St. Louis Cardinals: Where were they born?

Busch Stadium III, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, is located in St. Louis, Missouri, at the coordinates of 38.6225° N, 90.1931° W. In each of the stadium's first nine seasons (construction was completed in 2006), more than three million fans (mainly from St. Louis, but really from all over the world) have entered its turnstiles to take in a Major League Baseball game. Twenty-five members of the Cardinals' active roster play 81 regular-season home games (plus potential postseason games) on its field, and the remaining 15 players on the 40-man roster compete in the minor leagues on a daily basis in hopes of one day making Busch their home (away from home) as well.

As stated above, Busch Stadium serves as a "home away from home" for Cardinals players. If you have ever wondered where each one of the current Cardinals was born, then this is just the article for you as I have created a chart and an interactive map that answers that very question (courtesy of infogr.am)

I am not surprised that Texas, and its year-round warm temperatures, leads the list with nine Cardinals, but what is somewhat surprising is the fact that no two players of the nine born in the state share a birth city: Randy Choate (San Antonio), Randal Grichuk (Rosenberg), John Lackey (Abilene), Matt Carpenter (Galveston), Tyler Lyons (Lubbock), Jordan Walden (Fort Worth), Ty Kelly (Dallas), Matt Belisle (Austin), and Sam Freeman (Houston). Originally, I thought this list should have been ten given where Michael Wacha went to high school (Texarkana) and college (College Station), but I learned that he was actually born in Iowa City, Iowa.

California and Florida, two more notoriously warm-weather states, tie for second with three Cardinals apiece. In Florida, you have Tony Cruz (Palm Beach), Jon Jay (Miami), and newly-acquired Michael Ohlman (Bradenton), while in California, you'll find Greg Garcia (El Cajon), Xavier Scruggs (Diamond Bar), and Sam Tuivailala (San Mateo).

There are three states and one country (Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Dominican Republic) that have produced two Cardinals, while the remaining states/countries/provinces have produced only one. Peter Bourjos (Park Ridge) and Dean Anna (Mokena) were born in Illinois. Seth Maness (Pinehurst) and Cody Stanley (Clinton) hail from North Carolina. Of course, Matt Holliday (Stillwater) and Pete Kozma (Tulsa) are from Oklahoma, and finally, Carlos Martinez (Puerto Plata) and Jhonny Peralta (Santiago) began their baseball playing days in the Dominican Republic.

Disclaimer/Instructions: The embedded map, for whatever reason, seems to be touchy/bouncy on Windows computers, but this is easily resolved by clicking the link below the map (which opens the map in a new window). At the same time, I tested the functionality of the map on a MacBook and had zero issues whatsoever. Each dot represents a player (hover over it to find out the player's name), and the dot is placed at the exact coordinates of a given player's birth city. Also, the number below the player's name is his current age, for those interested in seeing all 39 players' ages in one location.

Web version for less glitches/bouncing in Windows (Map isn't good for most mobile phones)

Due to the placement of Hawaii on the map, this can be deceiving, but Kolten Wong takes the crown for being born the furthest from Busch Stadium (4,038 miles). In contrast, Trevor Rosenthal's birth place (Lee's Summit, MO) is the closest to Busch at a little over 245 miles depending on the route you take (with all of them involving I-70 E).

Questions, comments, discrepancies? Please include them below. Remember, the dots represent the location in which the player was born and not necessarily where he considers his hometown.

Credit to Baseball-Reference for the players' respective birth places.