey/Musial), 1,105 homers/5,253 population, 0.21 HR/personNow, in no way is this a scientific study. It's something I threw together on a Sunday afternoon watching football, using 2000 census data. Numbers for Sudlersville, Md., were not available before 1990, so it's likely that fewer than 396 people lived in the hamlet when Foxx was born in 1907. But these are the numbers available, so that's what I used. And to keep it consistent, I went with the 2000 census data for all towns. Ideally, I would've averaged the populations for the towns and cities over the time period from the first-born player on the list to the most recent, but that would involve numbers and formulas that no one should be playing around with on a Sunday afternoon.