Map of Every Minnesota Twins' Birthplace

[The Dread Pirate]

I was bored recently and decided to create a Google Map with the birthplace tabbed for every person who has ever played for the Twins. Apparently they don't scout the Rockies.

[Seth Stohs]

wow! You must have been bored, and i'm not sure what it tells us... but that is very cool!!!

[gunnarthor]

That was fun.

[John Bonnes]

Well, that obviously rocks.

 

Anyone else struck by how much thicker the map is out east than out west? I would've expected a lot more flags in California.

 

Do the different colors mean anything?

[JB_Iowa]

Fascinating.

 

For John (from the side of the map): Color-coded by number of players born in each town.

 

I love the info on the side -- even more than the map itself.

 

Thanks for a unique view of the team in history.

[J-Dog Dungan]

Great map. I just remembered one you might have missed. There was a 7-ft. tall Dutch pitcher who was with our team for a while, I believe his name was Loek van Mil.

[JB_Iowa]

P.S. This would be a GREAT way to get a baseball-loving kid interested in geography

[Riverbrian]

Absolutely Fantastic... Above and Beyond effort.

 

Now when I'm bored... I can click on the flags. I thank you for your boredom.

 

Twins Daily powers that be... Can you Take that Map and give it a spot somewhere accessable so it doesn't fade away as time goes on?

 

Pirate put a lot of work into it and would hate to see it get buried.

[Seth Stohs]

Great map. I just remembered one you might have missed. There was a 7-ft. tall Dutch pitcher who was with our team for a while, I believe his name was Loek van Mil.

 

Van Mil didn't get above AA with the Twins organization.

[JB_Iowa]

Twins Daily powers that be... Can you Take that Map and give it a spot somewhere accessable so it doesn't fade away as time goes on?

 

Pirate put a lot of work into it and would hate to see it get buried.

 

I second that request. Look forward to the addition of new locations as players are called up or signed to the team in the coming years.

[John Bonnes]

Twins Daily powers that be... Can you Take that Map and give it a spot somewhere accessable so it doesn't fade away as time goes on?

 

Pirate put a lot of work into it and would hate to see it get buried.

 

I second that request. Look forward to the addition of new locations as players are called up or signed to the team in the coming years.

 

I'd like some suggestions on this. We've had a few different items that I would have loved to have on a reference page. This, the salary chart, spring training battles, etc. But I haven't found a great way to do that. I suppose we could just start a story with all these references and then put a link on the front page that points to it, and then update the reference page when stuff like this comes along.

 

Any other ideas?

[JB_Iowa]

Jon, could you start a separate section -- like a forum section but wouldn't necessarily have to have comments -- as a "reference section". Things that are fact not opinion.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Fascinating. We'll have to figure out a way to incorporate this into the site on a permanent basis. I'll think about it and talk it over with the rest of the crew.

[Kobs]

The US portion of the map looks pretty much like this:

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

The US portion of the map looks pretty much like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2205[/ATTACH]

 

Yep. As someone who lived in Utah for 4-5 years, I can tell you that there aren't many people in the Rockies. In the Wasatch/Rockies/Sierras, you basically have SLC, Denver (at the eastern edge), and that's it until you go south all the way to Phoenix...

[Rosterman]

Sounds like it was something fun to do while watching the Twins play this year!

[Twins GFP]

Very cool. Thanks for a different look at Twins history.

 

I agree a reference section would be interesting. It would have to be for uniques things like this though, as ESPN, Baseball Reference, et al, have a lot of these covered already.

 

Surprising the Twins haven't mined that baseball hotbed that is Alaska...

[James]

This is absolutely awesome. Thanks for making this!

[nokomismod]

Yes, very cool! Thank you!

[Parker Hageman]

Fun stuff. Thanks for being bored.

[Gernzy]

Thank you for spending time on this! Simply amazing.

[StormJH1]

Wow, that is simply amazing. Also, while there were more than a few "one of us" guys, I was surprised there weren't more from Minnesota. Then again, if you just look at the markers, it's a bit deceiving, since the one for St. Paul represents like 9 different guys.

[Fatt Crapps]

I always thought Hrbek was born and raised in Bloomington. Can anyone verify? I know his wiki page says MPLS, but...

[Steve Penz]

I am not certain about where Hrbek was born but he did graduate from Kennedy in '78. When I went there you always heard stories about the time he hit the school. I don't know if the story was true. They have since named some ball fields after him and he still lives on the bluffs by Dwan GC.

 

This map is so much fun. Thank you for doing it. Did anybody see Carlos Silva's bubble in Bolivar, Venezuela? I was near there years ago and talk about the middle of nowhere. That is amazing.

[nicksaviking]

Awesome. That hits on both fronts of my geekdom; baseball and maps. Looks like the Twins need to do some scouting in New Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii to get someone from each state. Shane Victorino is a free agent after the season, but the OF is getting full. You'd think Alaska would be pretty tough but I see Daniel Schlereth and Aaron cunningham are both from there.

[The Dread Pirate]

I'm just glad that you all enjoyed it. Also, I'm skeptical that Carlos Silva was born in the Bolivar in the middle of no where rather than Ciudad Bolivar (like several other Twins), but I was going off the Baseball-Reference information, so I'm not going to randomly decide on his place of birth.

[nicksaviking]

I see Deduno and Florimon were from the same city and are only 3 years seperated in age. I wonder if they played against each other growing up?

[The Dread Pirate]

I see Deduno and Florimon were from the same city and are only 3 years seperated in age. I wonder if they played against each other growing up?

 

I thought it was strange that the 2012 Twins had the following players from the same hometown:

Butera and Carroll

Deduno and Florimon

Casilla, Liriano, and Perdomo

Burroughs and Revere

 

I wonder if any other team has ever had at least a pair of teammates from four different cities.