Fastball

State of Alabama Stands Alone with Regards to Baseball History

As Major League Baseball gets prepared to play a game at Rickwood Field in Alabama on Thursday, the state stands alone in the baseball history books.

Brady Farkas

Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Willie Mays are honored prior to the 2015 MLB All Star Game at Great American Ball Park.
Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Willie Mays are honored prior to the 2015 MLB All Star Game at Great American Ball Park. / Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports
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As Major League Baseball gets set to play a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field in Alabama, the state of Alabama stands alone in baseball history.

Per @OptaSTATS on social media:

Alabama is the only state to be the birthplace of two different players with at least 600 home runs in MLB history - Hank Aaron (755) and Willie Mays (660).
#MLBatRickwood

Mays, who tragically passed this week at the age of 93, is widely regarded as one of the best all-around players to ever play the game. A 24-time All-Star, he was a 12-time Gold Glover, a two-time MVP, a batting champion and a World Series champion. He also won Rookie of the Year as part of a 23-year professional career that started in the Negro Leagues and saw him play for the New York/San Francisco Giants and New York Mets.

He hit 660 career homers and drove in 1,909 runs. He led the majors in homers in two different seasons. He is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Also in the Hall of Fame is Aaron, who spent 23 years in the majors with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers. He is No. 2 all-time in homers with 755 and is the all-time leader in RBI with 2,297. He led baseball in RBI in four different seasons and had 10 seasons of 100 RBI or more.

He was a 25-time All-Star, a two-time batting champion, a three-time Gold Glover, an MVP and a World Series champion.

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Brady Farkas

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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