The baseball challenge

It's day two of the the Dakota show down. The Dakota debate is taking form and it's now time to talk of America's Past Time. Which Dakota is best represented in baseball? Lets discuss

We'll get things started with players from North Dakota:

Perhaps a name that could seal the deal for North Dakota before even hearing the list for South Dakota, is a hall of famer by the name of Roger Eugene Maris, or Fargo ND. Maris is best known for breaking Babe Ruth's single season home run record by hitting 61 home runs in the 1961 season. If you ask me, Maris's record should still be the existing number in the record books. Did they have steroids in the 60's? Doubt it. The # is still 61. The next player we'll bring up is Travis Haffner, 1st basemen for the Cleveland Indains from Sykston ND. Haffner is a career .282 hitter and has compiled 147 HR in a injury plagued career. Until the past couple years Haffner has anchored the 1B sport as well as the 4th spot in the batting order for the tribe. A potential all-star when healthy. Our list of ND ballplayers continues with Darin Erstad from Jamestown ND. Erstad played his college ball at the U of Nebraska and broke into the league as the 1st overall pick to the Anaheim Angels in the 1996 mlb draft. A two time All-star, and a World Series winner with the 02 Angels, Erstad presently has found himself as a situational player for the Houston Astros. Rick Helling is the forth player on our list, coming from Devils Lake ND. Helling was drafted in 1992 while playing his college ball at the University of Stanford. Helling's 15 years in the league were spent with a variety of teams. He was on the 2003 World Series winning Florida Marlins and announced his retirement from the game of baseball in 2007. In all, ND has had 15 players born in their state, that have reached the Major Leagues.

Lets now focus our attention to South Dakota:

We'll get the list started with George Lee (Sparky) Anderson, born in Birdgewater SD. Although sparky did spend time as a player in the majors, he's most famous for his time spent as a manager. Sparky won World Series titles as a manager with the 1975 and 76 Cinncinati Reds, and also as the manager of the 1984 Detroit Tigers. He finished his baseball managerial career with a lifetime record of 2194-1834, for a .545 percentage. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 2000. South Dakota's 2nd name on the list will be Mark Ellis, of Rapid City SD. Ellis played his college ball at the University of Florida and went on to be drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 1999 draft. Ellis is currently the starting 2B for the A's and has a career batting avergae of .265. We move on to our next candidate, Jason Kubel, from Belle Forche SD. Kubel was drafted in 2000 without playing any college ball. Kubel has spent his entire career with the Minnesota Twins, mostly as a left fielder and DH. His career batting average is .268 and Jason is experiencing a great start to his 2009 season. Some interesting bits of information from SD is that current Red Sox manager Terry Francona was born in Aberdeen SD, and also that former Red Sox closer Keith Foulke, was born on ellsworth AFB in SD. Both grew up in other states, but none the less, born in SD.

To conclude this baseball debate of which state has a better representation in the majors out of the Dakotas, I have to chalk this one up to North Dakota. Roger Maris alone wins this arguement for the No Daks. Although he was actually born in Minnesota, he moved to ND as a young boy and grew up as well as attended high school in Fargo. Roger Maris ranks up there with some of the all time Yankee greats that ever laced up their cleats and roamed the playing surface of the infamous Yankee Stadium. His 61 HR in a single season was just one of Maris' baseball accomplishments. He also, was MVP of the league three times, had four all star appearances, one gold glove, a .260 career average, and that all was topped off by an induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Good for you North Dakota, Roger Maris is definitaly something to be proud of. Our current score is all knoted up at 1. We'll continue our Dakota debate tomorrow. Stay tuned.