They play baseball in the Big Ten, too.
Beginning tomorrow, the Daily Big Ten will look at the five best Major Leaguers throughout history from each of the Big Ten schools. The series will run over the next two weeks, starting alphabetically with Illinois.
For some schools, it’s pretty easy to point to the best five. Others have proven difficult – both because there are quite a few quality players (Michigan) and next to none (Indiana).
To get us started, let’s take a look at how many Major Leaguers and Hall of Famers each Big Ten school has produced (whether they were in the Big Ten at the time or not):
| School | Players | HOFers |
| Illinois | 71 | 1 |
| Indiana | 22 | 0 |
| Iowa | 26 | 1 |
| Michigan | 78 | 3 |
| Michigan State | 38 | 1 |
| Minnesota | 33 | 2 |
| Nebraska | 39 | 0 |
| Northwestern | 22 | 0 |
| Ohio State | 54 | 0 |
| Penn State | 29 | 1 |
| Purdue | 20 | 0 |
| Wisconsin | 25 | 1 |
That’s 457 players and 10 Hall of Famers in more than 140 years – which isn’t terrible for schools in cold-weather states that are far better known for their basketball and football programs. By comparison, USC has had 107 Major Leaguers, Texas 103 and Arizona State 102 – not all that more than Michigan and Illinois.
So, come back and take a look at the series. You’ll get numbers, old-time baseball cards and links to videos.
Related articles
- Which Big Ten School Produces Best NFL Offense? (dailybigten.com)
July 15, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Let’s just call this conversation what it is, George Sisler/Barry Larkin vs. Dave Winfield/Paul Molitor.
As a non-B1G side note, if Barry Larkin is a HOFer, then Alan Trammell is getting the shaft.
July 15, 2012 at 4:32 pm
It may come down to a depth issue in that equation.