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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Lost States: Saddest town in baseball

Quiz question: What US city (in the lower 48) is furthest from a major league baseball team? The crack staff at Lost States spent way too much time figuring this out. It’s Loring, Montana—nearly 700 miles to the nearest ballpark.

Loring is so obscure it doesn’t even have a wikipedia page, and as far as I can tell from Google Maps it consists of a few barns, a garage, a “Bar & Cafe”, and a post office.

Gamingboy Posted: May 25, 2011 at 06:20 PM | 26 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
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1. RMc's grumbling has gone far enough Posted: May 25, 2011 at 08:09 PM (#3837542)

About 10-12 years ago, I wondered about this on rsbb; I determined that Turner, Montana, was the furthest (in the 48 states) away from a major league city.

2. Enrico Pallazzo Posted: May 25, 2011 at 08:10 PM (#3837543)

Yeah, I remember that Turner, Montana graphic. What's that blog again?

3. Craig in MN Posted: May 25, 2011 at 08:22 PM (#3837547)

Turner is only about 15 miles west of Loring, so it's pretty close. The Twins stadium moved 1/2 mile west in the mean time, but that would have moved the answer further west, rather than east. Seattle's stadium change should be negligible, shouldn't it?

The only way to settle this is the Montana way....have the mayors of Turner and Loring settle it with a duel.

4. TerpNats Posted: May 25, 2011 at 08:34 PM (#3837558)

Sad to say, both Turner and Loring are probably (temporally) closer to seeing a contender than Washington, the saddest town in MLB.

5. RJ not in TO

Posted: May 25, 2011 at 08:35 PM (#3837560)

Flip Flop Fly Ball did an infographic on this and came up with Turner, Montana.

6. bfan Posted: May 25, 2011 at 08:39 PM (#3837566)

Couldn't they do this with the minimum size of the town (by SMSA) at, say, 50,000 people?

7. Gamingboy Posted: May 25, 2011 at 08:44 PM (#3837574)

Turner, Montana is also Wikipedia-less, but judging by Google Maps it at least has a school, a small airstrip, and, yes, a a ballfield (or at least a softball field).

BTW, What I'm wondering is what the most isolated baseball place in America is if you include minor league and Indy teams.

8. Tulo's Fishy Mullet (mrams) Posted: May 25, 2011 at 09:08 PM (#3837582)

BTW, What I'm wondering is what the most isolated baseball place in America is if you include minor league and Indy teams.

Answer: probably Turner, MT, unless, w/o looking, I would volunteer someplace that is north of Turner, MT, near the Canadian border as Billings is likely the closest minor league team at oh, 210 miles or so. Helena has a team.

Wyoming has a team in Casper so it hard to find a city outside of 210 miles that isn't then closer to Billings, Ogden, or a Colorado team

Other wild guess, Elko, Nevada. Not close to Reno and about 280 to Ogden/SLC area. Idaho Falls is probably outside 250 miles too.

9. Fernigal McGunnigle Posted: May 25, 2011 at 09:10 PM (#3837584)

To make this relevan to BBTF: Loring is only 150 road miles from Box Elder, Montana, which lent its name to the title to a Pavement song about trying to get as far away from anywhere as possible.

10. 100 Years is Nothing Posted: May 25, 2011 at 09:18 PM (#3837587)

It doesn't matter, they are probably blacked out of 8 different teams via MLB TV rights.

11. Eamus Catuli Posted: May 25, 2011 at 09:32 PM (#3837592)

I think if you include minor league teams, it moves toward North Dakota. Here's the map of minor league teams. There are a few in Montana, probably relatively close to the Turner area.

I might nominate someplace like Antler, ND - looks to be about halfway between Minneapolis and the easternmost minor league team in Montana, plus it's right at the Canadian border.

12. Eamus Catuli Posted: May 25, 2011 at 09:43 PM (#3837599)

In looking closer, the answer might be Carbury ND - 509 miles to Billings MT, 512 miles to Minneapolis.

EDIT: According to Wikipedia, Carbury is an abandoned ghost town with 0 population. So it should probably be disqualified.

Next guesses - Souris ND (503 to Billings/519 to Minneapolis) or Bottineau ND (508 to Billings/503 to Minneapolis). Souris has about 50 people, Bottineau about 2200, including the world's largest turtle.

13. Tulo's Fishy Mullet (mrams) Posted: May 25, 2011 at 10:22 PM (#3837614)

No doubt excluding MiLB it is all North Dakota, and then some SD cities.

