Missouri-Born Major Leaguers

Missouri had been quite proficient over the years in sending its native sons to the big leagues. With 531 ballplayers through 1991, Missouri ranks 8th among the 50 states in number of natives to play in the majors. Most of this is attributable to the city of St. Louis. Having had a major league franchise since 1882 as well as in 1875-76-77, St. Louis has been far and away the leader in producing big league ballplayers. In fact, of the first 51 Missourians to debut in the major leagues, 49 of them were born in St. Louis.

But interestingly enough, the first Missourian to play in the majors was not born in St. Louis. John Paul Peters, a shortstop who broke in with the 1874 Chicago White Stockings and later played with Milwaukee, Providence, Buffalo and Pittsburgh, was born April 8, 1850 in Louisiana, Missouri, a small town about 75 miles northwest of St. Louis.

Since that time, many fine ballplayers from the state of Missouri have graced major league diamond, including seven Hall of Famers. James “Pud” Galvin, one of the greatest pitchers of the 19th century and the only man besides Cy Young to both win and lose 300 games, was born in St. Louis on Christmas Day, 1856. Jake Beckley, who still holds the record for the most games played at first base, was born in Hannibal in 1867. Clark Griffith, 7-time 20-game winner and long-time owner of the Washington Senators, was born in Clear Creek, Missouri. Zack Wheat, outstanding outfielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers, hailed from Hamilton. Charles Dillon Stengel, legendary manager, was called “Casey” after his hometown of Kansas City. Carl Hubbell, screwball artist extraordinaire, was born in Carthage. And Yogi Berra grew up on “The Hill” in St. Louis.

Missouri, particularly St. Louis, also seems to have been a breeding ground for successful major league managers. The above-mentioned Griffith, Stengel, and Berra, were all pennant-winning managers. In addition, Charlie Grimm (St. Louis), Johnny Keane (St. Louis), Tom Loftus (St. Louis), Mayo Smith (New London), Patsy Tebeau (St. Louis), Earl Weaver (St. Louis), and Dick Williams (St. Louis) were all native-born Missourians.

Many other fine ballplayers hailed from Missouri. These include Perry Werden (St. Louis), Silver King (St. Louis), George Van Haltren (St. Louis), Johnny Kling (Kansas City), Smokey Joe Wood (Kansas City), Dutch Zwilling (St. Louis), Glenn Wright (Archie), Vern Kennedy (Kansas City), Mort and Walker Cooper (Atherton), Mickey Owen (Nixa), Pete Reiser (St. Louis), Roy Sievers (St. Louis), Ken Boyer (Liberty), Elston Howard (St. Louis), Bob Allison (Raytown) Ron Hunt (St. Louis), Mel Stottlemyre (Hazelton), Ken Holtzman (St. Louis), Steve Rogers (Jefferson City), Jerry Reuss (St. Louis), Darrell Porter (Joplin), and Rick Sutcliffe (Independence).

Although in recent years the concentration of Missouri major leaguers had tended to move away from St. Louis and head west to the Kansas City area, Missouri continues to produce excellent big-league material. Missourians can look to David Cone (Kansas City), Lee Stevens (Kansas City), Bernard Gilkey (St. Louis), and Scott Cooper (St. Louis) to being the stars of the ’90s.