And by “state of birth,” I don’t mean “naked and screaming.”
(Take a circle from Bert if you got the reference in the subhead.)
For no other reason than curiosity, I wanted to see which Twin (expansion era only) born in each U.S. state had the most valuable Minnesota tenure. Don’t have much more of an intro than that, except maybe with OOTP 26 on the way, this can spawn another Out of the Park tournament eventually.
Anyway (all WAR via Baseball Reference):
Alabama: Lyman Bostock, OF
(1975-7, 10.3 WAR)
Alaska: N/A
Arizona: Griffin Jax, RP
(2021-present, 3.3 WAR)
Arkansas: Torii Hunter, OF
(1997-2007, ‘15; 26.4 WAR)
California: Roy Smalley, SS
(1976-82, 85-7; 20.9 WAR)
Colorado: Taylor Rogers, RP
(2016-21, 6.4 WAR)
Connecticut: Carl Pavano, SP
(2009-12, 5.8 WAR)
Delaware: Randy Bush, OF (the only Twin born in Delaware)
(1982-93, 1.4 WAR)
District of Columbia: Johnny Klippstein, RP (another only Twin for a birthplace)
(1964-6, 3.8 WAR)
Florida: Denard Span, OF
(2008-12, 17.2 WAR)
Georgia: Byron Buxton, OF
(2015-present, 24.5 WAR)
Hawai’i: Kurt Suzuki, C (keep the only-Twins comin’)
(2014-6, 3.3 WAR)
Idaho: Harmon Killebrew, 1B
(1954-74, 60.4 WAR)
Illinois: Kirby Puckett, CF
(1984-95, 51.1 WAR)
Indiana: Kyle Gibson, SP
(2013-9, 9.8 WAR)
Iowa: Kevin Tapani, SP
(1989-95, 19.1 WAR)
Kansas: Brian Duensing, RP
(2009-15, 6.4 WAR)
Kentucky: Phil Roof, C
(1971-6, 2.2 WAR)
Louisiana: Scott Baker, SP
(2005-11, 15.8 WAR)
Maine: Matt Kinney, SP (of Stephen King’s “Head Down” fame)
(2000-2, 0.9 WAR)
Maryland: Dave Boswell, SP
(1964-70, 11.2 WAR)
Massachusetts: Greg Gagne, SS
(1983-92, 17.9 WAR)
Michigan: Jim Kaat, SP
(1959-73, 30.6 WAR)
Minnesota: Joe Mauer, C
(2004-18, 55.2 WAR)
Mississippi: Brian Dozier, 2B
(2012-18, 22.8 WAR)
Missouri: Bob Allison, OF
(1958-70, 34.1 WAR)
Montana: Dave Meier, OF (yet another only-Twin)
(1984-5, minus-1.0 WAR)
Nebraska: Dwight Siebler, RP
(1963-7, 0.5 WAR)
Nevada: Marty Cordova, OF
(1995-9, 5.7 WAR)
New Hampshire: Bob Tewksbury, SP
(1997-8, 6.5 WAR)
New Jersey: Steve Braun, 3B
(1971-6, 15.0 WAR)
New Mexico: Mitch Garver, C
(2017-21, 7.0 WAR)
New York: Frank Viola, SP
(1982-9, 27.0 WAR)
North Carolina: Jim Perry, SP
(1963-72, 26.3 WAR)
North Dakota: Gary Serum, RP (ladies and gentlemen, this is only-Twin no. 5)
(1977-9, 1.5 WAR)
Ohio: Larry Hisle, OF
(1973-7, 17.2 WAR)
Oklahoma: Nick Blackburn, SP
(2007-12, 3.2 WAR)
Oregon: Tom Edens, RP
(1991-2, 2.2 WAR)
Pennsylvania: Butch Wynegar, C
(1976-82, 15.3 WAR)
Rhode Island: Johnny Goryl, 2B (the only-Twins are piling up now)
(1962-4, 1.0 WAR)
South Carolina: Orlando Hudson, 2B
(2010, 2.9 WAR)
South Dakota: Jason Kubel, OF
(2004-11, ‘14; 3.6 WAR)
Tennessee: Sonny Gray, SP
(2022-3, 7.8 WAR)
Texas: Chuck Knoblauch, 2B
(1991-7, 38.0 WAR)
Utah: Bobby Mitchell, OF (and the pile of only-Twins is tipping over)
(1982-3, 1.3 WAR)
Vermont: Len Whitehouse, RP
(1983-5, 0.9 WAR)
Virginia: Michael Cuddyer, OF
(2001-11, 12.8 WAR)
Washington: Bob Wells, RP
(1999-2002, 3.8 WAR)
West Virginia: Rick Reed, SP
(2001-3, 3.6 WAR)
Wisconsin: Brad Radke, SP (Backyard Baseball 2003 legend)
(1995-2006, 45.6 WAR)
Wyoming: Rick Sofield, OF (…and thus has collapsed the pile of only-Twins)
(1979-81, minus-0.7 WAR)
…now that the list is complete, I’m not really sure what the point of all that was, other than to remind me of the dream I had a couple months ago where I gave up a homer to Radke in Backyard Baseball 2003. And maybe to contemplate an eventual OOTP tourney.
Hope you enjoyed.