I wonder what city east of the Mississippi is furthest away from MiLB and MLB. I'd assume Houghton, MI or some city just north of Houghton in the UP. I'm guessing it is 275 miles to Appleton and 350+ to Traverse City.

14. jwb Posted: May 25, 2011 at 11:46 PM (#3837680)

The American Association has teams in Fargo-Moorhead, ND Sioux Falls, SD, and Winnipeg, MB.

15. Craig in MN Posted: May 26, 2011 at 01:07 AM (#3837844)

If you add in American Association teams (Fargo), you might be in Crosby ND, as the most baseball-remote place.

I've been through a lot of these towns, and they are pretty depressing, baseball or no.

16. Crispix Attacks Posted: May 26, 2011 at 01:20 AM (#3837856)

I wonder what city east of the Mississippi is furthest away from MiLB and MLB. I'd assume Houghton, MI or some city just north of Houghton in the UP. I'm guessing it is 275 miles to Appleton and 350+ to Traverse City.

Yeah, except for the far north any place east of the Mississippi is near a minor-league team at least. Northern Maine might be similarly far away. Or Farmington, New York or some such place.

17. jwb Posted: May 26, 2011 at 01:29 AM (#3837862)

The Can-Am League Quebec Capitales take northern Maine out of the running.

18. loststates Posted: May 26, 2011 at 10:32 AM (#3838048)

Over at Lost States, we re-checked our data... and indeed Loring beats Turner (or loses to Turner, depending on your perspective). No disrespect to flipflopflyball, but I think we got it right. More here: http://bit.ly/jTwwWw

19. Nevermind Eric Bullock, Here's Dan Lee Posted: May 26, 2011 at 10:38 AM (#3838050)

If you add in American Association teams (Fargo), you might be in Crosby ND, as the most baseball-remote place.

I had a friend in high school who had family in Crosby and spent much of his summer there. He had a t-shirt that said "I PARTIED IN CROSBY NODAK!"

I loved that shirt.

20. Styles P. Deadball Posted: May 26, 2011 at 11:57 AM (#3838076)

The American Association has teams in Fargo-Moorhead, ND Sioux Falls, SD, and Winnipeg, MB.

Did the Northern League rename itself?

21. SandyRiver Posted: May 26, 2011 at 01:35 PM (#3838138)

Yeah, except for the far north any place east of the Mississippi is near a minor-league team at least. Northern Maine might be similarly far away. Or Farmington, New York or some such place.

Allagash, Maine (pop about 250) is 350 miles from Hadlock Field, home of the AA Portland Sea Dogs. Madawaska is about 335, and it's a small city of about 5,000, with a sizable paper mill. (Estcourt Station, on the border at Maine's northern tip but with only a handful of residents, is 380 miles from Portland, might be closer to Montreal.)

22. SandyRiver Posted: May 26, 2011 at 01:38 PM (#3838141)

Oops, just noticed #17. Assuming a Quebec City location, the Capitales are maybe 275 miles from Presque Isle, Maine, which lies a few miles farther than that from Portland.

23. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad) Posted: May 26, 2011 at 01:42 PM (#3838146)

Souris has about 50 people, Bottineau about 2200, including the world's largest turtle.

I don't care how big he is - he still shouldn't count as a person.

24. SoSH U at work Posted: May 26, 2011 at 01:51 PM (#3838163)

Did the Northern League rename itself?

No, it folded after 2010. Fargo, Winnipeg, K.C. and Gary joined the American Association. Joliet joined the Frontier League and the others are homeless.

25. edsauced Posted: May 30, 2011 at 03:15 AM (#3840788)

This was long ago answered by the mythical Dan Werr on his first column:
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/primate_studies/discussion/danwerr_2003-01-07_0/
Billy: Geographer Dan, I live in Morgan, Montana, and my teacher says that it's the farthest city in the continental United States from Major League Baseball.
Geographer Dan: Another common misconception, Billy. While Morgan is 895 miles from Seattle and 894 from Minneapolis, it is only 812 miles from Denver. Opheim, Montana, on the other hand, is 817 miles from Minneapolis, 894 miles from Denver, and 963 miles from Seattle.

26. Dag Nabbit and his imaginary friends Posted: May 30, 2011 at 03:32 AM (#3840795)

Loring is so obscure it doesn’t even have a wikipedia page, and as far as I can tell from Google Maps it consists of a few barns, a garage, a “Bar & Cafe”, and a post office.

I remember years ago when I had an archives internship with a friend of mine we once looked at a list of every incorporated town in Illinois and their population. Smallest place? Valley City, IL: population 23. Or 21. Something like that. It was on the Illinois River.

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Lost States: Saddest town in baseball

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