A couple very memorable World Series finales on this day in baseball history, but I didn't want to steal Dag's thunder.

Pretty good birthday team:
C: Del Rice
1B: Mike Lum
2B: Bip Roberts
3B: Joe Mulvey
SS: U L Washington
LF: Patsy Dougherty
CF: Ralph Kiner
RF: Shad Barry

SP: Brad Radke
SP: 1980s/1990s Bill Swift
SP: Pete Vuckovich
SP: Egyptian Healy
SP: Bill Travers
RP: Lee Stange

I can't really blame you if you're not buying into Kiner as a CF, though he did start 75 games there as a rookie. If Kiner doesn't play center, he moves to left, Dougherty hits the pine, and Barry Bonnell joins the starting lineup in CF.

I finally downloaded DMB this week so I've been screwing around with various teams. Right now I'm working on regional teams (based on place of birth), using the 2011 ZiPS projection disc (the only one I have at the moment, thanks again Dan!)

I pretty much started in a general area and kept including neighbouring states until I had a relatively cromulent lineup. Also California was split into two teams to make it fair

Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee
Star players: David Price, Josh Hamilton, Ryan Zimmerman.
Kind of a weak team, Maybin and Cozart are in the starting 9

Florida, Georgia, Alabama
Star Players: Wainright, Cain, Tim Hudson, Zack Greinke, Brian McCann, Buster Posey
Stacked in the rotation and at catcher (Napoli is their #3), they've got a bunch of CF too, Span, Rasmus, McCutcheon, Rios, Fowler. This was the first team I did so I may have overshot it and included more states than I needed.

Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois
Star Players: Zobrist, Swisher, Granderson
Surprisingly so-so team. Good depth, but short on front-line talent.

Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma
Star Players: Holliday, Kemp, Oswalt, Papelbon
Solid pitching, but their starting 9 includes Ryan Theriot, Julio Borbon, Eli Whiteside, Bill Hall, Reid Brignac and Mtich Moreland. That's not scaring anyone.

Pennsylvania, New York, and all of New England
Star Players: Alex Rodriguez, Chris Carpenter, Paul Konerko
They don't grow many players in the Northeast anymore do they? Tim Collins' name comes up as "Lowpockets" on the roster. Nice touch.

North California (has no geographical meaning, I just split the state roster in two...too lazy to see where people were born)
Star Players: Ryan Braun, Dustin Pedroia, Chase Utley, Evan Longoria
A pretty good infield.

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakotas, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri
Star Players: Mauer, Buehrle, Ryan Howard
Not a bad team. I couldn't find another catcher after Mauer so I gave them Kevin Cash as a backup

Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado
Star Players: Halladay, Kinsler, Lincecum, Lester
This team will go as far as the pitching takes them

South California
Star Players: Entire Roster
Rotation is Sabathia, CJ Wilson, Jered Weaver, Cole Hamels and Strasburg (Projection disc remember!)
Lineup includes Prince Fielder AND Adrian Gonzalez (DH league), and Troy Tulowitzki. Not to mention Mike Stanton and Jimmy Rollins coming off the bench. They got the good end of the random California split

Texas
Star Players: Kershaw, Buccholz, Beckett
Berkman and Dunn lead a capable offence

Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, DC, New Jersey
Star Players: Verlander, Upton Brothers, David Wright, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira
A lot of stars but not much depth. Trout, Heyward and Justin Upton seems like a nice OF for the future though.

Canada (probably should be Puerto Rico, but hey why not)
Star Players: Votto...Russell Martin? Brett Lawrie? Does Justin Morneau still count?
By far the worst team. Tyson Gillies leads off, Pete Orr plays SS.

Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois
Surprisingly so-so team. Good depth, but short on front-line talent.

Yeah, I guess so. As an Ohioan, I've always been impressed with the quantity of star-quality players born here, but it seems they've all retired in the past 10 years: Clemens, Larkin, Justice. Shannon Stewart was a fine ballplayer, though not really a star.

We even have the wrong Chris Carpenter.

Another Designated Sitter piece. It is in a similar vein to yesterday's, if you like that kind of thing.

A piece of news about Fidel Castro in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix... Seriously, for me, this is awesome and it brings back many great memories.

In 1996-97 I was 19 and I participated in Canada World Youth, an exchange program that brings together young Canadians and youth from other countries. My program was between Saskatchewan and Cuba. I spent 4 months in Saskatchewan (where I read the SS-P every day) with 20 other Canadians and 21 Cubans (all of whom actually got back to Cuba after...) and 4 month in a small town in central Cuba where I was working in a elementary school and experienced communism first-hand.

My counterpart was (and still is) an avid baseball fan, so we had tremendous conversations about the respective greatness of Omar Linares and Ken Griffey and many other players.

A couple very memorable World Series finales on this day in baseball history, but I didn't want to steal Dag's thunder.

Much obliged - and good thing I wrote a baseball history thing for THT today. Which I did in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Jack Morris game. No one would throw a CG extra inning shutout in the majors again for the next 50,000 GS after that. Really. Plus it's the second time Don Denkinger serves as home plate ump for a World Series game.

Other items having their anniversary today include: the monsoon, the other Game Seven Don Denkinger workd home plate for -- also a memorable shutout but for completely different reasons, a big Cards-Phillies game in which the worst player involved ends up being the most famous individual of them all; a big Cubs-Pirates trade involving a Hall of Famer,the winningest pitcher in Pirates history, and a longtime Cub manager; Clark Griffith enters the ownership ranks -- and also dies exactly 44 years later.

It's Jon Niese's 25th birthday today too. He was born the same day that the Mets last won the World Series.

a big Cards-Phillies trade in which the worst player involved ends up being the most famous individual of them all

Typing too quick, Chris.

Not really sure that Uecker was a worse player than Corrales.

-- MWE

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakotas, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri
Star Players: Mauer, Buehrle, Ryan Howard
Not a bad team. I couldn't find another catcher after Mauer so I gave them Kevin Cash as a backup

Not sure how strict you're making residency, but Albert Pujols went to HS in Missouri.

Pennsylvania, New York, and all of New England
Star Players: Alex Rodriguez, Chris Carpenter, Paul Konerko
They don't grow many players in the Northeast anymore do they? Tim Collins' name comes up as "Lowpockets" on the roster. Nice touch.

Yeah, I've always been excited to see that a player's from Pennsylvania. The Reds have two! Devin Mesoraco and Chris Heisey! And two from northern Ohio!

They're always from random small towns, too, like Coudersport and Mount Joy and St. Mary's. Not your big suburban megaschools. Except Neil Walker and Josh Wilson.

Not sure how strict you're making residency, but Albert Pujols went to HS in Missouri.

Baseball-reference place of birth report. Though I wouldn't be surprised if I missed a few. I read through all the active players but I don't recall ever coming across Ian Kennedy...ah California. I probably did skim past him but ignored it as you need to be a Hall of Famer to crack that rotation.

One guy who played in the 1910s has a birth place of "The Atlantic Ocean". I figure he was either a mer-man or mother gave birth in-transit.

They're always from random small towns, too, like Coudersport and Mount Joy and St. Mary's.

I always notice this too about the disproportionate number of hockey players Saskatchewan produces. But then I guess random small towns are all there is in Saskatchewan.

Any of you guys know how to get in touch with Lassus? His BTF email addy doesn't work.

Wrong thread.