Uniquely Alabama: Baseball Legends From A Football State

"Uniquely Alabama" is an occasional series where Patch tries to find the answers to questions about life in Alabama. Have a question about the Yellowhammer State that needs answering? Send it to michael.seale@patch.com

BIRMINGHAM, AL — We all know that Alabama is football country, and rightly so. Between the University of Alabama and Auburn University, championships, Heisman Trophy winners and Hall of Fame members are plentiful.

Add on to that Alabama high school football stars that went on to other schools out of state and excelled, and I will concede that Alabama is, in fact, a football state. And I love football. In fact, I love all sports. If you can throw it, kick it, hit it, catch it, score it or whatever, I am a fan. But baseball is my first love.

And being a lifelong Alabamian, I also know that Alabama's baseball heritage is nothing to thumb your nose at. In fact, 12 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame hail from Alabama. With the recent passing of Hank Aaron and Don Sutton, and the 90th birthday celebrated this month by Willie Mays, I started thinking about just how deep Alabama's baseball heritage is.

More than 300 Alabama-born players have played in Major League Baseball, and that is not even counting the number of players who played in the Negro Leagues before MLB integrated in 1947.

Alabama is currently home to three Double-A minor league teams (Birmingham Barons, Montgomery Biscuits and the Rocket City Trash Pandas), and at one time had four active minor league teams when Mobile had a team in the Southern League.

Speaking of Mobile, let's just look at how many baseball legends are Mobile natives. In addition to Aaron, Mobile claims Hall of Famers Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith and Satchel Paige. And Sutton is from Clio, right outside of Mobile.

For the sake of discussion, I decided to put together my own All-Alabama team, which was difficult considering how many players our state has put in the major leagues. But I gave it a shot anyway:

• 1B - Willie McCovey; Mobile (Hall of Fame)
• 2B - Frank Bolling; Mobile (2-time All-Star)
• 3B - Joe Sewell; Tuscaloosa (Hall of Fame)
• SS - Ozzie Smith; Mobile (Hall of Fame)
• C - Bruce Benedict; Birmingham (2-time All-Star)
• OF - Hank Aaron; Mobile (Hall of Fame)
• OF - Willie Mays; Westfield (Hall of Fame)
• OF - Billy Williams; Whistler (Hall of Fame)
• P - Satchel Paige; Mobile (Hall of Fame)
• P - Don Sutton; Clio (Hall of Fame)
• P - Early Wynn; Hartford (Hall of Fame)
• P - Jimmy Key; Huntsville (5-time All-Star)
• P - Corey Kluber; Birmingham (2-time Cy Young Award winner)
• RP - Craig Kimbrel; Huntsville (2011 NL Rookie of the Year)

Oh, and what if one of these guys gets hurt? Well, check out this dugout: Bo Jackson (1989 All-Star Game MVP), Heinie Manush (Hall of Fame), Mule Suttles (Hall of Fame), Monte Irvin (Hall of Fame), George Foster (1977 NL MVP), Tim Anderson (2019 AL batting champion), Lee May (7-time All Star), Amos Otis (5-time All-Star), Andre Thornton (3-time All-Star), Willie Wilson (2-time All-Star), Rudy York (7-time All-Star), Virgil Trucks (2-time All-Star, pitched two no-hitters), Doyle Alexander (All-Star), George Scales (Negro League Hall of Fame) and Luke Sewell (All-Star).

These are just some of the players I would put on a team full of Alabama natives. I could likely put together multiple teams that would compete against any state's all-time team.

Sure, you could also put together a pretty awesome All-Alabama football team (7 Alabama-born players are in the Hall of Fame), and even a darn good All-Alabama basketball team. But a deeper look into how well Alabama is represented in the long history of professional baseball makes this baseball fanatic pretty dang proud.

Play ball!