With the MLB All-Star Game winding up I decided to write about the annual midsummer classic and other All-Star games from other sports organizations. All-Star games are a chance for the world to see the best compete against the best. Since All-Star games represent the best of the best, I decided to map the locations of all the hometowns of every 2008 All-Star in every major sports organization. By doing this I was trying to locate an “athletic hotspot” that all major sports had in common. The four sports organizations I chose were the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL).

• NBA All-Star Hometowns
• NFL Pro-Bowl Hometowns
• MLB All-Star Hometowns
• NHL All-Star Hometowns

After viewing all the datasets mapped a few conclusions can be made. The first is that there is not really one central location where all-stars from these four major sports organizations grow up. Instead, hotspots are usually more sport specific. For example, Several MLB All-Stars are from the Dominican Republic. There happen to be ten from the Dominican Republic but not a single All-Star from any other sport is from the Dominican Republic. So it is safe to say the Dominican Republic is a hot spot for baseball, but only baseball.

A few trends can be made when looking at All-Stars who grew up in the USA. I have also decided to leave out the NHL in this study due to the fact that only three NHL All-Stars are from the USA. When looking at where NFL, NHL, and NBA All-Stars grew up in the USA, you can see that there are arguably a few hot spots. The state of California is one. Roughly 13% of All-Stars come from the state in the three sports. You can also see that when looking at strongest regions in the country the South is clearly the strongest. When you look at the amount of All-Stars who grew up in a southern state (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA) you see that roughly 41% of all All-Stars come from one of these southern states. This is interesting when these states only make up 24% of all the states in the USA. One last conclusion is the lack of All-Stars from certain regions in the USA. Weak spots include; New England States, Midwest, Mountain States.

The reasons for All-Stars coming out of certain areas are hard to find. It is possible that the nice year round weather of the Southern USA and California allow athletes to train outdoors for longer periods of time. It could also be that an active sports culture is much more prominent in certain regions. Or perhaps the reason is simply that there is just something in the water.

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