I remember there was a stat that I heard once and found fascinating, it was something along the lines of “(surprisngly high percentage) of (position, I believe it was short stops) in MLB come from one neighborhood in (Latin American country, maybe Venezuela?)”
Anyone know what I could be thinking of?
A huge number of star players have come from the Dominican Republic, which is a pretty small neighborhood.
Awesome! Now I’m trying to find the specific stat I found, that’s a big help, thank you.
This article is outdated, but at the time it was written it claimed 5 of the league’s 26 starting shortstops were from the tiny town of San Pedro De Macoris. This Sports Illustrated article, also from the late 80s, claimed 70 Dominican shortstops in the majors and minors.
Baseball-reference.com says that there have been 583 major league players from the Dominican Republic, far more than any other country (Venezuela=294, Canada=239, Cuba=179) and more than many US states (Florida=449).
The full list of Dominican players shows roughly 120 big leaguers from San Pedro de Macoris.
Pelotero (Ballplayer) is a documentary about baseball players in the Dominican Republic going to training camps in hopes of getting signed by an MLB team. It’s on Netflix streaming if you want to check it out.