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Player Production by State, or Where to Raise an Athlete
Jason posted 1/15/2008 from ballhype.com
After I posted a set of maps last month denoting NBA player birthplace and high school locations, a few people wondered about per capita implications as well as other sports. Thankfully, I got an email from Andrew Percival, who a few years ago plotted much nicer-looking maps that tackle those very questions.
First, here's his NBA production map (click to enlarge), which shows how many high schoolers made it to the NBA for every 1 million males in each respective state. Not surprisingly, the results are quite similar to what Truth About It calculated from the later birth stats, with states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Iowa, and South Dakota producing more than their share of players. When presented in this format, it's evident that there isn't much of a strong regional pattern.
Next up is his MLB production map (again, click to enlarge), which shows stronger geographic patterns. As a warm-weather sport, baseball's strength is in states with mild to subtropical climates, with Washington and North Dakota being the only real northern outliers.
My favorite was this NFL production map, which is even more geographically concentrated in the Southeast. No shocker here--Sarge at First and 10 Inches pointed out just yesterday that 32 of this year's top 50 high school senior football prospects are from Florida, Georgia, Texas and Alabama.
So why is basketball more geographically diverse? Andrew offered two explanations, paraphrased here:
- Basketball is can be played year-round, indoors and out, so it doesn't rely on optimal weather conditions.
- The basketball map is based on about 1/3 as many players as baseball and 1/5 as many players as football. The smaller sample size increases the relative importance of each individual player, contributing to the more checkerboard like pattern.
His last gift was a set of Google Earth files which frankly make my old Google Maps offerings look like garbage. (You can download Google Earth here, but don't blame me if you get sucked into zooming in and out on your neighborhood for the next 15 minutes.)
These files map the high school of every player in each league from last season. Click a dot to see which players are represented, and double-click to zoom in on the school. If you made it this far (and don't have vertigo), you'll love them.
Google Earth: NBA High School | MLB High School | NFL High School
