I think that Atlanta is such a hotbed for bb area because of weather and location, location, location.
Drive in any direction and in a short time you can hit many ACC or SEC schools as well as other good D1 programs. milb teams as well. That drives the desire.
However, I do not feel that exceptional talent comes from that area as much as it does from other places.
This is from a few years ago, but still holds up I think: http://articles.latimes.com/20...er-producers-2010071
I remember being told that California (with about 12% of the USA's population) produces 25% of the American-born big leaguers, so this is pretty close.
Sorry, here's the link:
http://articles.latimes.com/20...r-producers-20100713
Since the 2007 draft the Atlanta area has produced more first/second round picks than any area in the country. In fact, over the past several years about 25% of all first round outfielders have come from this area. It is actually kind of amazing. I would guess that areas in Southern California are the only ones close when it comes to first round talent over the past several years. No one comes close to Atlanta when it comes to the number of African American players drafted in the early rounds. That is part of the reason it is such a hotbed.
Since the 2007 draft the Atlanta area has produced more first/second round picks than any area in the country. In fact, over the past several years about 25% of all first round outfielders have come from this area. It is actually kind of amazing. I would guess that areas in Southern California are the only ones close when it comes to first round talent over the past several years. No one comes close to Atlanta when it comes to the number of African American players drafted in the early rounds. That is part of the reason it is such a hotbed.
Could you elaborate on this point? I think it's connected to the hunger/urgency point, but I am not sure.
Could be hunger, but I think it is more a result of leadership. For whatever reason a lot of the outstanding athletes in the Atlanta area play baseball. In many cases baseball is their #1 sport. When they see someone like Jason Heyward make it or a Tim Beckham becoming the first overall pick, it just adds to the interest.
It's not just an African American thing, three white outfielders a couple years ago went early in the first round. I think the East Cobb program got everything going. Many consider that program as the best in the country. Several other programs have started to catch up and now there are a lot of national level summer and fall programs in the Atlanta area.
Once again, there are many reasons, but I'm not sure if the players in that area are any more "hungery" than players elsewhere. They just play a lot of baseball, play against the best competition, and have strong leadership. Baseball is extremely important in the Atlanta area compared to most parts of the country. Georgia may not have the population of some other states, but when it comes to summer and fall teams they might have more than most every state. In most places the best athletes are more interested in Football and Basketball. Many, obviously not all, of the top athletes in the Atlanta area are most interested in baseball. It would be unbelievable if it were that way everywhere.
You are very right, as usual, PGStaff. For ages 4-13 I know of two football "clubs" in my county, and the same can be said for basketball, and both seasons last about 8 weeks. I can name well over 30 baseball parks that provide rec or travel baseball in just my county (which does not include Atlanta, we are about an hour north and three counties over from Atlanta).
The mindset in Georgia about baseball is the mindset that Texan's have about Football. It's in your face 24/7 here growing up. Even at 6u, with 10 players on a team, there were 12 teams for fall ball, and that was just in our rec park there is another rec park 2 miles away with similar numbers, and in another 2 miles...and another 2 miles...you get my drift.
Baseball is a part of nearly every child's life here, including *gasp* girls!
I know it will never happen, but I've often wondered what kind of team would come out of the metro Atlanta area if the best 20 or so players from each age group were put together to form a team. The talent here is really SO spread out among SO many teams that the thought of putting the best together is just mind boggling.
My guess is that most people that are not from around here have no idea the number of travel options available to the players. PG mentioned East Cobb. Looking at their website, there are 12 fifteen year old teams, 9 sixteen year old teams, 6 seventeen year old teams and 9 eighteen year old teams. That's just at East Cobb. Then there is 643 with at least 2 teams per age group, Team Elite, Team Gwinnett, Team Georgia, Nelson Baseball Academy, Windward Baseball Academy, Home Plate Baseball, Big Stix, Atlanta Blue Jays - The list goes on and on and on. Most programs having multiple teams per age group.
That's why I've said in another post that for a team in the metro-Atlanta area, there is really no need to travel very far to find top notch competition. Not to mention that the largest baseball tournaments in the world are held by PG right here. Hundreds of the best teams from all over the country come to the Metro-Atlanta area every year to play baseball. No wonder why there are so many top players from around here.
I am in no way slighting other areas of the country. And maybe there are huge numbers of teams available to play on from other areas as well. I just know that here in Metro-Atlanta, there are virtually unlimited options and LOTS of competition.
