Lands of Birth: The Bio-Geo Lens
1/12/23 UPDATE: IMPORTED MY REGIONAL BIRTHPLACE AFFILIATIONS PAGE FROM RETROPLAY.NET, MAKING THIS ESSENTIALLY A “MIRROR” PAGE AT THIS POINT AT BASEBALL150.COM. NOTE THAT BOTH SITE MENUS ARE DISPLAYED HERE AT BASEBALL150.COM AND AT RETROPLAY.NET (MAKING ALL OF THE PAGES ACCESSIBLE FROM EITHER WEBSITE).
BECAUSE WE’RE ON THE HISTORICAL SIDE OF THIS OVERALL BASEBALL PROJECT HERE AT BASEBALL150.COM, AND ALL OF THE REGIONAL GROUPINGS BELOW ARE ONLY TRULY RELEVANT TO THE FANTASY REPLAY SIDE (RETROPLAY.NET), THEY REALLY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH MLB-NLB HISTORY. INSTEAD, ALL OF THAT INFO IS INCLUDED TO PROVIDE A SUGGESTED FRAMEWORK FOR REPLAY-TYPE PROJECTS, BUT ALSO — MORE IMPORTANTLY FOR MOST SITE-USERS — THIS PAGE CAN SERVE AS A CONVENIENT LAUNCH-PAD FOR ANY RESEARCH INTO THE BIRTHPLACE OF NEARLY EVERY PLAYER WHO EVER APPEARED IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, FROM ITS INCEPTION (1871) TO DATE.
FEEL FREE, THEN, TO IGNORE THE RETROPLAY AND OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE (OBL) VERBIAGE ON THIS PAGE, BUT DO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LINKS TO THE AMAZING BASEBALL-REFERENCE.COM ; THE DATA THERE IS REAL AND TRUSTWORTHY, AND WE RELY UPON IT FOR OUR FANTASY-LEAGUE RESEARCH AND OUTPUT.
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[REMEMBER THE DISCLAIMER/EXPLAINER: TERMS LIKE OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE, OBL, RETROPLAY, ERL, AND REGIONAL CODES HAVE ONLY TO DO WITH THE RETROPLAY.NET FANTASY-LEAGUE REPLAYS (ALL NON-HISTORICAL)]
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A color-coded map of the American regional picture in the Open Baseball League (for 1871-1945):
Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com, we can instantly check who was born where, and as a result in this RetroPlay /OBL system, who played/plays for whom during each “replayed” season. Here is the general index page (birthplace by nationality): https://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/
The links below are grouped by ERL (Expanded Regional League, a prior experimental league) team assignments, moving from the northeastern American states to the southeast, the deep south, the Appalachian region, the midwest, the Mississippi River region, the “classic west,” and the “far west,” including Alaska and Hawaii, and Guam and Samoa. Extra-national groupings follow.
[NOTE: “RC” = REGIONAL CODE, AN IMPORTANT SPREADSHEET/DATABASE-SORTING TOOL]
NEW ENGLAND (NEL) REGION (DESIGNATED NEA WHEN ALLIED WITH EXTRA-NATIONAL PLAYERS)
Players born in Maine (ME) (RC=10) Players born in New Hampshire (NH) (RC=11) Players born in Vermont (VT) (RC=12) Players born in Massachusetts (MA) (RC=13) Players born in Rhode Island (RI) (RC=15) Players born in Connecticut (CT) (RC=17)
NEW YORK and PENNSYLVANIA were/are generally “stand-alone” states, and regions by themselves
Players born in New York (NY) (RC=20) Players born in Pennsylvania (PA) (RC=30)
(THE DESIGNATION NYE USED — FOR NEW YORK EXTENDED — WHEN ALLIED WITH EXTRA-NATIONALS)
MID-ATLANTIC REGION (MAT)
Players born in New Jersey (NJ) (RC=41) Players born in Delaware (DE) (RC=43) Players born in Maryland (MD) (RC=45) Players born in Washington, D.C. (DC) (RC=44)
SOUTHEAST REGION (SE)
Players born in North Carolina (NC) (RC=50) Players born in South Carolina (SC) (RC=52) Players born in Georgia (GA) (RC=53)
DEEP SOUTH REGION (DS)
Players born in Florida (FL) (RC=55) Players born in Alabama (AL) (RC=60) Players born in Mississippi (MS) (RC=65) Players born in Louisiana (LA) (RC=66)
APPALACHIAN REGION (APP)
(NOTE: VA and WV “swing” between Mid-Atlantic, Appalachia, and Ohio+ (WV paired w. OH as co-op)
Players born in Virginia (VA) (RC=77) Players born in West Virginia (WV) (RC=76) Players born in Kentucky (KY) (RC=80) Players born in Tennessee (TN) (RC=82)
OHIO (OH) was/is generally a stand-alone state or regional co-op Players born in Ohio (OH) (RC=70)
MIDWEST REGION (MW)
Players born in Indiana (IN) (RC=85) Players born in Michigan (MI) (RC=90) Players born in Wisconsin (WI) (RC=95) ILLINOIS (IL) until 1905, was part of Midwest (MW) Players born in Illinois (IL) (RC=98)
MISSISSIPPI RIVER REGION (MRR)
Players born in Minnesota (MN) (RC=101) Players born in Iowa (IA) (RC=103) Players born in Missouri (MO) (RC=105) Players born in Arkansas (AR) (RC=110)
TEXAS (TX) at various times is known as Texas Plus (TX+, with Oklahoma and New Mexico), or as a co-op with Latin America (Texas-Latin America, or TXL) Players born in Texas (TX) (RC=120)
WESTERN REGION (ALL STATES & U.S. TERRITORIES WEST OF M.R.R. : 1906+, EXCEPT CA SINCE 1931)
Players born in Oklahoma (OK) (RC=130) Players born in Kansas (KS) (RC=134) Players born in Nebraska (NE) (RC=135) Players born in South Dakota (SD) (RC=137) Players born in North Dakota (ND) (RC=138) Players born in Montana (MT) (RC=139) Players born in Wyoming (WY) (RC=140) Players born in Colorado (CO) (RC=141) Players born in New Mexico (NM) (RC=133)
Players born in Arizona (AZ) (RC=143) Players born in Utah (UT) (RC=145) Players born in Nevada (NV) (RC=146) Players born in Idaho (ID) (RC=148) Players born in Oregon (OR) (RC=150) Players born in Washington (WA) (RC=155) Players born in Alaska (AK) (RC=157) Players born in Hawaii (HI) (RC=158) Players born in Guam (GU) (RC=159) Players born in American Samoa (Tony Solaita, only one so far) (RC=159)
CALIFORNIA (CA): Stand-alone state or region since 1931; [Future arrangements: split (1971 thru 2020) into California-North (CAN) (RC=161) and California-South (CA) (RC=160), carrying on as the flagship franchise 1971+). Note that CA[S] could be/was further sub-divided into CA SouthEast (CSE) (RC=180) and CA SouthWest (CSW) (RC=170). CSE would/did include these 5 counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, and Orange. CSW would/did include these 5 counties: Los Angeles, Ventura, Kern, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo]. Players born in California (CA) (the most by far) (RC=160)
EXTRA-NATIONAL REGIONS (outside of the United States)
CARIBBEAN REGION (REGIONAL CODES FOLLOW IN PARENTHESES; THESE ARE NOT PLAYER COUNTS)
Players born in the Bahamas (BAH) (201) Players born in Cuba (CU) (202) Players born in Jamaica (JAM) (204) Players born in Puerto Rico (PR) (205) Players born in the U.S. Virgin Islands (VI) (208) Players born in Curacao (CUR) (218) Players born in Aruba (ARU) (219) Players born in the Dominican Republic (DO) (210)
The map used [much later] to split the Dominican Republic into Dominican-East (DOE) and Dominican-West (DOW) in 2002 (the continuing arrangement in the Open Baseball League (OBL) through 2020). Orange line marks the division, with DOW to the left and DOE to the right):
LATIN AMERICA REGION (CENTRAL and SOUTH AMERICA) (LAT ) and (SAM )
Players born in Mexico (MX) (RC=301) Player born in Belize (RC=302) Players born in Nicaragua (NI) (RC=303) Players born in Honduras (HON) (RC=304) Players born in Panama (PAN) (RC=305)
Players born in Colombia (COL) (RC=401) Players born in Venezuela (VE) (RC=402) Players born in Brazil (BR) (RC=407) Player born in Peru (PRU) (RC=408)
CANADA-EUROPE (REGIONAL CODES FOLLOW IN PARENTHESES; THESE ARE NOT PLAYER COUNTS)
Players born in Canada (CN) (700) Players born in Ireland (IRE) (613) Players born in the United Kingdom (UK) (614) Players born in Austria (AUS) (607) Player born in Belgium (BEL) (615) Players born in the Czech Republic (CZ) (606) Player born in Denmark (DMK) (618) Players born in France (FRA) (611) Players born in Germany (GER) (617) Player born in Greece (GRE) (610) Players born in Italy (IT) (609) Player born in Latvia (LTV) (604) Player born in Lithuania (LITH) (604) Players born in the Netherlands (NET) (616) Players born in Norway (NW) (621) Players born in Poland (POL) (605) Player born in Portugal (POR) (612) Players born in the Russian Federation (RUS) (603) Players born in Ukraine (UKR) (603) Players born in Slovakia (606) Players born in Spain (SPN) (612) Players born in Sweden (SWE) (620) Player born in Switzerland (608)
ASIA-PACIFIC-AFRICA (REGIONAL CODES FOLLOW IN PARENTHESES; THESE ARE NOT PLAYER COUNTS)
Player born in Afghanistan (601) Players born in Saudi Arabia (601) Players born in Australia (AU) (501) Player born in Hong Kong (505) Player born in Indonesia (502) Players born in Japan (JP) (507) Players born in the Philippines (503) Player born in Singapore (505) Players born in South Korea (KOR) (508) Players born in Taiwan (TW) (506) Player born in Viet Nam (504) Player born in China (CHN) (505) Player born “At Sea” Players born in South Africa (SAF) (602) Player born in Liberia (LIB) (602)
REGIONAL PLAYER-DISTRIBUTIONS, 1871 THROUGH 2020 (THE ENTIRE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT)
The files below reflect regional (birthplace) groupings as most-often defined (usual OBL boundaries), as well as the total number of players born within that region, historically-speaking. “Far West” and “Far West (+)” differ in this respect: FW comprises U.S. states and Pacific Territories only, and FW+ includes Pacific extra-nationals (Japan, Australia, Taiwan, etc.):